"Knock" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... worthy of my good luck by showing the grateful mind—not to those who would be kind to me now, but to those who were, when the days were rather gloomy. My customers shall have abundance of rough language, but I'll knock any one down who says anything against the clergyman who lent me the fifty pounds, or against the Church of England, of which he is parson and I am churchwarden. I am also ready to do anything in reason for him who ...
— The Romany Rye • George Borrow
... one did call him, then would he run away laughing ho, ho, hoh! Sometimes he would counterfeit a beggar, begging very pitifully, but when they came to give him an alms, he would run away, laughing as his manner was. Sometimes would he knock at men's doors, and when the servants came, he would blow out the candle, if they were men; but if they were women, he would not only put out their light, but kiss them full sweetly, and then go away as his fashion was, ho, ho, hoh! Oftentimes ...
— The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-night's Dream' • Compiled by Frank Sidgwick
... you remember what the Master said of the man to whose door a friend came in the night and begged for bread? He had gone to bed, took no heed of his friend's knocking, and at length called out: 'Go away and let me sleep.' But the friend continued to knock and to complain that he needed bread, and began noisily to shake the door. That lasted until the man in bed could endure it no longer. Out of temper, he got up, took some bread and gave it to his friend through the window. He ...
— I.N.R.I. - A prisoner's Story of the Cross • Peter Rosegger
... should not happen: she would not lose her Archie. She returned to the villa in dumb pain to await in her room the expected visit. She did not even undress, preferring to be ready for instant action. Soon there was a knock and Pussy entered. She was in her dressing-gown and looked formidable ...
— Clark's Field • Robert Herrick
... brought in the watch, who arrested some of the company, but we had the good fortune to escape; and it being already late, and the door of our khan shut up, we knew not whither to retire. It was our hap, as we passed along this street, to hear mirth at your house, which made us determine to knock at your gate. This is all the account that we can give you in ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments Volume 1 • Anonymous
... put the two letters on the mantel-piece, standing them against the clock, so that they can be easily seen. While they are doing this, some one passes the window, walking along the street, and there comes a knock ...
— Up the Chimney • Shepherd Knapp
... the journey is ended, I have worked out the mandates of fate, Naked, alone, undefended, I knock at the Uttermost Gate— Lo, the gate swings wide at my knocking; Across endless reaches I see Lost friends, with laughter, come flocking To give a glad welcome to me. Farewell, the maze has been threaded, This is the ending of strife; Say not that ...
— Winning a Cause - World War Stories • John Gilbert Thompson and Inez Bigwood
... was still upon his knees, a knock was heard at the door. He arose and opened the door. A ...
— The Life of Jesus Christ for the Young • Richard Newton
... hand was on the lock, he was startled by a knock at the door. He opened it, and found the housemaid on the landing with a letter for him. Returning to the window, he hastily undid the envelope. Several gaily-printed invitation cards with gilt edges dropped out. There ...
— Hide and Seek • Wilkie Collins
... they heard jangling bells, and ran to the front window to see the milkman in a huge sleigh, his milk cans in the body of it. He plowed his way to the front door which was opened to him before he could knock. ...
— A Dear Little Girl at School • Amy E. Blanchard
... they came forward to perform farces. After the first diffidence had worn off, they took a keen delight in the preparations, working hard and cordially; they were singularly ready to be shown what to do, and to be criticized. "Knock-about" farce—the counterpart in drama of their comic songs—pleased them best, and they did well in it. But "Box and Cox" was almost beyond them, because they missed the meanings of the rather stilted dialogue. In helping to coach them in their parts I had the best of opportunities to ...
— Change in the Village • (AKA George Bourne) George Sturt
... thought what a fight you could put up if you were invisible? Why, you could walk right up in front of a fellow and smash his nose or knock him down before he could put up his guard or smash back—and even then he couldn't see you to hit you. Of course that would be a cowardly thing to do, but I'm just saying "Suppose." And this is to introduce right here your arch ...
— "Say Fellows—" - Fifty Practical Talks with Boys on Life's Big Issues • Wade C. Smith
... him. "This is worth a little subsequent trouble, if, indeed, trouble is involved," he murmured to himself, as he turned over and settled down to sleep again. But hardly had he dozed off when he was startled by an aggressive double-knock at the front door. He hoped it would not recur; but it did recur, and was accompanied by prolonged ringing of an electric bell. Feeling that his peace was broken, he put on his slippers ...
— Essays in Rebellion • Henry W. Nevinson
... has caught a wandering spirit in London and showed him up victoriously in 'Household Words' as neither more nor less than the 'cracking of toe joints;' but it is absurd to try to adapt such an explanation to cases in general. You know I am rather a visionary, and inclined to knock round at all the doors of the present world to try to get out, so that I listen with interest to every goblin story of the kind, and, indeed, I hear enough ...
— The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Volume II • Elizabeth Barrett Browning
... indignantly. "It strikes me that pest of a terrier is here a good deal too much, like his master! And, talk of him, there he is!" she added hastily, leaving the room as a knock came ...
— Fritz and Eric - The Brother Crusoes • John Conroy Hutcheson
... down to Marlstone at once. He is not to say why in the telegram. There must not be an unnecessary word about this news until the Sun is on the streets with it—you all understand. Williams, cut across the way and tell Mr. Anthony to hold himself ready for a two-column opening that will knock the town endways. Just tell him that he must take all measures and precautions for a scoop. Say that Figgis will be over in five minutes with the facts, and that he had better let him write up the story in his private room. As you go, ask Miss Morgan to see me here at once, and tell the telephone ...
— Trent's Last Case - The Woman in Black • E.C. (Edmund Clerihew) Bentley
... is so full of a number of things," that a few essays, two or three short stories in a magazine, a little book of sketches in prose, may be masterpieces in their three several ways, but they escape the notice of all but a few amateurs. Mr. Kipling's knock was much more insistent; he could not be unheard. It was not by essays on Burns and Knox, however independently done, that Stevenson ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition - Vol. 1 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... A knock at the door prefaced the introduction of Shirley's head. He glanced into the room with an obvious desire to see what was going on, but somehow contrived to fix his eyes on the ...
— The Chestermarke Instinct • J. S. Fletcher
... long curly hair, and whiskers and a beard. He was afraid of nothing, tall and strong. Ah me! I have seen him knock a man down at a blow. He was a wild, reckless man, was Monsieur Callow; but a good servant, and oh! a beautiful billiard player. He always knew how to lose a game, and oh! it ...
— Roger Ingleton, Minor • Talbot Baines Reed
... himself in the vehicle, and knowing that there was nothing either in his purse or at home to pay the fare, he cast about for expedients, and at last remembered the address of an eminent surgeon in the neighbourhood. He ordered the coachman to drive to his house and knock violently at the door, which was no sooner opened than Hook rushed in, terribly agitated, demanded to see the doctor, to whom in a few incoherent and agitated sentences, he gave to understand that his ...
— The Wits and Beaux of Society - Volume 2 • Grace & Philip Wharton
... Mr. Wingate," said Banion. "If you ask me, I'd rather ferry than ford. I'd send the women and children over by this boat. We can make some more out of the wagon boxes. If they leak we can cover them with hides. The sawmill at the mission has some lumber. Let's knock together another boat or two. I'd rather be safe than sorry, gentlemen; and believe me, she's heavy ...
— The Covered Wagon • Emerson Hough
... might have been seen lifting up his hands in earnest prayer to heaven that his noble scheme might prosper. He was interrupted by a knock at the door, and a servant announced a visitor. In another minute a young man entered the room with modest air and in ...
— A True Hero - A Story of the Days of William Penn • W.H.G. Kingston
... breakfast. They had just finished when there came an awfully loud knock at the door. The ...
— The Old Man's Bag • T. W. H. Crosland
... explained, 'showed a liveliness you wouldn't believe. It was, in a manner of speaking, beyond anythink y'r Worships would expect.' He paused a moment, cleared his throat, and achieved this really fine phrase: 'It was, for their united ages, in a manner of speaking, a knock-out.' ...
— Corporal Sam and Other Stories • A. T. Quiller-Couch
... difference, because you and I have been there to keep him straight. FALKENHAYN, no doubt, might have been expected to do better, for you had opened your whole mind to him, but he too seems only able to knock his head against a stone wall (seinen Kopf gegen eine Mauer stossen) and the result is that we are everywhere getting it in the neck (dass wir es ueberall in dem Hals kriegen), and that process is not pleasant for ...
— Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, December 23, 1914 • Various
... reason not apparent to me, the pilot was so startled at the sound of the new waiter's voice that he let go the wheel, as he was swinging the boat around at a bend of the river. The wheel flew over with force enough to knock a man down if it had hit him. I immediately grasped the spokes, and began to heave ...
— Down South - or, Yacht Adventure in Florida • Oliver Optic
... the allegory of David and Goliath, give you some of the 'stones' ('hard arguments' may be called 'stones,' since they 'knock down a pertinacious opponent') which I could 'pelt him with,' were he to be wroth with me; and this in order to take from you, Sir, all apprehensions for my 'life,' or my 'bones'; but I forbear them till you demand them of me, when I have the honour ...
— Clarissa, Or The History Of A Young Lady, Volume 8 • Samuel Richardson
... tall, handsome black fellow, with white teeth and bright eyes, and he could play the fiddle and pick the banjo, and knock the bones and cut the pigeon-wing, and, besides all that, he was the best hoe-hand, and could pick more cotton than any other negro on the plantation. He had amused himself by courting and flirting with all of the negro girls; but ...
— Diddie, Dumps, and Tot • Louise-Clarke Pyrnelle
... matter where, on the cap, the stem, the tubes of the undersurface: forthwith, the wounded part, originally a pure white, is tinted a beautiful blue. Place this bolete in an atmosphere of carbonic acid gas. We can now knock it, crush it, reduce it to pulp; and the blue no longer shows. But extract a fragment from the crushed mass: immediately, at the first contact with the air, the matter turns a most glorious blue. It reminds us of a process employed in dyeing. The indigo of ...
— The Life of the Fly - With Which are Interspersed Some Chapters of Autobiography • J. Henri Fabre
... encounter ensued. Not one American musket in twenty had a bayonet to it. So, wielding the stock right and left, the terrible farmers, with hats and coats off, fought their way among the furred grenadiers, knocking them right and left, as seal-hunters on the beach knock down with their clubs the Shetland seal. In the dense crowd and confusion, while Israel's musket got interlocked, he saw a blade horizontally menacing his feet from the ground. Thinking some fallen enemy sought to strike him at the last gasp, dropping ...
— Israel Potter • Herman Melville
... Is it my trap you're talking about? what do you think of it? rather the thing, isn't it, eh?" I signified my approval, and Lawless continued, "Yes, it's been very much admired, I assure you;—quiet, mare! quiet!—not a bad sort of dodge to knock about in, eh?—What are you at, fool?—Tumble out, Shrimp, and hit Spiteful a lick on the nose—he's eating the mare's tail. Spicy tiger, Shrimp—did you ever hear how I picked him up?" I replied in the ...
— Frank Fairlegh - Scenes From The Life Of A Private Pupil • Frank E. Smedley
... thus, he led her to the sofa with a certain look of purpose in his face, of loving proprietorship in his bearing, that made poor fond Josephine's foolish heart knock loudly against ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, April, 1876. • Various
... cigarette." Discussions are best conducted over a pipe. No one can get too excited or over-heated in argument, no one can neglect the observance of the amenities of conversation, who talks thoughtfully between the pulls at his pipe, who has to pause now and again to refill, to strike a light, to knock out the ashes, or to perform one of those numberless little acts of devotion at the shrine of St. Nicotine, which fill up the pauses and conduce to reflection. The Indians were wise in their generation when they made the circulation of the pipe an ...
— The Social History of Smoking • G. L. Apperson
... of citizenship had already sharply defined itself. It was idealistic, and its ideals were expressed in the new kind of young men in business downtown. They were optimists—optimists to the point of belligerence—their motto being "Boost! Don't Knock!" And they were hustlers, believing in hustling and in honesty because both paid. They loved their city and worked for it with a plutonic energy which was always ardently vocal. They were viciously governed, but they sometimes went so far to struggle ...
