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Descriptive   Listen
adjective
Descriptive  adj.  Tending to describe; having the quality of representing; containing description; as, a descriptive figure; a descriptive phrase; a descriptive narration; a story descriptive of the age.
Descriptive anatomy, that part of anatomy which treats of the forms and relations of parts, but not of their textures.
Descriptive geometry, that branch of geometry. which treats of the graphic solution of problems involving three dimensions, by means of projections upon auxiliary planes.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Descriptive" Quotes from Famous Books



... division, Ethnography, is geographic and descriptive in its plans of research. It studies the subdivision and migrations of races, local traits, peculiarities and customs, and confines itself to ...
— Anthropology - As a Science and as a Branch of University Education in the United States • Daniel Garrison Brinton

... Jules Verne, declared that nothing which he had seen there was so terrifying as what they now beheld. One creature, which seemed to be the unresisted master of this kingdom of phosphorescent life, appears to have exceeded in strangeness the utmost descriptive powers of all those who looked upon it, for their written accounts are filled with ejaculations, and are more or less inconsistent with one another. The reader gathers from them, however, the general impression that it made upon their ...
— The Second Deluge • Garrett P. Serviss

... of relationship used in different parts of the world may be divided, according to the author just quoted, into two great classes, the classificatory and descriptive, the latter being employed by us. It is the classificatory system which so strongly leads to the belief that communal and other extremely loose forms of marriage were originally universal. But as far as I can see, there ...
— The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex • Charles Darwin

... it also with instructive sympathy: Alfieri never subtly analysed the anatomy of individual nature, nor did he unconsciously mimic its action and tones; what most of us mean by pathos did not appeal to him. Neither metrical nor imaginative pleasurableness, nor descriptive charm, nor lyric poignancy, nor psychological analysis or intention entered, therefore, into Alfieri's conception of a desirable tragedy, any more than any of these things fell within the range of his special talents; for, we must always bear in mind that ...
— The Countess of Albany • Violet Paget (AKA Vernon Lee)

... which opens the opera the manipulator of the artificial lightning is not left to his discretion as to the proper moment for discharging his brutum fulmen; in the love duet, at the close of the first act, the appearance of the moon and stars is sought to be intensified by descriptive effects in the music; and when, in the last scene, Otello kisses the sleeping Desdemona, and the one typical phrase of the opera (drawn from the love scene) is repeated, the composer indicates on what beat of each measure he wants each kiss to fall. These are only a few instances of ...
— Chapters of Opera • Henry Edward Krehbiel

... did not enter much more into particulars; she led away the conversation to the sights she had seen in their summer tour; and as she had a good deal of descriptive power, she made her narratives so interesting that time slipped quickly past, and the young company was as much surprised as Mr. Audley was when he came home and found them all there, not yet gone to bed. They were greatly ashamed, and afraid ...
— The Pillars of the House, V1 • Charlotte M. Yonge

... few miles from Leeds, there is an ancient way, till lately wholly unbuilt upon, called Finkle Lane; and in London we have the parish of St. Benedict Finck, though I do not imagine that the latter is any way synonymous with the word in question. The appellation of Finkle is, without doubt, a descriptive one; but the character of the lane so styled in Gildersome seems to negative the idea that it has any reference to the peculiarity of trade or class of persons carried on or inhabiting the locality ...
— Notes & Queries, No. 24. Saturday, April 13. 1850 • Various

... was a young man for whose opinion older men were accustomed to wait. His person more than justified his praenomen, for Mr. Harper Freeman, Jr., was undeniably fat. "Fat, but fine and frisky," was ever his own comment upon the descriptive adjective by which his friends distinguished him. And fine and frisky he was; fine in his appreciation of good eating, fine in his judgment of good cattle and fine in his estimate of men; frisky, too, and utterly ...
— Corporal Cameron • Ralph Connor

... after visiting the Lake of Como, Pisa, the Bagni di Lucca, Venice and Rome, they settled early in the following December at Naples. Shelley's letters to Peacock form the invaluable record of this period of his existence. Taken altogether, they are the most perfect specimens of descriptive prose in the English language; never over-charged with colour, vibrating with emotions excited by the stimulating scenes of Italy, frank in their criticism, and exquisitely delicate in observation. Their transparent sincerity and unpremeditated ...
— Percy Bysshe Shelley • John Addington Symonds

... ingenious, though perhaps, constrained and far-fetched; and its dnouement makes the reader put down the third volume with increased respect for the novelist's tact. Wyandotte, or the Hutted Knoll (1843), is a quiet yet animated narrative, descriptive of a family of British settlers and their fortunes in their wild Susquehanna home. There is a pleasure, the author observes, in diving into a virgin forest, and commencing the labours of civilisation, that has no exact parallel in any other human ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal Vol. XVII. No. 418. New Series. - January 3, 1852. • William and Robert Chambers

... earliest foundation, and describes its building and service, with the salaries of its ecclesiastics; and adds biographical sketches (here omitted) of the archbishops down to his time, and the extent of their jurisdiction. Then follow accounts, both historical and descriptive, of the ecclesiastical tribunals, churches, colleges, and charitable institutions—especially of San Phelipe college and La Misericordia. San Antonio enumerates the curacies in the archbishopric, and the convents and missions of the calced Augustinians. ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 (Vol 28 of 55) • Various

... distinguished from other kinds of poetry, narrative, descriptive, epic, dramatic, should have three characteristic qualities, immediately evident on the first reading: it should be short, it should be melodious, it should express only one mood. A very long lyrical poem has never been written, and ...
— Robert Browning: How To Know Him • William Lyon Phelps

... "we begin with a few general remarks of a descriptive nature. This vessel, Miss Carstairs, is what is known as a schooner-rigged steam-yacht. She stands a good bit under a hundred tons. She is ninety feet long, eighteen feet in the beam and ...
— Captivating Mary Carstairs • Henry Sydnor Harrison

... of the work of Chrestien and his contemporaries is plain enough. But "medieval" and other terms of the same sort are too apt to impose themselves on the mind as complete descriptive formulas, and in this case the term "medieval" ought not to obscure the fact that it is modern literature, in one of its chief branches, which has its beginning in the twelfth century. No later change ...
— Epic and Romance - Essays on Medieval Literature • W. P. Ker

... succor, that the malecontents could hope to vindicate their cause and subvert his throne. The soul of the enterprise was the great domestic John Cantacuzene; the sally from Constantinople is the first date of his actions and memorials; and if his own pen be most descriptive of his patriotism, an unfriendly historian has not refused to celebrate the zeal and ability which he displayed in the service of the young emperor. [89] That prince escaped from the capital under the pretence ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 6 • Edward Gibbon

... frequently sailed or rowed to Indian Rock, and to a sort of grotto there which was large enough for his boat to enter. Both the rock and the Manning house are now difficult of access. Longfellow wrote a pretty descriptive poem of a voyage on Sebago, and it is remarkable how he has made use of every feature of the landscape, every incident of the excursion, to fill his verses. The lake has much the shape of an hour-glass, the northern and southern portions ...
— The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne • Frank Preston Stearns

