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Keep off   /kip ɔf/   Listen
Keep off

verb
1.
Refrain from certain foods or beverages.  Synonym: avoid.  "During Ramadan, Muslims avoid tobacco during the day"
2.
Refrain from entering or walking onto.  Synonym: stay off.  "Stay off the premises"






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Keep off" Quotes from Famous Books



... gray one bounded aside, his head out of sight for a moment in the flash of quick movement. Spot reeled and showed a bleeding flank. Urged on by the men, he assaulted again, but only to get another wound that taught him to keep off. ...
— Animal Heroes • Ernest Thompson Seton

... when I'd got her out in the garden, that day, for a bit of quiet, and she began on her plans for the villages to be taxed for nurses and doctors, to keep off sickness! ...
— The Strange Cases of Dr. Stanchon • Josephine Daskam Bacon

... and be so constituted chemically as not to be oxidizable by it; if under water—especially sea water—to be impermeable to moisture, so elastic as not to crack, so insoluble as not to chloridize; to form a perfect, apparently hard, coating: and yet wear just enough to keep off incrustation, barnacles, or growth of grass. In fact, this slow wearing away is the only preventive of fouling in iron vessels. Wooden bottoms may be poisoned by solutions of copper—and that metal ...
— Scientific American, Vol.22, No. 1, January 1, 1870 • Various

... what, madame, you must take a little cognac to keep off the chills of age. I have some of the best, and will send you down a demijohn, if you say the word; and in return you shall pray for me. I am a great ...
— Miriam Monfort - A Novel • Catherine A. Warfield

... it, or but two or three at the most. The people lived in the most perfect solitude, rarely seeing any but the members of their own households. Solitude and danger made them superstitious, and the absence of schools kept them in ignorance. They drank to keep off the blues, and when they came together for amusement they made the most of their opportunities, and plunged into the most violent sports, which were not always kept within the bounds of propriety. Churches were as scarce as schools, and until ...
— Great Fortunes, and How They Were Made • James D. McCabe, Jr.

... at her service, and they sauntered across. In her hand the girl carried a closed umbrella she had been using to keep off the sun. ...
— Bucky O'Connor • William MacLeod Raine

... "Keep off!" cried the porter, springing suddenly to his feet. "Don't touch me, I say. Poisoning myself! I have taken three rufuses, or pestilential pills; two spoonfuls of alexiteral water; the same quantity of anti-pestilential ...
— Old Saint Paul's - A Tale of the Plague and the Fire • William Harrison Ainsworth

... turns and windings, at last they proceeded to the college of St Paul; and there set down the coffin, in the great chapel of the church. A retrenchment had been made before the chapel, to keep off the crowd; but it was immediately broken down, notwithstanding the opposition of the guards, which were placed on purpose to defend it. To appease the tumult, they were forced to shew the saint three times successively, and to hold him upright, that ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Volume XVI. (of 18) - The Life of St. Francis Xavier • John Dryden

... organic progress, falls upon the mother. But even amongst the fishes we find that sometimes, as in the case of the stickleback, the father helps the mother to build a sort of nest, and does "sentry-go" outside it to keep off marauders. In this common care of the young we see what is in all essentials marriage, though some may prefer to dignify the word by confining it to those human associations which have been blessed by Church and State, even though the father throws the ...
— Woman and Womanhood - A Search for Principles • C. W. Saleeby

... land. Parrots chattered in the trees, and sometimes a serpent glided across the red sand road. Unfortunately, flies were so numerous and so tormenting that, even with the help of a green branch, we could not keep off the swarms, and around the horses' eyes were dozens of them. Several menacing hornets also troubled us. They are there so fierce that they can easily sting a man ...
— Through Five Republics on Horseback • G. Whitfield Ray

... I want you to sit down and write a long letter, and give me an account of the affair, charging it to the Indians. You sign the letter as Farmer to the Indians, and direct it to me as Indian Agent. I can make use of such a letter to keep off damaging and troublesome inquiries." He then said: "If only men had been killed, I would not have cared so much. I suppose the men were a bad set, but it is hard to kill women and children for the sins of the men. I must have time to ...
— The Mormon Menace - The Confessions of John Doyle Lee, Danite • John Doyle Lee

... Wazir who was dying of envy and who was especially saddened by what had befallen his son, said to himself, "How shall one like this wed the King's daughter and my son lose this highmost honour?" Accordingly, he answered his Sovran speaking privily, "O my lord, 'tis an easy[FN153] matter to keep off a poor devil such as this, for he is not worthy that thy Highness give his daughter to a fellow whom none knoweth what he may be." "By what means," enquired the Sultan, "shall we put off the man when I pledged my promise; and the word ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 3 • Richard F. Burton

... y a, mon ami?" said Calvert, touching a man on the shoulder who had been pushed close to the sleigh. The man addressed looked around. He was poorly and thinly clothed, with only a ragged muffler knotted about his throat to keep off the stinging cold. From under his great shaggy eyebrows a pair of wild, sunken eyes gleamed ferociously, but there was a smile upon ...
— Calvert of Strathore • Carter Goodloe

... for it away down here in the Apache country? How could they get machinery down here? Why, a regiment of soldiers couldn't keep off the redskins, and every pound of gold would cost two pounds before you could get ...
— The Talking Leaves - An Indian Story • William O. Stoddard

... the way and set the intervals of the carrying. When he swung the canoe from his shoulders the others slipped their tump-lines. Then all rubbed their faces with the broad caribou-leaf to keep off the early flies, and lay back, arms extended, breathing deep, resting like boxers between the rounds. Once at the top of the ridge Dick climbed a tree. He did this, not so much in expectation of seeing the water-courses themselves, as to judge by the general lay of the country where ...
— The Silent Places • Stewart Edward White

... at them when there was a flare on the edge of the slope above. He glanced up and saw a couple of men in the moonlight. They bore burning green branches, and waved them to and fro to keep off the clouds of mosquitoes which danced about them. From the midst of the smoke came a voice. "In ten minutes more the first hour will have gone and the first ...
— Jack Haydon's Quest • John Finnemore

... Jemima's maid, off quite, and so she went away and another came to her. To White Hall with Mr. Moore, where I met with a letter from Mr. Turner, offering me L150 to be joined with me in my patent, and to advise me how to improve the advantage of my place, and to keep off Barlow. To my Lord's till late ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys

... exterior, however, some eccentricities lay hidden that the crew did not always find amusing. Hearing a noise of splashing in the water by the ship's side, Mrs. Stevenson found on inquiry that it was the captain taking his regular morning bath while surrounded by a circle of sailors to keep off the sharks. When she asked him if he did not think it selfish to expose the sailors to the danger in order to protect himself, he answered: "No, for if the captain should be lost think how much worse it would be for all on board than if it were ...
— The Life of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson • Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez

... in my head," said the old maid. "I have watched him for the last four or five days. If you could have kept the truth to yourself and bade him keep off from you, he would have been at your feet now, licking the dust ...
— The Parson's Daughter of Oxney Colne • Anthony Trollope

... avoid some chevaux de frise of white-headed snags sunk in the current with giant uptossing limbs. Floating trees came down resistlessly on the spring rise, demanding that all craft should beware of them; caving banks, in turn, warned the boats to keep off; and always the mad current of the stream, never relaxing in vehemence, laid on the laboring boats the added weight of its mountain of waters, gaining in volume for nearly ...
— The Magnificent Adventure - Being the Story of the World's Greatest Exploration and - the Romance of a Very Gallant Gentleman • Emerson Hough

... It was hard to keep off the Britt affair, but the notary tactfully kept away from the sore ...
— When Egypt Went Broke • Holman Day

... unspeakably depressing to her. Yet all this was precisely what she could not say. The long period of probation, during which, as she knew, she would have to amuse him, to guard him, to hold him, and to keep off the other women, was a necessary part of their situation. She was sure that, as little Breckenridge would have said, she could "pull it off"; but she did not want to think about it. What she would have preferred would ...
— The Glimpses of the Moon • Edith Wharton

... scarcely a gap, scarcely a stalk missing from the mile-long rows of the broad fields. Then, the rainfall had not been so profuse as to develop foliage at the bolls' expense, as was too frequently the case on the river. Yet it had been plenteous enough to keep off the "rust," from which the dryer upland plantations were now suffering. Neither the "boll-worm" nor the dreaded "army-worm" had molested the river-fields; so the tall pyramidal plants were thickly set with ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, October, 1877, Vol. XX. No. 118 • Various

... next five hundred years. And there they were all living up in trees, and making nests to keep off the rain. And underneath the trees ...
— The Water-Babies - A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby • Charles Kingsley

... "Keep off!" Dave warned him, swinging his paddle over his head. "You jump over here and you'll catch this where Kellup caught the hen—right in the neck! You let us alone and we'll ...
— Wyn's Camping Days - or, The Outing of the Go-Ahead Club • Amy Bell Marlowe

... want the roof very heavy," said Russ, "'cause then if it falls in on us, as our snow house roof did once, it won't hurt us. All we want is something to keep off ...
— Six Little Bunkers at Cousin Tom's • Laura Lee Hope

... falls at stated intervals) coming always from the North, is an additional assistance; and in the towns we have the guidance of the houses, which of course have their side-walls running for the most part North and South, so that the roofs may keep off the rain from the North. In the country, where there are no houses, the trunks of the trees serve as some sort of guide. Altogether, we have not so much difficulty as might be expected ...
— Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Illustrated) • Edwin A. Abbott

... hasten here to take care of me," she murmured in a tone of mingled regret and gratitude. "Do lie down now and take a nap. This couch is soft and pleasant, and I will close the blinds and sit by your side to keep off the flies." ...
— Elsie's Girlhood • Martha Finley

... six. Most of the captured vessels, however, were subsequently lost at sea through stress of weather; four only were saved and carried to Gibraltar. "Our own infirm ships," says Collingwood, "could scarce keep off the shore: the prizes were left to their fate; and as they were driven very near the port, I ordered them to be destroyed, that there might be no risk of their again falling into the hands of the enemy." Thus ended the greatest naval victory recorded in history, whether in ancient ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... unlike "Keep off the grass" ones of the West, were set up here and there, showing a Chinese holding. With or without government aid the Chinese are coming in. They get land from the Mongols very much, I imagine, as did the first English settlers in America, buying for a song what the owner does not know he ...
— A Wayfarer in China - Impressions of a trip across West China and Mongolia • Elizabeth Kendall

... "Yes; it will keep off the horrors; it's like a romance, and now it does not seem to be true. And yet it is, and it happened just as if it were only yesterday. I never thought of coming out here. I was ...
— To Win or to Die - A Tale of the Klondike Gold Craze • George Manville Fenn

... in the forest an old cowherd, who happened that morning to have work to do not far from the pit where William lived with the wolf. He took with him a big dog, which helped him to collect the cows when they wandered, and to keep off any strange beasts that threatened to attack them. On this particular morning there were no cows, so the dog ran hither and thither as he would, enjoying himself mightily, when suddenly he set up a loud barking, as if he had found a prey, and ...
— The Red Romance Book • Various

... line and buoy to the body, its whereabouts is easily discerned from the lookout on the headland; the boats again put off and tow it ashore to the trying-out works. The killers, though they have had their fill of blubber, accompany the boats to the head of the bay and keep off the sharks, which would otherwise strip off all the remaining blubber from the carcass before it had reached the shore. But once the boats are in the shallow water the killers stop, and then with a final 'puff! puff!' of farewell to their human friends, ...
— Ridan The Devil And Other Stories - 1899 • Louis Becke

... time, when they three, the Commandant, the doctor and himself, sat at a little table arranged just outside the hut, that they might catch the faint breeze from the mountains, herald of the swift-falling darkness. Native servants beat the air around them with bamboo fans to keep off the insects, and the air was faint almost to noxiousness with the perfume of ...
— The Great Impersonation • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... until she has seen him," returned Van Swieten, sadly. "It seems as if she had power to keep off death until the last aim of her being has been reached. Oh, it is fearful to see a soul of such fire and resolution in a ...
— Joseph II. and His Court • L. Muhlbach

... their applications, until our hero espying his friends Gauntlet and Pipes stepping over a stile that stood about a furlong from the window, called them to his assistance: giving them to understand how he was besieged, he desired they would keep off his mother, that he might the more easily secure his sister Julia's retreat. The young soldier entered accordingly, and, posting, himself between Mrs. Pickle and the door, gave the signal to his friend, who, lifting up his sister in his arms, carried her safe without the ...
— The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Volume I • Tobias Smollett

... Dutch to-night when we went up to her flat to bring her out. Her old man and her sister were there with some nut, and they didn't want her to go. But Baxter "lamped" her, and she fell for his eyes and sneaked out anyway. You better keep off, Jimmie, for you don't look like a college boy—and that's the gag Baxter's been giving her. She thinks she's going to a dance at the Yale Club next week. It's harder game than the last one, but we'll get it fixed to-night. You better send word ...
— Traffic in Souls - A Novel of Crime and Its Cure • Eustace Hale Ball

... take care of Daisy. We will meet and lunch at the first bridge." Then, examining his line and finding the cricket still there, he turned up his coat collar to keep off sunburn, opened his book, and knocked ...
— In the Quarter • Robert W. Chambers

... speech, which yet is clever of its kind, she began to relax in her grimness from the moment when she made this allusion to the surgery; and we turned to speculate on the way in which Mrs Jamieson would receive the news. The person whom she had left in charge of her house to keep off followers from her maids to set up a follower of her own! And that follower a man whom Mrs Jamieson had tabooed as vulgar, and inadmissible to Cranford society, not merely on account of his name, but ...
— Cranford • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

... big in the face of the less; and the infinitessimal clap their wings when they make a comparison with nothing. The congregation at Christ Church won't mix itself up; is fond of "distance"; says, in a genteely pious tone, "keep off"; can't be approached beyond a certain point; isn't sociable; won't stand any hand-shaking except is its own peculiar circles. We know a person who has gone for above 20 years to one of our Methodist chapels, and yet nobody has ever said, on either entering ...
— Our Churches and Chapels • Atticus

... as religiously as priestesses at an altar, or as primitive men building up a fire to keep off wild animals. Only under such conditions does one fully experience that elemental worship of fire. It ...
— Land of the Burnt Thigh • Edith Eudora Kohl

... rot, and I don't blame 'em. When they think it over, they'll get drunker than ever, and they'll even up with you later. You've got to learn more than you've learned already. Feelings are private property and outsiders better keep off. Come home to dinner. You look like a pricked bladder. This here gassing 'bout things what ain't worthwhile don't pay. Here, lean on me. It's all gol-durned nonsense using yourself ...
— Joyce of the North Woods • Harriet T. Comstock

... practically finished, when, as M. Paul Morillot has put it, he determined to hoist the Greek flag as a safeguard. He made a French translation of the sketches of Theophrastus, and he put this at the head of his book, waving it to keep off the public, as a lady unfurls her parasol at a ...
— Three French Moralists and The Gallantry of France • Edmund Gosse

... "dope" used in the woods to keep off mosquitoes is called oil of citronella. It has a very pungent odour that the mosquitoes do not like and the chances are that you will not like it either. At the same time it may be a good plan to ...
— Outdoor Sports and Games • Claude H. Miller

... across Maharaj he had taken up his quarters temporarily in the mango tope opposite the bungalow. He was pouring dust upon his head and blowing it over his back, both because he enjoyed a dust bath and because it helped to keep off the flies. With the quick perception of a boy, Alec noticed he had used up all the dust within reach, so he got him a few hatfuls from the roadside, for which he was very grateful, and immediately sent a sand blast over his back that annihilated quite ...
— Adventures in Many Lands • Various

... Afterwards we'll settle with the husband for the price of possession; he has only a squatter's rights. Come along; we'll have bad weather before we get back round the Point again, but so much the better, for it will keep off any inquisitive longshore cruisers." ...
— Sally Dows and Other Stories • Bret Harte

... Parker's division, keeping between his lines until the enemy opened their fire on him: we keeping on towards the pier, until I was aground in the headmost boat; then opened our fire, and threw about eight shells into it. But, from the strength of the tide coming out of the harbour, was not able to keep off the pier-head; but continued our fire on the camp until the enemy's fire had totally slackened, and Captain Parker's division had passed without me. I beg leave to mention to your lordship, that I was ably supported by the other boats. Captain Broome, and Lieutenant Beem, of the ...
— The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Vol. II (of 2) • James Harrison

... has it, as far as we are advised, been found to be greatly otherwise elsewhere. The national character given to the Bank of England has not prevented excessive fluctuations in their currency, and it proved unable to keep off a suspension of specie payments, which lasted for nearly a quarter of a century. And why should we expect it to be otherwise? A national institution, though deriving its charter from a different source than the State banks, is ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... cried Gareth. So Sir Launcelot knighted Gareth, who, bidding him farewell, hastened after the damsel, for she had ridden on again while the two knights talked. When she saw him coming, she cried: "Keep off! ye smell of the kitchen!" "Damsel," said Sir Gareth, "I must follow until I have fulfilled the adventure." "Till ye accomplish the adventure, Turn-spit? Your part in it shall soon be ended." "I can only do my best," ...
— The Junior Classics, V4 • Willam Patten (Editor)

... past her into space, his tight-shut jaw standing out saliently. "You're right, Virginia. I've been thinking so myself. I'll keep off the grass," he ...
— Ridgway of Montana - (Story of To-Day, in Which the Hero Is Also the Villain) • William MacLeod Raine

... away on its posterior legs, gibbering noiselessly at you with the horny mandibles of its impish mouth, and waving its arms distractedly in the air like a frightened and hysterical woman trying to keep off ...
— Campaigning in Cuba • George Kennan

... as much as he can, to give the fruit the fullest ventilation; but when they have reached the top of the trellis, tie them along it and let them ramble as they please. They will thus form a natural roof over the fruit, keep off all injurious dews, and shade the grapes from above. There is nothing more pleasing to the eye than a vineyard in September, with its wealth of dark green foliage above, and its purple clusters of fruit beneath, coyly peeping ...
— The Cultivation of The Native Grape, and Manufacture of American Wines • George Husmann

... Nina. Keep off, you wretch! What did you say just now? "I've loved you long, and ne'er have said so much to any ...
— Olla Podrida • Frederick Marryat

... know what would bring back Sally Oates's breath, if he didn't know a fine sight more than that? The Wise Woman had words that she muttered to herself, so that you couldn't hear what they were, and if she tied a bit of red thread round the child's toe the while, it would keep off the water in the head. There were women in Raveloe, at that present time, who had worn one of the Wise Woman's little bags round their necks, and, in consequence, had never had an idiot child, as Ann Coulter had. Silas Marner could very likely do as much, and more; and ...
— Silas Marner - The Weaver of Raveloe • George Eliot

... how any one can," Michael said. "It is all so exquisitely evident. The desolation must be so terrifying, like living in this lonely spot with no watch-dogs to keep off evil-doers. It takes great courage to live on one's own strength, one's ...
— There was a King in Egypt • Norma Lorimer

... graciously lent me his own overcoat, the night being bitterly cold; the officers of the Scots Guards not only invited me to dine with them, but one of them supplied me with a rug, whilst another pressed on me the loan of his mackintosh "to keep off the dew," and thus enwrapped I lay once more on the bare ground, well sheltered behind a sheet of corrugated iron, which I fortunately found stuck on end as though put there by some unknown Boer benefactor for my special benefit. In fashion ...
— With the Guards' Brigade from Bloemfontein to Koomati Poort and Back • Edward P. Lowry

... are often a torture to a nervous horse. There are several good preparations for sale to rub on horses and cattle to keep off the flies. A fly net is also a great protection. A wet handkerchief, tied over the top of a horse's head, will sometimes prevent prostration from heat. In the south of France horses often wear hats in the summer, when they are in the hot sun. A wet sponge or a cabbage ...
— Friends and Helpers • Sarah J. Eddy

... to move in a southeasterly direction instead of continuing southwest on to the capital, leaving a strong rear guard along the line of the River Ourcq (which flows south of and joins the Marne at Lizy-sur-Ourcq) to keep off the French Sixth Army, which by then had been formed and was to the northwest of Paris. They were evidently executing what amounted to a flank march ...
— America's War for Humanity • Thomas Herbert Russell

... Captin. Then there was the pretty Welch Milk Maids, in their chimbley-pot Hats, and their funny-looking custooms, all a being drawn by six horses, and having some Bards and Arpers to take care on 'em, and lend 'em humberrellars to keep off the rain. Ah! won't they have sum nice little stories to tell all their frends when they gits back to Whales, inclewding their singing of wun of their hold Welch songs afore the LORD MARE and all his nobel gests in the evening. No wonder that they was so estonished and bewillderd that they quite ...
— Punch, Or the London Charivari, Volume 101, November 21, 1891 • Various

... your friends most damnably dull and wearisome; mad enough to wonder why I ever suffered you to remain so long beneath my roof; mad enough to believe you a pack of curs and cowards, and mad enough to treat you as such. Keep off, Tracy, you ...
— The Unspeakable Gentleman • John P. Marquand

... Queen, of and for Liverpool, from the Brass river, with oil and ivory. Keep off, or I will fire into you! I warn you that we are armed, and are quite ...
— The Pirate Slaver - A Story of the West African Coast • Harry Collingwood

... chose a little spot with hills about it to keep off the wind. They made a house out of stones; for there were many in that place. They lived there that winter. The sea for a long way out from shore froze so that it looked like white land. The men went out upon it to hunt white bear and seal. They ate the meat and wore the ...
— Viking Tales • Jennie Hall