— The Magnificent Ambersons • Booth Tarkington
... confusion, interrupted by a sharp knock at the door and two voices calling his name. Allen shrank ...
— The Exiles and Other Stories • Richard Harding Davis
... Run upstairs and knock on Miss Melissy's door and tell her Mr. Norris is down here. Ask if she will see ...
— Brand Blotters • William MacLeod Raine
... Corinthian Tom's tailor. Then away for the career of pleasure and fashion. The park! delicious excitement! The theatre! the saloon!! the green-room!!! Rapturous bliss—the opera itself! and then perhaps to Temple Bar, to KNOCK DOWN A CHARLEY there! There are Jerry and Tom, with their tights and little cocked hats, coming from the opera—very much as gentlemen in waiting on royalty are habited now. There they are at Almack's itself, amidst a crowd of ...
— Roundabout Papers • William Makepeace Thackeray
... There was a knock at the door. Sir Edward's secretary ushered in a tall, plainly dressed gentleman, who had the slightly aggrieved air of a man who has been kept out of his ...
— The Illustrious Prince • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... vices of Rome, and with prophesying that in some way, not mentioned, Italy would be scourged, depend upon it Pope Alexander would have allowed him to spend his breath in that way as long as he could find hearers. Such spiritual blasts as those knock no walls down. But the Frate wants to be something more than a spiritual trumpet: he wants to be a lever, and what is more, he is a lever. He wants to spread the doctrine of Christ by maintaining a popular government in Florence, and the Pope, as I ...
— Romola • George Eliot
... of forging cylindrical shafts, the bar was placed upon a flat-faced anvil. The effect of each blow of the hammer upon the work was to knock the shaft into an oval form (see Fig. 1); and the inevitable result of a succession of such blows was destruction of the soundness of the centre or axis ...
— James Nasmyth's Autobiography • James Nasmyth
... you are in the right, I'll be with you by and by. So the Patient lay down, and spake no more. Then the Chest fell again of itself, and lock'd itself, one Lock after another, as the 3 Locks opened; and they tried to knock it open, and could not, and Mr Bourne died within an ...
— The Haunters & The Haunted - Ghost Stories And Tales Of The Supernatural • Various
... words were mysterious, Mrs Gamp called upon him to explain, which Mr Bailey proceeded to do; that lady listening greedily to everything he said. He was yet in the fullness of his narrative when the sound of wheels, and a double knock at the street door, announced the arrival of the newly married couple. Begging him to reserve what more he had to say for her hearing on the way home, Mrs Gamp took up the candle, and hurried away to receive and welcome the ...
— Life And Adventures Of Martin Chuzzlewit • Charles Dickens
... distinguished and witty Chinaman just mentioned. "The Japanese," said he, "claimed they were fighting Russia because she was preparing to rob China of Manchuria; now they themselves out-Russia Russia. It is much as if I should knock a man down, saying, 'That man was about to take your watch,' and then take the ...
— Where Half The World Is Waking Up • Clarence Poe
... one. I stay till the last. Just then another passer-by begins to knock on the window—another who was dying for a mouthful of coffee. Mariette by the open door leaned forward and cried, ...
— Under Fire - The Story of a Squad • Henri Barbusse
... one passage: "They were all dressed in white and fighting with their long knives. But William Harvey, who was six feet six high, got hold of the axe we always kept on deck for cutting away the mast if it went in a storm, and he knocked them over with that. And as fast as he did knock them over, we did chuck ...
— The Adventure of Living • John St. Loe Strachey
... day until a little after six in the evening, when William joined me in prayer. We had a blessed season. While he was saying, "Lord, we open our hearts to receive Thee," that word was spoken to my soul, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear My voice, and open unto Me, I will come in, and sup with him." I felt sure He had long been knocking, and Oh, how I yearned to receive Him as a perfect Saviour! But Oh, the inveterate habit of unbelief! How wonderful that God should have borne so long with me! ...
— Catherine Booth - A Sketch • Colonel Mildred Duff
... eye, quoth Evangelist, and go straight up to it; so shall you see the gate, at which, when you knock, it shall be told you what you are ...
— The Pilgrim's Progress in Words of One Syllable • Mary Godolphin
... full of echoes and noises when one clumped on the bare floor, and space with nothing to knock over when one scuffled, and the air was always cold enough so one could see his breath. Therefore the Upper Rooms were popular, but in a different manner and for different purposes than ...
— The Adventures of Bobby Orde • Stewart Edward White
... thou art the soul of the late Madame de St. Memin, strike four knocks,' and the four knocks were struck. 'If thou art damned, strike six knocks,' and the six knocks were struck. 'If thou art still tormented in hell, because thy body is buried in holy ground, knock six more times,' and the six knocks were heard still more distinctly. 'If we disinter thy body, wilt thou be less damned, certify to us by five knocks,' and the soul so certified. This statement ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 227, March 4, 1854 • Various
... There had been a knock upon the office door. In answer to his employer's summons, Mr. Keeler appeared. He held ...
— The Portygee • Joseph Crosby Lincoln
... he is a doctor, teacher, banker, lawyer, business man or manufacturer. That same thing is true of groups and of nations. It is fundamental law, "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." Those who serve will be served; those who knock will be knocked; those who boost will be boosted. We are paid in the coin that we give. We are forgiven as we forgive. If we are friendly, we will ...
— Fundamentals of Prosperity - What They Are and Whence They Come • Roger W. Babson
... no more about a 'curse' on our good fortune now, friend Holmes," he said to himself, "for you are entering upon an institution calculated to knock out all such Quixotic niceties. Ha, ha! I shouldn't be in the least surprised if in a little while you didn't hanker to start up-country again upon another ...
— The Sign of the Spider • Bertram Mitford
... who dare to knock at my door and wake me?' cried she. 'Be quick and tell me what you want, or it will be ...
— The Orange Fairy Book • Andrew Lang
... the unpardonable sin of making a mistake? Will you, like the rest of this wise world, let a man's spirit rot asleep into the pit, if he will only lie quiet and not disturb your smooth respectabilities; but if he dares, in waking, to yawn in an unorthodox manner, knock him on the head at once, and "break the bruised reed," and "quench the smoking flax"? And yet you churchgoers ...
