Literary notes about Limber (AI summary)
The term "limber" has been employed in literature with surprising versatility, often reflecting ideas of physical flexibility or adaptability across diverse contexts. In military and transportation narratives, for instance, it denotes not only the essential parts of a carriage or gun-carriage that allow for smooth movement—illustrated in the detailed descriptions by Jefferson ([1], [2], [3]) and even in Chekhov’s depiction of a spare gun-carriage ([4])—but also serves as an imperative in instructions to prepare artillery for action, as seen in Carroll’s work ([5]). Moreover, "limber" is extended beyond mechanical usage to describe living things: it names a species of pine in the national park landscapes ([6], [7]) and even characterizes a vivacious maid in Hardy’s narrative ([8]). This multifaceted deployment of the word underscores its ability to evoke both physical readiness and organic flexibility, as further captured in references from poetic lines ([9]) and metaphorical reflections on language by Whitman ([10]).
- General arrangement and description of the park wagon and its limber.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Detailed description of the present siege carriage and its limber; its weight and different characteristics.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - General arrangement and detailed description of the present field carriage and of its limber.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - And also, your honour, Artemyev got drunk yesterday, and the lieutenant ordered him to be put in the limber of a spare gun-carriage.”
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - The artillery, firing a final salvo at a range of two hundred yards, was ordered to limber up.
— from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - The valleys on the east bear Engelmann spruce, alpine fir, lodgepole pine, Douglas fir, and limber pine.
— from Glacier National Park [Montana] by United States. Department of the Interior - From it, one looks across a smaller lake, banked with gnarled and twisted limber pines, to the superb mountain scenery in every direction.
— from Glacier National Park [Montana] by United States. Department of the Interior - She was such a limber maid that 'a could stand no hardship, even when I knowed her, and 'a went like a candle-snoff, so 'tis said.
— from Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy - 'The third blast that young Keeldar blew, Still stood the limber fern, And a wee man, of swarthy hue, Upstarted by a cairn.
— from The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott - The English language befriends the grand American expression—it is brawny enough, and limber and full enough.
— from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman
