"apt" hidden in books

a palm trunk

báhì n 1 the hard portion of a palm trunk.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

a proof that

The existence of any evil—and if evil is felt it exists, for experience is its locus—is a proof that some accident has intruded into God's works.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana

are prone to

It lay there just as the giants of that old forgotten time had left it when they were called hence—just as they had left it, to remain for thousands of years, an eloquent rebuke unto such as are prone to think slightingly of the men who lived before them.
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

also purge the

Of these, and such medicines as also purge the brain, I shall speak by and by.
— from The Complete Herbal To which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their medicinal and occult qualities physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind: to which are now first annexed, the English physician enlarged, and key to Physic. by Nicholas Culpeper

antique pannels to

As if in the superhuman energy of his utterance there had been found the potency of a spell—the huge antique pannels to which the speaker pointed, threw slowly back, upon the instant, their ponderous and ebony jaws.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2 by Edgar Allan Poe

and putting the

By that time I shall be safe, and when you tell him I have gone to bed he will come to the door, wish me good night, and after locking the door and putting the key in his pocket he will go away with you.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova

and puff the

The assemblage rose, whiffed ceremony to the winds, and rushed for the door like a mob; overturning chairs, smashing crockery, tugging, struggling, shouldering, crowding—anything to get out before I should change my mind and puff the castle into the measureless dim vacancies of space.
— from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

and plundered them

They principally alleged it as a charge against them, that they had made incursions upon Numitor's lands, and plundered them in a hostile manner, having assembled a band of young men for the purpose.
— from The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 by Livy

as Prologue the

[The LADIES mask] Enter BLACKAMOORS music, MOTH as Prologue, the KING and his LORDS as maskers, in the guise of Russians MOTH.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

any plans tonight

And we are not to discuss any plans tonight.”
— from Lentala of the South Seas: The Romantic Tale of a Lost Colony by W. C. Morrow

and put the

With bashful awkwardness they untie the band of her tangled golden hair, take off her wet outside garment and wrap her in a warm, dry monk's frock, then they lay the frail and trembling form carefully on the bed and put the pale, half dead baby on her arm.
— from The Hour Will Come: A Tale of an Alpine Cloister. Volumes I and II by Wilhelmine von Hillern

a position to

The tastes even of the mechanic were refined by this language, the purest In which passion ever speaks; and an ambition—the result of the highest tone of aristocratic influence upon society—prompted his desires to purposes and a position to which in other regions he is not often permitted to aspire.
— from Confession; Or, The Blind Heart. A Domestic Story by William Gilmore Simms

a pinery that

They could only see three trees, as they thought, resembling trees in a pinery that had been burnt.
— from Algic Researches, Comprising Inquiries Respecting the Mental Characteristics of the North American Indians, First Series. Indian Tales and Legends, Vol. 2 of 2 by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

and precision this

"Then uncover, with the greatest care and precision, this Mysterious Vase; garnish the top with the Aurora of a Spring Morning; several Rays of the Sun of France; the Serenity of an Italian Sky; and the Universal Appreciation of the Peace of Europe.
— from Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 60, No. 370, August 1846 by Various

affairs proposing to

In the interval of tranquillity he married, and turned his thoughts to foreign affairs, proposing to aid the Netherlands against the King of Spain.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 08, October, 1868, to March, 1869. by Various

ask Perrette to

He was considered to have gotten much the worse of the treaty of Péronne with Charles the Bold, and he had a mistress named Perrette, so that the Parisians trained their parrots, magpies, and other speaking birds to ask Perrette to give them a drink, among other ribald phrases.
— from Paris from the Earliest Period to the Present Day; Volume 1 by William Walton

and pepper to

Columbus, however, now on the track of spices, showed some cinnamon and pepper to the natives; and the obliging creatures “said by signs that there was a great deal of it towards the south-east.”
— from Christopher Columbus and the New World of His Discovery — Complete by Filson Young

as prisoners those

They simply went on over the parapet into the enemy's trench for a few minutes and killed with their bombs about a dozen Germans, and brought in as prisoners those who were left wounded.
— from Letters from France by C. E. W. (Charles Edwin Woodrow) Bean

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?

Color thesaurus

Literary notes

Word games