— Yeast: A Problem • Charles Kingsley
... indeed, you might take down in writing. This plan, I candidly confess, is not without great difficulty and some danger; for I have not only to impose you upon Dawson as a priest, but also upon Brimstone Bess as one of our jolly boys; for I need not tell you that any real parson might knock a long time at her door before it could be opened to him. You must, therefore, be as mum as a mole, unless she cants to you, and your answers must then be such as I shall dictate, otherwise she may detect you, and, should any of the true men be in the house, we should both come off ...
— Pelham, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... and laughing myself and making you laugh, as I used to do, though I am six years beyond the allotted age and have had so many attacks of illness within the last two years; but I am, as Bess Fitzherbert and poor dear Sophy used to say, like one of those pith puppets that you knock down in vain, they always start up the same as ever. I was particularly fortunate in my last attack of erysipelas in all the circumstances, just having reached Harriet and Louisa's comfortable home, and happy ...
— The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, Vol. 2 • Maria Edgeworth
... you would have done long ago if you had been a good soldier, but I reckon he's coming without waiting to be called," observed Dixon, as an imperious knock, followed by the command to "open up here, immediately," was heard at the trapdoor. "Now, Rodney, don't let's have any more ...
— True To His Colors • Harry Castlemon
... had lost her only son in one of the battles in the Argonne. She was a widow, almost a poor woman; and, now that this son, her pride and her joy, was no more, she no longer had any reason for living. I hesitated to knock at her door. Was I not about to witness one of those hopeless griefs at whose feet all words fall to the ground like shameful and insulting lies? Which of us to-day is not familiar with these mournful ...
— The Wrack of the Storm • Maurice Maeterlinck
... it, old companion, just this, that I am very probably spending a meditative winter in gaol. The charge is that I did aid and abet a peculiarly ingenious gang of desperadoes to blow a jeweller's safe, knock the jeweller on the head and get safely away with the stuff. I am even accused of obstructing the police. An inspector has been round to see me this morning and he tells me there is practically no hope. He advises me, as between friends, ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 159, October 27, 1920 • Various
... round the sparkling wood-fire, knitting and talking, (people in war-time have enough to talk about,) when a loud, sudden knock at the door startled us. The old knocker thumped again and again. The servant hurried to the door, and a moment after a man rushed by him, with swift and heavy steps into the parlor, caught up Percy as if she had been a feather, and held her tight ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 104, June, 1866 • Various
... knock on the parlor door interrupted the conversation. Florence's sister went to open it. She ...
— The Light of Western Stars • Zane Grey
... Cuba for February, at least, by special request of Heber. I thought I should like to see you again before I got so far away. Only when I came in sight of your door once more, I couldn't bring myself to knock...." ...
— V. V.'s Eyes • Henry Sydnor Harrison
... and fear One room in the bungalow was set apart for her special use. She owned a bedstead, a blanket, and a drinking-trough, and if any one came into Strickland's room at night, her custom was to knock down the invader and give tongue till some one came with a light. Strickland owes his life to her. When he was on the frontier in search of the local murderer who came in the grey dawn to send Strickland much further than the Andaman Islands, ...
— The Works of Rudyard Kipling One Volume Edition • Rudyard Kipling
... have to knock on the door—there's always a telepath hanging around these Stigma hideouts who knows who's coming. A husky young man, quite blond and pink of face, opened the door. A soft rustle of music spilled out around his big shoulders. He wore a T-shirt, and ...
— Modus Vivendi • Gordon Randall Garrett
... the cactus hedges lined with machine guns proved too much for us. Our Division was not used in this battle, being in reserve, which was lucky for us, as those who were in the front line of the attack all got a pretty severe knock. ...
— The Fife and Forfar Yeomanry - and 14th (F. & F. Yeo.) Battn. R.H. 1914-1919 • D. D. Ogilvie
... facts. They are certainly carrying the country. I am obliged to think them sincere. Common agitators would not hold together, as they do. They gather strength each year. If their statistics are not illusory—an army of phantoms instead of one of facts; and they knock at my head without admission, I have to confess; ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... passion, knock'd down Mr. Rock, Mr. Stone like an aspen-leaf shivers; Miss Poole used to dance, but she stands like a stock Ever since she became Mrs. Rivers; Mr. Swift hobbles onward, no mortal knows how, He moves as though cords had entwin'd him; Mr. Metcalfe ...
— The Romance of Names • Ernest Weekley
... to change her dress and rest before dinner, and I settled down in the library with the Country Gentleman. There was a knock at the door, ...
— The Statesmen Snowbound • Robert Fitzgerald
... temper then. He gripped Nick by the shoulder, swore at him, shook him about, and threatened to knock his head off. Had Nick been one of the mutineers, the chances are ten to one that he would have been floored and beaten half to death. But even in the full fury of his rage the skipper did not lose sight of the fact that this fellow was a loyal slave. He did ...
— The Harbor Master • Theodore Goodridge Roberts
... whistle by him, putting up the collar of his coat, and would encounter the winter weather without complaint. And he would be patient under the sun, knowing well that tranquillity is best for those who have to bear tropical heat. But when the storm threatened to knock him off his legs, when the earth beneath him became too hot for his poor tender feet,—what could he do then? There had been with him such periods of misery, during which he had wailed inwardly and had confessed to himself that ...
— The Last Chronicle of Barset • Anthony Trollope
... alone working. But his usual intense concentration became unsettled. He listened for the yard-gate. At a quarter-past seven came a low knock, and ...
— Sons and Lovers • David Herbert Lawrence
... these worthies, "Humbird looks like a knock-out, but this Langueduc—he's the rugged type, isn't he? I distrust that sort. All diamonds look ...
— This Side of Paradise • F. Scott Fitzgerald
... you're going to knock spots off my wife, any of you,' cried Colin delighted at the sally. And now he walked and talked like a man on his own soil again, as more of the townsfolk came about—extraordinary people, Bridget thought. ...
— Lady Bridget in the Never-Never Land • Rosa Praed
... lessons. Well, he is no slouch, now I tell you, and handles himself pretty well for a church member. I read in the paper how Zack Chandler played it on Conkling by getting Jem Mace, the prize fighter, to knock him silly, and I asked Pa if he wouldn't let me bring a poor boy who had no father to teach him boxing, to our house to learn to box, and Pa said certainly, fetch him along. He said he would be glad to do anything for ...