... as "Descriptive List.") One for each member of the company, in which is kept a full description of him, including date of enlistment, personnel description, record of deposits, trial by court-martial, record ...
— Manual of Military Training - Second, Revised Edition • James A. Moss

... leak they reckon'd to reduce, And keep the ship afloat, though three feet yet Kept two hand and one chain-pump still in use. The wind blew fresh again: as it grew late A squall came on, and while some guns broke loose, A gust—which all descriptive power transcends— Laid with one blast the ship on her ...
— Don Juan • Lord Byron

... 'oratio obliqua,' the passage will run thus: The priest came and prayed Apollo that the Achaeans might take Troy and have a safe return if Agamemnon would only give him back his daughter; and the other Greeks assented, but Agamemnon was wroth, and so on—The whole then becomes descriptive, and the poet is the only speaker left; or, if you omit the narrative, the whole becomes dialogue. These are the three styles—which of them is to be admitted into our State? 'Do you ask whether tragedy and comedy are to be admitted?' Yes, but also something more—Is it not doubtful ...
— The Republic • Plato

... after-life of these strange experiences it is safe to say that to some extent they were a spur to intellectual effort. At least they should have made all sadder and wiser; and they certainly were in some cases an equipment for descriptive authorship. Major (Adner A.) Small wrote a valuable account of prison life. Dr. Burrage's narratives of his capture and its results are entertaining and instructive. Major Putnam's A Prisoner of War in Virginia ...
— Lights and Shadows in Confederate Prisons - A Personal Experience, 1864-5 • Homer B. Sprague

... matter of publicity Lola had nothing of which to complain; and the next morning descriptive columns ...
— The Magnificent Montez - From Courtesan to Convert • Horace Wyndham

... Courtisanes, which is avowedly its second part, a small piece of Eve et David serving as the link between them. But it is almost sufficient by and to itself. Lucien de Rubempre ou le Journalisme would be the most straightforward and descriptive title for it, and one which Balzac in some of his moods would have been content enough ...
— Lost Illusions • Honore De Balzac

... Jefferson, our host, encouraged by Mr. Halstead, and I am afraid not discouraged by me, began to urge Mr. Jefferson to give us, as he said, "a touch of his mettle," and failing to draw the great comedian out he undertook himself to give a few descriptive passages from the drama which was carrying the town by storm. Poor Jefferson! He sat like an awkward boy, helpless and blushing, the German wholly unconscious of the fun or even comprehending just what was happening—Halstead and I maliciously, ...
— Marse Henry, Complete - An Autobiography • Henry Watterson

... cartographers to achieve standardization in nautical charts and electronic chart displays; to provide advice on nautical cartography and hydrography; to develop the sciences in the field of hydrography and techniques used for descriptive oceanograrphy ...
— The 2008 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... extract from the Norwich Aurora, an American paper, descriptive of a newly discovered cavern. The writer, with a power of imagination almost marvellous, remarks, "The air in the cavern had a peculiar smell, resembling—NOTHING." We believe that is the identical flavour of "Leg of Nothing ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various

... abbreviation or reduction may be illustrated by supposing a person, under circumstances forbidding the use of the voice, seeking to call attention to a particular bird on a tree, and failing to do so by mere indication. Descriptive signs are resorted to, perhaps suggesting the bill and wings of the bird, its manner of clinging to the twig with its feet, its size by seeming to hold it between the hands, its color by pointing to objects of the same hue; perhaps by the action of shooting into a tree, picking up the supposed ...
— Sign Language Among North American Indians Compared With That Among Other Peoples And Deaf-Mutes • Garrick Mallery

... before our readers the whole of Mr. Landsborough's journal, descriptive of the country he passed over in crossing the continent, some explanatory notes respecting the vegetation, etc., may be found acceptable and they are therefore given at the end. We are indebted to Dr. Mueller for ...
— Journal of Landsborough's Expedition from Carpentaria - In search of Burke and Wills • William Landsborough

... "the votes and acts of this fag end; this RUMP of a parliament, with corrupt maggots in it."[325] This hideous, but descriptive image of "The Rump" had, however, got forward before, for the collector of "the Rump Songs"[326] tells us, "If you ask who named it Rump, know 'twas so styled in an honest sheet of prayer, called 'The Bloody Rump,' written before the trial of our late sovereign; but the word obtained not universal ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli

... the thoughts, even of those who deliberately turned their backs to the drama of Europe, out across the waters which they fondly and fatuously hoped cut off the United States from ever being singed by the blaze. The little band was playing one of those rather feeble descriptive pieces which begin with soft, peaceful music with the suggestion of the life of a farmyard, and the sound of church bells, swing into the approach of armed men with shrill bugle calls, become chaotic with the rush of fearful women and children, ...
— Who Cares? • Cosmo Hamilton

... of Congress passed over. It was the long one, and ran into May 1792. I find in the collection only three letters to Mr. Lear dated in that year. The first is from Mount Vernon, July 30, '92, soon after he had left Philadelphia, and is familiarly descriptive of his journey homewards. His horses plagued him a good deal, he says, and the sick mare, owing to a dose of physic administered the night he reached Chester, was so much weakened as to be unable to carry Austin [one of the postilions] further ...
— Washington in Domestic Life • Richard Rush

... to a very lively imagination; and we admire the agility with which the writer jumps from place to place quite as much as the suppleness with which he can at will unconditionally subject himself to the genius of a single locality. For Heine is capable of writing straightforward descriptive prose, as well-ordered and as matter-of-fact as a narrative of Kleist's. But the world of reality, where everything has an assignable reason for its being and doing, is not the world into which he most delights to conduct us. This world, on the contrary, is that in which the water "murmurs ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VI. • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke

... on the Perak side of the range, in a natural refuge, which has probably sheltered wayfarers in these forests ever since primitive man first set foot in the Peninsula. The place is called Batu Sapor—the Stone Lean-to Hut—in the vernacular, and the name is a descriptive one. It is situated on the banks of the Breseh, a little babbling stream which runs down to the Slim. The banks are high and shelving, but, on the top, they are flat, and it is here that the gigantic overhanging granite boulder stands, which gives the place its name. It is ...
— In Court and Kampong - Being Tales and Sketches of Native Life in the Malay Peninsula • Hugh Clifford

... The descriptive portion of a sacred lyric composed by Dr Macdonald on the occasion of his first visit to St Kilda, often called "The Hirt" or "Hirta," after the Gaelic. His missionary enterprise was blessed, we believe, with ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volumes I-VI. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various

... First, there ought to be all such names, as are needful for making such a record of individual observations that the words of the record shall exactly show what fact it is which has been observed. In other words, there should be an accurate Descriptive Terminology. ...
— A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive • John Stuart Mill

... nominal lists and lists. By the time they have finished one list it is long out-of-date. Then they start the next. Everything happens at the same time; nobody has time to finish a sentence. Only a military mind, with a very limited descriptive vocabulary and a chronic habit of self-deception, ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 152, June 13, 1917 • Various