... outside, lined with the softest fat, enveloped in a tissue compared with which the finest silk is only canvas, and the cavity is shaped so as exactly to fit the eye, while the brow projects over like a roof of a veranda, to keep off falling dust and rain from injuring it while the lid is open; and the eyebrows, like a thatch sloping outward, conduct the sweat of the brow, by which a man earns his bread, away around the outer cover, that it may not enter the eye and ...
— Fables of Infidelity and Facts of Faith - Being an Examination of the Evidences of Infidelity • Robert Patterson

... in full regimentals, apprehensive lest he should come in contact with a chimney-sweep that was pressing towards him, exclaimed, "Keep off, you black rascal."—"You were as black as me before ...
— The Jest Book - The Choicest Anecdotes and Sayings • Mark Lemon

... sent him forth to find the Holy Grail. Years went by and awful trials and temptations came to Sir Galahad. He did not yield to the bad things that came, but kept looking for the Holy Grail. At last he held the cross before his face to keep off his tormentors when before his eyes he saw the cup, and the power of the Holy Grail ...
— The Children's Book of Celebrated Pictures • Lorinda Munson Bryant

... inferior race—the Neandermen. They could not carve beasts on ivory nor paint, but could make very good and well "dressed" flint weapons, and could make large fires in and about the caves, both to cook their meat and to keep off the wild beasts (lions, bears, and hyenas), who contended with the strange, low-browed Neandermen for the use ...
— More Science From an Easy Chair • Sir E. Ray (Edwin Ray) Lankester

... he when mutilated. Big as an elephant's thigh, and with flesh like some black-blooded bullock of ocean breed, his unsavoury meat attracts a most repulsive assemblage, not only of customers, but of flies and wasps, which no flapping will keep off from his grumous liver. The sword-fish cuts up into large bloodless slices, which look on the stall like so many fillets of very white veal, and might pass for such, but that the head and shoulders are fixed upon a long lance, high above ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXII. - June, 1843.,Vol. LIII. • Various

... "Yes, monsieur," he noticed that one of the Englishmen had opened his umbrella in order to keep off ...
— Maupassant Original Short Stories (180), Complete • Guy de Maupassant

... accordingly gave orders to his men to retreat, that they might reach a narrow pass about a league and a half from the field of battle, where they would be secure against attack, as in that place two Spaniards on foot were able to keep off the whole army of the Araucanians. He accordingly issued orders to his soldiers to retreat to that narrow defile, passing the word from rank to rank, with directions to turn and make head occasionally against the enemy. At this time Valdivia was attended ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 5 • Robert Kerr

... continue its march until five in the afternoon. The night was so warm that the English prisoners, and many of their guards, preferred lying down in the open and throwing the blanket (with which each had been furnished) over him to keep off the dew, to going into the stuffy cottages, where the fleas would give them ...
— Under Wellington's Command - A Tale of the Peninsular War • G. A. Henty

... to obtain victuals. There the wild Bhils, famous for long years, will come up, and surrounding the party, will bid the Raja throw down his arms. Thereupon Mahabul, skilful in aiming, twanging and wielding the bow on all sides, so as to keep off the bolts of the enemy, will discharge his bolts so rapidly, that one will drive forward another, and none of the barbarians will be able to approach. But he will have failed to bring his quiver containing an inexhaustible ...
— Vikram and the Vampire • Sir Richard F. Burton

... do. Latitude 25 deg. 48', we did our best to keep off the land, which extended North-north-west and East-south-east. The land looked like the west-coast of England with many reddish rocks; out at sea there were plenty of cliffs and sunken rocks; at noon the wind went round to South-west afterwards to the south; we held our course ...
— The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765 • J. E. Heeres

... and oblivious ones under umbrellas! It rains, but the umbrellas keep off the rain. The world pours its distinctions and elations over their souls, but other umbrellas, invisible, keep off distractions and elations. And each of them, scurrying along outside the window ...
— A Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago • Ben Hecht

... Deer Isle, east of Penobscot Bay; but most of the time he fishes and lobsters from Tarpaulin Island, ten miles south of Isle au Haut. Last month, just after he had started the season in good shape, he was taken down with rheumatism, and the doctor has ordered him to keep off the water for three months. Now that island is one of the best stands for fish and lobsters on the Maine coast. Somebody's going to use it this summer. Why shouldn't we? If we have reasonably good luck, we can clear up two hundred and fifty dollars ...
— Jim Spurling, Fisherman - or Making Good • Albert Walter Tolman

... perhaps you'll never deserve punishment and then you will never know what it would have been. Indeed, I'm not sure myself, but if you don't keep off those Front Stairs we'll both of us ...
— Marjorie's Vacation • Carolyn Wells

... and Quimbo up here, to sing and dance one of their hell dances, and keep off these horrid notions," said Legree; and, putting on his hat, he went on to the verandah, and blew a horn, with which he commonly summoned ...
— Uncle Tom's Cabin • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... fencing, in which the stakes were not continuous, but set at intervals, so that those who approached could see and hold converse with him. And they had constructed for him a small roof over his head, sufficient to keep off the rain and snow. There this man had been sitting for a long time, never yielding either to heat or cold, and sustaining his life with certain seeds, which he was accustomed to eat, not indeed every day, but only at long intervals. Now some of the ...
— History of the Wars, Books I and II (of 8) - The Persian War • Procopius

... pace, and soon to stop entirely. The crowd formed an impassable barrier against which they were pressed so closely by those behind that Dolores was nearly suffocated, and Coursegol, to protect her, placed her before him, extending his arms to keep off the excited throng. ...
— Which? - or, Between Two Women • Ernest Daudet

