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Peculiar   /pəkjˈuljər/  /pɪkjˈuljər/   Listen
Peculiar

adjective
1.
Beyond or deviating from the usual or expected.  Synonyms: curious, funny, odd, queer, rum, rummy, singular.  "Her speech has a funny twang" , "They have some funny ideas about war" , "Had an odd name" , "The peculiar aromatic odor of cloves" , "Something definitely queer about this town" , "What a rum fellow" , "Singular behavior"
2.
Unique or specific to a person or thing or category.  Synonyms: particular, special.  "Has a particular preference for Chinese art" , "A peculiar bond of sympathy between them" , "An expression peculiar to Canadians" , "Rights peculiar to the rich" , "The special features of a computer" , "My own special chair"
3.
Markedly different from the usual.  "A man...feels it a peculiar insult to be taunted with cowardice by a woman"
4.
Characteristic of one only; distinctive or special.



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"Peculiar" Quotes from Famous Books



... 15th of March, Joe Dillon, who had been a quartermaster in the Union army, left the army at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, the possessor of $60,000 and a mule train of fifteen wagons, which he had obtained some way or other, the Devil knows how. He was a peculiar man and totally unable to keep a man in his employ. He was abusive, bossy and ...
— The Second William Penn - A true account of incidents that happened along the - old Santa Fe Trail • William H. Ryus

... thought Bracy as, in his turn, he waded out into the open stream, his arms well extended and his companions on either side gazing up-stream with a peculiar strained look about their eyes. But there was no sign of flinching, no hesitation; every man was full of determination, the three privates feeling strengthened by being linked with and thus sharing the danger with ...
— Fix Bay'nets - The Regiment in the Hills • George Manville Fenn

... fire and vivacity of his action, the elegance of attitude, and the whole pathos of expression. Quin excelled in dignity and declamation, as well as exhibiting some characters of humour, equally exquisite and peculiar. Mrs. Cibber breathed the whole soul of female tenderness and passion; and Mrs. Pritchard displayed all the dignity of distress. That Great Britain was not barren of poets at this period, appears from the detached performances ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett

... been back in London a little over a week when I read in the paper one morning a paragraph which possessed for me a peculiar interest. It ...
— The Stretton Street Affair • William Le Queux

... should come in. He sat down on the porch. As he sat there he noticed that the porch had been scrubbed and was still wet. He looked at it and saw that it had been scrubbed only at one place before the door. This seemed to him a little peculiar, and he wondered why Coopman had scrubbed his porch only in one place. He got up and as he went toward the door he saw that the jamb of the door was splintered at a point about half-way up. He examined this splintered ...
— The Boy Scouts Book of Stories • Various

... but immortality. Whatever hath no beginning may be confident of no end, which is the peculiar of that necessary essence that cannot destroy itself, and the highest strain of omnipotency to be so powerfully constituted, as not to suffer even from the power of itself. All others have a dependent being, and within the reach of destruction. But the sufficiency ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 6 • Various

... with a history,—a mystery,—who is tall, slim, has dark eyes and swarthy complexion, and faints away at sight of Miss Renwick, might be said to possess peculiar characteristics,—family traits, some of them. Of course you've kept an eye on ...
— From the Ranks • Charles King

... executed about the year 1350. In my book, which I have so often referred to, may be seen a drawing by Pietro, representing a shoemaker sewing in a simple but most natural manner with an admirable expression. It affords a good example of Pietro's peculiar style. His portrait by the hand of Bartolommeo Bologhini was in a picture at Siena, where not many years ago I copied it, in the ...
— The Lives of the Painters, Sculptors & Architects, Volume 1 (of 8) • Giorgio Vasari

... guns were "talking," and there began to be heard the chatter of deadly machine-guns; the deep-toned explosion of shells, and the peculiar sound of the German minnewurfer, used with such effect in the former trench battles that the Boche still clung to it through all ...
— Air Service Boys Flying for Victory - or, Bombing the Last German Stronghold • Charles Amory Beach

... "gently broadening down from precedent to precedent," which makes the British constitution of to-day the more or less perfected result of centuries of experience and struggle. But that result has only been made possible by a peculiar series of national adjustments in which the power of the Monarchs has been modified from time to time to suit the will of the people, while the ability of individual Sovereigns has been at the same time given full scope in which to exercise ...
— The Life of King Edward VII - with a sketch of the career of King George V • J. Castell Hopkins

... appeared to the authors so peculiar that they emphasized it with an ut oculis videmus. 2 Cel., 3, 67; ...
— Life of St. Francis of Assisi • Paul Sabatier

... night, and when they are brought in, the Italians thus salute each other. How impossible it is to convey the exact properties of a foreign language by translation! Every word, from the highest to the lowest, has a peculiar significance, determinable only by an accurate knowledge of national and local ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 14, - Issue 386, August 22, 1829 • Various

... sketch I had made of the scarabus. You recollect also, that I became quite vexed at you for insisting that my drawing resembled a death's-head. When you first made this assertion I thought you were jesting; but afterwards I called to mind the peculiar spots on the back of the insect, and admitted to myself that your remark had some little foundation in fact. Still, the sneer at my graphic powers irritated me—for I am considered a good artist—and, therefore, when you handed me the scrap of parchment, I was about to crumple it up ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 1 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe

... had from friends who are officers at the Naval Academy," replied Lieutenant Featherstone, "the young men must be very well versed, indeed, in all the arts of their peculiar profession." ...
— The Submarine Boys and the Spies - Dodging the Sharks of the Deep • Victor G. Durham

... even may have prompted this conduct, and they may have sought, impelled by superstition, to recognise in the foreigners their own kindred. But however that may have been, most travellers in Australia mention the peculiar idea alluded to. Captain Grey was once vehemently attacked by the caresses of an old, ugly, and dirty black woman, who recognised him as her son's ghost, and was obliged to endure them. His real mother, the captain says, could scarcely have expressed ...
— Australia, its history and present condition • William Pridden