— Peck's Bad Boy and His Pa - 1883 • George W. Peck
... he don't get 'em to make their wills, and then knock 'em on the head,' said Mr Tappertit, musing. 'But come. The United B.'s expect me. ...
— Barnaby Rudge • Charles Dickens
... all too tired for further effort to-day," Charley agreed, "but we must get an early start in the morning. We will get some boughs for beds, have supper, and knock ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely
... palazzo Pierre was surprised to find four or five gentlemen taking off their overcoats; however he learnt from a servant that Count Luigi had a meeting that day with some contractors. As he, Pierre, wished to see the Count's father he had only to ascend to the third floor, added the servant. He must knock at the little door on the right-hand ...
— The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete - Lourdes, Rome and Paris • Emile Zola
... difficult to toss the disks so as with ten to cover one; but those who tried seemed to find it very difficult to accomplish the object. Even if the disks which they tossed fell in the right place, they would rebound or slide away, and sometimes knock away those which were already well placed. Still, after trying once, the players wore usually unwilling to give up without trying a second, and even a third and fourth time, so that they generally lost six or ...
— Rollo in Paris • Jacob Abbott
... the coach in which they were riding, while Bert and Nan were telling one another what good times they would have on the ranch and in the lumber camp, and while Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey were discussing matters about the trip, there came a knock on ...
— The Bobbsey Twins in the Great West • Laura Lee Hope
... other in affright. None of them moved to open the door. But the knock was not repeated, for the door itself was thrown bodily from its hinges, and the stalwart form of Lord Fairholme, accompanied by two policemen, ...
— The Albert Gate Mystery - Being Further Adventures of Reginald Brett, Barrister Detective • Louis Tracy
... felt that they were unworthy of her—that they would not worship her always and become ministers for her sake, as he was going to do. He even wondered if it wouldn't be better, after all, to become a prize fighter and to knock them all out in the first round when he got ...
— The Voice of the People • Ellen Glasgow
... a perfectly successful drawing as one built upon a groundwork of clear lines till it is finished. It's the same kind of thing with red chalk—it mustn't be taken out: rubbing with the finger is all right. In fact you don't succeed with any process until you find out how you may knock it about and in what way you must be careful. Slowly built-up texture in oil-painting gives you the best chance of changing without damage ...
— The Mind of the Artist - Thoughts and Sayings of Painters and Sculptors on Their Art • Various
... maintained with difficulty, though he did maintain, his attitude of independence towards the colossus of his age. Charles Lamb, without any difficulty and without the show of assertiveness, would have maintained it better. Lamb, who from earliest manhood refused to knock under to the threatening intellectual arrogance of Coleridge; who shook Wordsworth by the nose instead of by the hand with the greeting, "How d'ye do, old Lake Poet!"—his stammering voice might have broken with impunity on the doctor's weightiest utterances with the absurdest quips ...
— Stories of Authors, British and American • Edwin Watts Chubb
... what I'd like to, I'd fire the last man of them. It makes me savage to have them turn up and knock us on the head after we've been sweating blood to pull ...
— The Quickening • Francis Lynde
... occasion. But his debts had been paid; and all was going on swimmingly, when one day he knocked down the parliamentary agent with a blow between the eyes, and then there was an end of that. He himself was wont to say that he had known very well what he was about, that it had behoved him to knock down the man who was to have been his partner, and that he regretted nothing in the matter. At any rate the deed was looked upon with approving eyes by many men of good standing,—or, at any rate, sufficient ...
— Can You Forgive Her? • Anthony Trollope
... knock was heard, and now, in spite of herself, the Countess de Soissons grew pale and shivered. What if the myrmidons of Louvois had come with a lettre de cachet! What if—No! not even HE would go so far in his enmity to the niece of the great cardinal, the relative of the reigning Duke ...
— Prince Eugene and His Times • L. Muhlbach
... country was laboring than the assault on Charles Sumner by Preston S. Brooks, a congressional representative from South Carolina. As a result of this regrettable occurrence splendid canes with such inscriptions as "Hit him again" and "Use knock-down arguments" were sent to Brooks from different parts of the South and he was triumphantly reelected by his constituency, while on the other hand resolutions denouncing him were passed all over the North, in ...
— A Social History of the American Negro • Benjamin Brawley
... were resolved Another she should wed, A rich old miser in the place, And old Brown frequently declared, that rather than have his daughter marry Reuben Wright, he'd sooner knock him in the head. ...
— The American Union Speaker • John D. Philbrick
... horsehair sofa-cushions were commoner than they are now. One of these is placed in the middle of the room and the players join hands and dance round it, the object of each one being to make one of his neighbors knock the cushion over and to avoid knocking it over himself. Whoever does knock it down leaves the ring, until at last there are only two striving with each other. A hearth-brush, if it can be persuaded to stand up, makes a good substitute for a cushion. It also makes the game more difficult, ...
— What Shall We Do Now?: Five Hundred Games and Pastimes • Dorothy Canfield Fisher
... was to jerk his knee sharply into the ribs of the roan, which answered with a grunt and swung its head around with bared teeth, like an angry dog. "Damn your eyes!" roared the hoarse voice of Steve Nash, "stand still or I'll knock you for ...
— Trailin'! • Max Brand
... place of a gun was an immense carved wooden mace, not unlike a leg of the old-time wooden bedstead of antiquity. His ugliness was embittered somewhat by sunken, toothless jaws and an enigmatical stare from a cross-eye; he was also knock-kneed, and as an erstwhile gunpowder worker, had lost two fingers and a large part of one ear. But he had learnt the secret of simple duty: he had no dreams, no ambition embracing vast limits, did ...
— Across China on Foot • Edwin Dingle
... want of a better term let us call pants—a pair of bags sewed together at the top, and designed for no other purpose than to conceal from the world the character and quality of the wearer's legs. When that beatific invention arrives your spindle-legged, knock-kneed imitation of a man will, as far as the public eye is concerned, find himself on as sure a footing as your very Adonis, and a person with a comparatively under-developed understanding will be able ...
