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Plain   /pleɪn/   Listen
Plain

adjective
(compar. plainer; superl. plainest)
1.
Clearly revealed to the mind or the senses or judgment.  Synonyms: apparent, evident, manifest, patent, unmistakable.  "Evident hostility" , "Manifest disapproval" , "Patent advantages" , "Made his meaning plain" , "It is plain that he is no reactionary" , "In plain view"
2.
Not elaborate or elaborated; simple.  "Stuck to the plain facts" , "A plain blue suit" , "A plain rectangular brick building"
3.
Lacking patterns especially in color.  Synonym: unpatterned.
4.
Not mixed with extraneous elements.  Synonyms: sheer, unmingled, unmixed.  "Sheer wine" , "Not an unmixed blessing"
5.
Free from any effort to soften to disguise.  Synonym: unvarnished.  "The unvarnished candor of old people and children"
6.
Lacking embellishment or ornamentation.  Synonyms: bare, spare, unembellished, unornamented.  "Unembellished white walls" , "Functional architecture featuring stark unornamented concrete"
7.
Lacking in physical beauty or proportion.  Synonym: homely.  "Several of the buildings were downright homely" , "A plain girl with a freckled face"



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"Plain" Quotes from Famous Books



... tea-drinkings, stupid weekly dinners at the President's, infrequent receptions by Mrs. Monroe, card-parties and conversation-parties, which at the British minister's were very "elegant," and at the French minister's were more gay. Mons. de Neuville, at his dinners, used to puzzle and astound the plain-living Yankees by serving dishes of "turkeys without bones, and puddings in the form of fowls, fresh cod disguised like a salad, and celery like oysters;" further, he scandalized some and demoralized others by having dancing on (p. 103) Saturday evenings, which ...
— John Quincy Adams - American Statesmen Series • John. T. Morse

... alleged outrages, and to inquire into the truth of the allegations made in the Daily News. Mr. Baring was an English official of the best stamp. He not only ascertained the truth, but he reported it in plain language to the Home Government. It was then found that the Daily News had, if anything, understated the case. The ruffianly Bashi-Bazouks, employed by the Sultan to keep down the Christians of European Turkey, ...
— Memoirs of Sir Wemyss Reid 1842-1885 • Stuart J. Reid, ed.

... montezumas, or mounds, found in the locality, probably not far from a thousand. Looking at them from a distance, there seemed to be some plan in their arrangement, inasmuch as they formed rows running from north to south. They are small, and nearly all of them are on the south side of a sloping plain which spread itself over about 500 acres in the ...
— Unknown Mexico, Volume 1 (of 2) • Carl Lumholtz

... was white and awed, for the solemnity of the occasion and the poetry of the impersonation alike appealed to her emotional nature, and there was an expression upon the plain little face which was more impressive than any mere pink and white prettiness, as more than one of ...
— Pixie O'Shaughnessy • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... matters, I saw my duty plain. The Lady Anne was the natural guardian of the young King, and she required the aid of every honest Frenchman till her son became of an age to rule for himself. Reasoning thus, I resolved to set out ...
— My Sword's My Fortune - A Story of Old France • Herbert Hayens

... plain man, and a busy man," said Aaron Burr coldly. "I must employ my time now to the betterment of my situation. I have failed, and you have won. But let me throw the cloak aside, since I know you can be of no service to me. I care not what punishment you may have—what suffering—because I recognize ...
— The Magnificent Adventure - Being the Story of the World's Greatest Exploration and - the Romance of a Very Gallant Gentleman • Emerson Hough

... now understood the mystery of that digging party back on the plain, as also the nearer sounds. They were units of this garrison—and there must be many others like them scattered about—fortifying for a particular counter attack tomorrow when, with a line of machine-gun sections operating in the Allied rear, defeat might be turned to victory. ...
— Where the Souls of Men are Calling • Credo Harris

... mother's side, and allowed nothing to separate him from her. When the outriders had thrown in all the cattle from the hills and had drifted all those in the river valley together, they moved them back on an open plain and began cutting out. There were many men at the work, and after all the cows and calves had been cut into a separate herd, the other cattle were turned loose. Then with great shoutings the cows were started up the ...
— Cattle Brands - A Collection of Western Camp-fire Stories • Andy Adams

