They were so badly sprained that it was useless to attempt to hold a brush, and I was obliged to wander about the studio, glaring at unfinished drawings and sketches, until despair seized me and I sat down to smoke and twiddle my thumbs with rage.
— from The King in Yellow by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers

Girls are usually daintier and more easily taught than boys, but most children will behave badly at table if left to their own devices.
— from Etiquette by Emily Post

Ac′rita (Gr. akritos , undistinguishable, doubtful), a name sometimes given to the animals otherwise called Protozoa.
— from The New Gresham Encyclopedia. A to Amide Vol. 1 Part 1 by Various

Qualities, innate to himself, decisiveness of intellect, firmness, a quick insight into things and men, with a certain fertility of resource, conspired to win for him the position which he filled, and enabled him to retain it with ease; to sustain, with a graceful and unassuming dignity, all the augmentations which naturally accumulated round it, as the community, of which he was so vital a part, grew and widened and rose to a higher and higher level, on the swelling tide of the general civilization of the continent.
— from Toronto of Old Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of Ontario by Henry Scadding

Καταβραβεύω, ( κατά & βραβεύω ) f. εύσω, pr. to give an unfavourable decision as respects a prize, to disappoint of the palm; hence, to beguile of, cause to miss, Col. 2.18.
— from A Greek-English Lexicon to the New Testament by William Greenfield

They thrust themselves forward with a ghastly and unendurable distinctness, as if they would compel the sufferer to count, or measure, or learn them by heart.
— from Arrows of the Chace, vol. 1/2 being a collection of scattered letters published chiefly in the daily newspapers 1840-1880 by John Ruskin

That was a good drive, an honest drive, a human aspiring drive, a drive of Christians, a glorifying and uplifted drive, a drive worthy of remembrance for ever.
— from The Path to Rome by Hilaire Belloc

Looked at from a worldling's point of view, it would seem, at the first glance, an utterly disadvantageous alliance: but Dr. Rylance had an eye that could sweep over horizons other than are revealed to the average gaze, and he told himself that so lovely a woman as Ida Palliser must inevitably become the fashion in that particular society which Dr. Rylance most affected: and a wife famed for her beauty and elegance would assuredly be of more advantage to a fashionable physician than a common-place wife with a fortune.
— from The Golden Calf by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

Sometimes there was something almost fearful in the gloom, and utter disbelief, and defiance of his mind.
— from The Life of Froude by Herbert W. (Herbert Woodfield) Paul

The state university funds, including the federal grants, are usually dispersed among two, or even three or four small institutions.
— from The Southern South by Albert Bushnell Hart

Modern philology has given, as usual, different analyses of the meaning of the name of the god.
— from Myth, Ritual and Religion, Vol. 1 (of 2) by Andrew Lang

stated, it is easy to obtain a resemblance of broken running water by tricks and dexterities, but the sea must be legitimately drawn; it cannot be given as utterly disorganized and confused, its weight and mass must be expressed, and the efforts at expression of it end in failure with all but the most powerful men; even with these few a partial success must be considered worthy of the highest praise.
— from Modern Painters, Volume 1 (of 5) by John Ruskin

Arrived on the north side, Colonel William Harper took the liberty of remonstrating with the General at what he conceived to be a great and unnecessary delay, attended with a needless loss of life and property, on the part of the inhabitants who had been suffered thus long to remain unprotected.
— from Life of Joseph Brant—Thayendanegea (Vol. II) Including the Border Wars of the American Revolution and Sketches of the Indian Campaigns of Generals Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne; And Other Matters Connected with the Indian Relations of the United States and Great Britain, from the Peace of 1783 to the Indian Peace of 1795 by William L. (William Leete) Stone

128 Nevertheless, Mademoiselle Bertot—styled in the shop 'Madame'—now presides over Ezra Brunt's dressmakers, draws her four pounds a week (of which she saves two), and by mere nationality has given a unique distinction and success to her branch of the business.
— from Tales of the Five Towns by Arnold Bennett