— The Autobiography of Methuselah • John Kendrick Bangs
... Octavia had settled down into one of the prettiest and least difficult of her moods, there came a knock at the front door, which, being answered by Mary Anne, was found to announce the curate ...
— A Fair Barbarian • Frances Hodgson Burnett
... be the first to knock your brains out," replied Kathleen, "unless I can stop him. I must go now, and I'll see ...
— Japhet, In Search Of A Father • Frederick Marryat
... I suppose. He thinks she's not so chaste as they say," continued Adrian. "Are you going to knock down ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... as illustrated by skillful sacrifice hits, batting to help base-runners around and to bring runs in, and not that of going to the bat with the sole idea of trying to "hit the ball out of the lot," or "knock the stuffing out of it," in the effort to get in the coveted home run. with its costly expenditure of physical strength in the 120 yards spurt in running ...
— Spalding's Baseball Guide and Official League Book for 1889 • edited by Henry Chadwick
... he was, but looked down on the floor, as though the Sundering Flood of the Dales rolled betwixt him and the maiden; for indeed when his eyes first fell upon her he knew that it was Elfhild. Now the two women had not been long at dighting the supper ere there came a rough knock on the door, and straightway the latch was lifted and in strode three men-at-arms; two in jack and sallet with bucklers and sword and dagger, the third a knight clad in white armour with a white surcoat. This stirred ...
— The Sundering Flood • William Morris
... into the tub and had a snug-fitting but most luxurious bath; and when I got back to my room the maid had arrived with the shaving water. There was a knock at the door, and when I opened it there stood a maid with a lukewarm pint of water in a long-waisted, thin-lipped pewter pitcher. There was plenty of hot water to be had in the bathroom, with faucets and sinks all handy and convenient, and a person might shave himself there in absolute ...
— Europe Revised • Irvin S. Cobb
... emerged, as it were, as a student and disciple of Goethe. The connection was not wholly fortunate. With much of what Goethe really stood for he was not really in sympathy; but in his own obstinate way, he tried to knock his idol into shape instead of choosing another. He pushed further and further the extravagances of a vivid but very unbalanced and barbaric style, in the praise of a poet who really represented the calmest classicism and the attempt to restore ...
— The Victorian Age in Literature • G. K. Chesterton
... toward the decanter when a low knock sounded at the front door. He stopped, raised his head, listened, and stood quite ...
— Men of Affairs • Roland Pertwee
... as all went merry and well with me on my celestial quest, the tip of my wand missed a star, and on the instant I knew I had been guilty of a great crime. And on the instant a knock, vast and compulsive, inexorable and mandatory as the stamp of the iron hoof of doom, smote me and reverberated across the universe. The whole sidereal system coruscated, reeled and fell ...
— The Jacket (The Star-Rover) • Jack London
... seemed unthinkable that any thrilling sequel of his singular experience in his little room could occur. Everything was the same as usual, the crickets chirping, the owl calling, the little graveyard down the road wrapped in darkness.... Glory was not going to knock on the humble door of ...
— Pee-wee Harris on the Trail • Percy Keese Fitzhugh
... is always the best in the long run. Certainly,, in the light of the great American spirit of liberty and equal rights which is sweeping over this country, and making the thrones of tyrants totter in the Old World, no party can afford to carry slavery, either of body or of mind. Knock off your manacles and let the man go free. Take down the blinds from his intellect, and let in the light of education and Christian culture. When this is done you have developed a man. Give him the responsibility of a man and ...
— A Unique Story of a Marvellous Career. Life of Hon. Phineas T. • Joel Benton
... thought of it till later. I know it looks that way—the way you put it—but I never thought of it till later. I dragged it out of him that he'd once been in love with her and had asked her to marry him. That was a regular knock-down surprise to me. I'd had no idea of anything of the kind. But he said he wasn't in love with her any longer. I dare say ...
— The Street Called Straight • Basil King
... plant a cactus is, he will probably tell you it is all leaf and no stem, and each of the leaves grows out of the last one. Whenever we set up the Man in the Street, however, you must have noticed we do it in order to knock him down again like a nine-pin next moment: and this particular instance is no exception to the rule; for the truth is that a cactus is practically all stem and no leaves, what looks like a leaf being really a branch sticking out at an angle. The ...
— Science in Arcady • Grant Allen
... saints and martyrs, more worthy of canonization in men's hearts than many written high in the calendar of Rome. But though persecuted, crushed, and at times apparently done to death, its vitality was indestructible, and after every knock-down blow it rose again from the earth, like Antaeus, with renewed strength. It was always a vigorous stripling, and even so far back as the days of David Hume its future greatness and magnificent destiny was clearly marked out, so that he wrote: 'Its liberties and the liberties ...
— The Continental Monthly, Volume V. Issue I • Various
... that," he said sourly. "That comes o' having bad thole-pins;" and he began to knock out the remains of the pin that formed the rowlock and ...
— Menhardoc • George Manville Fenn
... prayer rests on the Mediation of Christ, and its warrant is to be found in the words, "Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall {215} find; knock and it shall be opened unto you." God our Father has promised to hear the petitions of those who ask in His Son's Name, and who faithfully call upon Him and we know that His promise cannot fail. There are many remarkable instances of the power of prayer to be found ...
— The American Church Dictionary and Cyclopedia • William James Miller
... while Mistress Susan felt as if she had made a mistake in her hospitality, yet almost as if her husband were unjust towards the good man who had been such a comfort to her in her sorrow; but there was no lack of cordiality or courtesy in Richard's manner when, after a short, quick knock, there entered a figure in hat, cassock, gown, and bands, with a pleasant, though grave countenance, the complexion showing that it had been tanned and sunburnt in early youth, although it wore later traces of a sedentary student life, and, it might be, of less genial living than had ...
— Unknown to History - A Story of the Captivity of Mary of Scotland • Charlotte M. Yonge
... luncheon, as Captain Elisha sat in his own room, reading a book he had taken from the library, there came a knock ...