... There was a peculiar, fierce, vindictive look on the countenance of the Malay as he spoke, which boded mischief. Without uttering another word he sprang on board the brig, and disappeared among the crowd who were hurrying to and fro below, ...
— The Three Midshipmen • W.H.G. Kingston

... lines of our organization followed those of the Philadelphia convention, with the modifications imposed by circumstances, by the irresistible force of tradition, and by the idiosyncrasies peculiar to our race. The forefathers who drafted the Argentine constitution were inspired in their work by those who, to the admiration of the world, created the ...
— Latin America and the United States - Addresses by Elihu Root • Elihu Root

... up to his thigh so that he was obliged to get along by hopping. He had a beautiful daughter, and his chief care was to secure her from being carried off by the king of the buffaloes. He was peculiar in his habits, and lived in a loghouse, and he advised his daughter to keep indoors, and never go out for fear she ...
— Folk-Lore and Legends: North American Indian • Anonymous

... peculiar about The Woman that she never seems to wear a dress—always a "gown." Why this is, I cannot tell. In the good old stories that I used to read, when I could still read for the pleasure of it, the heroines —that was what they used to be called—always wore dresses. But ...
— Further Foolishness • Stephen Leacock

... the object of such passionate devotion as for St. Francis; the Stigmata were the awful, yet, to his contemporaries, glorious fruit of his meditations on the Passion; and of the ecstasy with which he kept his Christmas at Greccio we shall read when we come to consider the Presepio. He had a peculiar affection for the festival of the Holy Child; "the Child Jesus," says Thomas of Celano, "had been given over to forgetfulness in the hearts of many in whom, by the working of His grace, He was raised up again ...
— Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan • Clement A. Miles

... civilization. One recalling the conformation of this country, with its three and a half millions of inhabitants, can easily understand that although fused into a solid political union, and although recognizable amongst the other northern nations by certain traits peculiar to the inhabitants of all its provinces, it must nevertheless present a great variety. Such, indeed, is the case. Between Zealand and Holland proper, between Holland and Friesland, between Friesland and Gelderland, between Groningen and Brabant, although they are closely bound together ...
— Holland, v. 1 (of 2) • Edmondo de Amicis

... the note, yet even as he read he noticed that the paper was the same as those he carried in his pocket. There was a peculiar watermark that ...
— A Voice in the Wilderness • Grace Livingston Hill

... of the wind. The Queen's animals were like spirits of the air, with such amazing fleetness and sureness of foot did they shoot over the surface of the earth. The way was wholly our own. We met none; we saw none. Thrice we paused to relieve those not accustomed to such speed, or to the peculiar motion of this animal. But at each resting place, the Queen with impatience hastened us away, saying, that "rest could be better had at once when we had crossed the river; and once upon the other ...
— Zenobia - or, The Fall of Palmyra • William Ware

... the most peculiar things about China is the existence of almost unlimited official corruption side by side with high standards of honesty and morality in ordinary business or private life. I have already referred ...
— Where Half The World Is Waking Up • Clarence Poe

... New York, and there Mesty had learned English, if it could be so called: the fact is, that all the emigrant labourers at New York being Irishmen, he had learned English with the strong brogue and peculiar phraseology of the sister kingdom dashed ...
— Mr. Midshipman Easy • Captain Frederick Marryat

... scanty, albuminous or bloody urine or total suppression. Cramp, twitches and convulsions of limbs, occasionally paralysis. In poisoning from the medicinal use of mercury, there may be salivation, a coppery taste in the mouth, peculiar foetor of breath, tenderness and swelling of mouth, inflammation, swelling and ulceration of gums (cancrum oris), a blue line on the gums, and the loosening of teeth. Mercury is less quickly eliminated from the body than arsenic. ...
— Aids to Forensic Medicine and Toxicology • W. G. Aitchison Robertson

... found that somebody had been busied to make smooth his paths through the world, and to let him know what had been done for him. In Packingtown the advertisements had a style all of their own, adapted to the peculiar population. One would be tenderly solicitous. "Is your wife pale?" it would inquire. "Is she discouraged, does she drag herself about the house and find fault with everything? Why do you not tell her to try Dr. Lanahan's ...
— The Jungle • Upton Sinclair

... more than themselves if their conclusions should be shown to be completely or partly erroneous, for they are all of them penetrated with love for the fatherland Italy. But they relate, with chapter and verse, a large number of peculiar transactions which show that the goods were very improperly and very hastily auctioned, and that those who reaped the benefit were nearly always the same people. To give one instance, some of the wine, said to have been damaged, was sold at 260 crowns ...
— The Birth of Yugoslavia, Volume 2 • Henry Baerlein

... and his chin, gave him a peculiarly dirty and loathsome appearance. He had the habitual stoop, those of his race affected in mock humility in past centuries, before the dawn of equality and freedom in matters of faith, and he walked behind Desgas with the peculiar shuffling gait which has remained the characteristic of the Jew trader in continental Europe ...
— The Scarlet Pimpernel • Baroness Orczy

... the success of the anti-rent movement in this State between 1839 and 1846 an inference against "all attempts to enforce an unpopular law." Such was not by any means my object. What I sought to show by the history of this movement was that there was nothing peculiar or inexplicable in the hostility to rent-paying in Ireland. The rights of the New York landlords were as good in law and morals as the rights of the Irish landlords, and their mode of asserting them far superior. ...
— Handbook of Home Rule (1887) • W. E. Gladstone et al.

... the really regenerated soul everything connected with Jesus is dear. The place of His birth, the land of His ministry, the garden of His agony, the mount of His crucifixion, the Olivet of His ascension, all these are illumined with a peculiar and special light. The mind dwells lovingly on His parables, ponders deeply His sayings, lingers ...
— The Heart-Cry of Jesus • Byron J. Rees

... Unfortunately, such books are, for the most part, written in a style at once so wearisome and so full of religious affectation, that only a particular class of readers can digest them. The volumes before us—though recalling by their origin, and certain peculiar views of the writer, the class of works we have described—are very superior both in form and matter. We doubt if any publications, at once so diverting and so instructive, has appeared in France for a very long while. There is a vein of good humored raillery and natural fun running ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 3, March, 1852 • Various

... then, as an hypothesis already countenanced by much that is ascertained, and likely to be further sanctioned by much that remains to be known, that the first step was an advance, under favor of peculiar circumstances, from the simplest forms of being to the next more complicated, and this through the medium, of the ordinary ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 108, October, 1866 • Various

... came up next morning carrying a handbag. At first, it struck him that she was looking rather pale and worried, but she greeted him with frank pleasure, and, in a few minutes, she was her usual self again. As Jimmy learned later, she had in a peculiar degree the art of seeing the best side of things. In a sense, she was almost a fatalist, and though she made no disguise about the regret she felt for her ruined life, a moment later she always seemed to put the ...
— People of Position • Stanley Portal Hyatt

... delusions, would not be forward to contradict such a suspicion? Such expressions, we will venture to say, and not harshness, anger, or gloom, animate the features of that countenance which will never cease to haunt the memory of those who knew him. His irony arose from that peculiar mode in which he viewed all earthly things, himself and all that was dear to him not excepted. It was his poetry." From an article in the British Critic, April 1840, p. 396, by Mr. Thomas Mozley, quoted in Letters ...
— The Oxford Movement - Twelve Years, 1833-1845 • R.W. Church

... from him, and the prison garb substituted. On an examination he was found to have one of his legs broken in two places, and was otherwise bruised. He remained in the hospital some six months, and again went to work. I learned of his peculiar experience while apparently dead, soon after, from a fellow miner. Prompted by curiosity, I longed for an acquaintance with Lennox to get his experience from his own lips. This opportunity was ...
— The Twin Hells • John N. Reynolds

... other things peculiar to this island, lest I should weary you. Here I exchanged some of my diamonds for merchandise. From thence we went to other islands, and at last, having touched at several trading towns of the continent, we landed at Bussorah, ...
— Journeys Through Bookland V3 • Charles H. Sylvester

... be outside of which was to be a nonentity—the Navy, the Army, the Church, and the Bar. The naval officer, then as now, did not soil his hands, wore a sword, and was swathed in an inextricable meshwork of red tape, service codes, and High Toryism. He had his own peculiar notions of studying a profession, looked askance at the new-fangled method of driving a ship, honestly thinking, with Ruskin, that a "floating kettle" was a direct contravention of the laws of God. Imagine, then, ...
— An Ocean Tramp • William McFee

... Miss Wyatt," he assured her hastily. "I think it quite charming, you know, and so—er—unexpected. I had always been told that they played somewhat peculiar games at these women's colleges, but I never supposed they did anything so feminine as ...
— When Patty Went to College • Jean Webster

... bouncing full tilt upon her, and clasping her round with both his stalwart arms. 'Gently, gently, boy,' she said, bending down, and looking with proud delight at her brother, as she held between her hands a face much like her own, as fair and freshly tinted, but with a peculiar squareness of contour, large blue eyes, with dark fringes, brimming over with mischief and fun, a bold, broad brow, and thick, light curls. There was a spring and vigour as of perpetual irrepressible life about the whole ...
— The Young Step-Mother • Charlotte M. Yonge

... organic forms characterise particular groups of rocks, it may be further said that, in a general way, each subdivision of each formation has its own peculiar fossils, by which it may be recognised by a skilled worker in Palaeontology. Whenever, for instance, we meet with examples of the fossils which are known as Graptolites, we may be sure that we are dealing with ...
— The Ancient Life History of the Earth • Henry Alleyne Nicholson

... if it is for her or against her. I am as much in the dark as you. I have not spoken of it yet to any one else, but I should like to mention it to you. It seems to me that light ought to be thrown on some rather peculiar circumstances or your sister will never get back her old brightness and ...
— Girls of the Forest • L. T. Meade

... well ask that," said the housekeeper in a peculiar tone. "I'll show you over the house by and by, and you shall judge for yourself how Mary ...
— Littlebourne Lock • F. Bayford Harrison

... it. The leaves of the poplar and ash were beginning to mantle the exterior; and, seen through their green and gay lattice work, the traceries of the porch seemed to assume a more interesting aspect. They are now mending the upper part of the facade with new stone of peculiar excellence—but it does not harmonize with the old work. They merit our thanks, however, for the preservation of what remains of this precious pile. I should remark to you that the eastern and northeastern sides of the abbey of St. Ouen are surrounded with ...
— Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 3 • Various

... amplitude to his chest. The horn eye-glass was exchanged for one of purest gold, the dingy high-lows for well-waxed Wellingtons, the Paisley fogle for the fabric of the China loom. Moreover, he walked with a swagger, and affected in common conversation a peculiar dialect which he opined to be the purest English, but which no one—except a bagman—could be reasonably expected to understand. His pockets were invariably crammed with sharelists; and he quoted, if he did not ...
— Stories by English Authors: Scotland • Various

... that the tariff act of 1842 was passed by a majority of one vote in the Senate and two in the House of Representatives, and that some of those who felt themselves constrained, under the peculiar circumstances existing at the time, to vote in its favor, proclaimed its defects and expressed their determination to aid in its modification on the first opportunity, affords strong and conclusive evidence that it was not intended to be permanent, ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Polk - Section 3 (of 3) of Volume 4: James Knox Polk • Compiled by James D. Richardson

... revolutionist had given him the view of his danger at the very moment this danger vanished, characteristically enough. "I ought to have foreseen the doubts that would arise in those people's minds," he thought. Then his attention being attracted by a stone of peculiar shape, which he could see clearly lying at the bottom, he began to speculate as to the depth of water in that spot. But very soon, with a start of wonder at this extraordinary instance of ill-timed detachment, he returned to his train ...
— Under Western Eyes • Joseph Conrad

... able to so revive the old resources of the island as to make provision for the old population and ways of life. There is now again a representative central council, but very many of the old rights and powers have not been yet restored. The condition of society is peculiar absence of towns, social equality, no abject poverty or great wealth, rarity of crime, making it easy for the whole country to be administered as a co-operative commonwealth without the great and striking changes rendered ...
— The Story of the Volsungs, (Volsunga Saga) - With Excerpts from the Poetic Edda • Anonymous

... a pony when compared to your Pa," said Brownie, unconscious of anything peculiar in her remark. "I don't know that real anxiety mayn't help her, Master Jim. And any'ow, it don't seem to me we've the right to keep it from her, them bein', as it were, that partickler much to each other. Take my tip, an' you ...
— Mates at Billabong • Mary Grant Bruce

... Paris gave a peculiar sense of emptiness, hard to account for when all about men and women and vehicles were moving, when it was best to look carefully before crossing the streets. It could not be due wholly to the absence ...
— The World Decision • Robert Herrick

... guard, the committee concluded, was a distinct advantage for some individuals, providing the chance to perform their military obligation without a lengthy time away from home or work. Because of the peculiar relationship between the reserve and regular systems, National Guard service had important advantages in retirement benefits for others. These advantages and benefits should, in simple fairness, be open to all, but beyond the basic constitutional ...
— Integration of the Armed Forces, 1940-1965 • Morris J. MacGregor Jr.

... ladder on which she had never intended to remain long. So, foreseeing the time when Philippe would have spent all his money, she captured other journalistic support which released her from the necessity of depending on him; nevertheless, she did feel the peculiar gratitude that class of women acknowledge towards the first man who smooths their way, as it were, among the difficulties and ...
— The Celibates - Includes: Pierrette, The Vicar of Tours, and The Two Brothers • Honore de Balzac

... peculiar, for it has foreign food at low prices, and is below Thirtieth Street, yet it has not become Bohemian. Consequently it has no bad music and no crowd of persons from Missouri whose women risk salvation for an evening by smoking cigarettes. Here prosperous ...
— Our Mr. Wrenn - The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man • Sinclair Lewis

... inexplicable, but it is possible that the unconventional character of the story and the insensibility of the Italians to national musical color other than their own, had a great deal to do with it in this case. Whatever the cause, the popular attitude toward the opera was displayed in the manner peculiar to Italy, the discontented majority whistling, shrilling on house keys, grunting, roaring, bellowing, and laughing in the good old-fashioned manner which might be set down as possessed of some virtuous merit if reserved ...
— A Second Book of Operas • Henry Edward Krehbiel

... owe a large proportion to men in low stations and of uninformed minds. I will instance, in our own language, the Pilgrim's Progress and Robinson Crusoe. Of all the prose works of fiction which we possess, these are, I will not say the best, but the most peculiar, the most unprecedented, the most inimitable. Had Bunyan and Defoe been educated gentlemen, they would probably have published translations and imitations of French romances "by a person of quality." I am not sure that we should have had Lear if Shakspeare ...
— The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, Vol. 1 (of 4) - Contibutions to Knight's Quarterly Magazine] • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... was in a dreadful state. Her malady seized her in the very midst of her worldly-mindedness; and the current of her usual thoughts, when stopped by the aberrations of intellect peculiar to her illness, bubbled up, during the temporary returns of reason, with a stronger relish of the world. It was utterly impossible for a woman like her, whose habits of thought and the tendency of whose affections had been all directed towards the ...
— Phil Purcel, The Pig-Driver; The Geography Of An Irish Oath; The Lianhan Shee • William Carleton

... with the fish which they had caught. Genji called them in and made them show their spoils. He also led them to talk of their lives spent on the sea, and each in his own peculiar local dialect gave him a narration of his joys and sorrows. He then dismissed them with the gift of some stuff to make them clothing. All this was quite a novelty to the eyes of To-no-Chiujio, who also saw the stable in which he obtained ...
— Japanese Literature - Including Selections from Genji Monogatari and Classical - Poetry and Drama of Japan • Various

... is quite curious and painful, but at the same time instructive, to observe how differently the same acts may be interpreted, accordingly as they are viewed by persons under the influence of various prejudices and peculiar associations. In the case of Henry of Monmouth, the confession of his own unworthiness is adduced in evidence only of his former habits of dissoluteness and dissipation. The same confession in his contemporary, Lord Cobham, is hailed only as an indication of the work of grace ...
— Henry of Monmouth, Volume 1 - Memoirs of Henry the Fifth • J. Endell Tyler

... refined hospitality, of good nature and of good conversation. In doing the honors of it, Lord Moira had certainly one advantage above most men, for he had every assistance that true magnificence, the nobleness of manners peculiar to exalted birth, and talents for society the most cultivated, could give him ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 11, - No. 22, January, 1873 • Various

... as a person to be avoided. "George," whispers she to her boy, "promise me on your honor, when you go to town, not to know that man." And when she enters the breakfast-room for prayers, the first greeting is a peculiar expression of countenance, and inhaling of breath, by which my lady indicates the presence of some exceedingly disagreeable odor in the room. She makes you the faintest of curtsies, and regards you, if not with a "flashing ...
— The Fitz-Boodle Papers • William Makepeace Thackeray

... should be caught by their own fishers only." (Holmes' Annals of America, Anderson, ii., 415, 416; Robertson, B. 9, p. 303; Janes' edit. Vol. I., p. 294.) Mr. Holmes adds in a note: "This Act was evaded at first by New England, which still traded to all parts, and enjoyed a privilege peculiar to themselves of importing their goods into England free of customs." (History Massachusetts Bay, Vol. ...
— The Loyalists of America and Their Times, Vol. 1 of 2 - From 1620-1816 • Egerton Ryerson