... sail' wasted 'to a thread.' Polonius tells Laertes, 'the wind sits in the shoulder of your sail'—a technical expression, the singular propriety of which a naval critic has recently established; whilst some of the commentators on the passage in King Lear, descriptive of the prospect from Dover Cliffs, affirm that the comparison as to apparent size, of the ship to her cock-boat, and the cock-boat to a buoy, discover a perfect knowledge of the relative proportions of the objects named. In Hamlet, ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 429 - Volume 17, New Series, March 20, 1852 • Various

... vaudeville star," Fuellenberg continued with his descriptive catalogue. "He will appear in New York ...
— Atlantis • Gerhart Hauptmann

... 113, Rostafinski adopted properly Ditmar's name for this species. Upon later consideration, in the Appendix, p. 8, he changed the name, writing P. ditmari, on the ground that virescens was descriptive of a character to which the species in question occasionally refuses to conform. Most authors since Rostafinski have simply accepted his suggestion, so that the species is often entered P. ditmari Rost. P. virescens ...
— The North American Slime-Moulds • Thomas H. (Thomas Huston) MacBride

... one ignores the dialogue of his characters, even the descriptive and editorial comments by Trollope himself at first seem anti-semitic. He consistently uses "Jew" as a pejorative adjective instead of "Jewish." His descriptions of the appearance of Jewish characters are usually unflattering and stereotypical. ...
— Nina Balatka • Anthony Trollope

... pieces with descriptive titles for elementary work. Arranged in progressive order. Sure to ...
— Twelve Preludes for the Pianoforte Op. 25 - I. Prelude in F Major • N. Louise Wright

... entertain his young hostess and her friends. To a certain extent he succeeded, in that Kate was compelled to admit to herself that he could be far more agreeable than she had ever supposed. He had travelled extensively and was possessed of good descriptive powers; his voice was low and musical, and his eyes, limpid and tender whenever he fixed them upon her face, held her glance by some irresistible, magnetic force, and invariably brought the deepening color to ...
— At the Time Appointed • A. Maynard Barbour

... popular imagination. The author has a singular faculty of condensing narration and description, and bringing the scene and deed right before the eye, without any of the tedious minutiae in which most descriptive writers indulge. Consequently his observations are flashed upon the mind of the reader rather than conveyed to it, piece by piece. If Mr. Webber would soften a little the ravenousness of his style, ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII No. 6 June 1848 • Various

... Testament is only a phantom of superstition to scare us in our sleep.[276] The statements of the evangelists have a very low degree of historical credibility. Miracles are not impossible, because God is omnipotent; but our main difficulty is, that we cannot believe the accounts descriptive of them. The testimony and not the miracle is at fault. Inspiration is not at all peculiar to the Scriptures. All nations have had their inspiration; this is a natural result of the perfection of God, for he does not change; and the laws of mind are like himself, unchangeable. ...
— History of Rationalism Embracing a Survey of the Present State of Protestant Theology • John F. Hurst

... be sadly multiplied, but those given are sufficient as descriptive of the state of the poor Irish in the cities. Let us now see how the peasants live in the country ...
— Irish Race in the Past and the Present • Aug. J. Thebaud

... mitigate the tortures of jealousy, it is the inferiority of the man who is preferred to yourself; while, on the very contrary, if there be an anguish more bitter than another, a misery for which language has no descriptive words, it is the superiority of the man preferred to yourself, superior, perhaps, in youth, beauty, grace. It is in such moments as these that Heaven almost seems to have taken part against the disdained and ...
— The Vicomte de Bragelonne - Or Ten Years Later being the completion of "The Three - Musketeers" And "Twenty Years After" • Alexandre Dumas

... be more powerfully descriptive than a word, so these shot-riddled walls had their own eloquence. Each shot-hole, each jagged splinter and torn hinge had its own history and added its pathetic detail to the whole picture of that disastrous night when the vengeance of Behar Singh had ...
— The Native Born - or, The Rajah's People • I. A. R. Wylie

... mere mention of his pen-name, "Anson Qualtraugh," recalls at once to thousands of the readers of a certain world-famous monthly magazine of New York articles and stories he wrote for it while he was alive; as, for instance, his admirable descriptive work called "Traces of the Aztecs on the Mogolon Mesa," in the October number of 1890. Also, in the January issue of 1892 there are two specimens of his work, one signed Anson Qualtraugh and the other Justin Blisset. Why he should have used the Blisset signature I do not ...
— A Deal in Wheat - And Other Stories of the New and Old West • Frank Norris

... so much accustomed to words, descriptive of the cruelty of this traffic, that we had almost forgotten their meaning. He wished that some person, educated as an Englishman, with suitable powers of eloquence, but now for the first time informed of all the horrors of it, were to address their lordships upon it, and ...
— The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament (1808) • Thomas Clarkson

... Poetical and descriptive prose being little used in Germany, I can easily conceive that, on the announcement of the title of my book, a set of lectures, rather than a kind of poem in prose, will be expected. I own that I would never have attempted to lecture on a subject the materials of which did not ...
— Letters of Franz Liszt, Volume 2: "From Rome to the End" • Franz Liszt; letters collected by La Mara and translated

... of protective form and color among spiders we encounter one difficulty at the outset. The meaning of a protective peculiarity can be determined only when the animal is seen in its natural home. The number of strangely modified forms depicted in descriptive works on spiders is enormous. Bodies are twisted, elongated, inflated, flattened, truncated, covered with tubercles or spines, enclosed within chitinous plates, colored like bark, like lichens, like flowers of every imaginable hue, like bird droppings, like sand ...
— A Book of Natural History - Young Folks' Library Volume XIV. • Various

... decrees of the magistrates, were allowed to retain the arms they had illegally seized, whilst the protestants in the departments were disarmed. The members of the reformed churches wished at this period to present another memorial to the government, descriptive of the evils they still suffered, but this was not practicable. On the 26th of September, the president of the consistory wrote as follows: "I have only been able to assemble two or three members of the consistory pastors or elders. ...
— Fox's Book of Martyrs - Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant - Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs • John Fox

... extending about eight miles in a general direction between west-north-west and east-south-east, being very level on some parts of the summit, and so very narrow in others, while the sides are also so steep, that the name it has obtained is descriptive enough. ...
— Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Vol 2 (of 2) • Thomas Mitchell

... A term descriptive of the position used by a Priest who adopts the custom of celebrating Holy Communion facing the East, with his back to the people. There is a very great difficulty in ascertaining what the rubrics with relation to ...
— The Church Handy Dictionary • Anonymous

... alone is the kind of information respecting past times which can be of service to the citizen for the regulation of his conduct. The only history that is of practical value is what may be called Descriptive Sociology. And the highest office which the historian can discharge, is that of so narrating the lives of nations, as to furnish materials for a Comparative Sociology; and for the subsequent determination of the ultimate laws to which ...
— Essays on Education and Kindred Subjects - Everyman's Library • Herbert Spencer