... so," answered R——, "but I wish you would act after the same fashion; for here's a salmon I ordered to be cured at Larvig, for the purpose of sending to England as a present; and just because not one man would take the trouble to throw a piece of tarpaulin over it last night, to keep off the ...
— A Yacht Voyage to Norway, Denmark, and Sweden - 2nd edition • W. A. Ross

... just rub a wee drappie on the pawms of my hands to keep away the frost-bite, for its awsome cold, man. Now away wi' ye, and take tent, laddie, keep off ...
— Tales from Many Sources - Vol. V • Various

... taken for the preservation of delicate blossoms. Emperor Huensung, of the Tang Dynasty, hung tiny golden bells on the branches in his garden to keep off the birds. He it was who went off in the springtime with his court musicians to gladden the flowers with soft music. A quaint tablet, which tradition ascribes to Yoshitsune, the hero of our Arthurian legends, is still extant in one of the Japanese monasteries [Sumadera, ...
— The Book of Tea • Kakuzo Okakura

... ladylike," grinned the outlaw, "I told him Cinnabar was a friend of mine an' he was to keep off him, but Purdy, he's plumb disregardful of advice. Anyways, the woman's safe. Purdy's figurin' on leavin' her there while he dickers fer ...
— Prairie Flowers • James B. Hendryx

... with you, Miss Lady," the Stray pleaded, as he ran along beside me, trying to keep up with my long steps. "I've got me a dog now to keep off turkles from me and you." And the slinking brindle bunch of ears and tail and very little else, at our heels, regarded me with the same brave entreaty. He and the Stray, indeed, presented a picture of chivalrous attention as they stood ...
— The Heart's Kingdom • Maria Thompson Daviess

... agreeable to one is said to constitute one's happiness. Similarly, that which is disagreeable to one is said to constitute one's misery.—By this I shall obtain happiness and keep off misery—from a sentiment like this flow all religious acts. The efforts for the acquisition of Knowledge, however, arise from a sentiment for avoiding both happiness and misery.[652] The ordinances about sacrifices and other observances, ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 - Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 • Unknown

... stayed down in the drawing-room for hours. But he found out nothing, only that the cold struck, even through the mat, from the stone floor, and that he was chilly enough, when he went to bed in his pantry, to require a liqueur of brandy to keep off ...
— The Dark House - A Knot Unravelled • George Manville Fenn

... Mrs. Thayer returned to her boarding-house with Miss Seaton, and invited the latter to spend the day with her. She said that she was low-spirited and wanted company to keep off the "blues." She was very nervous, and she could not take an interest in anything. She said several times that Lucille was the most wonderful person she had ever met, and that she had heard things which convinced her of Lucille's supernatural ...
— The Somnambulist and the Detective - The Murderer and the Fortune Teller • Allan Pinkerton

... fellows?' said I, riding up amongst them, and, seeing a lady in the carriage very pale and frightened, gave a slash of my whip, and bade the red-shanked ruffians keep off. 'What has happened, madam, to annoy your Ladyship?' I said, pulling off my hat, and bringing my mare up in a prance to ...
— Barry Lyndon • William Makepeace Thackeray

... trouble themselves about curses. In return she gives him her horse and her shield, not that he will need it much against his enemies, with that magic sword, and besides she knows how to cast a spell upon him so that he cannot be wounded in battle; but the shield may keep off the rain, if he has to sleep out of doors. So he goes away down the mountain and she waits for him to ...
— The Wagner Story Book • Henry Frost

... at the tree-top was secured, and that night they slept between some bushes with this over them to keep off the night air. Each of the young hunters took his turn at watching, but nothing came to disturb them, although Whopper declared that he heard several ...
— Four Boy Hunters • Captain Ralph Bonehill

... finish," said Dawe. "Give me a match. You have just ten minutes to spare. How did you manage to get past my office-boy and invade my sanctum? There he goes now, throwing his club at a dog that couldn't read the 'Keep off the Grass' signs." ...
— Strictly Business • O. Henry

... to skin the animal. But soon he abandoned this operation. "We'll come and get him to-morrow," he muttered, "and he is better with his skin on. Meantime we'll have a steak, however." He hung a bit of skin from a pole to keep off the wolves and selected a choice cut for the supper. He worked hurriedly, for the sudden drop in the temperature was ominous of a serious disturbance in the weather, but before he had finished he was startled to observe a large ...
— Corporal Cameron • Ralph Connor

... Lord's love,' said Mr. Peggotty, falling back, and putting out his hand, as if to keep off what he dreaded. 'Doen't ...
— David Copperfield • Charles Dickens

... territory, and then have a squabble and controversy whether it should be slave or free territory. I was of opinion that the true and safe policy was, to shut out the whole question by getting no territory, and thereby keep off all controversy. The territory will do us no good, if free; it will be an encumbrance, if free. To a great extent, it will produce a preponderance in favor of the South in the Senate, even if it be free. Let us keep it out, therefore. But no. We will make the acquisition, ...
— The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster • Daniel Webster

... rising ground in the territory of Guines, about half way between Guines and Ardres. Galleries hung with tapestry surrounded the enclosure, and on the right side, in the place of honor, were two glazed chambers for the two Queens. A deep foss served to keep off the crowd. The entrances were guarded by twelve French and twelve English archers; and at the foot of the lists, under a triumphal arch, stood the perron, or tree of nobility, from which the shields of the two Kings were suspended on a higher line than those of the other challengers ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 9 • Various