... of the ancient, old-fashioned basilica, with its blackened roof-beams, unadorned walls, Travertine columns of the severest Tuscan pattern, and plain window-lattices, made an austere setting for the trial. I saw nowhere any rack, winches, horse, or any other engine or torture; but, while Dromo was gone, four muscular court-slaves came tramping ...
— Andivius Hedulio • Edward Lucas White

... every one of her thirty-two strong, white teeth together with a snap, "well—ye might hev told me so to oncet without spilin' my Sunday! But ez fer yer keepin' me a minit longer, ye've only got to pay me my salary to-day and"—but here she stopped, for the astonishment in Abner's face was too plain ...
— Openings in the Old Trail • Bret Harte

... speaks of Thorney Abbey and isle. 'It represents,' he says, 'a very Paradise, for that in pleasure and delight it resembles heaven itself. These marshes abound in trees, whose length without a knot doth emulate the stars. The plain there is as level as the sea, which with green grass allures the eye, and so smooth that there is nought to hinder him who runs through it. Neither is therein any waste place for in some parts are ...
— Prose Idylls • Charles Kingsley

... in making preparations for the siege of Madras. In the month of October he had marched into Arcot without opposition; and in the beginning of December, he advanced towards Madras. On the twelfth he marched over Choultry plain, in three divisions, cannonaded by the English artillery with considerable effect, and took post at Egmore and St. Thome. Colonel Laurence, who commanded the garrison of Madras, retired to the island, in order to prevent ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett

... of curtains, and out of the gloom of the doorway—for the hour was now very late—advanced a tall, gaunt figure, dressed in a plain, sleeveless robe that fell to the feet. The skin was dry, hard, wrinkled by a hundred furrows; the bones of the face were thrust out prominently; on the head was a plain white turban, and a beard quite as white fell ...
— A Friend of Caesar - A Tale of the Fall of the Roman Republic. Time, 50-47 B.C. • William Stearns Davis

... annoy the old man; he had certainly not intended to make him so furiously angry. As for the deliberate insult he had received, it was undoubtedly very shocking to be told that one lied in such very plain terms; but on the other hand, to demand satisfaction of such an old wreck as Astrardente would be ridiculous in the extreme. Valdarno was incapable of very violent passion, and was easily persuaded that he was ...
— Saracinesca • F. Marion Crawford

... of the Holy Mountains had already become memories, and I saw something new: the level plain, the whitish-brown distance, the way side copse, and beyond it a windmill which stood with out moving, and seemed bored at not being allowed to wave its sails because it ...
— The Bishop and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov

... on the fifteenth of September, at ten o'clock in the morning, in the church-yard of the parish church of St. Pancras, Middlesex. A few of the persons she most esteemed, attended the ceremony; and a plain monument is now erecting on the spot, by some of her ...
— Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman • William Godwin

... a look at the place where these things were found," he said. "Come with me. You see for yourself," he continued as they walked on, "how ridiculous it is to suppose that Hyde planted them. The whole affair is plain enough, to me. The real murderer read—or may have heard—Hyde's statement before the coroner, and in order to strengthen the case against Hyde and divert suspicion from himself, sought out this shed and ...
— The Middle of Things • J. S. Fletcher

... the whole of the pursuing party, who yelled with renewed vigor when they saw him borne into the house. When they reached the place where the squaw had fallen, they paused. The tall form of Lean Bear was seen bending over her, and it was plain that there was confusion in the ...
— Hope and Have - or, Fanny Grant Among the Indians, A Story for Young People • Oliver Optic

... part of this narrative is as follows: "I shall furnish you with an account of the treatment that I, with other of my fellow citizens, received on board the Jersey and John prison ships, those monuments of British barbarity and infamy. I shall give you nothing but a plain simple statement of facts that cannot be controverted. And I begin my narrative from the time of my leaving ...
— American Prisoners of the Revolution • Danske Dandridge

... have laid down seem's in its self plain and evident; but because Rapin, and some other Criticks, famous for the Niceness of their Judgments, have made it a considerable Question, and at last own'd themselves unable to decide it, I shall ...
— A Full Enquiry into the Nature of the Pastoral (1717) • Thomas Purney