— Cap'n Warren's Wards • Joseph C. Lincoln
... exclaimed. "If we ever get out of this town alive I shall be thankful! I had rung as usual for water, and just as I had finished my bath I heard a knock at the outside door, and asking 'Wer ist da?' the chambermaid replied that she was. I then opened the door a bit, and saw looking over her shoulders two strange men. My first thought was that they were friends of yours wishing to give you a surprise, and I cried out, 'Oh, you can't ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 22. July, 1878. • Various
... hardly risen from breakfast when the sound of wheels was heard outside, and directly there was a knock at the door. ...
— Try and Trust • Horatio Alger
... thicker, I am afraid the good wood underneath will be quite concealed, and your Yorkshire friends won't stand that. Come, come. I am getting really tired of your absence. Saturday after Saturday comes round, and I can have no hope of hearing your knock at the door, and then being told that 'Miss E. is come.' Oh, dear! in this monotonous life of mine, that was a pleasant event. I wish it would recur again; but it will take two or three interviews before the stiffness—the estrangement of ...
— The Life of Charlotte Bronte - Volume 1 • Elizabeth Gaskell
... do I yield to that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair And make my seated heart knock at ...
— Shakespearean Tragedy - Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth • A. C. Bradley
... needs our services, whatever be the accidents which alienate ordinary sympathies. Now, suppose that the good Samaritan had himself fallen among thieves, what would have been his duty? His first duty, I should say, would have been, if possible, to knock down the thief; his second, to tie up his own wounds; and his third, to call in the police. We should not, perhaps, call him virtuous for such conduct; but we should clearly think him wrong for omitting it. Not to resist a thief is cowardly; not to attend ...
— Social Rights and Duties, Volume I (of 2) - Addresses to Ethical Societies • Sir Leslie Stephen
... stretched its dead line like a narrow river of despair. It was not to be wondered at, therefore, that the sorely pestered Mr. Rosen should be at this time a prey to care so carking as to border on forthright melancholia. Never a particularly cheerful person, at Red Hoss' soft knock upon his outer door he raised a countenance completely clothed in moroseness where not clothed in whiskers and grunted briefly—a sound which might or might not be taken as an invitation to enter. Nor was his greeting, following upon the ...
— Sundry Accounts • Irvin S. Cobb
... right on your father's desk, back toward the wall, so no one would knock it off.—You know Laura was being so careless with it that I got worried ...
— The Merriweather Girls and the Mystery of the Queen's Fan • Lizette M. Edholm
... of his discontent, and in Nature finding no help, Robert was driven inwards—into his garret, into his soul. There, the door of his paradise being walled up, he began, vaguely, blindly, to knock against other doors—sometimes against stone-walls and rocks, taking them for doors—as travel-worn, and hence brain-sick men have done in a desert of mountains. A door, out or in, he must find, ...
— Robert Falconer • George MacDonald
... sparring with a friend; you put on the gloves in perfect good humor, with the most friendly intentions of exchanging a few amicable blows; you find yourself insensibly warm with the enthusiasm of the conflict, and some unlucky hard knock decides the matter, and it ...
— Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, Volume 2 (of 2) • Charles Lever
... chimneys,—chimneys going all down the wall,—and windows in the roof, and all that. But I dare say I could do dogs and horses if I was to try more," he added, reflecting that Philip might falsely suppose that he was going to "knock under," if he were too frank about the ...
— The Mill on the Floss • George Eliot
... somebody may know something! Only something. But that something might clear Ransford of the suspicion that's undoubtedly been cast upon him. If you're thinking to get a strong case against Ransford, you've got your work set. He gave your theory a nasty knock this morning by his few words about that pill. Did Coates and Everest find a ...
— The Paradise Mystery • J. S. Fletcher
... in their way, but I think a little animal food now and then would be agreeable as well as good for us; and as there are many small birds among the trees, some of which are probably very good to eat, I think it would be a capital plan to make bows and arrows, with which we could easily knock ...
— The Coral Island - A Tale Of The Pacific Ocean • R. M. Ballantyne
... copy under the Great Seal of the Colony was not arrived. Then a consultation was held: Lord Lansdowne was for not minding about the Great Seal, and Melbourne chuckled and grunted, and said, 'Why, you knock over his Ordinances, and he won't care about the form, will he?' I said, 'If there is no precedent, make one,' and accordingly the Order passed. They are very angry with the House of Lords, and Lord John said they had behaved very ...
— The Greville Memoirs (Second Part) - A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1852 - (Volume 1 of 3) • Charles C. F. Greville
... giving her his pipe to knock the ashes out of it; 'I'll stand by you. Hark! That's a ...
— The Battle of Life • Charles Dickens
... this, there was a knock at the door after Mary had returned from school, and Captain Crawford entered, now no stranger in the cottages round, for the last few weeks had worked a wonderful change in this respect. The first time he did ...
— Adventures of a Sixpence in Guernsey by A Native • Anonymous
... loud knock at the outer gate—"Open in the King's name." La Bonne, imagining it to be a message from the Louvre, hastened with the keys, withdrew the bolt, and was immediately butchered by the assassins who rushed into the house. The alarmed domestics ran half awake to see what was ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 1-20 • Various
... get my doors closed, and prepare for bed, in hopes of a little repose, after so many ruffling adventures. Just as I was putting out my light in order to it, another bounceth as hard as he can knock. ...
— An English Garner - Critical Essays & Literary Fragments • Edited by Professor Arber and Thomas Seccombe
... with my dinner," he muttered between his clinched teeth. "That completes the ruin Mary began. If I should happen to catch up with him, I trust I shall have the moral strength not to knock his head off—his skull off; it isn't ...
— The Queen of Sheba & My Cousin the Colonel • Thomas Bailey Aldrich
... mane flowing, Skinfaxe duteous Draweth the spring sun more bright than before; Morning beams glowing Doubly as beauteous, Sport in the hall;—there's a knock at the door. ...
— Fridthjof's Saga • Esaias Tegner
... measure of coercion and intimidation as a matter of policy, they (if we except the Secret Service gentry) never forgot the dictates of decency: they never, figuratively, kicked the person whom they deemed it necessary to knock down. The ordinary British soldiers, too, for all the relaxation of moral rules natural in war, maintained throughout the campaign a standard of behaviour which contrasted so favourably with their comrades' that ...