... Dynastic Histories. In 1772 a search was instituted under Imperial orders for all literary works worthy of preservation, and high provincial officials vied with one another in forwarding rare and important works to Peking. The result was the great descriptive Catalogue of the Imperial Library, arranged under the four heads of Classics (Confucianism), History, Philosophy, and General Literature, in which all the facts known about each work are set forth, coupled with judicious critical ...
— China and the Manchus • Herbert A. Giles

... these strange voids is hardly descriptive. Rather they produce upon the mind the effect of blank windows in a lonely house on a pitch-dark night, which, when looked at from the brilliant interior, become appalling in their rayless murk. Infinity ...
— Curiosities of the Sky • Garrett Serviss

... suddenly tapering spire of the most puzzling construction to the eye. It must have been designed by a monk of the olden time, with a Chinese turn of ingenuity. There is no order known to architecture to furnish a term or likeness for it. A ridgy, spiral spire are the three most descriptive words, but these are not half enough for stating the shape, style and posture of this strange steeple. It is difficult even to assist the imagination to form an idea of it. I will essay a few words in that direction. Suppose, then, a plain ...
— A Walk from London to John O'Groat's • Elihu Burritt

... pink sheet, I perceived that this liveliest of evening journals was not going to be left behind by the Globe in providing the public with particulars of the latest sensation. Under the heading of "A Motor Pirate," with descriptive headlines extending across a couple of columns, and as attractively alliterative as the cunning pen of a smart sub-editor could make them, was the account of a similar incident. At first I thought it must be the same occurrence, ...
— The Motor Pirate • George Sidney Paternoster

... certain blending manifested in the constitution by signs, or traits, which we denominate character. The different races of mankind must have their several standards of temperament, for the peculiarities of one are not fully descriptive of, ...
— The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English • R. V. Pierce

... which sometimes calls itself our American Athens, the highest truths of psychic science are daily neglected by the more influential classes, while races, games, and pugilism occupy the largest space in the daily papers, and a leading daily boasts of its more perfect descriptive and statistical record of all base-ballism as a strong ...
— Buchanan's Journal of Man, December 1887 - Volume 1, Number 11 • Various

... that Crawford has produced. The picturesque setting, Calabria and its surroundings, the beautiful Sorrento and the Gulf of Salerno, with the bewitching accessories that climate, sea, and sky afford, give Mr. Crawford rich opportunities to show his rare descriptive powers. As a whole the book is strong and beautiful through its simplicity, and ranks among the choicest of the author's ...
— Stradella • F(rancis) Marion Crawford

... enough descriptive colour to give you a proper mental picture. If you had left me alone I'd have finished it ten minutes ago. The rest moves with accelerated rhythm. It begins with the cracking of a stick in the forest. Hark! ...
— The Gay Rebellion • Robert W. Chambers

... her room Esther consults maps of travel and transatlantic ship schedules. Names, dates, and descriptive particulars are confusing. Many very essential items of information seem lacking. What ship will Oswald take from New York? Is it seaworthy? When will the ship sail? Will the vessel be crowded or the cargo too heavy? Are there severe storms at ...
— Oswald Langdon - or, Pierre and Paul Lanier. A Romance of 1894-1898 • Carson Jay Lee

... following descriptive title of this uncommonly curious and interesting narrative: "The voyage of Mr Ralph Fitch, merchant of London, by the way of Tripolis in Syria to Ormus, and so to Goa in the East India, to Cambaia, and all the kingdom, of Zelabdim Echebar the great Mogor, to the mighty river Ganges, and ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume VII • Robert Kerr

... hesitate to say that "to his industry we are exclusively indebted for all that is known of the state of Ireland during the whole of the Middle Ages," and as to the "Topography," Gerald "must take rank with the first who descried the value and in some respects the limits of descriptive geography." ...
— The Itinerary of Archibishop Baldwin through Wales • Giraldus Cambrensis

... been the Editor's study to avoid all unnecessary remarks on the letters in this volume, so as to allow the writers to speak for themselves. But he has deemed it a sacred obligation due to the memory of Sir Isaac Brock, to withhold nothing descriptive of his energetic views and intentions, and of the obstacles he experienced in the vigorous prosecution of the contest—obstacles which his gallant spirit could not brook, and which necessarily exposed "his valuable ...
— The Life and Correspondence of Sir Isaac Brock • Ferdinand Brock Tupper

... made from his cousin's letter was short and descriptive. It might be compared with a beautiful poem ...
— O. T. - A Danish Romance • Hans Christian Andersen

... "The Walking-Stick of Destiny," some meritorious poetry, a few humorous essays, and several caricatures of pictures in the Vernon Gallery. Three reproductions of these pictures follow, with extracts from the Umbrella descriptive of them. ...
— The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll • Stuart Dodgson Collingwood

... descriptive powers to the utmost to paint the view from this hill-top; and I verily believe that, seen under a cloudless sky, it is one of the most enchanting landscapes in the world. The numberless conical hills,—the white villas and villages, which lie as thick as if the ...
— Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber - Or The Influence of Romanism on Trade, Justice, and Knowledge • James Aitken Wylie

... in my life,' said the lady who always brought back an A.D.C. from the Castle, and the phrase was cited afterwards as being admirably descriptive ...
— Muslin • George Moore

... Cohen's 'Guide de l'Amateur de Livres a Gravures du XVIII^e Siecle,' of which the fifth edition was published in 1886. Bewick's work has been dealt with by Mr. Austin Dobson in his 'Thomas Bewick and his Pupils,' octavo, 1884; and 'A Descriptive and Critical Catalogue of Works Illustrated by Thomas and John Bewick' was published by E. J. Selwyn in 1851. Mr. A. W. Pollard's 'Early Illustrated Books,' of which a new edition appeared in 1917, is of value from the historical ...
— The Book-Hunter at Home • P. B. M. Allan

... on another page, of a gala night of the "P. D." club will appeal to the many friends of the P. D.'s who are distributed from end to end of the country. The descriptive article by one of the members which is begun in this number will also give an indication to those who are not already familiar with this organization, of its character and purpose. That a combination of serious work and relaxation ...
— The Brochure Series of Architectural Illustration, Volume 01, No. 08, August 1895 - Fragments of Greek Detail • Various

... his attention to the notices, having pushed aside the descriptive paragraphs. He read them and gave ...
— The Idol of Paris • Sarah Bernhardt

... The descriptive poems of Catullus are superior to the others, and discover a lively imagination. Amongst the best of his productions, is a translation of ...
— The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Complete - To Which Are Added, His Lives Of The Grammarians, Rhetoricians, And Poets • C. Suetonius Tranquillus

... of Claude Lorraine, and the sea-views of Vandervelde. All these painters have, in general, the same right, in different degrees, to the name of a painter, which a satirist, an epigrammatist, a sonnetteer, a writer of pastorals, or descriptive poetry, has to that of ...
— Seven Discourses on Art • Joshua Reynolds