... shut eyes, ears, and mouth, and went about trying not to see what was in plain sight, not to hear the tell-tale sounds that filled the air, not to understand any of the perfectly transparent mysteries going on all about him. Being a German, he loved these simple domestic festivals, and encouraged them with all his heart, for they made home so pleasant that the ...
— Little Men - Life at Plumfield With Jo's Boys • Louisa May Alcott

... 'Effemeridi Astron. di Milano', 1842, p. 57.) The latitude of Milan, deduced from that of Berne, according to the , is 45¼degrees 27' 52", while, according to direct astronomical observations, it is 45 degrees 27' 35". As the perturbations extend in the plain of Lombardy to Parma, which is far south of the Po (Plana, 'Operat. Geod.', t. ii., p. 847), it is probable that there are deflecting causes 'concealed beneath the soil of the plain itself'. Struve has made similar experiments [with corresponding ...
— COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1 • Alexander von Humboldt

... 24th.—Those who were fortunate enough to hear Viscount GREY'S speech on the Government of Ireland Bill speak of it as on a par with that which he delivered as the spokesman of the nation on August 3rd, 1914. To me it did not appear quite so plain and coherent; but who can be plain and coherent about the Irish Question? Lord GREY thinks, for example, that if the Government made a more liberal offer to Nationalist Ireland the pressure of moderate opinion would put an end to murders and outrages. But how would that moderate opinion be able ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 159, December 1, 1920 • Various

... rise," cried Kat, coming in with a rubber whirling on each hand, and quoting her copy-book with cheerful disregard for any one's anger. "Here's your rubbers, my dear, and I found them right where I put them, on the end of our mantel-piece, where I put them in plain sight so as not to forget to bring them down this morning, as my prophetic soul felt a row in the air if they were not in sight at six ...
— Six Girls - A Home Story • Fannie Belle Irving

... garden, with its ordered walks and level lawns. And as with knowledge we come to love some old, stern face our childish eyes had thought forbidding, and would not have it changed, there came to her with the years a growing fondness for the old, plain brick-built house. Generations of Allways had lived and died there: men and women somewhat narrow, unsympathetic, a little hard of understanding; but at least earnest, sincere, seeking to do their duty in their solid, unimaginative way. ...
— All Roads Lead to Calvary • Jerome K. Jerome

... salutary, and another case of such discipline did not again occur. The boys, zealous to keep their favorite sport in good repute, adopted the regulation for the present year, in both clubs. Without such precautions as these it was plain that boating would soon become a nuisance, which neither parents nor teachers would tolerate. Therefore the members of the clubs made it a point to keep their "voyages," their plans and schemes, out of their minds at times when their heads should be filled with, other matters. ...
— All Aboard; or, Life on the Lake - A Sequel to "The Boat Club" • Oliver Optic

... to this room. She had not seen the book when she had searched for the needle, else she would have recalled the whole thing, and this suggested that the book had been taken away within the next half-hour or so. Of course! How plain ...
— Juggernaut • Alice Campbell

... absorbingly interesting. After we had driven about three hours, he remarked, "We must soon emerge into the open plain." ...
— The Story of John G. Paton - Or Thirty Years Among South Sea Cannibals • James Paton

... it plain that he had no intention of disturbing Lady Tressady, and would find out for himself. He left his card in the ...
— Sir George Tressady, Vol. II • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... that of the courts they represented. He then made with her the tour of the two saloons, and the circuit of the second was only half finished when the First Consul entered without being announced. He was dressed in a very plain uniform, with a tricolored silk scarf, with fringes of the same around his waist. He wore close-fitting pantaloons of white cassimere, and top-boots, and held his hat in his hand. This plain dress, in the midst of the embroidered ...
— The Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte • Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton

... moth-eaten, feeble-looking woodchuck, who was very busy in a half-hearted way digging himself a hole. Suddenly he stopped. Young Grumpy did not think it was any sort of a hole for a woodchuck, but the old fellow seemed satisfied with it. He curled himself up in it, almost in plain view, and went straight to sleep. Young Grumpy strolled off scornfully. When he came back that way, a few hours later, he found the old woodchuck still in exactly the same position as before. He never stirred or scolded ...
— Children of the Wild • Charles G. D. Roberts

