In a little less than four years, therefore, after becoming a public lecturer, I was induced to write out the leading facts connected with my experience in slavery, giving names of persons, places, and dates—thus putting it in the power of any who doubted, to ascertain the truth or falsehood of my story of being a fugitive slave.
— from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass

A number of past participles are employed with the value of present participial adjectives.
— from Novelas Cortas by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón

The Roman atrium , preserved under the name of proaulium ( preau , ante-court), was placed in front of the salutorium (hall of reception), where visitors were received.
— from Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period by P. L. Jacob

He was on the board of management of some railway, and also had some post in a bank; he was a consulting lawyer in some important Government institution, and had business relations with a large number of private persons as a trustee, chairman of committees, and so on.
— from The Lady with the Dog and Other Stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

It is universally allowed by the writers on optics, that the eye at all times sees an equal number of physical points, and that a man on the top of a mountain has no larger an image presented to his senses, than when he is cooped up in the narrowest court or chamber.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume

They said also that pleasure belonged to the body, and constituted its chief good, as Panætius also tells us in his book on Sects; but the pleasure which they call the chief good, is not that pleasure as a state, which consists in the absence of all pain, and is a sort of undisturbedness, which is what Epicurus admits as such; for the Cyrenaics think that there is a distinction between the chief good and a life of happiness, for that the chief good is a particular pleasure, but that happiness is a state consisting of a number of particular pleasures, among which, both those which are past, and those which are future, are both enumerated.
— from The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius

Hoy no soy escritor; soy mero amanuense: no os pido, pues, admiración ni indulgencia, sino que me creáis a puño cerrado.
— from Novelas Cortas by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón

SYN: Business, affair, negotiation, occurrence, performance, proceeding, action.
— from A Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms or, Synonyms and Words of Opposite Meaning by Samuel Fallows

In the same way the ground adapted itself to the nutrition of plants, plants adapted themselves to the nutrition of animals, animals to that of other animals, and conversely they all adapted themselves to the nutrition of the ground.
— from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer

Coch y berllan, a redstart Perllys, n. sweet herbs; parsley Peron, n. a cause; the Lord Peror, n. melodist, musician Peroriad, n. a producing of melody; a playing of music Peroriaeth, n. melody; idle talk Perioriaethu, v. to make a melody Peroriant, n. practice of music Perorio, to practise music Persain, n. euphony Pert, a. smart, spruce, pert Pertedd, n. smartness, pertness Perten, n. a smart little girl Pertu, v. to smarten, to trim Pertyn, n. a smart little fellow Perth, n. a thorn bush; a brake Perthen, n. a thorn bush Perthyn, n. what is appropriate: v. to appertain, to belong Perthynad, n. an appertaining Perthynas, n. relation; appurtenance Perthynasol, a. appropriate Perthynasoli, v. to render appropriate Perthynasu, v. to render appropriate Perthynedigaeth, appropriation Perthynol, a. pertaining, relative Peru, v. to cause; to effect; to bid Perwg, n. hurdy-gurdy Perwr, n. a causer; one who orders Perwraidd, n. liquorice root Perwydd, n. pear-trees Perwyl, n. occasion, purpose Perwylus, a. eventual, incidental Perydd, n. a causator, a causer Peryf, n. a causer; a sovereign Peryg, n. what is extreme Perygl, n. danger, peril Perygledd, n. danger Perygliad, n. an endangering Peryglu, v. to run into danger Peryglus, a. dangerous, perilous Pes, conj.
— from A Pocket Dictionary: Welsh-English by William Richards

The hollow form of the leaves, and the broad ewer-like lips, have obtained for the plant its local and wide-spread name of “Pitcher Plant,” and “Soldier’s Drinking Cup.”
— from North American Wild Flowers by Catharine Parr Strickland Traill

My late friend, “Charles Dickens the younger,” as he used to call himself, in his notes on Pickwick , puts aside this theory altogether as a mere unfounded fancy; but it will be seen there cannot be a doubt in the matter.
— from Bardell v. Pickwick by Charles Dickens

Let us take a neighborhood of poor people, and test their ethical standards by those of the charity visitor, who comes with the best desire in the world to help them out of their distress.
— from Democracy and Social Ethics by Jane Addams

—what emotion indicates —differs from oh —as denoting earnestness, before nouns or pronouns put absol.
— from The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown

[Pg 257] ditions of society in the two republics, the aggregate number of professional politicians aiming at the 878 prizes of the profession in France is likely to be considerably in excess of the aggregate number of professional politicians aiming at the 414 prizes of the profession in the United States.
— from France and the Republic A Record of Things Seen and Learned in the French Provinces During the 'Centennial' Year 1889 by William Henry Hurlbert

She had caught up since her engagement a certain number of political phrases, and it amused him to note the cheap and tinkling use she made of them.
— from Sir George Tressady — Volume I by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.

Grant describes the natives of Port Praya as resembling negroes, and remarks that the females seemed to spend their time in spinning cotton from a distaff with a spindle.
— from The Logbooks of the Lady Nelson With the journal of her first commander Lieutenant James Grant by Ida Lee

Two hundred and twenty-five houses were capable of holding and no doubt did hold a very large number of people, packed as they were packed.
— from Footprints of the Red Men Indian geographical names in the valley of Hudson's river, the valley of the Mohawk, and on the Delaware: their location and the probable meaning of some of them. by Edward Manning Ruttenber

His clothes always looked new, of pronounced patterns and light colours set aside for him by an obsequious tailor in Boston.
— from The Dwelling Place of Light — Complete by Winston Churchill