... great waste of time to be staying here in the hospital, where he was doing no good to the nation, while, if he were at home, he might be acquiring quite a fortune from his "profession," for he was a chair-maker. His descriptive list not having been sent from the regiment, he could draw no pay. One day he received the following important queries from his anxious wife, who with eight small children at home did seem to be in a precarious condition: "The man who owns the house says I must ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 118, August, 1867 • Various

... benefit and ceases. Utility is too narrow to comprehend all the actions that deserve approbation. We want an uncompounded substantive expressing the two attributes of conferring and conducing to happiness; as a descriptive phrase, producing happiness is as succinct as any. The term useful is, besides, associated with the notion of what is serviceable in the affairs and objects of common life, whence the philosophical doctrine ...
— Moral Science; A Compendium of Ethics • Alexander Bain

... to particular scenes from this book, illustrative of the author's descriptive and representative powers. Among many which might be noticed, we will allude to only two,—that in which Cecil is revived from his "sleep of death," and that in the opera-house, where Byng is apprised of the guilt of Emma Denman. Nobody can read either ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 8, No. 50, December, 1861 • Various

... a girl, who from the time she left the country town led a chequered life. The various episodes are cleverly connected, and the descriptive ...
— In the Mist of the Mountains • Ethel Turner

... in her, because she had a right to it, a tone which they would have reckoned intolerable in any other. Many years since, one of her earliest and fastest friends quoted Spenser's sonnet as accurately descriptive of Margaret:— ...
— Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, Vol. I • Margaret Fuller Ossoli

... History of England whose popularity has never been exceeded by any other historical work in the language. His essays, which have been collected and published in six volumes, are remarkable for brilliancy of style and richness of matter. As a descriptive poet he has ex-hibited high genius in his "Lays of Ancient Rome." His "Battle of Ivry" has the true trumpet-ring which kindles the soul and stirs the blood.—Ivry (ee'-vree): a town in France where Henry IV. gained a decisive victory over Mayenne, 1590.—oriflamme, (or'-e-flam): the ...
— The American Union Speaker • John D. Philbrick

... am a strong believer in Mr. MAIS, and (with his connivance) have every intention of retaining that attitude. With all its faults Rebellion remains gloriously distinct from the rubbish-heap of fiction by virtue of its intense sincerity and its frequent flashes of fine descriptive writing. The question of sex dominates it, and those of us who still think that such problems are merely sustenance for the prurient-minded may cast it impatiently aside. But others who like to watch a clever man feeling his way towards the light, and regard a novel ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 153, Sept. 26, 1917 • Various

... are enabled for the first time to accomplish the rapid production of positive copies in black of plans and other line drawings. Each of these new methods has its own sphere of action; both, therefore, should deserve equally descriptive notices. ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 286 - June 25, 1881 • Various

... of keeping time to the music of the flutes they follow, nor the Nereid's flower-soft hands of touching its silken tackle; the mermaid still lies at its helm, and still on its deck stand the boys with their coloured fans. Yet lovely as all Shakespeare's descriptive passages are, a description is in its essence undramatic. Theatrical audiences are far more impressed by what they look at than by what they listen to; and the modern dramatist, in having the surroundings of his play visibly presented to the audience when the curtain rises, enjoys an advantage ...
— Reviews • Oscar Wilde

... curious confusion of symbolical and descriptive acts, which are not ordered in strict consistency with any clearly defined theory of the nature of the soul and of its relations to the body, or of the exact nature of ...
— The Pagan Tribes of Borneo • Charles Hose and William McDougall

... the clerk of a photographic supply shop about the style of camera you should buy. As a rule he is not chosen for his knowledge of the goods, and his advice may be worse than none. The better plan is to secure descriptive catalogues from dealer or manufacturer before investing, and study them well. The catalogues will tell you the price, the size, the weight, and what kind of work each variety of camera will do, and you will learn the advantages ...
— On the Trail - An Outdoor Book for Girls • Lina Beard and Adelia Belle Beard

... the "Words of Difference": large, long, small, stout, broad, thick, narrow, thin, young, old, fat, lean, pretty, ugly, hard, soft, and so forth; in fact any word descriptive of a quality "whereby a thing may be differentiated from the ...
— Albert Durer • T. Sturge Moore

... the limitations and the possibilities of the screen were? He merely was the poor fish who'd wrote the book and he should ought to be grateful that a fellow with a real noodle had took his stuff and cut all that dull descriptive junk out of it and stuck some pep and action and punch and zip into the thing and wrote some live snappy subtitles, instead of coming round every little while, like he was, horning in and beefing ...
— Sundry Accounts • Irvin S. Cobb

... branch of white lilies.[11] The star which pointed out the place of His birth has long been immortalised by the Ornithogalum umbellatum, or Star of Bethlehem, which has been thought to resemble the pictures descriptive of it; in France there is a pretty legend of the rose-coloured sainfoin. When the infant Jesus was lying in the manger the plant was found among the grass and herbs which composed his bed. But suddenly it opened its pretty blossom, that it might ...
— The Folk-lore of Plants • T. F. Thiselton-Dyer

... commonplace chance to revise her manuscript. But on reflection I realized that, although the matter came through Mrs. Piper, it could not have come from her, wherever it came from; and that if George Eliot were communicating tidings naturally within our comprehension, and merely descriptive of superficial experience as distinct from reflection, and were communicating, through a poor telephone, words to be recorded by an indifferent scribe, this material would not seem absolutely incongruous with its alleged source, and to a reader knowing that the stuff claimed to be hers, might ...
— The Unpopular Review, Volume II Number 3 • Various

... d'Istria upon German Switzerland is less descriptive than philosophical. The plan she has adopted is open perhaps to criticism: such mixture of poetry and erudition may offend severer tastes; we grow indulgent, however, when we perceive that the writer preserves her individuality while passing from enthusiastic ...
— Celebrated Women Travellers of the Nineteenth Century • W. H. Davenport Adams

... the work itself. It would be well if some member of our own pure branch of the Church Catholic would turn his attention to this noble work, and give us a faithful but fresh and easy translation, with a literary introduction descriptive of all the known versions, &c.; and a chapter on the meaning and limits of the asceticism preached in the original. In this case, and if published cheap, as it ought to be, it would be a golden present for our youth, and would soon ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 81, May 17, 1851 • Various

... English poet," resumed Kenyon, turning again towards the window, "who speaks of the 'dim, religious light,' transmitted through painted glass. I always admired this richly descriptive phrase; but, though he was once in Italy, I question whether Milton ever saw any but the dingy pictures in the dusty windows of English cathedrals, imperfectly shown by the gray English daylight. He would else have illuminated that word 'dim' with some ...
— The Marble Faun, Volume II. - The Romance of Monte Beni • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... lot: Nor is it wholly certain If Death for him or not Rings down the final curtain, Or if, when hence he's fled To worlds or worse or better, He'll send per Mr St—d A crisp descriptive letter! ...
— Lyra Frivola • A. D. Godley