... which they sore repented the ill usage they had given to Similau. Doubling Cape Guinaytarau, after a tedious voyage of two months and a half, they discovered the island of which they were in search in the middle of the river. This island is quite plain and seemed four miles round. Next morning Antonio sailed round it in his galliots, and found it surrounded by a wall of jasper so closely built that it seemed all one stone. The wall rose 19 feet above the surface of the ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume VI - Early English Voyages Of Discovery To America • Robert Kerr

... respect him much more than formerly, and where even mammas are by no means uncivil to him. For if the pretty daughters are, naturally, to marry people of very different expectations—at any rate, he will be eligible for the plain ones: and if the brilliant and fascinating Myra is to hook an Earl, poor little Beatrice, who has one shoulder higher than the other, must hang on to some boor through life, and why should not Mr. Pendennis be her support? In the very first winter after the accession to his mother's ...
— The History of Pendennis • William Makepeace Thackeray

... cabinet-makers and office-seekers; but he met all with a calm temper." Mr. Don Piatt relates that he had met Lincoln during the Presidential campaign, and had been invited to visit Springfield. He did so, and was asked to supper at the Lincoln house. "It was a plain, comfortable structure," says Mr. Piatt, "and the supper was mainly of cake, pies, and chickens, the last evidently killed in the morning, to be eaten that evening. After the supper we sat far into the night, talking over the ...
— The Every-day Life of Abraham Lincoln • Francis Fisher Browne

... way back to his office. He had a little pile of money already counted out upon the desk. It was plain that he had intended quarreling with Hiram and getting rid of him at this time, for he had the young fellow's wages figured up to t hat very hour—and twenty cents deducted for the two hours Hiram had ...
— Hiram The Young Farmer • Burbank L. Todd

... coming and going in every direction across the stony plain. Her practiced eye requires no slackened flight to distinguish the earthen dome which she is seeking. Having found it, she inspects it from above, still on the wing; she taps it once and yet once again with the tip of her ovipositor and forthwith makes off, without having set foot on ...
— The Life of the Fly - With Which are Interspersed Some Chapters of Autobiography • J. Henri Fabre

... croaking of frogs, she remembered vividly and in a moment all the rains of her short life, and could feel her kinship with the earth. Then came a flash of lightning, and she saw the tank, the banian, the great plain, the far-off trees. She remembered how at full moon she had sometimes come to bathe in this tank, and how dreadful death had seemed when she saw a corpse on ...
— The Hungry Stones And Other Stories • Rabindranath Tagore

... shins now: so, before the boy came down, I just out of idleness spelt out to myself the name that was upon the collar: there were two names, plase your honour; and out of the first there were so many letters hammered out I could make nothing of it, at all at all; but the other name was plain enough to read any way, and it was Hill, plase your honour's honour, as sure ...
— Tales & Novels, Vol. 2 • Maria Edgeworth

... heard Gabrielle's voice. How curious!" murmured the old man, as his feet fell noiselessly upon the thick Turkey carpet. "Gabrielle, dear!" he called. But his daughter stood there breathless and silent, not daring to move a muscle. Plain it was that while passing across the lawn outside he heard her voice. He had overheard her declaration that she was prepared to bear the consequences ...
— The House of Whispers • William Le Queux

... justified by the frequent practice of the Moslems themselves. The capital of the Zeirides was named Africa from the country, and Mahadia [105] from the Arabian founder: it is strongly built on a neck of land, but the imperfection of the harbor is not compensated by the fertility of the adjacent plain. Mahadia was besieged by George the Sicilian admiral, with a fleet of one hundred and fifty galleys, amply provided with men and the instruments of mischief: the sovereign had fled, the Moorish governor refused to capitulate, ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 5 • Edward Gibbon

... what food is to his body; and as the latter, deprived of its usual nourishment, sinks to decay—so the former, from like deprivation of its strengthening power, becomes weak and imbecile. Again: as coarse, plain food and hardy exercise add health and vigor to the physical—so does the contemplation of nature in her wildness and grandeur give to the mental a powerful and lofty tone. Of all writers for poetical and vigorous intellects, give me those who have ...
— Ella Barnwell - A Historical Romance of Border Life • Emerson Bennett

... prosy," interpolated plain-spoken Nettie. "They are coming in. Milly, you and I can run away!" and they ...
— Choice Readings for the Home Circle • Anonymous

