surmount a difficulty, overcome a difficulty, get over a difficulty, get over an obstacle &c. 706; se tirer d'affaire[Fr]; make head against; stem the torrent, stem the tide, stem the current; weather the storm, weather a point; turn a corner, keep one's head above water, tide over; master; get the better of, have the better of, gain the better of, gain the best of, gain the upper hand, gain the ascendancy, gain the whip hand, gain the start of; distance; surpass &c. (superiority) 33. defeat, conquer, vanquish, discomfit; euchre; overcome, overthrow, overpower, overmaster, overmatch, overset[obs3], override, overreach; outwit, outdo, outflank, outmaneuver, outgeneral, outvote; take the wind out of one's adversary's sails; beat, beat hollow; rout, lick, drub, floor, worst; put down, put to flight, put to the rout, put hors de combat[Fr], put out of court.
— from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget

One reason why the men’s party was so certain that the dead souls connoted something contrary to good order and discipline, was that there had just been appointed to the province a new Governor-General—an event which, of course, had thrown the whole army of provincial tchinovniks into a state of great excitement, seeing that they knew that before long there would ensue transferments and sentences of censure, as well as the series of official dinners with which a Governor-General is accustomed to entertain his subordinates.
— from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol

Then we have churches of St. Louis; St. Augustine; St. Agnes; St. Calixtus; St. Lorenzo in Lucina; St. Lorenzo in Damaso; St. Cecilia; St. Athanasius; St. Philip Neri; St. Catherine, St. Dominico, and a multitude of lesser saints whose names are not familiar in the world--and away down, clear out of the list of the churches, comes a couple of hospitals: one of them is named for the Saviour and the other for the Holy Ghost!
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

Vainly did scholasticism, common sense's college-trained younger sister, seek to stereotype the forms the human family had always talked with, to make them definite and fix them for eternity.
— from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking by William James

And yet there is no reason women should take it amiss to be thus charged; for if they do but righdy consider they will find it is to Folly they are beholden for those endowments, wherein they so far surpass and excel man; as first, for their unparalleled beauty, by the charm whereof they tyrannize over the greatest tyrants; for what is it but too great a smatch of wisdom that makes men so tawny and thick-skinned, so rough and prickly-bearded, like an emblem of winter or old age, while women have such dainty smooth cheeks, such a low gende voice, and so pure a complexion, as if nature had drawn them for a standing pattern of all symmetry and comeliness?
— from In Praise of Folly Illustrated with Many Curious Cuts by Desiderius Erasmus

In the darkness she could see the outlines of two carts, one with a barrel, the other, a lower one with sacks in it, and the figures of two men; one was leading a horse to put it into the shafts, the other was standing motionless by the fire with his hands behind his back.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of 233 Short Stories of Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

“Amory, dear,” she crooned softly, “I had such a strange, weird time after I left you.”
— from This Side of Paradise by F. Scott (Francis Scott) Fitzgerald

—Nowhere do social contacts so readily provoke conflicts as in the relations between the races, particularly when racial differences are re-enforced, not merely by differences of culture, but of color.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. (Ernest Watson) Burgess

This speech, as well as the respect Lincoln's work in the House had inspired among the leaders of the party, brought him an invitation to deliver several campaign speeches in New England at the close of Congress, and he went there early in September.
— from McClure's Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 6, May, 1896 by Various

As for letting men lend you money—" "That you would never disgrace yourself by doing!" said Catharine sharply.
— from The Case of Richard Meynell by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.

In the absence of cooking facilities, it became necessary in that day to rely chiefly upon such articles of food as did not require to be prepared by heat, such as biscuit (hard bread), butter, cheese ("Holland cheese" was a chief staple with the Pilgrims), "haberdyne" (or dried salt codfish), smoked herring, smoked ("cured ") ham and bacon, "dried neat's tongues," preserved and "potted" meats (a very limited list in that day), fruits, etc.
— from The Mayflower and Her Log; July 15, 1620-May 6, 1621 — Volume 5 by Azel Ames

For Salt will not preserve Flesh from Putrifaction, any longer than the Vertue and Power of the Spirit does continue, as it does appear by all salted Flesh and Fish: For through length of time the Spirits become either suffocated, or evaporated, and then it presently falls into Putrifaction: And yet this same Flesh does still continue Salt; for Salt does not destroy and purge the Flesh from its Corruption, but incorporates it self with the Essential Spirits, and those two do as it were tie or hold the corrupt Part Captive, till the Spirit and Life of the Flesh be spent or wasted, and then the Flesh falls into Putrifaction, which cannot be recovered, eitheir by Salting, or any other Art, to its first state:
— from A Treatise of Cleanness in Meats and Drinks, of the Preparation of Food, the Excellency of Good Airs, and the Benefits of Clean Sweet Beds. Also of the Generation of Bugs, and Their Cure. To Which Is Added, a Short Discourse of the Pain in the Teeth, Shewing What Cause It Does Chiefly Proceed, and Also How to Prevent It. by Thomas Tryon

"Sit down," she commanded, sinking into the chair I had vacated.
— from Lords of the North by Agnes C. Laut