— Greece and the Allies 1914-1922 • G. F. Abbott
... the timepiece on the notary's wall. The town clocks were striking the hour. A knock at the door made the notary turn, with his quill pen still indicating the space for Denise's signature. It was the dingy clerk who sat in a sort of cage in the outer office. After opening the door he stood aside, and Susini ...
— The Isle of Unrest • Henry Seton Merriman
... abominable company because it amused me and I had only myself to please, and I saw what a fearfully tense grip the monster, Drink, has taken of this nation; and let me say that you cannot understand that one little bit, if you are content to knock about with a policeman and squint at signboards. Well, I want to know how these legislators can go to church and repeat certain prayers, while they continue to make profit by retailing Death at so much a gallon; ...
— The Ethics of Drink and Other Social Questions - Joints In Our Social Armour • James Runciman
... sudden appearance a little dismayed the Squire, who, however, comforted himself with the reflection, that the tower was perfectly safe, or at least was intended to be so, and that his friends were in no probable danger but of a knock on the head from a flying ...
— Headlong Hall • Thomas Love Peacock
... clamber over the slippery stones, and to reach the cabin was but the work of a few moments. The worm-eaten door was bolted on the inside. Servadac began to knock with all his might. No answer. Neither shouting nor knocking ...
— Off on a Comet • Jules Verne
... possibility that some of these might recognize me was not a pleasant thought. I saw nothing of the captain, but heard him shouting orders to the men engaged tinkering at the paddle-wheel. The overseer gave me a hat which added little to my personal appearance, and by the time we were called to knock off for the noon meal, I was thoroughly tired, and disgusted, feeling as much a roustabout as ...
— The Devil's Own - A Romance of the Black Hawk War • Randall Parrish
... is out to get you, the fear that someone will stick a figurative knife in your back and reduce you to the basic subsistence level. And that fear is solidly based, believe me. The only way to climb up from basic subsistence is to climb over everyone else, to knock aside those in your way, to get rid of whoever is occupying the position you want. And once you get there, the only way you can hold your position is to make sure that nobody below you gets too big for his britches. The rule is: Pull down ...
— Anchorite • Randall Garrett
... response to a knock at the door. Mr. Belford entered, panama hat with two ribbons ...
— The Galaxy - Vol. 23, No. 1 • Various
... edged upon the steep descent. Shefford and the others had to hold back and wait. It was thrilling to see the intelligent mustang. He did not step. He slid his fore hoofs a few inches at a time and kept directly behind the Indian. If he fell he would knock Nas Ta Bega off his feet and they would both roll down together. There was no doubt in Shefford's mind that the mustang knew this as well as the Indian. Foot by foot they worked down to a swelling bulge, ...
— The Rainbow Trail • Zane Grey
... quiet like a mouse. I turned on the light quick—like this"—he snapped his fingers. "Two men have broken open my safe, and they have my money, a lot of money, for I keep all my money there; I do not bank—no. They rush at me, they knock me down, they make their escape, but I recognise one of them—it is Mister the young Archman, who I have many times seen at The Sphinx Cafe—yes. Well, and then on the floor I find a letter." He grinned wickedly again. "Have you the letter that I ...
— The Further Adventures of Jimmie Dale • Frank L. Packard
... as well as to divers curious persons to whom it was shown. And I lately had a Broad piece of Glass, which being look'd on against the Light seem'd clear enough, and held from the Light appear'd very lightly discolour'd, and yet it was a piece knock'd off from a great lump of Glass, to which if we rejoyn'd it, where it had been broken off, the whole Mass was as green as Grass. And I have several times us'd Bottles and stopples that were both made (as those, I had them from assur'd me) of the very same Metall, and yet whilst the bottle appear'd ...
— Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664) • Robert Boyle
... his heart; they, and others of authority, will enter in. Petition and request to wearied uncertain National Guard; louder and louder petition; backed by the rattle of our two cannons! The reluctant Grate opens: endless Sansculottic multitudes flood the stairs; knock at the wooden guardian of your privacy. Knocks, in such case, grow strokes, grow smashings: the wooden guardian flies in shivers. And now ensues a Scene over which the world has long wailed; and not unjustly; for a sorrier ...
— The French Revolution • Thomas Carlyle
... out-cry and restless struggles. I have sobbed myself to sleep at night: I have roamed aimlessly about during the day, or lain on a lounge, book in hand, pretending to read, but in reality listening, waiting, longing to hear his step, his knock, to have some message, some sign, come to me from him. Then it has seemed to me as if there was but one other human creature in the world, and that was he—as if all the manifold needs and wants, losses and gains, of humanity ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XII. No. 31. October, 1873. • Various
... occupied with these gloomy thoughts, there was a knock at the door, and a short, pleasant-looking man stood on ...
— Stories from English History • Hilda T. Skae
... one of the papers when there came a shuffling of feet in the passage outside, followed by a knock upon the door. The next moment there appeared in the doorway a short, stout young man. There was an indescribable air of toughness about him, partly due to the fact that he wore his hair in a well-oiled fringe almost down ...
— Psmith, Journalist • Pelham Grenville Wodehouse
... that he carried everywhere with him, or else he could never have been as he was. So he came up to the gate, you know what I mean, that stands at the head of this way; and there also he stood a good while, before he would adventure to knock. When the gate was opened, he would give back, and give place to others, and say that he was not worthy. For, for all he got before some to the gate, yet many of them went in before him. There the poor man would stand, shaking and shrinking. I dare say, it would have pitied ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... the moment that they have both been waiting for. Each offers an arm to Miss Nevill; Monsieur D'Arblet bends blandly and smilingly forward; Denis Wilde has a thunder-cloud upon his face, and holds out his arm as though he were ready to knock somebody down with it. ...
— Vera Nevill - Poor Wisdom's Chance • Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron
... buck!" cried one of the men (I understand what he said now, though at the time it meant nothing to me). "Knock him on the head!" ...
— The Mahatma and the Hare • H. Rider Haggard
... worthy of description also. He was short, heavy of shoulders and slightly knock-kneed. He was perhaps forty years old, his hair was getting thin, and his dark eyes snapped behind a pair of glasses. Just now, instead of snapping, his ...
— A Canadian Bankclerk • J. P. Buschlen |