... facts in relation to him got wind few paused to inquire. Young ladies forgot their plain-faced, untitled, vulgar lovers, and put on their best looks and most winning graces for the count. For a time he carried all before him. Daily might he be seen in Chestnut street, gallanting some favoured belle, with the elegant air of a dancing-master, and the grimace of a monkey. Staid citizens ...
— Off-Hand Sketches - a Little Dashed with Humor • T. S. Arthur

... that this counsel was good. It was plain, practical, feasible. But there remained a difficulty. How was he to become possessed of the sensible, responsible person who ...
— A Bachelor's Dream • Mrs. Hungerford

... lone valley, where thy father's days Were passed; where every cave and every tree, From morn to morn, reminded him of thee! Lautaro cried: Here, faithful Indian, stay; I have a last sad duty yet to pay. A little while we part:—thou here remain. 250 He spake, and passed like lightning o'er the plain. Ah, cease, Castilian maid, thy vain alarms! See where he comes—his father in his arms! Now lead, he cried. The Indian, sad and still, Paced on from wood to vale, from vale to hill; Her infant tired, ...
— The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, Vol. 1 • William Lisle Bowles

... pippin round and round again, My sweetheart's name to flourish on the plain: I fling the unbroken paring o'er my head. A perfect 'L' upon the ground ...
— The Book of Hallowe'en • Ruth Edna Kelley

... know what the Judge can charge upon me, with respect to decisions of the Supreme Court, which does not lie in all its length, breadth, and proportions at his own door. The plain truth is simply this: Judge Douglas is for Supreme Court decisions when he likes and against them when he does not like them. He is for the Dred Scott decision because it tends to nationalize slavery; because it is part of the original combination for that object. ...
— The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Complete - Constitutional Edition • Abraham Lincoln

... stile where they stood they could look down into the village street. And old Jan Trueman was plain to see, in clean linen and his Sunday suit, standing in the doorway ...
— The Delectable Duchy • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... smilingly, as if she welcomed her lot as a predestined old maid. There was not a sign on her plain pleasant face of the torment raging in her bosom. In my youthful ignorance I did not know whether to deplore woman's deceit or ...
— The Beloved Vagabond • William J. Locke

... was out of order, and he had borrowed a small clock from the mess room in order to know when the time came to report with his prisoner at quarters. He had placed the clock in the light of the lantern and kept looking at it frequently and yawning. It was plain that he would welcome the hour that released him from ...
— Army Boys on the Firing Line - or, Holding Back the German Drive • Homer Randall

... home through a cold easterly rain without a greatcoat, and was well wet. A goodly medicine for my aching bones.[433] Dined at Mr. Adam Wilson's, and had some good singing in the evening. Saw Dr. Stokoe, who attended Boney in Saint Helena, a plain, sensible ...
— The Journal of Sir Walter Scott - From the Original Manuscript at Abbotsford • Walter Scott

... to be shown for example, what changes took place in the human being owing to the separation of the sun from the earth, and also that something similar again took place in connection with the moon. We had, moreover, to make plain what contributed to the bringing about of such changes in mankind as those which took place in the Atlantean era, how they were manifested in the successive Indian, ancient Persian, Egyptian, and other ...
— An Outline of Occult Science • Rudolf Steiner

... with great joy, but pondered much upon executing that part of it which related to newly attiring the worthy Dominie. He looked at him with a scrutinising eye, and it was but too plain that his present garments were daily waxing more deplorable. To give him money, and bid him go and furnish himself, would be only giving him the means of making himself ridiculous; for when such a rare event ...
— Guy Mannering • Sir Walter Scott

... half a dozen or so of the Temple Camp boats with fellows in them, flopping around near the old cove. It was almost dark, but I could see them plain. I guess they had rowed across just to look around and see how things looked there. A couple of hours before they would have been carried right through on the flood, but when I looked down it was ...
— Roy Blakeley's Adventures in Camp • Percy Keese Fitzhugh

... vertical portions, a, b, c, we may put what patterns in mosaic we please, so that they be not too rich; but if we choose rather to have sculpture (or must have it for want of stones to inlay), then observe that all sculpture on bases must be in panels, or it will soon be worn away, and that a plain panelling is often good without any other ornament. The member b, which in St. Mark's is subordinate, and c, which is expanded into a seat, are both of them decorated with simple but exquisitely-finished panelling, in red and white ...
— The Stones of Venice, Volume I (of 3) • John Ruskin