... book is for the greater part a collection of Hawaiian songs and poetic pieces that have done service from time immemorial as the stock supply of the hula. The descriptive portions have been added, not because the poetical parts could not stand by themselves, but to furnish the proper setting and to answer the questions of those who want ...
— Unwritten Literature of Hawaii - The Sacred Songs of the Hula • Nathaniel Bright Emerson

... A few articles descriptive of certain experiences have been written by me for publication. Some themes I have presented on the lecture platform a few hundred times. My auditors, universally, have been kind in their criticisms. Many have been the requests that I write a volume reciting ...
— My Three Days in Gilead • Elmer Ulysses Hoenshal

... From a descriptive standpoint, it would be difficult to find a more appropriate name for a University society devoted to Hebraic culture than the name Menorah. For there is hardly another available word in the entire range of Hebraic history and learning ...
— The Menorah Journal, Volume 1, 1915 • Various

... antiquity had just as uncultivated an eye for the beauty of the Alps as the age of Renaissance and the Rococo which emulated it so ardently. Humboldt mentions that not a single Roman author ever alludes to the Alps from a descriptive point of view except to complain of their impassableness and like qualities, and that Julius Caesar employed the leisure hours of an Alpine journey to complete a ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VIII • Various

... useful memorandum of their arrangement, and a very interesting drawing. Only observe in doing this, you must not, because the procedure is a quick one, hurry that procedure itself. You will find, on copying that bit of Durer, that every one of his lines is firm, deliberate, and accurately descriptive as far as it goes. It means a bush of such a size and such a shape, definitely observed and set down; it contains a true "signalement" of every nut-tree, and apple-tree, and higher bit of hedge, all round that village. If you have not time to draw thus carefully, do ...
— The Crown of Wild Olive • John Ruskin

... a lawyer to demand a new trial. I can hardly help thinking that Grenville wrote that note himself and Jay signed it; for the style of it is domestic and not diplomatic. The term, His Majesty, used without any descriptive epithet, always signifies the King whom the Minister that speaks represents. If this sinking of the demand into a petition was a juggle between Grenville and Jay, to cover the indemnification, I think it will ...
— The Writings Of Thomas Paine, Complete - With Index to Volumes I - IV • Thomas Paine

... it, father?" Jasper paused in the midst of a descriptive fire concerning the new buildings going up on either hand, with many side stories of the men who were erecting them; and he ...
— Five Little Peppers Grown Up • Margaret Sidney

... as a careful observer of nature, and one of the most fascinating descriptive writers, is an author whose reputation will constantly increase; for what he does in not only an addition to our information, but to the good literature that we put on the shelf with Thoreau ...
— Birds in the Bush • Bradford Torrey

... me last night a long letter from S. descriptive of Mrs. Wolcott's party, McClellan, the fashions, and Hallowell's feeling at the position in which he places himself in going into a negro regiment. I wish he could see Colonel Higginson and his, but a ...
— Letters from Port Royal - Written at the Time of the Civil War (1862-1868) • Various

... a vine-embowered cottage, or even a thatch-roofed hut, with a garland of gourd blossoms around its small windows, and I can appreciate the beauties of a picturesque church or castle. But all my descriptive faculties desert me before the marble and gold luxury of a modern palace, and its gorgeous splendour has no charm for me. The interest I felt was due to the man himself, and, most of all, to the connection existing between ...
— Dr. Dumany's Wife • Mr Jkai

... in descriptive passages.... The tale is a tragic one, but it shows remarkable imaginative force, and is one that will not soon be forgotten by the reader.—Saturday Evening ...
— The Danvers Jewels, and Sir Charles Danvers • Mary Cholmondeley

... Another two are called respectively the "Men's Pleasure" and the "Girls' Pleasure." In these both men and girls choose their own partners, and coquet with them by alluring facial expressions during the dance. The "Tinker's Dance" is a solo dance for a man, which is descriptive and amusing; while the "Degnedans" is more an amusing performance in pantomime than a dance, executed by two men. Many more than I can tell you about have been revived by the folk-dancers, who take a keen delight in discovering ...
— Denmark • M. Pearson Thomson

... has reached its seventh number, and has elicited the warmest encomiums from distinguished constructors and engineers. The style is a fine model of scientific discussion, presenting the first principles of naval architecture with precision, compactness, and simplicity, abounding with graphic descriptive details, and preserving a spirited freedom and boldness in the most intricate and difficult expositions. The superior character of its contents, with the low price at which it is afforded, will insure it a wide circulation among American mechanics, ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 3, August, 1850. • Various

... blow a loud trumpet about what you were going to show. Perhaps the paper would have been better more divided into sections with headings. Perhaps you might have given somewhere rather more of a summary on the progress of segregation of varieties, and not referred your readers to the descriptive part, excepting such readers as wanted minute detail. But these are trifles: I consider your paper as a most admirable production in every way. Whenever I come to variation under natural conditions (my head for months has been exclusively occupied with domestic varieties), I shall have ...
— More Letters of Charles Darwin - Volume I (of II) • Charles Darwin

... farewell and turned away. Looking after him, Ethel Dent told herself that Weldon's simple words had been descriptive, not only of his friend, but of his ...
— On the Firing Line • Anna Chapin Ray and Hamilton Brock Fuller

... the world, and possibly earned a few guineas by it, it is not likely that he gave much further thought to the matter. In the course of 1785 or 1786, he entered upon a task of much greater magnitude and immediate importance, namely, a descriptive catalogue of the Collection of Pastes and Impressions from Ancient and Modern Gems, formed by James Tassie, the eminent connoisseur. Tassie engaged Raspe in 1785 to take charge of his cabinets, and to commence describing their contents: he can hardly ...
— The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen • Rudolph Erich Raspe

... a descriptive narrative of the killing of each bird and squirrel as he pulled them off his belt and threw them ...
— Indian Boyhood • [AKA Ohiyesa], Charles A. Eastman

... illustrative of the cunning of the Fox, the greediness of the Wolf, the obstinacy of the Mule, and other fancifully descriptive tales of the ways and doings of the inhabitants of the Animal Kingdom. These stories, as the title of the volume indicates, are collected from the legendary lore of many lands. The pictures are in the artist's most spirited and powerful style. Printed on rough art paper. ...
— My Book of Favorite Fairy Tales • Edric Vredenburg

... the questions from as many sides as I could and endeavoured to give good form and style to my compositions. Unconsciously I tried to find expressions containing striking contrasts; I sought after descriptive words and euphonious constructions. Although not acquainted with the word style in any other sense than that it bears in the expression "style-book," the Danish equivalent for what in English is termed an "exercise-book," I tried to acquire a certain style, and was very near ...
— Recollections Of My Childhood And Youth • George Brandes

... the approach. Style, sir, has been defined by my brother, Mr Joshua Benny—You may have heard of him, by the way, as being prominently connected with the London press. . . . No? A man of remarkable talent, though I say it. They tell me that for lightness of touch in a Descriptive Middle, it would be hard to find his match in Fleet Street. . . . As I was saying, sir, my brother Joshua has defined style as the art of speaking or writing with propriety, whatever the subject. By propriety, sir, he means what is ordinarily termed appropriateness. Impropriety, in the ...
— Hocken and Hunken • A. T. Quiller-Couch