... christened, to take with her a piece of bread and cheese, to give to the first person she met, for the purpose of saving the child from witchcraft or the fairies. Another custom was that of the "Queeltah," or salt put under the churn to keep off bad people. Stale water was thrown on the plough "to keep it from the little {618} folks." A cross was tied in the tail of a cow "to keep her from bad bodies." On May morning it was deemed of the greatest importance to avoid going to a neighbour's house ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 217, December 24, 1853 • Various

... emerged from the soil, and contorted themselves across the path. The sunlight, also, broke across in spots, and otherwheres the shadow was deep; but still there was intermingling enough of bright hues to keep off the ...
— Passages From The American Notebooks, Volume 2. • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... is so delicate in its contexture, hath therefore prepared eyelids like doors whereby to secure it, which extend of themselves whenever it is needful, and again close when sleep approaches? Are not these eyelids provided, as it were, with a fence on the edge of them to keep off the wind and guard the eye? Even the eyebrow itself is not without its office, but, as a penthouse, is prepared to turn off the sweat, which falling from the forehead might enter and annoy that no less tender than astonishing part of us. Is it not to be admired that the ears should take ...
— Christianity and Greek Philosophy • Benjamin Franklin Cocker

... "Keep off, or I'll make an end of you before I go," roared Blake over his shoulder, for already he had turned about and was making for the window, apparently no more hindered by his burden than had ...
— Mistress Wilding • Rafael Sabatini

... to the door and closed it with a heavy bang, following it up by snatching, more than drawing the curtain over the opening—a curtain originally placed there to keep off draughts, but so used by Mrs Brade as to give the onlooker the idea that her husband was a personage kept on exhibition, and not shown save as a ...
— Witness to the Deed • George Manville Fenn

... The girl was a graceful paddler, and had some well-founded pretensions to beauty. Her coarse, black hair was simply combed back, not braided into plaits as commonly done by the Andean women. All, both male and female, painted their faces with achote to keep off ...
— The Andes and the Amazon - Across the Continent of South America • James Orton

... and we mean that His Soul went to the place of departed spirits, which are waiting for the Judgment. The word, Hell, has no meaning here of punishment. In Anglo-Saxon, helanto cover, and hella covered place. In some parts of England we still hele (cover) over roots to keep off the frost. Thus hell is used to translate Gehenna in S. Matt. v. 22, and also Hades in Acts ii. 27, 31, which last is the meaning here. This Creed should be compared in parallel lines with the Nicene Creed, in order to see what phrases are here which ...
— The Prayer Book Explained • Percival Jackson

... blankets to keep off any chill that might come later in the night, lay down under the boughs of the dwarf oaks, and slept soundly until the next day, keeping no watch, because they were sure they needed none. Tom Ross himself never opened his eyes once until the sun rose. Then the problem of food, imminent and pressing, ...
— The Eyes of the Woods - A story of the Ancient Wilderness • Joseph A. Altsheler

... while all evil comes from the north; hence Solomon said: "The tables on the south side shall cause the rains of plenty and the dews of blessing to come upon the earth, while the tables on the north side shall keep off all evil from ...
— THE LEGENDS OF THE JEWS VOLUME III BIBLE TIMES AND CHARACTERS - FROM THE EXODUS TO THE DEATH OF MOSES • BY LOUIS GINZBERG

... one who had been thoughtful enough to have his animals ready for exhibition, and the cage in which the long-eared pets were confined bore the inscription, done in a very fanciful way with blue and red crayons, "Wolves. Keep off!" ...
— Mr. Stubbs's Brother - A Sequel to 'Toby Tyler' • James Otis

... the disadvantage of its having been offered to me by Sergeant Cuff. I cooled slowly down to my customary level. I regarded any other opinion of Miss Rachel, than my lady's opinion or mine, with a lofty contempt. The only thing I could not do, was to keep off the subject of the Moonstone! My own good sense ought to have warned me, I know, to let the matter rest—but, there! the virtues which distinguish the present generation were not invented in my time. Sergeant Cuff had hit me on the raw, and, though I did look down upon him with ...
— The Moonstone • Wilkie Collins

... do that sort of a crank the honour of keeping stirred up, are you?" "That's Pritchard—the worst crank in Michigan. He's quarrelled with every one. I never did know where his farm was, or I should have taken pains to keep off." ...
— The Adventures of Bobby Orde • Stewart Edward White

... enemies, and soon the working-men will know them also. But if the present Ministry will not see the possibility of a coalition between them, and the workmen, I see no alternative but just what we have been straining every nerve to keep off—a competitive United States, a democracy before which the work of ages will go down in a few years. A true democracy, such as you and I should wish to see, is impossible without a Church and a Queen, and, as I believe, without a gentry. On the conduct of ...
— Alton Locke, Tailor And Poet • Rev. Charles Kingsley et al

... One more shot I fire at a man's back, but I miss. Too far already. And then I sit alone on my horse with the clean earth smiling at me, and there are the bodies of three men lying on the ground. One was curled up like a dog, another on his back had an arm over his eyes as if to keep off the sun, and the third man he draws up his leg very slowly and makes it with one kick straight again. I watch him very carefully from my horse, but there is no more—bleibt ganz ruhig—keep still, so. And as I looked at his face for some sign of life ...
— Lord Jim • Joseph Conrad

... as His Highness saw us approaching him, he bade us welcome by signs and salutations in the style of the Touaricks, slowly raising his right arm, as high as his shoulders, and turning the palm of the outspread hand to us. Haj Ibrahim was first introduced, but the Sultan could not keep off his eyes from me. At last the Sultan made a sign to Essnousee to speak on my behalf. Essnousee explained very deliberately and minutely everything respecting me—where and when he saw me at Tripoli, how I went to Ghadames, ...
— Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846 • James Richardson