... pressed upon her forehead, and one upon her breast; and there was a peculiar fluttering all over her, and a hurried unsteady motion of her eyes, as if ...
— The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargin • Charles Dickens

... brother, and return in a few months the companion of one of the most dangerous and brilliant members of the French secret service. This sort of thing is clean beyond me, I admit. I will be frank with you, Duncombe. I have met with difficulties in this case which I have never met with before—peculiar difficulties." ...
— A Maker of History • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... defined idea what they are like. They are of different sizes, most of them suited to the numerous rivers and canals which intersect the country in every part. The largest are of about one thousand tons burden. The whole mode of building is most peculiar. Instead of the timbers being first raised as with us, they are the last in their places, and the vessel is put together with immense spiked nails. The next process is doubling and clamping above and below decks. Two immense beams or string pieces are then ranged below, fore and aft, ...
— Under the Dragon Flag - My Experiences in the Chino-Japanese War • James Allan

... unusual ability and a preacher of power. Says his biographer: "Although the tincture of his skin, and all his features bore strong indications of his paternal original, yet in his early life there was a peculiar expression which indicated the finest qualities of mind. Many, on seeing him in the pulpit, have been reminded of the inspired expression, 'I am black, but comely.' In his case the remarkable assemblage of grace which was thrown around his semi-African complexion, especially his eye, could ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919 • Various

... squat; they were not more than four feet ten inches high; they had red, round faces, and low foreheads; their hair, flat and black, fell over their shoulders; their teeth were decayed, and they seemed to be affected by the sort of leprosy which is peculiar ...
— A Winter Amid the Ice - and Other Thrilling Stories • Jules Verne

... famous for its iron; the flux used for smelting the iron is the ashes of the bark of the Kino tree. These ashes are as white as flour: they are not used in dying blue, and must therefore have something peculiar in them. I tasted them: they did not appear to me to have so much alkali as the mimosa ashes, but had an austere taste. The people told me, if I eat them, I ...
— The Journal Of A Mission To The Interior Of Africa, In The Year 1805 • Mungo Park

... prisoners, who were also shipped West. We at Fort Pierce made several other excursions to Jupiter, Lake Worth, Lauderdale, and into the Everglades, picking up here and there a family, so that it was absurd any longer to call it a "war." These excursions, however, possessed to us a peculiar charm, for the fragrance of the air, the abundance of game and fish, and just enough of adventure, gave to life a relish. I had just returned to Lauderdale from one of these scouts with Lieutenants Rankin, Ord, George H. Thomas, Field, Van Vliet, and others, when I received notice ...
— The Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman, Complete • William T. Sherman

... "The audience was large and composed of the most respectable and intelligent of our citizens, a majority being ladies. Miss Anthony is one of the most remarkable women of the nineteenth century—remarkable for the purity of her life, the earnestness with which she promulgates her peculiar views, and the indomitable courage and perseverance with which she bears defeat and misfortune. No longer in the bloom of youth—if she ever had any bloom—hard-featured, guileless, cold as an icicle, fluent and philosophical, ...
— The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) • Ida Husted Harper

... said, I hold it needless to afflict your Excellency with any importuning picture of my want. Speedy aid is all that I can now think of or wish. Herr Meyer has been requested to communicate your Excellency's resolution to me, and to save you from the task of writing to me in person at all. With peculiar ...
— The Life of Friedrich Schiller - Comprehending an Examination of His Works • Thomas Carlyle

... is about to enter a wigwam, he utters the word or sound "Quay" in a peculiar tone; the word repeated from within is considered as an invitation to enter. Should he neglect to announce himself in this way he is considered as ill-bred—an unmannerly boor. The left-hand side of the ...
— Service in the Hudson's Bay Territory • John M'lean

... honor of the "holy sacrament." Before daybreak the procession formed, at the palace of the king. "First came the banners and crosses of the several parishes; next appeared the citizens, walking two and two, and bearing torches." The four orders of friars followed, each in its own peculiar dress. Then came a vast collection of famous relics. Following these rode lordly ecclesiastics in their purple and scarlet robes and jeweled adornings, a gorgeous ...
— The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan • Ellen G. White

... most difficult to find. M. Le Breton has given me, also, a book of the list of your camarades, in which he has written your name. He says it will be printed in next year's register. He has delivered to me, moreover, a medal, which is a mark of distinction reserved for peculiar honour to peculiar select personages. Do you suppose I do not often—often—often think who would like, and be fittest to be the bearer to you of these honours? ...
— The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay Volume 3 • Madame D'Arblay

... that breeds may be made as different as species in many physiological characters. I have already pointed out to you very briefly the different habits of the breeds of Pigeons, all of which depend upon their physiological peculiarities,—as the peculiar habit of tumbling, in the Tumbler—the peculiarities of flight, in the "homing" birds,—the strange habit of spreading out the tail, and walking in a peculiar fashion, in the Fantail,—and, lastly, the habit of blowing out the gullet, so characteristic of the Pouter. These are all due to ...
— The Conditions Of Existence As Affecting The Perpetuation Of Living Beings • Thomas H. Huxley

... took a step forward in that bare, scantily furnished little room, permeated by the faint, waxlike odour that is peculiar to the abode of conventuals. Without hesitation he stated the reason ...
— St. Martin's Summer • Rafael Sabatini

... "Mr. Boyle is a peculiar person," said the doctor dryly. "I happen to have known him during some years. You and I might regard him as a man of few words, but he has acquired a wonderful vocabulary for the benefit of sailor-men. I believe he can swear in every ...
— The Captain of the Kansas • Louis Tracy

... of incorrectness I may note, though it is not peculiar to the artist's tree-drawing, but attaches to his general system of sketching. In Harding's valuable work on the use of the Lead Pencil, there is one principle advanced which I believe to be false and dangerous, that the local color of objects is not thereby to be ...
— Modern Painters Volume I (of V) • John Ruskin

... these biographies are themselves Americans, generally familiar with the surroundings in which their subjects lived and the conditions under which their work was done. Hence the volumes are peculiar for the rare combination of critical judgment with sympathetic understanding. Collectively, the series offers a biographical ...
— Patrick Henry • Moses Coit Tyler

... duty. Week after week he remained, at Ostend, sneering at the French and quaffing huge draughts in honour of Queen Elizabeth. At last, after much time had elapsed, he agreed to victual Antwerp if he could be furnished with thirty krom-stevens,—a peculiar kind of vessel, not to be found in Zeeland. The krom-stevens were sent to him from Holland. Then, hearing that his negligence had been censured by the States-General, he became more obstinate than ever, and went up ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... Monsieur Goupillon (from Gascony) is on duty in the school-room during afternoon school. He has a peculiar way of saying "oe, vo!" instead of "oui, vous!" to any boy who says "moi, m'sieur?" on being found fault with; and perceiving this, Barty manages to be found fault with every five minutes, and always ...
— The Martian • George Du Maurier

... suddenly they find themselves on the thorny soil of politics, exposed to insulting debates, flat contradictions, venomous denunciation, constant detraction and open invective; engaged in a battle in which every species of weapon peculiar to a parliamentary life is employed, and in which the hardiest veterans are scarcely able to keep cool. Judge of the effect of all this on inexperienced, highly strung nerves, on men of the world accustomed to the accommodations and amiabilities of universal urbanity. They are at ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 2 (of 6) - The French Revolution, Volume 1 (of 3) • Hippolyte A. Taine

... December 23rd, 1715, to Friday, June 29th, 1716. Its purpose was to reconcile the English nation to the Hanoverian succession. "These papers," notes Scott, "while they exhibit the exquisite humour and solid sense peculiar to the author, show also, even amid the strength of party, that philanthropy and gentleness of nature, which were equally his distinguishing attributes. None of these qualities would have conciliated his great ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, Vol. X. • Jonathan Swift

... yet come. On ordinary occasions, he was eminent for punctuality. He had testified great eagerness to share in the pleasures of this rehearsal. He was to divide the task with my brother, and, in tasks like these, he always engaged with peculiar zeal. His elocution was less sweet than sonorous; and, therefore, better adapted than the mellifluences of his friend, to the outrageous ...
— Wieland; or The Transformation - An American Tale • Charles Brockden Brown

... teeth, and vowed, in the hearing of his wife and children, that sooner than obey the mandate he would see the governors and council of Rupert's Land hanged, quartered, and boiled down into tallow! Ebullitions of this kind were peculiar to Frank Kennedy, and meant nothing. They were simply the safety-valves to his superabundant ire, and, like safety-valves in general, made much noise but did no damage. It was well, however, on such occasions to keep out of the old fur-trader's way; for ...
— The Young Fur Traders • R.M. Ballantyne

... quickly attracted attention and became a general favorite by his application to his studies, the poetic fervor with which he entered into all the exercises of religious devotion, and the gentleness of his character. He was from the first considered "peculiar," for so the common mind regards everything that fails to fit the old formulas, being of a rather dreamy and reticent disposition, more inclined to reading Spanish romances than joining in the games of his schoolmates. And of all the literatures that could be placed in the hands of ...
— The Social Cancer - A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere • Jose Rizal

... than one forger to justice. A murder was proved because a tool-maker's aid was enlisted to decipher some scratches on a chisel. A blackmailer was captured because a paper manufacturer identified a peculiar make of paper on which a letter was written. And, of course, the help of the medical jurisprudent is ...
— Scotland Yard - The methods and organisation of the Metropolitan Police • George Dilnot

... receiving his medical degree in the year 1808. Entering with some zest upon the study of physiology, he published several pamphlets regarding his investigations, and rapidly earned that notoriety—which for some natures is the equivalent of fame—for the peculiar and refined torments which, in public demonstrations, he took frequent occasion to inflict. In 1821 he was elected a member of the Institute; in 1831 he had become a professor in the College de France, a position he held for the remainder ...
— An Ethical Problem - Or, Sidelights upon Scientific Experimentation on Man and Animals • Albert Leffingwell

... to be in some degree connected with the investigations respecting the limitation of Periods, for which the geology of Switzerland afforded peculiar facilities. My early home was near the foot of the Jura, where I constantly faced its rounded domes, and the slope by which they gently descend to the plain of Switzerland. I have heard it said that there is something monotonous in the continuous undulations of this range, so different ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XII. July, 1863, No. LXIX. - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... rather choose to be first in such a village as that than the second at Rome. The story has been repeated a thousand times, and told to every successive generation now for nearly twenty centuries, as an illustration of the peculiar type and character of the ambition which controls such a ...
— History of Julius Caesar • Jacob Abbott

... it's 'ot!' said he. 'Cruel 'ot, I call it. Nice d'y to get your gruel in! I s'y, you know, it must feel awf'ly peculiar to get bowled over on a d'y like this. I'd rather 'ave it on a cowld and frosty morning, wouldn't you? (Singing) "'Ere we go round the mulberry bush on a cowld and frosty mornin'." (Spoken) Give you my word, I 'aven't thought o' that in ten ...
— The Ebb-Tide - A Trio And Quartette • Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne

... conscious of a complete change in his manner from the easy familiarity of the morning before. Instead of the generic name of "Sally," or the Christian name which on better acquaintance he applied to the other girls, he had politely prefixed a "Miss" to my surname. There had come, too, a peculiar feeling of trust and confidence in him—a welcome sensation in this horrible, degraded place; and it was with gratefulness that I watched him disappear in the steamy vista, throwing off his suspenders preparatory to plunging into the turmoil of the ...
— The Long Day - The Story of a New York Working Girl As Told by Herself • Dorothy Richardson

