Lick , a blow; LICKING , a beating; “to put in big LICKS ,” a curious and common phrase, meaning that great exertions are being made.—
— from The Slang Dictionary: Etymological, Historical and Andecdotal by John Camden Hotten

LICK, a blow; LICKING , a beating; “to put in big LICKS ,” a curious and common phrase meaning that great exertions are being made.— Dryden; North.
— from A Dictionary of Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words Used at the Present Day in the Streets of London; the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the Houses of Parliament; the Dens of St. Giles; and the Palaces of St. James. by John Camden Hotten

“What gars ye ask that?” he said, and he caught me by the breast of the jacket, and looked this time straight into my eyes: his own were little and light, and bright like a bird’s, blinking and winking strangely.
— from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

I have seen you, my lady, looking and being looked at, by a stranger, in a way no decent woman allows.—For the rest, I'll trouble you to mind your own business.
— from Maurice Guest by Henry Handel Richardson

The event described in the previous chapter had effected me like a blow, like a blow over the head, the impact of which will make a person collapse.
— from My Life and My Efforts by Karl May

The old lady was sensible to the last, and behaved like a brick.
— from Cats: Their Points and Characteristics With Curiosities of Cat Life, and a Chapter on Feline Ailments by Gordon Stables

The leaves are bristly like a beard, and rough to the touch.
— from Lachesis Lapponica; Or, A Tour in Lapland, Volume 1 by Carl von Linné

In the small white bed lay Cherry, her head swathed in bandages, one little arm bandaged likewise; and beside her knelt Chloe Carstairs, her face like marble, her silky black hair dishevelled on her brow, as though she, too, had passed a sleepless night.
— from Afterwards by Kathlyn Rhodes

She dared not add: "... and to look at this M. Leonor and be looked at by him and still more, to hear them talk of Mme.
— from A Virgin Heart: A Novel by Remy de Gourmont

Do you know what I have been longing for since yesterday, like a baby, like a boy?”
— from The Later Life by Louis Couperus