... a brigade of cavalry clustered round a well frantically devising means to reach the cavernous depths, while the other half were fighting like tigers to keep off the Turks a few miles away! It was nothing out of the ordinary for a squadron or battery to take five hours to water their horses; and it added a piquancy to the situation that you were never quite sure ...
— With Our Army in Palestine • Antony Bluett

... He believed old Sudden was right in having nothing to do with Mexicans, in forbidding them free access to his domain. Johnny thought it would be a good idea to do likewise. Tomaso was to bring back the pliers, hammer, and whatever other tools they had taken, but after that they would have to keep off. He would tell Tomaso so very plainly. The prejudices of the Rolling R were well enough known to need ...
— Skyrider • B. M. Bower

... plastered with mud, houses of wattled stakes, chimneyless peat-fires from which there was scarcely an escape for the smoke, dens of physical and moral pollution swarming with vermin, wisps of straw twisted round the limbs to keep off the cold, the ague-stricken peasant, with no help except shrine-cure! How was it possible that the population could increase? Shall we, then, wonder that, in the famine of 1030, human flesh was cooked and sold; or that, ...
— History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science • John William Draper

... what puts that idea into your head?" retorted the captain rather testily. "Why should he wish us to keep off? Surely if you were in his place you would be fully as anxious as he appears to be to have the rescuing ships approach and take you off ...
— Across the Spanish Main - A Tale of the Sea in the Days of Queen Bess • Harry Collingwood

... body a single coat, and the missionaries have made a merchandise of this gigantic folly. But the paint is not always to be looked upon in the light of a mere folly, or vanity. Sometimes it is used to keep off the "zancudos," or mosquitoes, so numerous ...
— Popular Adventure Tales • Mayne Reid

... prejudices, acceptable only because of the stout honesty of the source from which they come. He thought life a poor thing at the best and took a low view of human nature. "The notion of liberty," he told the faithful Boswell, "amuses the people of England and helps to keep off the tedium vitae." The idea of a society properly organized into ranks and societies he always esteemed highly. "I am a friend to subordination," he said, "as most conducive to the happiness of society." He was a Jacobite and Tory to the end. Whiggism was the offspring ...
— Political Thought in England from Locke to Bentham • Harold J. Laski

... the foreign nobles, the young Duke could no longer keep off the constantly-recurring idea that something must be done to entertain himself. He shuddered to think where and what he should have been been, had not these gentlemen so providentially arrived. As for again repeating the farce of last year, he felt that it would no longer raise a smile. Yorkshire ...
— The Young Duke • Benjamin Disraeli

... the sky. Blue-feather looked about for shelter. He flew to the only tree near, but its leaves could not keep off the driving rain, so his coat was wet through ...
— Fifty Fabulous Fables • Lida Brown McMurry

... me consint, since I obsarve there's a bit of a town not far off where we can git enough food to keep off starvation." ...
— The Launch Boys' Adventures in Northern Waters • Edward S. Ellis

... wore gray flannel shirts, khaki trousers, stout high boots and broad-brimmed hats, and had fastened red handkerchiefs round their throats to keep off the sun from the back of their necks. Zeb had ...
— The Boy Inventors' Radio Telephone • Richard Bonner

... it with 12 Inches of yours, within eight of his, and give in the Thrust on his Right-flank, on the other side of the Sword, and beneath it your Nails side-ways, throwing forward your Left-hand and turning the Palm from you to keep off Counter-temps in the Belly, and in Thrusting let your Hilt be lower than the Point, which secures his Sword; and note when you lap over to do it with the flat, and not with the Edg as ...
— The School of Recreation (1696 edition) • Robert Howlett

... and any special exertion was not then to my taste. Yet I had earned as much as 12s. a day, and that is 180L a year, with which one can live as well here as with twice as much in America or England. Even if I continued to work in the same way, merely enough to keep off ennui, my income would very soon increase. In the worst case, I could live upon my earnings here as well as 400L or 500L would enable me to live elsewhere; and there was not the slightest prospect of being ...
— Freeland - A Social Anticipation • Theodor Hertzka

... makes me sore. Doc Andover said I was to keep off a hoss for a week yet. Sanborn is all right—but settin' on that hotel porch ...
— The Ridin' Kid from Powder River • Henry Herbert Knibbs

... warmed ourselves with play, we lighted an enormous fire to keep off the mosquitoes, and made a bowl of grog to keep off the effects of the night air, which is occasionally very pernicious. We smoked and quaffed, and had many a merry song and many a witty remark, and many a laugh ...
— Borneo and the Indian Archipelago - with drawings of costume and scenery • Frank S. Marryat

... patriots, or personal ill-wishers, and the men whom they try to warn fancy that they hinder the coming of a day of retribution by disbelieving in its coming. Incredulity is no lightning-conductor to keep off the flash, and, listened to or not, the low growls of the thunder ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets. St Matthew Chapters I to VIII • Alexander Maclaren

... never done wrong, and whom any halo would fit; who gave her to understand that the Almighty would raise Cain with any little girl who did not practise an hour every day, and pray Him, night and morning, to help her keep off the black notes when the white notes were intended. First there would be a reckoning with papa, then one with Aunt Marion, last with Almighty God, and afterward, horribile dictu, pitchforks for little Margaret, and a vivid incandescent ...
— Aladdin O'Brien • Gouverneur Morris



Words linked to "Keep off" :   abstain, desist, refrain



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