... May, the boys' seminary was removed to Seir, to obviate the necessity of a long vacation, which might be injurious to the pupils in their peculiar state of feeling. Mr. Stoddard was often delighted, in walking about the mountains, to find pupils praying in secluded spots. A Mussulman once fell in with a pupil thus engaged, and having never before seen a Nestorian praying ...
— History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume I. • Rufus Anderson

... The ancients believed that some purges evacuated the bile, and hence were termed Cholagogues; others the lymph, and were termed Hydragogues; and that in most each cathartic selected a peculiar humour, which it discharged. The moderns have too hastily rejected this system; the subject well deserves ...
— Zoonomia, Vol. II - Or, the Laws of Organic Life • Erasmus Darwin

... while their slender shafts were hidden from top to bottom by a close, fringy growth of tasseled branchlets. A few white pines and balsam firs occur here and there, mostly around the edges of sunny openings, where they enrich the air with their rosiny fragrance, and bring out the peculiar beauties of the predominating ...
— Steep Trails • John Muir

... sometimes it will not satisfy unless in its very quintessence, as in brandies; though an excess of this betrays want of sobriety, as much as an excess of wit betrays a want of judgment. But I must conclude, lest I be justly taxed with wanting both. I will only add, that as every language has its peculiar graces, seldom or never to be acquired by a foreigner, I cannot think I have given my author those of the English in every place; but as none compelled me to write, I fear to ask a pardon which yet the generous temper of this nation makes me hope to obtain. Albinus, a Roman, who had ...
— Gargantua and Pantagruel, Complete. • Francois Rabelais

... of workers, plodders and bright ones. The last are frequently overrated, the memory more quick than retentive. "Wie gewonnen, so zerronnen," "Lightly come, lightly go," mere quickness may prove a will o' the wisp, and may be peculiar to one subject, but the capacity for patient, honest, painstaking work is a vastly more valuable quality, which can be applied with fair success to any pursuit. It gives earnest of the sense of duty, of responsibility, and that capacity for self-sacrifice, which peculiarly fit ...
— The Aural System • Anonymous

... it were made a question, to be decided from internal evidence, whether the scene here analyzed was written before or after the rest of the piece, a strong argument for its being written before might be found in the peculiar impression it leaves upon the fancy. Let us suppose we follow the author while he runs it over, which he does quite rapidly, since there are no blotted lines, but only here and there a comma to be inserted. ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, No. 20, June, 1859 • Various

... that is, Castor and Pollux, "the great twin brethren," held in peculiar reverence ...
— The Eleven Comedies - Vol. I • Aristophanes et al

... is a great heiress—she would be the natural prey of fortune-hunters. I must protect her, I must direct her. With one hand I must keep away undesirable suitors, with the other hand I must catch a desirable one. But now observe my perplexities. Your cousin is peculiar. She is not in the least like the typical submissive young Italian girl. She is ...
— The Lady Paramount • Henry Harland

... in the extremely vivid picture of the seventh chapter of his book; but even as early as the time of Micah, in the first third of the seventh century, the temple must have been reckoned a house of God of an altogether peculiar order, so as to make it a paradox to put it on a level with the Bamoth of Judah, and a thing unheard of to ...
— Prolegomena to the History of Israel • Julius Wellhausen

... BREAK," is the fifth of the serial stories published in "OUR BOYS AND GIRLS"—a magazine which has become so much the pet of the author, that he never sits down to write a story for it without being impressed by a very peculiar responsibility. Twenty thousand youthful faces seem to surround him, crying out for something that will excite their minds, and thrill their very souls, while a calmer, holier voice, speaking in the tones of divine command, breathes gently ...
— Make or Break - or, The Rich Man's Daughter • Oliver Optic

... and strike behind the German cannon. One burst amid the division of infantry, killing and wounding several soldiers. Another demolished a gun and made havoc among those who served it. The short sharp whistle of bullets even began to mingle with the peculiar shrill wailing sound of the sugarloaf shot, and on the plateau beyond, slender lines of infantry, diverging very far apart, could be seen moving swiftly onward. They ran forward, flung themselves down, there was a succession of ...
— How Women Love - (Soul Analysis) • Max Simon Nordau

... this boyish frolic that the universal cry of the galleries was "encore the cow." In the pride of my heart I attempted imitations of other animals, but with very inferior effect.' Blair's advice was, says Scott, 'Stick to the coo, man,' in his peculiar burr, but we can imagine how this unforeseen reminiscence must have confused the divine. After an ineffectual effort to enter himself at the Inner Temple, the 'cub' had to return in April 1761 ...
— James Boswell - Famous Scots Series • William Keith Leask

... the same time the Scandinavian Sultans of Palermo did not cease to play an active part in the affairs, both civil and ecclesiastical, of Europe. The children of the Vikings, though they spent their leisure in harems, exercised, as hereditary Legates of the Holy See, a peculiar jurisdiction in the Church of Sicily. They dispensed benefices to the clergy, and assumed the mitre and dalmatic, together with the sceptre, and the crown, as symbols of their authority in Church as well as State. As a consequence of this confusion of nationalities in Sicily, we find French and ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete - Series I, II, and III • John Symonds

... man is not a character, he is a dozen characters, one of them prominent, the other eleven more or less undeveloped. I knew a man once, two of whose characters were of equal value, and the consequences were peculiar." ...
— Novel Notes • Jerome K. Jerome

... anaesthetic vapours. In the course of his address, Dr. Thomson spoke as follows:—"It must be admitted that extremely curious and rare, and to those who are not acquainted with nervous phenomena, apparently marvellous phenomena, present themselves in peculiar states of the nervous system—some of which states may be induced through the mind, and may be made more and more liable to recur, and greatly exaggerated by frequent repetition. But making the fullest allowance ...
— Western Worthies - A Gallery of Biographical and Critical Sketches of West - of Scotland Celebrities • J. Stephen Jeans

... the vastness of his good intentions. Besides there's something about our old giant—steadiness and breeding, I believe—that uniformly makes Tom knock under to him; and there's a peculiar affinity of good sense between him and Marilda, that ought to have ripened under ...
— The Pillars of the House, V1 • Charlotte M. Yonge

... to this punishment, though not peculiar to it, since it applied to all atrocious felonies, was the gibbeting, or hanging in chains. This was no part of the sentence, but was performed in accordance with a special order or direction of the court, given, probably, in most cases, ...
— The Trial and Execution, for Petit Treason, of Mark and Phillis, Slaves of Capt. John Codman • Abner Cheney Goodell, Jr.

... an age of wonders. Under peculiar influences, hundreds and thousands of once hopeless drunkards are becoming sober men—yet the work of reform has but commenced. It is computed that there are in the land no less than five hundred thousand habitual inebriates. The condition of each individual calls ...
— Select Temperance Tracts • American Tract Society

... his "Testimony of the Rocks," says, "We now know that every great continent has its own peculiar fauna; that the original centres of distribution must have been, not one, but many; further, that the areas or circles around these centres must have been occupied by their pristine animals in ages long anterior to that of the Noachian Deluge; ...
— The Deluge in the Light of Modern Science - A Discourse • William Denton

... actions nor for the foundation of the objective moral law itself, but merely as a motive to make this of itself a maxim. But what name could we more suitably apply to this singular feeling which cannot be compared to any pathological feeling? It is of such a peculiar kind that it seems to be at the disposal of reason only, ...
— The Critique of Practical Reason • Immanuel Kant

... heads. Endued with forgiving souls, they all became (in consequence of the sight they had obtained of the great deity) freed from every sin and thoroughly cleansed. The retreat of that lord of all creatures with many terrible forms, shone with a peculiar beauty. Abounding with many large snakes, it became unapproachable and unbearable (by ordinary beings). Within the twinkling of the eye. O slayer of Madhu, everything there became exceedingly wonderful. Indeed, the abode of that great deity having the bovine bull for his device began to blaze ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... point of saying he objected to it nowhere except in church, but for his aunt's sake, or rather for his own sake in his aunt's eyes, he restrained himself, and uttered his feelings only in a peculiar smile, of import so mingled, that its meaning was illegible ere it had quivered ...
— Thomas Wingfold, Curate • George MacDonald

... Causes.—A predisposition: A peculiar sensitive area in the mucous membrane of the nose. An exciting cause circulating in the air, the dust or pollen of certain plants, such as rag-weed, hay and barley; the odor of certain flowers, such as roses ...
— Mother's Remedies - Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers - of the United States and Canada • T. J. Ritter

... Deloraine, nearly one thousand prisoners were in charge of twenty persons, including the military: on one occasion, eighteen started for the bush, and filled the neighbourhood with terror. The local authorities could offer nothing but condolence; and even this poor relief was presented in a peculiar form. It was alleged that the amount of depredation and violence had not risen more rapidly than the number of convicts. This was scarcely correct; but it was little consolatory to the sufferers, assailed so much the more frequently, though by different hands.[272] Their honors ...
— The History of Tasmania , Volume II (of 2) • John West

... they did not endeavor to outstride themselves, but took merely an additional step of progress and speed, and adopted the propeller for their coasting business, because it was a little faster than wind, and yet cheaper than full steam. And because so many propellers have been built for the peculiar short-route trade of Great Britain, many people in this country can not see why we do not adopt the propeller for our foreign trade. I have already shown (See page 44) that there are some short routes on which ...
— Ocean Steam Navigation and the Ocean Post • Thomas Rainey

... it was her little boy's voice screaming lustily, and upon looking out she saw all three of the children running as fast as they could across the 25 clearing from the wood toward the house. Behind them, at a slow, peculiar ...
— Story Hour Readings: Seventh Year • E.C. Hartwell

... that something peculiar happened to you," she advised him. "And she knows that I know what it was; and she says it isn't very sisterly of me not to tell her. Now, Hedrick, there was no secret about it; you didn't confide your—your trouble to me, and it would be perfectly honourable of me to ...
— The Flirt • Booth Tarkington

... Francisco de Toledo, Don Alonco de Lucon, Don Nicolas de Isla, Don Augustin de Mexia; who had eche of them 32. companies vnder their conduct. Besides the which companies there were many bands also of Castilians and Portugals, euery one of which had their peculiar gouernours, captaines, officers, ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation, v. 7 - England's Naval Exploits Against Spain • Richard Hakluyt

... two races of men who have retained their peculiar characteristics through long ages and through many vicissitudes. They have wandered over the whole globe, and become part of almost every people now existing. They have conquered and been conquered. Their blood has mixed with that of all the other tribes ...
— Viking Boys • Jessie Margaret Edmondston Saxby

... boys had long since learned to tell direction, by means of the lights in the sky, by day or night. The Polar Star shone dimly, as always, nearly directly ahead of them. Other stars they could see, such as are never gazed upon by people living in the temperate climes, constellations peculiar to the northern region of ...
— Boy Scouts on Hudson Bay - The Disappearing Fleet • G. Harvey Ralphson

... think I should have made a decent spouse, If I had never proved the soft condition; I think I should have made monastic vows, But for my own peculiar superstition: 'Gainst rhyme I never should have knock'd my brows, Nor broken my own head, nor that of Priscian, Nor worn the motley mantle of a poet, If some one had not told me to ...
— Don Juan • Lord Byron



Words linked to "Peculiar" :   strange, unusual, characteristic, odd, singular, specific



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