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Worst   Listen
verb
Worst  v. t.  (past & past part. worsted; pres. part. worsting)  To gain advantage over, in contest or competition; to get the better of; to defeat; to overthrow; to discomfit. "The... Philistines were worsted by the captivated ark."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Worst" Quotes from Famous Books



... always kind to the poorest and worst of his servants," replied the Burman. "I, Me Dain, was always glad to be of use to so ...
— Jack Haydon's Quest • John Finnemore

... protests, at length yielded and had me transferred from fashionable St. Jean Baptiste's to the poverty-stricken missionary parish of sodden laboring folk in a South Carolina coast-town: he meant to cure me, the good man! I should have the worst ...
— Slippy McGee, Sometimes Known as the Butterfly Man • Marie Conway Oemler

... isn't it?" he said. "Not that this affair would ever have come into your scheme of things at all, but for one thing. I have got you over here, and in some ways it is positively the worst fool thing I ever pulled off—taking the responsibility of two kids like you, at ...
— The Boy Scouts on a Submarine • Captain John Blaine

... otherwise. It may be long in coming,—Heaven only knows through what trials and humblings we may have to pass before the full strength of the nation is duly arrayed and led to victory. We must be patient, as our fathers were patient; even in our worst calamities, we must remember that defeat itself may be a gain where it costs our enemy more in relation to his strength than it costs ourselves. But if, in the inscrutable providence of the Almighty, this generation is ...
— Pages From an Old Volume of Life - A Collection Of Essays • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... dam' fool? Ain't I a proper lot? Gard strike me if I don't chuck fer fair after this. Wot'd I come to sea fer—an' this 'ere go is the worst I ever knew—a baoat no bigger'n a bally bath-tub, head seas, livin' gyles the clock 'round, wet food, wet clothes, wet bunks. Caold till, by cricky! I've lost the feel o' mee feet. An' wat for? For the bloomin' good chanst o' a slug in mee guts. That's wat for." At ...
— A Deal in Wheat - And Other Stories of the New and Old West • Frank Norris

... little easier. But just then it occurred to me that the Count would surely tax the Countess with having seen me; that she would acknowledge our meeting; and that her own account of it would be disbelieved, and the worst imaginings added, for the very reason of my maintaining secrecy about it. I therefore took a ...
— The Bright Face of Danger • Robert Neilson Stephens

... she did not. Her fear had passed because he was there, holding her in his arms, fighting to the last ounce of power in him for her life. She felt he would never leave her, and that, if it came to the worst, she would pass from life with him close to her. Again he knew that wild exultant beat of blood no woman before this one had ...
— Ridgway of Montana - (Story of To-Day, in Which the Hero Is Also the Villain) • William MacLeod Raine

... defend our own with bravery and good will: being assured both by thy reading and thy personal experience that in battle it has been rare for Romans to meet with disaster; and that in the final issue of a war we have never come off the worst." ...
— The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus • Ammianus Marcellinus

... I thought the worst had surely now befallen, and wished a hundred times that I had died before it came to this. But there was worse in store. Her captors passed the word while yet I looked and choked with rage and grief; and then the bivouac buzzed alive, and men came running, ...
— The Master of Appleby • Francis Lynde

... and fro while we waited impatiently. And in a short while our worst fears were realized, for when the papers came we saw the dreadful facts in scare heads on the first page of the yellowest of them. I give ...
— Paradise Garden - The Satirical Narrative of a Great Experiment • George Gibbs

... the horses till they must have been sorer than we were they gave us some monkey meat an let us turn in. Back to the hay barns agen. That Bilitin oficer ought to make good on some board of health when we get home. He can pick out all the worst places in a town ten minites ...
— "Same old Bill, eh Mable!" • Edward Streeter

... the privileged colour of the prophet's numerous pretended descendants; with them, as here, faith (the family inheritance) is supposed to supersede the necessity of good works: they are the worst of a very ...
— The Works Of Lord Byron, Vol. 3 (of 7) • Lord Byron

... have commanded and guided forward, in good ways, twelve hundred of the best common-people in London or the world: he was here, for many years past, giving all his care and faculty to command, and guide forward in such ways as there were, twelve hundred of the worst. I looked with considerable admiration on this gentleman; and with considerable astonishment, the reverse of admiration, on the work he had here ...
— Latter-Day Pamphlets • Thomas Carlyle

... don't git home soon, I shall be arrested for goin' without clo'es. I set up 'bout all night puttin' these blue patches in my pants an' tryin' to piece together a couple of old red-flannel shirts to make one whole one. That's the worst o' drivin' in these places where the pretty girls make a habit of comin' down to the bridge to see the fun. You hev to keep rigged up jest so stylish; you can't git no chance at the rum bottle, an' you even hev to go a leetle mite ...
— Homespun Tales • Kate Douglas Wiggin

... bad as it might be. Just think, if it had been Gabrielle, or Pauline-Marie, or even Mrs. Lawton. That's the worst kind of bad blood for a woman to inherit. Marie Garnett hung on like grim death to what the grand society you move in pretends to value most, and the Lord knows she'll never lose ...
— The Avalanche • Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton

... hide of his self-conceit, and left him sore as a whipped hound, altogether too sore to sleep. When Lady Bellamy arrived on the following morning, she found him marching up and down the dining-room, in the worst of his bad tempers, and that was a very shocking temper indeed. His light blue eyes were angry and bloodshot, his general appearance slovenly to the last degree, and a red spot burned ...
— Dawn • H. Rider Haggard

... the rooms are very small, it becomes necessary to know what can be done to remedy existing defects. In the first place the bedroom should always be upstairs if possible; it is decidedly healthier, and there is a better chance for the supply of fresh air. The very worst room in the house that could be chosen for a sleeping apartment would be one on the basement. Then again, a fireplace in the bedroom is a priceless boon, and it is almost impossible to rectify such a deficiency. But as too many rooms are built without it, we are compelled to look to the window ...
— The Art of Living in Australia • Philip E. Muskett (?-1909)

... wooding of the ship were completed, the gunner had dried all his powder in the sun, and the tents and people were brought on board. All that the carpenters could do at the ship was to secure the hooding ends to the stem—shift some of the worst parts in the rotten planking—and caulk all the bends; and this they had finished. The wind being south-east on the morning of the 29th [MONDAY 29 NOVEMBER 1802], I attempted to quit the Investigator's Road by steering ...
— A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 2 • Matthew Flinders

... I must. The poor little fellow has no great place in my heart, but, when Amy sends for me, I must go. Perhaps things are at the worst.' ...
— New Grub Street • George Gissing

... towards the south, along a channel less than a quarter of a mile in width, the bergs evidently closing on each side of us, and the ship, as if conscious of her jeopardy, doing her utmost, with Captain Poke still at the wheel. In a little more than an hour, the worst was over—the Walrus issuing into an open basin of several leagues in extent, which was, however, completely encircled by the frozen mountains. Here Noah took a look at the pumpkin, after which he made no ceremony in plumply telling Dr. Reasono that ...
— The Monikins • J. Fenimore Cooper

... a fight in which Thomas got the worst, but, he had shown his fellows what he could do, he was tormented no longer. Yet ever afterwards he bore an unhappy remembrance of those days ...
— English Literature For Boys And Girls • H.E. Marshall

... 'Our worst disasters,' said M. Jules Simon in 1882,[10] 'have so far broken out only where great numbers of men are crowded together. Men begin with scepticism, from scepticism they go on rapidly to Nihilism, and from Nihilism to Social War. The labourer in the fields still ...
— France and the Republic - A Record of Things Seen and Learned in the French Provinces - During the 'Centennial' Year 1889 • William Henry Hurlbert

... necessary, and the harshness with which he repressed insurrection prevented more frequent outbreaks and so averted greater sacrifice of life. But the horror of these scenes so appals the modern reader, that at first he can only regard Assur-nazir-pal as a royal butcher of the worst type. ...
— History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 7 (of 12) • G. Maspero

... it, which Beau shared; and I do wish that people (other people) were obliged to make faces when they eat, such as Beau has to make, because if so, one could add a new interest to life by inviting even the worst bores to dinner. ...
— The Motor Maid • Alice Muriel Williamson and Charles Norris Williamson

... and a cat!" exclaimed Mr. Martin. "My dear Mrs. Watson," he went on, as he sat down on the top step of the porch rather limply, "will you please tell us, as fast as you can, just how many and what pets Uncle Toby has left us? We may as well hear the worst at once," he said to his wife. "I never imagined Uncle Toby cared ...
— The Curlytops and Their Pets - or Uncle Toby's Strange Collection • Howard R. Garis

... zoo the days a-stealen by, Wi' zuns a-riden drough the sky, Do bring us things to leaeve us sad, Or meaeke us glad—O Meaerianne. The day that's mild, the day that's stern, Do teaeke, in stillness, each his turn; An' evils at their worst mid mend, Or ...
— Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect • William Barnes

... "legitimate," continues the same caustic authority, "by his pride, as well as by his birth." His features were plain, even disagreeably so; but his figure was good. He was large of stature, and, like his brother Francis, had on the whole an imposing presence. *8 In his character, he combined some of the worst defects incident to the Castilian. He was jealous in the extreme; impatient not merely of affront, but of the least slight, and implacable in his resentment. He was decisive in his measures, and unscrupulous in their execution. ...
— The History Of The Conquest Of Peru • William H. Prescott

... the worst Quinces and cut them into small pieces, and Coares and Parings, boyle them in water, and put to a Gallon of water, some three spoonfuls of Salt, as much Honey; boyle these together till they are very strong, and when it is ...
— The Compleat Cook • Anonymous, given as "W. M."

... an answer against which no child ever rebelled unless he believed it untrue. Besides, there is no other way; either nothing at all is to be required of him, or he must from the first be accustomed to perfect obedience. The worst training of all is to leave him wavering between his own will and yours, and to dispute incessantly with him as to which shall be master. I should a hundred times prefer his being master in ...
— Emile - or, Concerning Education; Extracts • Jean Jacques Rousseau

... inhabitants of the Glasgow wynds and closes may be likened to those of the Liverpool cellars, or to those of the worst parts of Leeds, St. Giles's, and Bethnal Green, in London; and every other class of the Scottish urban labouring population may likewise be delineated with the same touches (more darkened, however,) ...
— The trade, domestic and foreign • Henry Charles Carey

... in his fortitude. He was evidently disgusted with himself over the whole business, and he turned to the group of three officers and a civilian who alighted from a big Brown army automobile as if he were prepared to have them say their worst. They seemed between the impulse of reprimanding ...
— The Last Shot • Frederick Palmer

... Neither, haply, is the Earl of Alban without cause of enmity against him. So thou, upon thy part, shouldst not feel bitter rancor against the King for what hath happed to thy house, nor even against William Brookhurst—I mean the Earl of Alban—for, I tell thee, the worst of our enemies and the worst of men believe themselves always to have right and justice upon their side, even when they most wish evil ...
— Men of Iron • Ernie Howard Pyle

... too, has come the twelve feet of text-books on English on my shelves with many standard works, edited for schools, with more notes than text. Fashion that works from above down the grades and college entrance requirements are in large measure responsible for this, perhaps now the worst case of the prostitution of content ...
— Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene • G. Stanley Hall

... Marsh to Eugene Madrillon, as the two, running in the van of the "Hose Company," splattered through a mud-puddle. "You'd think he was Carewe's only son and heir instead of his worst enemy. ...
— The Two Vanrevels • Booth Tarkington

... forced upon me. I can't help doing many things just now that I should avoid if I had my choice. I have undertaken to fight society by stratagem. For my own part, I would rather deal it a plain blow in the face, and bid it do its worst; ...
— Denzil Quarrier • George Gissing

... Cairns, "when every cadger thinks himself as good as an earl, it is more than desirable that not a single foothold should be lost. There must be a general election soon, my lord. Besides, these men abuse your lordship's late hospitality, declaring it has had the worst possible influence on ...
— Malcolm • George MacDonald

... protection against a good police, used with intelligence by the government, and supported by the law-abiding part of the community. The great haunts of brigands in Europe have been central and southern Italy and the worst-administered parts of Spain, except those which fell into the hands of the Turks. "Whenever numerous troops of banditti, multiplied by success and impunity, publicly defy, instead of eluding, the justice of their country, we may safely infer that ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 - "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" • Various

... blood. "The zeal of God's house absolutely consuming her" (Ps. lxviii. 101), she continued to traverse heathen lands in spirit, praying for a voice strong enough to proclaim to the extremity of the earth that her heavenly Spouse is worthy of the love and homage of every human heart. The worst torments of the martyrs would have seemed light to her if by them she could have gained these straying souls to her Lord. She besought God to inflict on her the last excess of pain, and that until the ...
— The Life of the Venerable Mother Mary of the Incarnation • "A Religious of the Ursuline Community"

... five worst infirmities that afflict the female are indocility, discontent, slander, jealousy, and silliness. The worst of them all, and the parent of the other four, is silliness. "Does that not sound familiar to thine ears? Life is serious here in thine ancestral home since we have taken to ourselves ...
— My Lady of the Chinese Courtyard • Elizabeth Cooper

... the camp was at an end; all preparations for musk-rat trapping were suspended, and all hands sallied forth to examine the trail. Their worst fears were soon confirmed. Infallible signs showed the unknown party in the advance to be white men; doubtless, some rival band of trappers! Here was competition when least expected; and that too by a party already in the advance, ...
— The Adventures of Captain Bonneville - Digested From His Journal • Washington Irving

... worst was over, but it was nearly the first of May before his strength permitted him to be turned out. Then ...
— Sister Carrie • Theodore Dreiser

... end either with the year of the birth of Christ, two years before the vulgar account, or with the year of his death, or with the seventh year after it: all which are sabbatical years. Others either count by Lunar years, or by weeks not Judaic: and, which is worst, they ground their interpretations on erroneous Chronology, excepting the opinion of Funccius about the seventy weeks, which is the same with ours. For they place Ezra and Nehemiah in the reign of Artaxerxes Mnemon, and the building ...
— Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John • Isaac Newton

... character of the past and the present. A generation that has seen American democracy become the propagandists of slavery assuredly ought not to be astonished at the spectacle of American Protestantism upholding the State religion of Mexico, and that religion embodying the worst abuses of the system of Rome. It was, perhaps, because he foresaw the possibility of this, that "the gray-eyed man of destiny," William Walker himself, was reconciled last year to the ancient Church, and received into her bosom. As a Catholic, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 30, April, 1860 • Various

... the very worst thing that he could have done—he hesitated. Instead of replying readily and firmly "I can," which he might have done without giving rise to harm, he stopped to ask himself how far, consistently with safety ...
— The Channings • Mrs. Henry Wood

... worst thing ever happened to us you wouldn't listen to mamma and be satisfied with being ...
— Humoresque - A Laugh On Life With A Tear Behind It • Fannie Hurst

... a doctor. She was pleased that Mr. Thornton seemed immediately to understand her feeling; he gave her the note without another word of explanation. Mr. Hale began to talk about the strike. Mr. Thornton's face assumed a likeness to his mother's worst expression, which immediately repelled the ...
— North and South • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

... over the East: the Sanskrit saying is "Kvachit kana bhaveta sadhus" now and then a monocular is honest. The left eye is the worst and the popular idea is, I have said, that the damage will come by ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 4 • Richard F. Burton

... numerous. There were other tales of "plague" ships wandering free with their dead crews, or discovered and shot into some sun by a patrol cruiser so that they might not carry their infection farther. Plague—the nebulous "worst" the Traders had to face. Dane screwed his eyes shut, tried to concentrate upon the droning voice in his ears, but he could not control ...
— Plague Ship • Andre Norton

... the worst punishment was to be handed over as servants (yakko) or condemned to shave their heads (teihatsu). Criminals who had no fixed domicile and who repeated their evil acts after expiration of a first sentence, were carried to the island of Tsukuda, ...
— A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era • Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi

... the Author often—did not see his own way out of the wood. But there is little harm in that. "If I do not know what is coming next," a modern novelist has remarked, "how can the public know?" Curiosity, at least, is likely to be excited by this happy-go-lucky manner of Scott's. "The worst of it is;" as he wrote to Lady Abercorn about his poems (June 9,1808), "that I am not very good or patient in slow and careful composition; and sometimes I remind myself of the drunken man, who could run long after he could not walk." Scott could certainly ...
— Guy Mannering, or The Astrologer, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott

... Potter. His face was pale and his lips quivered a little as he continued: "Ten Spot is the worst of Dunlavey's set," he said; "a dangerous, reckless taker of human life. He is quick on the trigger and a dead shot. He is called Ten Spot because of the fact that once, with a gun in each hand, he shot all the spots from a ten of hearts at ...
— The Coming of the Law • Charles Alden Seltzer

... to the carving on the stone sarcophagi. In addition, there are to be rooms and chambers in the lower story for the reception of her treasures. Beneath them she has had corridors made for the pitch and straw which, if the worst should come, are to be lighted. She will then give to the flames the gold and silver, gems and jewels, ebony and ivory, the costly spices—in short, all her valuables. The pearls alone are worth many kingdoms. Who can blame her if she prefers to destroy them ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... The worst of it, too, was that he appeared so far over from where the Shawanoe stood that lines connecting the three would have made almost a right angle. It looked as if the youth must be exposed to the enfilading fire of one ...
— The Lost Trail - I • Edward S. Ellis

... knowledge of the first of these, "identity or diversity," for here our intuition extends as far as our ideas, since we recognize every idea, as soon as it arises, as identical with itself and different from others. We are worst off in regard to "necessary connexion." We know something, indeed, concerning the incompatibility or coexistence of certain properties (e. g., that the same object cannot have two different sizes or colors at the same time; ...
— History Of Modern Philosophy - From Nicolas of Cusa to the Present Time • Richard Falckenberg

... deepen the thought in its impressiveness, that the cross of Christ it to be the pattern of our lives. It stands alone, thank God, for mighty power in its relation to the salvation of the world, and it stands alone in awful terror. You and I are, at the very worst, but at the edge of the storm which broke in all its dreadful fury over His head; we love to go but a little way down the hillside, while He descended to the very bottom; we love to drink but very little of the cup which He drained the last drop of and held it up empty and reversed, showing ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. John • Alexander Maclaren

... skins have had the worst of that," said he at last, as he arose and grasped his rifle; "but there is something going wrong, or we should have heard more of it. Follow ...
— The King's Warrant - A Story of Old and New France • Alfred H. Engelbach

... scoundrel, a renowned "bad man," a man of wild and reckless daring. He had been the terror of the countryside. A cattle-thief who feared neither man nor devil; a man who for twelve months and more had carried, his life in his hands, the sworn enemy of law and order, but who, in his worst moments, had never been known to injure a poor man or a woman. The wild blood of the half-breed that was in her had been stirred, as only a woman's blood can be, by his reckless dealings, his courage, effrontery, and withal his wondrous kindliness of disposition. She was thinking of this ...
— The Story of the Foss River Ranch • Ridgwell Cullum

... other girls believed that Philip Holt had stolen both their little friend and their new-found wealth, but because she had not sooner shared her suspicion of his mother's guest with him. Tom had never liked Philip, so it was easy for him to think the worst of the ...
— Madge Morton's Victory • Amy D.V. Chalmers

... what I told you. It has been, all along, impossible to convince him; impossible to reason with him; sometimes, impossible even to approach him. The worst has happened; and the House has fallen, never to be built ...
— Dombey and Son • Charles Dickens

... gouerne, that so oft as they once come in hope of a kingdome, they haue no regard either of right or wrong, God or the diuell, till they be in possession of their desired prey: he thought it not the worst point of wisedome to foresee that which might happen. For if he should chance to depart this life, and leaue his sons yoong, and not able to mainteine wars through lacke of knowledge, it might fortune them through the ambition of some to be defrauded and disappointed of their lawful inheritance. ...
— Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (5 of 12) - Henrie the Second • Raphael Holinshed

... outside the camp, and the sounds of quarrelling among the native attendants. Presently a man was brought into the zareeba, apparently unconscious; four men carried him, and a fifth—Umkopo—followed the procession, looking dark and forbidding; evidently in the worst ...
— Chatterbox, 1906 • Various

... formation, once a regular hog's-back, has been split by weather about the middle; and its southern end has been shaken down by earthquakes, and carved by wind and rain into precipices and pinnacles of crumbling sandstone, which form the 'Grey Cliffs.' Having heard at Patras the worst accounts of Zante since it passed under Greek rule, I was not a little surprised by the excellent condition of the roads and the ...
— To the Gold Coast for Gold - A Personal Narrative in Two Volumes.—Vol. I • Richard F. Burton

... but firm. Luckily, as she does it so often, it's becoming to her to look firm. (I have noticed that it's not becoming to most girls. It squares their jaws and makes their eyes snap.) But the spoiled daughter of the dead Cannon King at her worst, merely looks pathetically earnest and Minerva-like. This, I suppose, is one of the "little ways" she has acquired, since she gave up kicking and screaming people into submission. As Biddy says, the girl ...
— It Happened in Egypt • C. N. Williamson & A. M. Williamson

... a motive for your stand during the late hot discussion; and, as a matter of course, the community ascribes the worst that monikin ingenuity can devise. Such an oversight would ...
— The Monikins • J. Fenimore Cooper

... restless spirits, who longed for some field of distant enterprise wherein they might signalize themselves and aggrandize the state, and who looked on the alarm of Spartan hostility as a mere old-woman's tale. When Sparta had wasted their territory she had done her worst; and the fact of its always being in her power to do so seemed a strong reason for seeking to increase the ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 2 • Various

... not satisfied; but the worst he could do was to commit Harry to the care of Jacob Wire, which was ...
— Try Again - or, the Trials and Triumphs of Harry West. A Story for Young Folks • Oliver Optic

... here in this out-of-the-way corner, and suffered the Church question to run its course, without quitting my hold of the Establishment. And so I perhaps might. It is easy securing one's own safety, in even the worst of times, if one look no higher; and I, as I had no opportunity of mixing in the contest, or of declaring my views respecting it, might be regarded as an unpledged man. But the principles of the Evangelical party were my ...
— The Cruise of the Betsey • Hugh Miller

... medicines, always ready to laugh deeply and deliciously at his own crimes. Jim assumed a protective attitude toward him, chuckling at his predicaments, advising him, and even gallantly assuming the blame for his worst misdeeds. Rachael imagined them in boarding-school some day; in college; Jim the student, dragged from his books and window-seat to go to the rescue of the unfortunate but fascinating junior. Jim said ...
— The Heart of Rachael • Kathleen Norris

... needs be with tears. It is after these rare calls that I experience the only moments of depression from which I ever suffer, and then I am angry at myself, a well-nourished person, for allowing even a single precious hour of life to be spoil: by anything so indifferent. That is the worst of being fed enough, and clothed enough, and warmed enough, and of having everything you can reasonably desire—on the least provocation you are made uncomfortable and unhappy by such abstract discomforts as being shut out from a nearer approach ...
— Elizabeth and her German Garden • "Elizabeth", AKA Marie Annette Beauchamp

... more or less an entity, and the dark-haired, dark-eyed race who once held the country were in the position of a conquered and vassal people; for the times and the manners of those times well used by their conquerors, especially in the country of the Dorsaetas, where at the worst they were treated as useful slaves, and at the best the masters were but rustic imitators of their forerunners, the Romans. To the most careless observer a good proportion of the country people of Dorset are unusually swarthy and "Welsh" in appearance, though of the handsomer of the two ...
— Wanderings in Wessex - An Exploration of the Southern Realm from Itchen to Otter • Edric Holmes

... in an agony of humiliation and terror. "I came to warn you. Be cautious in your conduct, for the love of God. I am burning with shame, but there is no getting out from under the net. I shall have to tell them what I see, because if I did not there is my deacon. He would make the worst of things to curry favour. And then my son-in-law, the husband of my Parasha, who is a writer in the Government Domain office; they would soon kick him out—and maybe send him away somewhere." The old man lamented ...
— Under Western Eyes • Joseph Conrad

... to Mary Braddock: "She must be told everything to-night. It isn't safe to put it off. She is strong and she knows that I am staunch. Nothing else should matter. We don't know what to-morrow may bring, but she must be as fully prepared for the worst as we are. It isn't fair ...
— The Rose in the Ring • George Barr McCutcheon

... Greeks are so enraged against the Emperor of Germany for his behavior over Crete, that the priests have openly said in the churches that it is a great misfortune that the future King of Greece is married to the sister of Greece's worst enemy. ...
— The Great Round World And What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 22, April 8, 1897 - A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls • Various

... officers were willing to treat fellow beings, whose only crime was love of liberty, worse than the vilest animals; and indeed in every respect, with as much cruelty as is endured by the miserable inhabitants of the worst class of slave ships. * * * In the course of the war it has been asserted on good evidence, that 11,000 prisoners died on board the Jersey. * * * These unfortunate beings died in agony in the midst ...
— American Prisoners of the Revolution • Danske Dandridge

... been in the drawing-room long before Mrs. Futvoye appeared, and one glance at her face confirmed Ventimore's worst fears. Outwardly she was calm enough, but it was only too obvious that her calmness was the result of severe self-repression; her eyes, usually so shrewdly and placidly observant, had a haggard and ...
— The Brass Bottle • F. Anstey

... aware of Tom's growing importance, and Mrs. Furze was aware of it too. The worst of it was that Mr. Furze, at any rate, knew that he could not do without him. It is very galling to the master to feel that his power is slipping from him into the hands of a subordinate, and he is apt to assert himself by spasmodic attempts at ...
— Catharine Furze • Mark Rutherford

... Church—and in Butler's case it seemed only too likely that the precedent would be followed. Gladstone, when Prime Minister, once said to a Harrovian colleague, "What sort of Bishop would your old master, Dr. Butler, make?" "The very worst," was the reply. "He is quite ignorant of the Church, and would try to discipline his clergy like school-boys. But there is one place for which he is peculiarly qualified—the Mastership of Trinity." And the Prime Minister ...
— Prime Ministers and Some Others - A Book of Reminiscences • George W. E. Russell

... what they really are, but of the mental state of the people affected by them. Such a time had now come to the mistress of the Trellis House. For a while Mrs. Otway saw everything, heard everything, read everything, through a mist of aching pain and of that worst misery of all—the ...
— Good Old Anna • Marie Belloc Lowndes

... had suddenly drawn away from his embrace. She could stand no more of her little husband's pathetic hopes. She knew. She knew, with the rest of the camp, the hopelessness of his quest, and even in her worst moments she had not the heart to destroy his illusions. It was no good, the hopelessness of it all came more than ...
— The Twins of Suffering Creek • Ridgwell Cullum

... novels which she was too busy to get through in the season; there is the scamper from one country house to another, there are the flirtations to keep her hand in, the pets to be fed, the cousins to extemporize a mimic theatre, the curate—if worst comes to worst—to try a little ritualism upon. With these helps a country day, what with going to bed early and getting up late, may be frittered away as aimlessly as ...
— Modern Women and What is Said of Them - A Reprint of A Series of Articles in the Saturday Review (1868) • Anonymous

... said. "Take Dago with you. Break him in. Let him have the worst of it. If he makes good, all right. If ...
— A Woman at Bay - A Fiend in Skirts • Nicholas Carter

... improvements would be effected in metal construction, leading almost to the abolition of wooden structures. Although, however, a good deal of experimental work was done which resulted in overcoming at any rate the worst of the difficulties, metal-built machines were little used (except to a certain extent in Germany) chiefly on account of the need for rapid production and the danger of delay resulting from switching over from known and tried methods to experimental types ...
— A History of Aeronautics • E. Charles Vivian

... so real; and yet I was to lose her, and that man—a fiend in human form—was to wed her. I could do nothing. He had paralyzed my energies. He had set a command before me which was as ghastly as hell, and yet I dared not disobey. I, a young, strong man, was a slave—a slave of the worst kind. I was the plaything, the tool of a villain. I had to do as he told me; I had to refrain from doing what he told me I was not to do. I had done I knew not what. Perchance a hangman's rope was hanging near me even now. I could not tell. ...
— Weapons of Mystery • Joseph Hocking

... the worst that I had ever seen. I saw him often during the time he was afflicted, as he came to my store often after medicine. He purchased the "Discovery" and "Pellets" from me, and has been one of the strongest champions of your medicines, ...
— The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English • R. V. Pierce

... women necessarily come up against the worst in men. It is their fate: one of the balancing conditions perhaps to make things more even ...
— Winding Paths • Gertrude Page

... song to my worst enemy, I mean the merit of making it, to have you and Charlotte by me. You are angelic creatures, and would pour oil and wine ...
— The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. • Robert Burns and Allan Cunningham

... a favorite expression with a great many people. They understand by it a condition in the last degree deplorable. To "go to the dogs," is spoken of as being just about the worst thing that can happen to a poor fellow. I think differently, however. I wish from my heart, that some selfish persons whom I could name would go to the dogs. They would learn there, I am sure, what they have never learned before—most valuable lessons in gratitude, and affection, ...
— Stories about Animals: with Pictures to Match • Francis C. Woodworth

... for making the worst o' things,' said she, a little pacified, 'but folks shouldn't allays ...
— Sylvia's Lovers, Vol. II • Elizabeth Gaskell

... thoughts were not with her, and his smile was inspired by his thoughts. The man's mean, narrow face had nothing pleasant in it as he smiled. Some faces are like this. He was a degenerate of the worst type; for he was a man who had slowly receded from a life of refinement, and mental retrogression finds painful expression on such a face. A ruffian from birth bears less outward trace, for his type is natural ...
— The Watchers of the Plains - A Tale of the Western Prairies • Ridgewell Cullum

... facts that surround them; although these facts, as consequences of a political system, may be much less painful than those of other systems of which they have no knowledge. In the one case, they like their own best, simply because it is their own best; and they dislike their own worst, because it is their own worst. We cherish a taste, in the nature of things, without entering into any comparisons, for when the means of comparison offer, and we find improvements, it ceases to be a taste at all; while to complain of any ...
— Home as Found • James Fenimore Cooper

... to be met with in superstitious countries, these mydratic alkaloids are among the worst. They offer a chance for crimes of the most fiendish nature—worse than with the gun or the stiletto. They are worse because there is so little fear of detection. That crime is ...
— The Gold of the Gods • Arthur B. Reeve

... ever given before—the testimony of a martyr who could not hope to be a saint. But surely all this sudden tempest of candour in the man would not mean that he would burst into tears and become an exemplary ratepayer, like a villain in the worst parts of Dickens. The moment the danger was withdrawn, the sense of having given himself away, of having betrayed the secret of his infamous freemasonry, would add an indescribable violence and foulness to his reaction of rage. A man in such a case would do exactly as Sludge ...
— Robert Browning • G. K. Chesterton

... the living, when death has entered and removed the best friend, Fate has done her worst; the plummet has sounded the depths of grief, and thereafter nothing can inspire terror. At one fell stroke all petty annoyances and corroding cares are sunk into nothingness. The memory of a great love lives enshrined in undying amber. It affords a ballast 'gainst all the storms that ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 5 (of 14) • Elbert Hubbard

... posted major gains, especially in coastal areas near Hong Kong and opposite Taiwan, where foreign investment helped spur output of both domestic and export goods. On the darker side, the leadership has often experienced in its hybrid system the worst results of socialism (bureaucracy, lassitude, corruption) and of capitalism (windfall gains and stepped-up inflation). Beijing thus has periodically backtracked, retightening central controls at intervals. In late ...
— The 1999 CIA Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... have heard, for he was waiting, looked very white and worried, and Leather, one of the Duchess' drivers, started visibly as I was pulled out. I was told after that my complexion, or what could be seen of it, was ashen grey in colour and if my eyes had not been open they would have thought the worst. I was carried into the big hall and there my beloved Wuzzy found me. I heard a little whine and felt a warm tongue licking my face—luckily he had not been with ...
— Fanny Goes to War • Pat Beauchamp

... "Yes'm. The worst is, I think it's about me. Could I go out in the dressing-room to get my handkerchief, and see if they're on ...
— Jewel's Story Book • Clara Louise Burnham

... fearing the worst of consequences from the treachery of Heselrigge, I was hastening onward, determined to pursue my way on foot to the protection of my family, when, at the turning of an angle which leads to the Bothwell road, we were ...
— The Scottish Chiefs • Miss Jane Porter

... had been navigated up the rapids, but it remained a question how far steam navigation could be made a practical success. The trade was carried on by native craft, hauled up against the strength of the current in the worst places by a line of trackers on the bank. The great rise in the river during the summer months, at Ch'ungk'ing ordinarily 70 ft. and occasionally as much as 96 ft., added to the difficulties. The ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 3 - "Chitral" to "Cincinnati" • Various

... and more to look for a junction between Peel and Stanley. God forbid, however, that we should have two parties established upon the principles of a religious opposition to each other; it would be the worst of evils, and yet the times appear to threaten something of the sort. There is the gabble of 'the Church in danger,' the menacing and sullen disposition of the Dissenters, all armed with new power, and the restless and increasing turbulence of the Catholics, all ...
— The Greville Memoirs - A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV and King William IV, Vol. III • Charles C. F. Greville

... "What shall I do?" said the King's son. The maiden answered, "Thou must pass three nights in the great hall of this enchanted castle, but thou must let no fear enter thy heart. When they are doing their worst to torment thee, if thou bearest it without letting a sound escape thee, I shall be free. Thy life they dare not take." Then said the King's son, "I have no fear; with God's help I will try it." So he went gaily ...
— Household Tales by Brothers Grimm • Grimm Brothers

... his wardrobe. Truth to say, this needed replenishing—Leslie resembled a scarecrow clad in a suit of soiled pajamas. But by this time most of the shops had their shutters up. When the last one had been left behind O'Reilly spurred his horse into a gallop, relieved to know that the worst ...
— Rainbow's End • Rex Beach

... down upon Beethoven, and every piano was for him mute, and he, the maker of sweet sounds, could not hear his own voice, or catch the words that fell from the lips of those he loved, Fate seemed to have done her worst. ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 14 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Musicians • Elbert Hubbard

... comprehensive philosopher of history had any peculiar talent for practical diplomacy, or that he is to be regarded as a thorough Austrian in politics. For the nice practical problems of diplomacy, he was perhaps the very worst man in the world; and what Varnhagen states in the place just referred to, that Schlegel was, what we should call in England, far too much of a high churchman for Prince Metternich, is only too manifest from the well-known ecclesiastical ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 54, No. 335, September 1843 • Various

... he is; but, if he is, I 'm mistaken the worst sort. Maybe so, maybe so; but, if I am, I'll suffer by it; I'll be a Democrat if it turns out that Shields is a Whig, considerin' you shall be a Whig if he turns out ...
— The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Complete - Constitutional Edition • Abraham Lincoln

... down the pinnacle, watching nervously for snakes and lizards and horned toads and such denizens of the desert. With a certain instinct for preparing against the worst, she took a two-quart canteen, such as soldiers carry, to the spring, and filled it and slung it over her shoulder. She went to the cabin and made a couple of sandwiches, and because she was not altogether inhuman she ...
— Starr, of the Desert • B. M Bower

... upper levels half the night, oblivious alike of the narrow strip of stars that showed between the towering walls of twenty-first century New York, and the intermittent roar of traffic from the freight levels. Certainly this was the worst predicament of all those into which the fiendish contraptions of the great van Manderpootz had ...
— The Point of View • Stanley Grauman Weinbaum

... chests were being unbound in the corridor just outside of her Grace's door. Constance knew they contained an elaborate and costly layette; so she hurried to her own apartment and wrote in a disguised hand a billet that threw out the worst of insinuations, and as a finale she added a pasquinade copied hastily from some low and bitter lampoon. She returned through the corridor, and, unnoticed, thrust the paper into a crevice of one of the chests. But Katherine never saw the billet, she was not disturbed in the least, and her ladyship ...
— Mistress Penwick • Dutton Payne

... embarrassment, saw the imprudence of committing Lord Temple to expressions that supposed a state of things which did not actually exist, or which, if it should be brought about, would consign his letter to the "very worst hands into which it could fall." Lord Temple, in Dublin, harassed by delays, and surrounded by increasing difficulties in his Government, could not decide this point so clearly as Mr. Grenville in ...
— Memoirs of the Courts and Cabinets of George the Third - From the Original Family Documents, Volume 1 (of 2) • The Duke of Buckingham and Chandos

... from examining them very closely; but it is now time to do so. If there be no pass out of this valley, then are we indeed in trouble. These cliffs are five hundred feet in height—they are perfectly impassable by human foot. Come on! let us know the worst." ...
— The Plant Hunters - Adventures Among the Himalaya Mountains • Mayne Reid

... thought would have struck me at last. Seeing me enter the same carriage with him, with the obvious intention of keeping him under my eye, he threw himself back among the cushions and yielded himself with the worst ...
— The Passenger from Calais • Arthur Griffiths

... fill out their drink for them at table, as is the custom with all men of rank, or for other uses. When any of these panders die, although in their life they were received into the best company, they are now held unworthy to rest among the worst. A straw rope is put round their neck, and they are dragged through the streets into the fields, and cast on a dung-hill to be devoured by ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume IX. • Robert Kerr

... about it, if the worst comes, and we can't find a way out, we can signal from one of these holes ...
— In Search of the Okapi - A Story of Adventure in Central Africa • Ernest Glanville

... any truth in the representation that real religion and real politics alike consist in desiring and endeavoring to make terrestrial life (there is no celestial life of which aught is known) long and happy, the advocate of war is the worst of heretics against Christianism and the worst ...
— Communism and Christianism - Analyzed and Contrasted from the Marxian and Darwinian Points of View • William Montgomery Brown

... know why he attacked Harry," put in Tom. "But I couldn't stand it, and I took the chain away from him and told him to stop. Then he struck me, and we pitched into each other—and I guess he got the worst of it," ...
— The Rover Boys in Camp - or, The Rivals of Pine Island • Edward Stratemeyer

... that kind conciliate more affection to thyself, or more contempt toward others. Let not any thing of that kind be the rule of thy self judging, but rather entertain the view of the other side of thyself, that is the worst, and keep that most in thy eye, that thou may only glory in God. If thou be a gentleman, labour to be as humble in heart as thou thinkest a countryman or poor tenant should be, if thou be a scholar, be as low in thy own sight as the unlearned should ...
— The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning • Hugh Binning

... me. You think too meanly of me. You must not judge me by the worst of my race. Surely our country has produced a higher type of manhood than the men by whom you were tried ...
— Iola Leroy - Shadows Uplifted • Frances E.W. Harper

... difficulty with the Kafirs than they expected. It paid, however, a heavy toll in European life. Not one of the engineers and foremen escaped fever, and many died. The risk for those employed on the line is of course now much slighter, because the worst spots are known and there are now ...
— Impressions of South Africa • James Bryce

... uncontrollable. Smoke noted his temperature rising in a fever, and Labiskwee suffered similarly. Hour after hour the coughing spells increased in frequency and violence, and not till late afternoon was the worst reached. After that the mend came slowly, and between spells ...
— Smoke Bellew • Jack London

... insists, if the worst comes to the worst, run away, and come down here—I mean into the neighborhood. I have plenty of pocket-money, and drive my ponies just where I please. Margaret ...
— The Old Countess; or, The Two Proposals • Ann S. Stephens

... away from the crowd, left its old Mulberry Street home to be converted into tenements that justly earned the name of "dens of death" in the Health Department's records, while another became the foulest lodging house in an unclean city, and of how it was a church corporation that owned the worst underground dive down-town in those bad old days, and turned a deaf ear to all remonstrances. The Church was "angling for souls." But souls in this world live in bodies endowed with reason. The results of that kind of fishing were empty pews and cold hearts, and the conscience-stricken cry that ...
— The Battle with the Slum • Jacob A. Riis

... had misheard her last words. "When Tante is about?" she repeated. "You mean that dreadful things happen to her? That is one of the worst parts of it now, Mrs. Talcott—only that I am so selfish that I do not think of it enough—to know that I have added ...
— Tante • Anne Douglas Sedgwick

... home without him. But she will tell me nothing; so it is in vain to ask her. I am so fearful of plots and tricks, I know not what to do!—Every thing I suspect; for, now my disgrace is avowed, what can I think!—To be sure, the worst will be attempted! I can only pour out my soul in prayer to God, for his blessed protection. But, if I must suffer, let me not be long a mournful survivor!—Only let me not ...
— Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded • Samuel Richardson

... assented Gabriel. "That's the worst of it. Everything points to premeditation. And when a man ...
— The Chestermarke Instinct • J. S. Fletcher

... requested to call. Madame Guerard, who was sent for by my alarmed maid, came at once. I was feverish for two days. During this time the newspapers continued to pour out a flood of ink on paper. This turned to bitterness, and I was accused of the worst misdeeds. The committee sent a huissier to my hotel in the Avenue de Villiers, and this man declared that after having knocked three times at the door and having received no answer, he had left ...
— My Double Life - The Memoirs of Sarah Bernhardt • Sarah Bernhardt

... hear the worst," begged young Douglass cheerfully. "I have, just for the moment, the courage of ...
— Love at Paddington • W. Pett Ridge

... to pay tribute to the nurserymen of this Association. Most nurserymen are intelligent and honest but sometimes they have a tough time of it. Their worst competitor is a nurseryman who sells seedlings for named varieties, who advertises widely and prospers upon the work of others. When we think of the painstaking care of the honest nurseryman, of his days of drudgery, ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Thirty-Fourth Annual Report 1943 • Various

... the national interest can we bring our country through the troubled years that lie ahead. Our problems are critical. The tide is unfavorable. The news will be worse before it is better. And while hoping and working for the best, we should prepare ourselves now for the worst. ...
— State of the Union Addresses of John F. Kennedy • John F. Kennedy

... irrecoverable, irreversible, irretrievable, irreclaimable, irredeemable, irrevocable; ruined, undone; immitigable. Phr. "lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate" [Dante]; its days are numbered; the worst come to the worst; "no change, no pause, no hope, yet I endure" [Shelley]; "O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon" [Milton]; "mene mene ...
— Roget's Thesaurus • Peter Mark Roget

... still remain behind, Which might o'er listening patience still prevail. Did fancy waver not, nor daylight fail. "The Soldier's Wife," her toils, his battles o'er, "Love in a Shower," the riv'let's sudden roar; Then, "Lines to Aggravation" form the close, Parent of murders, and the worst of woes. But while the changeful hours of daylight flew, Some homeward look'd, and talk'd of evening dew; Some watch'd the sun's decline, and stroll'd around, Some wish'd another dance, and partners found; When in an instant every eye was drawn To one bright object on the ...
— May Day With The Muses • Robert Bloomfield

... and had a daughter, Jake's granddaughter, and this granddaughter was only about five years old when her father, Jake's son, was drowned. In the meantime, Jake married a woman, a widow with several children. This second Mrs. Canfield was a she-devil, one of the worst women I ever met in all my life, and her children were imps. You see, Jake had a little money, and they were down on his little granddaughter from the start, and here was where Jake's real troubles first ...
— Two Wonderful Detectives - Jack and Gil's Marvelous Skill • Harlan Page Halsey

... to herself that, given that intensity of silliness, of course the worst would come. She felt sick and helpless, and, practically, she had got the certitude she both wanted and dreaded. 'I don't know what has become of your mind,' she murmured; and she went to the door. But before she reached it ...
— A London Life; The Patagonia; The Liar; Mrs. Temperly • Henry James

... steeds that are The jibber is the worst by far. He stands and contemplates the scene— An ...
— A Horse Book • Mary Tourtel

... of England's worst kings. Henry, the Duke of Richmond, made war upon him and defeated him in ...
— Fifty Famous People • James Baldwin

... Martins, in Lower Pond Buildings, are the worst. No wonder, living in voluntary filth; but it is all over the street—will be all over the town unless there's some ...
— The Trial - or, More Links of the Daisy Chain • Charlotte M. Yonge

... her hand kindly upon the head of the little maid, and turning in the pride of her courage, now that she knew the worst, she spoke calmly to the other slaves who thronged in from the outer hall, some breathless with fear, others screaming in an agony ...
— Marzio's Crucifix and Zoroaster • F. Marion Crawford

... rule caused great excitement in Holland, and aroused much sympathy. Van Lynden was careful to avoid any steps which might give umbrage to England, and he was successful in his efforts. The Achin trouble was, however, still a cause of much embarrassment. Worst of all was the series of bereavements which at this time befell the House of Orange-Nassau. In 1877 Queen Sophie died, affectionately remembered for her interest in art and science, and her exemplary life. The king's brother, Henry, for thirty years ...
— History of Holland • George Edmundson

... has come! My mere avoidance of him has precipitated the worst issue—a declaration. I had occasion to go into the kitchen garden to gather some of the double ragged-robins which grew in a corner there. Almost as soon as I had entered I heard footsteps without. The door opened and shut, and I turned to behold him just ...
— A Changed Man and Other Tales • Thomas Hardy

... interesting story in verse, of riveting the attention through thousands of lines of poetry neither didactic nor argumentative. And of his separate passages, his patches of description and incident, when the worst has been said of them, it will remain true that, in their own way and for their own purpose, they cannot be surpassed. The already noticed comparison of any of Scott's best verse-tales with Christabel, which they formally imitated to some extent, and with the White Doe of Rylstone, ...
— Sir Walter Scott - Famous Scots Series • George Saintsbury

... right in the midst of the worst chestnut blight conditions. The only kinds I have that are not blighted are sprayed trees, and chestnuts of kind that resist the blight. I had twenty-six kinds from different parts of the world to test out in the blight question. One kind from Manchuria ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association, Report of the Proceedings at the Seventh Annual Meeting • Various

... in some sense it was also our fault, that we were bound to uphold the worst system of slavery that ever was known among men; for we must judge of every wrong that is perpetrated by the circumstances that are connected with it, and our oppression of the African race was peculiarly offensive, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 61, November, 1862 • Various

... the worst of the fearful march was over, and the Crusaders lay before Constantinople, travel-stained, half-starved and wan, but at rest. The great open space of undulating ground before the wall that joined the Golden ...
— Via Crucis • F. Marion Crawford

... worst of all these light wantons was Dorothea Stettin, from whom I received the sub-prioret, because, as your Grace heard, she held unchaste discourse during her illness, and, therefore, is as much suited to be sub-prioress as a jewel ...
— Sidonia The Sorceress V2 • William Mienhold

... more bloody purpose. Having put sixty miles between them and the site of the attack, they left their horses and started in search of their main body. This search led them into Fremont's camp. Fuentes feared that the worst had overtaken his wife. Pablo already looked upon himself as an orphan boy. He doubted not that the bloody savages had murdered both his father and mother. It was a sad picture to witness their grief. ...
— The Life and Adventures of Kit Carson, the Nestor of the Rocky Mountains, from Facts Narrated by Himself • De Witt C. Peters

... then I go and cut its throat and eat it up. When we were children, we had a pony which had to be killed, and the people in the East End ate it." She drew her long kid gloves from her hands without removing them from her arms. "People eat dogs, too. I adore dogs. But the worst thing is the frightful, endless shedding of blood which human meat-eaters deem necessary for their preservation. Think of all the butchers in the world, think of those immense slaughter-houses in Chicago and other places where the machine-like, wholesale murder of innocent animals is ...
— Atlantis • Gerhart Hauptmann



Words linked to "Worst" :   shell, superlative, crush, vanquish, evilness, bad, inferior, beat out, final result, at worst, best, pessimum, last, outcome, attempt, effort, resultant, at the worst, try, beat, result, trounce, lowest, termination



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