Heavy, broad-backed, old-fashioned, mahogany-and-horsehair chairs, not easily lifted; obsolete tables with spindle-legs and dusty baize covers; presentation prints of the holders of great titles in the last generation or the last but one, environ him. — from Bleak House by Charles Dickens
are determined by Common
In fact, this question seems to have been already discussed as far as is profitable: for the attempt to define each principle singly has inevitably led us to consider their mutual relations: and it was in the cases where two moral principles came into collision that we most clearly saw the vagueness and inconsistency with which the boundaries of each are determined by Common Sense. — from The Methods of Ethics by Henry Sidgwick
a dream But could
He stood—how long he knew not, but it seem'd An age—expectant, powerless, with his eyes Strain'd on the spot where first the figure gleam'd; Then by degrees recall'd his energies, And would have pass'd the whole off as a dream, But could not wake; he was, he did surmise, Waking already, and return'd at length Back to his chamber, shorn of half his strength. — from Don Juan by Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron
a definite bulk capable
Unable to conceive of life abstractly as a “permanent possibility of sensation” or a “continuous adjustment of internal arrangements to external relations,” the savage thinks of it as a concrete material thing of a definite bulk, capable of being seen and handled, kept in a box or jar, and liable to be bruised, fractured, or smashed in pieces. — from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer
Wherefore dost Thou keep so cruel a dog in Thy yard, at the sight of which such women and children [229] as we are ready to fly from the gate with fear?" He answered and said, "That dog has another owner; he also is kept close in another man's ground, only my pilgrims hear his barking: he belongs to the castle which you see there at a distance, but can come up to the walls of this place. — from The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan Every Child Can Read by John Bunyan
Pfuel proposes, Armfeldt disputes, Bennigsen considers, and Barclay, called on to act, does not know what to decide on, and time passes bringing no result. — from War and Peace by Tolstoy, Leo, graf
a deep black colour
the upper part of the head is covered with black feathers short, as far as the back part of the head—the yellow skin unfeathered extends back from the upper beak and opening of the mouth and comes to a point just behind the eye The large feathers of the wings are of a deep black colour—the 1st & 2nd joint of from the body above the same is covered with a second layer of white feathers which extend quite half the length of those large feathers of the wing—the thye is covered with feathers within a quarter of an inch of the knee. — from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark
Young and at the same time capable; using the natural advantages of his territory to support the bravery of his troops; with a mind which was not only accurate and decisive, but comprehensive in its observations; unhampered by control or by principle; opposed to (p. 350) generals who could not think of a boy of twenty-six as their equal; with the best army and the finest theater of war in Europe; finally, with a genius independently developed, and with conceptions of his profession which summarized the experience of his greatest predecessors, Bonaparte performed feats that seemed miraculous even when compared with those of Hoche, Jourdan, or Moreau, which had already so astounded the world. — from The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte. Vol. 1 (of 4) by William Milligan Sloane
here we made a Ceeder Mast, our hunters brought in three bucks, and two elks this evening which we had jurked One of the hunter Shields, informed that he Saw Several black tailed Deer, near the Poncaser Village H2 anchor [Lewis, September 5, 1804] Sept 5th saw some wild goats or antelopes on the hill above the Glauber Salts Springs they ran off we could not discover them sufficiently distinctly to discribe even their colour their track is as large as a deer reather broader & more blont at the point This day one of our hunters brought us a Serpent beautifully variagated with small black spotts of a romboydal form on a light yellow white ground the black pedominates most on the back the whiteis yellow on the sides, and it is nearly white on the belly with a few party couloured scuta on which the black shews but imperfectly and the colouring matter seems to be underneath the Scuta—it is not poisonous it hisses remarkably loud; it has 221 Scuta on the belly and 51 on the tale, the eyes are of a dark black colour the tale terminates in a sharp point like the substance of a cock's spur—Length 4 Ft. 6 I. H2 anchor — from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark
Or again, if typical Shirvans, Kabistans, and Daghestans be compared, it will be noticed that in Shirvans the half-knots, or parts of the knot encircling the two adjacent threads of warp, are often inclined at an angle of at least thirty degrees to the line of weft so as to present a serrated appearance, but that the alignment formed by knots of Daghestans is nearly even, and that of Kabistans is intermediate. — from Oriental Rugs, Antique and Modern by W. A. (Walter Augustus) Hawley
This tab, called Hiding in Plain Sight,
shows you passages from notable books where your word is accidentally (or perhaps deliberately?)
spelled out by the first letters of consecutive words.
Why would you care to know such a thing? It's not entirely clear to us, either, but
it's fun to explore! What's the longest hidden word you can find? Where is your name hiding?