... with each other in the markets in the sale of their seventy-two different kinds of bread and the conventional phrases which they were accustomed to use. As Mr. Malcolm repeated the calls with graceful and descriptive action, and the professor, who had recovered his equanimity, interpreted readily, the whole company could see in their mind's eye the girls and the matrons in the market of Athens who more than seventeen hundred years ago had called aloud their "melitutes sweetened with ...
— Stories by American Authors, Volume 2 • Various

... islands not identifiable by their names but said to have been in Kibi, which was the term then applied to the provinces of Bingo, Bitchu, and Bizen, lying along the south coast of the Inland Sea and thus facing the sun, so that the descriptive epithet "sun-direction" applied to the region was ...
— A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era • Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi

... not why the adjective comfortable should so invariably be descriptive of mothers in Germany. In England and France though you may be a mother, you yet, I believe, may be so without being comfortable. In Germany, somehow, you can't. Perhaps it is the climate; perhaps it is the food; perhaps it is ...
— The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight • Elizabeth von Arnim

... grande superiorite que vous possedez et qui a si noblement illustre votre nom, dans les hautes regions de l'analyse mathematique, vous joignez, Madame, une variete de connaissances dans toutes les parties de la physique et de l'histoire naturelle descriptive. Apres votre "Mechanism of the Heavens," le philosophique ouvrage "Connexion of the Physical Sciences" avait ete l'objet de ma constante admiration. Je l'ai lu en entier et puis relu dans la septieme edition qui a paru en 1846 dans les tems ou ...
— Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age, of Mary Somerville • Mary Somerville

... of Sophocles or the blank verse of Shakspere, but roughly corresponds to the Greek choruses or the occasional rhymed songs of the Elizabethan stage. In other words, the verse portion of a Sanskrit drama is not narrative; it is sometimes descriptive, but more commonly lyrical: each stanza sums up the emotional impression which the preceding action or dialogue has made upon one of the actors. Such matter is in English cast into the form of the rhymed stanza; and so, although ...
— The Little Clay Cart - Mrcchakatika • (Attributed To) King Shudraka

... boar which ravaged the forest of Erymanthus in Arcadia, and had been sent to Phocis by Di{a}na to punish AEn{e}as, for neglecting her sacrifices. Hercules brought him bound to Eurystheus. There is nothing descriptive of this exploit in any ...
— Roman Antiquities, and Ancient Mythology - For Classical Schools (2nd ed) • Charles K. Dillaway

... and value. He also published a small volume entitled "Hymns and Poems on Various Occasions," which was printed by Samuel and John Adams, of Baltimore, in 1790; and several other poems of considerable length, the most popular of which was entitled "A View of the Woods," which was descriptive of the adventures and experience of Western emigrants in the latter part of the ...
— The Poets and Poetry of Cecil County, Maryland • Various

... from the pen of the author unadvisedly. It is, however, unhappily a principle on which too many, in works of far higher stamp and graver moment, (p. 359) have justified themselves in substituting their own theories, and hypotheses, and descriptive scenes, for the unbending strictness of fact, thus sapping the foundation of all confidence in history. It is not the poet only, and the fascinating author of historical romances, who have thus "trifled with history;" our annalists and chroniclers, our lawyers and moralists, ...
— Henry of Monmouth, Volume 1 - Memoirs of Henry the Fifth • J. Endell Tyler

... process of religious evolution already far advanced; the god has separated himself from his worshippers, and assumed an anthropomorphic form. Indra, while still retaining traces of his 'weather' origin, is no longer, to borrow Miss Harrison's descriptive phrase, 'an automatic explosive thunder-storm,' he wields the thunderbolt certainly, but he appears in heroic form to receive the offerings made to him, and to celebrate his victory in a solemn ritual dance. In Greek art and literature, ...
— From Ritual to Romance • Jessie L. Weston

... descriptive, however, and we must acknowledge our indebtedness again to Miss Scidmore for the following passage to show the scope of ...
— Across the Equator - A Holiday Trip in Java • Thomas H. Reid

... curious readers wish to know how I could enjoy and describe all these, the answer will be found in my companion and friend, Hattie, who, with her wonderful adaptation and ingenuity, added to her remarkable descriptive powers, vividly pictured all to me, and, through an unwritten, indescribable language known only to ourselves, it became a system of ...
— The World As I Have Found It - Sequel to Incidents in the Life of a Blind Girl • Mary L. Day Arms

... for this book, on account of the natural and progressive order of the lessons,—of the conciseness and truthfulnes of the descriptive matter,—of the number, correctness, and uniform excellence of the Maps,—from the fact that the book is faithfully revised as often as political changes in our own or other countries require it,—that the pronunciations ...
— Pinnock's Improved Edition of Dr. Goldsmith's History of Rome • Oliver Goldsmith

... Marion Harland are of surpassing excellence. By intrinsic power of character-drawing and descriptive facility, they hold the reader's attention with the most ...
— Cleo The Magnificent - The Muse of the Real • Louis Zangwill

... face, thick bristly hair, and blue eyes set extraordinarily far apart. The bridge of his nose being noticeably low, this peculiarity gave the upper part of his face the appearance of being very sparsely settled. It was Robert Burns, I remember, who made this descriptive observe concerning him. A lowland body, but kin to the Pitcairns of the north, he had come to the High School dependent for his education upon the generosity of a rich uncle, and from the time he entered was easily first in all of his classes. Of an unbending rectitude, unmerciful in his judgments, ...
— Nancy Stair - A Novel • Elinor Macartney Lane

... algebra through quadratic equations, plane geometry, descriptive geography, physical geography, United States history and the outlines of ...
— Go Ahead Boys and the Racing Motorboat • Ross Kay

... Geological Survey at the Cincinnati Industrial Exposition, 1884; the Southern Exposition at Louisville, 1884; and the Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition at New Orleans, 1884-'85. The report includes a descriptive catalogue of the various exhibits. As these consisted largely of models, and as the locality or object represented by each model was described in detail, the report was lengthy. It was finished in October and transmitted to the Commissioner ...
— Eighth Annual Report • Various

... are no architect, neither am I, but you may as well get used to this descriptive term; it means the water-spouts which conduct the water from the gutters at the eaves of these buildings, and which are carved in every grotesque and fanciful device that can be imagined. They are mostly goblin and fiendish faces, and look as if they were darting out of the ...
— Sunny Memories Of Foreign Lands, Volume 1 (of 2) • Harriet Elizabeth (Beecher) Stowe

... guess a part of the truth. Few young women of twenty-two years are. Madame Bonanni's career as an artist had been a long series of triumphs, but her past as a woman had been variegated, of the sort for which the French have invented a number of picturesquely descriptive expressions, such as 'leading the life of Punch,' 'throwing one's cap over the windmills,' and other much less elegant phrases. Margaret saw that Lushington was not ashamed of his mother, as his mother; but she knew instinctively ...
— Fair Margaret - A Portrait • Francis Marion Crawford