... moon, but it had all the indications of a bright starlight night. I had my best horse, a thoroughbred Kentuckian, fed at once. I took my sabre and revolver, with a light lunch, and at dark I quietly left camp for my ride to Knoxville. The road to Knoxville was direct and plain. Nearly half the distance it passed through woodland, with but little underbrush. I decided, as the country outside of our lines was infested with rebel scouts and guerillas, to ride rapidly through the open ...
— Campaign of Battery D, First Rhode Island light artillery. • Ezra Knight Parker

... But I say, lad, don't address me so. Call me plain Peter, or Peter Poplar; we don't deal in misters aboard the Rainbow. It is all very well for shore-going people to call each other mister; or when you speak to an officer, just to show that he is an officer; but sharp's the word with us ...
— Old Jack • W.H.G. Kingston

... going at them in parties of threes and fours, when, taking good care of themselves at considerable distances, they fired their carbines all together, and whilst the rhinoceros ran one way, they ran the other. Whilst we were pitching our tents after sunset by some pools on the plain, Dr K'yengo arrived with the hongo of brass and copper wires sent by Suwarora for the great king Mtesa, in lieu of his daughter who died; so next morning we all marched together ...
— The Discovery of the Source of the Nile • John Hanning Speke

... 'They weather the bad seasons of the year in fruitful districts rich in woods and fields, and all acceptable conditions'; of Tyre, 'The town has a most excellent position on a plain, almost entirely surrounded by mountains. The soil is productive, the wood of value in many ways.' Of Antioch, 'Its position is very convenient and pleasant, it lies in valleys which have excellent and fertile soil, and are most ...
— The Development of the Feeling for Nature in the Middle Ages and - Modern Times • Alfred Biese

... of those brave combatants striking one another and shouting at the top of their voices, the field of battle became awful, resembling the slaughter-ground of creatures (of Rudra himself). The Earth, O Bharata, covered with blood, looked beautiful like a vast plain in the season of rains covered with the red coccinella. Indeed, the Earth assumed the aspect of a youthful maiden of great beauty, attired in white robes dyed with deep red. Variegated with flesh and blood, ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 - Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 • Unknown

... "when I've found myself on the open plain with redskins popping away at me I've dug a hole in the ground and stowed myself away in it. What do you think ...
— Boy Scouts in an Airship • G. Harvey Ralphson

... many other such possibilities have been many times exploited, both in fact and in story; so it is not surprising that the California Missions should also have had their vogue as a supposed Tom Tiddler's ground. And as a matter of fact, a good many of the buildings show plain traces of the ravages of pick and shovel, sometimes wielded boldly by parties of declared prospectors, but more often in secret by knights ...
— The Penance of Magdalena & Other Tales of the California Missions • J. Smeaton Chase

... think this relation a reflection—as it is plain he does, by his endeavoring to stifle it—I cannot imagine; because the generality believe her to be a good spirit, her discourse was so heavenly. Her two great errands were, to comfort Mrs. Bargrave in her affliction, and to ask her forgiveness ...
— The Great English Short-Story Writers, Vol. 1 • Various

... hoofs grinding upon the gravel of the driveway brought her to herself again, and, withdrawing her gaze from the empty plain of Los Muertos, she saw young Annixter stopping his horse by the carriage steps. But the sight of him only diverted her mind to the other trouble. She could not but regard him with aversion. He was one of the conspirators, was one of the leaders in the battle that impended; no doubt, ...
— The Octopus • Frank Norris

... the French word Chaumont, and probably designated a bare hill or rising ground, having the form of a bald skull. The situation of this hill is not precisely known. It was certainly on the north or northwest of the city, in the high, irregular plain which extends between the walls and the two valleys of Kedron and Hinnom,[2] a rather uninteresting region, and made still worse by the objectionable circumstances arising from the neighborhood of a great city. It is difficult to identify Golgotha as the precise place which, since Constantine, ...
— The Life of Jesus • Ernest Renan

... am not describing her after the accepted fashion. I should produce a catalogue of features, and tell how every one of them was formed. Her hair was dark, and worn very plain, but with that graceful care which shows that the owner has not slurred over her toilet with hurried negligence. Of complexion it can hardly be said that she had any; so little was the appearance of her ...
— An Old Man's Love • Anthony Trollope