... about to rise at eight p.m. Three hours' ascent of the mountain, on such a moonlit, tropical night as would tax the descriptive powers of the greatest artists, was worth any sacrifice. Apropos, among the few artists who can fix upon canvas the subtle charm of a moonlit night in India public opinion begins to ...
— From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan • Helena Pretrovna Blavatsky

... Paganini inspired his audience, when he played a duet on two strings, as related in an earlier chapter. Ole Bull was a child of nature, he gave his audience a description of the beauties of nature, and behold! it is interpreted as a story of human passions,—a high tribute to descriptive music. ...
— Famous Violinists of To-day and Yesterday • Henry C. Lahee

... little dash of descriptive writing. In conjunction with the noun horse Cappy Ricks had employed the indefinite article a, and while a horse was a horse and Cappy might have had a Shetland pony in mind when he coined the simile, nevertheless, a still small voice whispered to Matt ...
— Cappy Ricks • Peter B. Kyne

... The descriptive Part of this Allegory is likewise very strong, and full of Sublime Ideas. The Figure of Death, [the Regal Crown upon his Head,] his Menace of Satan, his advancing to the Combat, the Outcry at his Birth, are Circumstances too noble to be past over in Silence, and extreamly suitable to this ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele

... found their way to their seats. Clerks were busy writing at their desks, while the reporters sat at the table allotted to them, writing descriptive articles. To them the occasion offered a fine opportunity. It was no ordinary trial. Paul Stepaside was a young member of Parliament, and had become popular throughout the whole county. He had been freely discussed ...
— The Day of Judgment • Joseph Hocking

... standardization in nautical charts and electronic chart displays; to provide advice on nautical cartography and hydrography; to develop the sciences in the field of hydrography and techniques used for descriptive oceanography ...
— The 2001 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... is a complete personal history of the soldier and follows him wherever he goes. It contains: a descriptive list, report of assignment, record of prior service, current enlistment, military record, record of allotments, clothing account and settlement, deposits, indorsements (this latter to give reasons for change of status or station of ...
— Military Instructors Manual • James P. Cole and Oliver Schoonmaker

... fellow-playwright, Shakespeare. To call such passages—which Jonson never intended for publication—plagiarism, is to obscure the significance of words. To disparage his memory by citing them is a preposterous use of scholarship. Jonson's prose, both in his dramas, in the descriptive comments of his masques, and in the 'Discoveries', is characterised by clarity and vigorous directness, nor is it wanting in a fine sense of form or in ...
— Every Man In His Humor - (The Anglicized Edition) • Ben Jonson

... Worcester, "means land, country, a district of country under a temporary Government." The words "territory or other property," as used, do imply, from the use of the pronoun other, that territory was used as descriptive of land; but does it follow that it was not used also as descriptive of a district of country? In both of these senses it belonged to the United States—as land, for the purpose of sale; as territory, for ...
— Report of the Decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Opinions of the Judges Thereof, in the Case of Dred Scott versus John F.A. Sandford • Benjamin C. Howard

... the disaffected. But it was in vain. The Abbaside army of invasion was utterly annihilated; and the qualities slumbering in this son of the Khalifs may be judged when we relate that the heads of the Abbaside leaders were put into a bag with descriptive labels attached to their ears, and sent to the ...
— A Short History of Spain • Mary Platt Parmele

... the old south was. It was an oligarchy called a democracy. I do not speak this word in an offensive sense, but simply as descriptive of the character of the government of the south before the war. One-third of the people of the south were slaves. More than another third were deprived, by the nature of the institutions among which ...
— Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet - An Autobiography. • John Sherman

... fear in which she is held. I had read another article about the city of Salem, which has recently burned, and I had remembered that it was the "witch" town of colonial days where people were supposed to be turned into black cats. I had read still another article, descriptive of country life, which described how a man had climbed a tree after a cat which was eating young robins. I had just a day or two before received a letter from my wife, which contained the news that she was going to visit this woman whom she fears, but whom she must ...
— The Journal of Abnormal Psychology - Volume 10

... out very successfully held the interest of a not large but fair attendance throughout. A paper and address by Wesley Greene, of Des Moines, should have reached the ears of every Iowa and Minnesota citizen. A striking selection on "The Tree," by J. A. Nelson, was descriptive, instructive, ...
— Trees, Fruits and Flowers of Minnesota, 1916 • Various

... making among the Northern Indians is one of the most firmly rooted of all their superstitions. The term is by no means well chosen or descriptive of the strange ungodly rite; it is in reality a charm or spell which one man is supposed to lay upon another. It is employed for various purposes and by different means of operations. You will hear of one ...
— Owindia • Charlotte Selina Bompas

... her all, and how the Vincent, my elder sister, Miss Frankland, my aunt, and Mrs. Dale had all thought me an innocent, receiving his first lesson in their delicious cunts, and how true and wise had been her sage counsels. She listened in wonder and delight, drew from me descriptive pictures of our conjunctions and thrice interrupted my narrative to have a delicious fuck to calm the excitement raised by the lascivious descriptions of my acts with all those most glorious women. I told her also of ...
— The Romance of Lust - A classic Victorian erotic novel • Anonymous

... yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers, and thine ears shall hear a voice behind thee, saying, This is the way," etc. Several tests follow descriptive of the condition of things or the circumstances in which these teachers are to be found. First, the absence of idolatry: "Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornaments of thy molten images of gold"; and next ...
— Prose Masterpieces from Modern Essayists • James Anthony Froude, Edward A. Freeman, William Ewart Gladstone, John Henry Newman and Leslie Steph

... It is the purpose of this paper to describe a set of experiments having to do with the second of these problems, the constitution of objective rhythm forms. In the determination of such forms it is, of course, impossible to avoid the employment of terms descriptive of the immediate experience of rhythm as a psychological process, or to overlook the constant connection which exists between the two groups of facts. The rhythm form is not objectively definable as a stable type of stimulation existing in and for itself; the discrimination ...
— Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1 • Various

... told the other of the discovery he had made in Ling Chu's box, the press cuttings, descriptive of the late Mr. Lyne's conduct in ...
— The Daffodil Mystery • Edgar Wallace

... Suggestive and briefly descriptive lists of best books and authors by authorities in different fields on which some time is spent in making selection, talks about books, pooling knowledge of them, with no course of reading even advised and much less prescribed, is the best guidance ...
— Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene • G. Stanley Hall

... merit of "The Shipwreck." It has in most of its descriptive passages a certain rugged strength and truth, which prove at once the perspicacity and the poetic vision of the author, who, while he sees all the minute details of his subject, sees also the glory of imagination shining ...
— The Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair, and Falconer - With Lives, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes • Rev. George Gilfillan [Ed.]



Words linked to "Descriptive" :   undescriptive, grammar, descriptive grammar, descriptive anthropology, descriptive adjective, prescriptive, describe, descriptive linguistics



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