... only the western third of the island; but the Spanish portion to the east was far less fertile, and far worse cultivated. The French genius for colonization was seen in the excellent system of irrigation carried on in the vast and fertile plain, the Cul-de-Sac, east of the capital, Port-au-Prince. But other portions, notably the long peninsula to the south-west, were also highly prosperous. The chief towns equalled in splendour and activity the provincial cities of France. Port-au-Prince and Cap Francais were the ...
— William Pitt and the Great War • John Holland Rose

... stimulated the organization of other commands. Rhode Island sent a regiment, under the command of Colonel Burnside, composed of skilled mechanics, gentlemen possessing independent fortunes, and active business men, all wearing plain ...
— Perley's Reminiscences, Vol. 1-2 - of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis • Benjamin Perley Poore

... wroth; and had she not good reason to be wroth? Is it either fair or reasonable to talk of her 'demanding a monopoly of love,' and 'being incensed at the temerity of her favourite, in presuming to fall in love and marry without her consent?' Away with such cant. The plain facts are: that a man nearly forty years old abuses his wonderful gifts of body and mind, to ruin a girl nearly twenty years younger than himself. What wonder if a virtuous woman—and Queen Elizabeth was virtuous—thought it a base deed, and punished it accordingly? ...
— Sir Walter Raleigh and his Time from - "Plays and Puritans and Other Historical Essays" • Charles Kingsley

... from the road, and, crossing two or three fields, came to a small grassy plain, in the midst of which stood the castle. About a gun- shot to the south was a small village, which had, probably, in ancient days, sprung up beneath its protection. A kind of awe came over me as I approached the old building. The sun no longer shone upon it, and it looked so grim, so desolate ...
— Lavengro - The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest • George Borrow

... arduous one. The town formed one of the strongest positions for defence that could be found in the ancient world. It was built on an isolated cube of rock that towered above the vast cultivated tracts of the surrounding plain. At its eastern extremity the precipice made a sheer drop of six hundred feet, and was perhaps quite inaccessible on this side, although it threw out spurs, whether natural or of artificial construction, which formed a difficult and easily defensible ...
— A History of Rome, Vol 1 - During the late Republic and early Principate • A H.J. Greenidge

... safety, and who from time to time ventured a few steps forward, for the purpose of examining the damage done to Etex's sculptured group by three successive shells. But in the Avenue de la Grande Armee only three Federals were to be seen, and I think I was the only man in plain clothes they had allowed to go so far. I could distinctly perceive a small barricade erected in front of the Porte Maillot on this side of the ramparts. The bastion to the right was hard at work cannonading the heights of Courbevoie; great columns of smoke, succeeded by terrific ...
— Paris under the Commune • John Leighton

... The plain-clothes man approached loitering. He might have been a citizen in good standing and with nothing better to do than hobnob with whatever persons interested him upon ...
— The Penalty • Gouverneur Morris

... primeval, and of Chaos old! Before her fancy's gilded clouds decay, And all its varying rainbows die away. Wit shoots in vain its momentary fires, The meteor drops, and in a flash expires. As one by one, at dread Medea's strain, The sick'ning stars fade off the ethereal plain; As Argus's eyes, by Hermes' wand opprest, Clos'd one by one to everlasting rest, Thus at her felt approach, and secret might, Art after Art goes out, and all is night. See skulking Truth to her old cavern fled, Mountains of Casuistry heap'd o'er her head! Philosophy, that lean'd ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, Number 358, August 1845 • Various

... Animae, and exclaim, "O noble testimony of the soul by nature Christian."[39] Origen speaks of "the uncorrupted idea of Him which is implanted in the human mind,"[40] and St. Cyprian makes this knowledge so plain that "this is the very height of sinfulness to refuse to acknowledge Him whom you cannot but know."[41] Arnobius, too, in a passage in which much allowance must be made for rhetorical fervor, exclaims, "Is there any human being who has not ...
— The Basis of Early Christian Theism • Lawrence Thomas Cole

... production of Hall and McKinney. Bradford's "American Antiquities and Researches into the Origin of the Red Race" is also an able and instructive work. In Hildreth's "History of the United States," rhetorical grace and effect give way to a plain narrative confined to facts gleaned with great care and conscientiousness. The "Field-Book of the Revolution," by Lossing, who has visited all the scenes of that memorable war, and delineated them with ...
— Handbook of Universal Literature - From The Best and Latest Authorities • Anne C. Lynch Botta

... she said. "I might have known it. It really is remarkable that though so many people don't think Louise goodlooking—I have often heard her called plain—yet I never knew a man go past her without turning his head.—You want to know who and what she is? Well, that depends on whom you ask. Schwarz would tell you she was one of his most gifted pupils—but no: he always says that of his pretty girls, ...
— Maurice Guest • Henry Handel Richardson

... resolution" of one man. Two months later, when the army corps was all but landed, the English at the Cape gave speech. Then Sir David Gill's words at the St. Andrew's Day celebration of November 30th, 1890 came as a fresh breeze dispersing the miasmic humours of some low-lying, ill-drained plain. ...
— Lord Milner's Work in South Africa - From its Commencement in 1897 to the Peace of Vereeniging in 1902 • W. Basil Worsfold

... great coats and shawls to our saddles. Three leagues took us to the town of Atotonilco[9] el Grande, which gives its name to the plateau we were crossing. Here we are no longer in the valley of Mexico, which is separated from this plain by the mountains of the Real del Monte. We rode on two leagues more to the village of Soquital[10] where, it being Sunday, we found the inhabitants—mostly Indians—amusing themselves by standing in the sun, doing nothing. I can hardly say "doing nothing," though, for we went into the tienda, ...
— Anahuac • Edward Burnett Tylor

... the story, in its plain meaning, is more precious than any 'spiritualising' of it. Take the fact. Jesus Christ, fresh from the grave, who had been down into those dark regions of mystery where the dead sleep and wait, and had come back into this ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture: St. John Chaps. XV to XXI • Alexander Maclaren

... Seven Wonders are surely outshone! On Marvel World's billows 'twill toss us—'twill toss us, To watch him, Director and Statesman in one, This Seven-League-Booted Colossus—Colossus! Combining in one supernatural blend Plain Commerce and Imagination—gination; O'er Africa striding from dark end to end, ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 103, December 10, 1892 • Various

... in taking his view of it, and that we must be right in taking ours; but if we cannot give him actual, tangible proof of that—if we can only theorize, when he asks us for an explanation—it is but too plain, in his present condition, that every time we remonstrate with him on the subject we only fix him in his ...
— After Dark • Wilkie Collins

... your meaning plain, and the one particular competition you mention happens to be the most interesting ...
— The Banner Boy Scouts - Or, The Struggle for Leadership • George A. Warren

... the grand-duke, otherwise Count Duren, he had humble lodgings in No. 7, Rue du Temple, as a fan-painter, plain M. Rudolph. To mask the large sums which on occasion he dispensed in charity, he was wont to give out that he was the agent of wealthy persons who trusted ...
— Mysteries of Paris, V3 • Eugene Sue

... advantageously distinguished from the inhabitants of Tacloban by their purity of manners. Basey is situated on the delta of the river, which is named after it. We proceeded up a small arm of the principal stream, which winds, with a very slight fall, through the plain; the brackish water, and the fringe of nipa-palms which accompanies it, consequently extending several leagues into the country. Coco plantations stretch behind them; and there the floods of water (avenidas), which sometimes take place in consequence of the narrow rocky bed of the upper ...
— The Former Philippines thru Foreign Eyes • Fedor Jagor; Tomas de Comyn; Chas. Wilkes; Rudolf Virchow.

... wants but little here below." Little I ask; my wants are few; I only wish a hut of stone, (A very plain, brown stone' will do,) That I may call my own; And close at hand is such a one, In yonder street ...
— Selections From American Poetry • Various

... disobedience. I was really afraid of him, but it was not with a filial fear. I only sought for means to get away from him, and was in no wise concerned to do his will, but to avoid, by every means in my power, what he required of me. Of this I will now freely confess one plain instance. ...
— Peter the Great • Jacob Abbott

... had been fired in another direction, and looking about, we saw a pathetic sight. Lieutenant Alden was on his horse, and facing him was an immense buffalo, standing perfectly still with chin drawn in and horns to the front, ready for battle. It was plain to be seen that the poor horse was not enjoying the meeting, for every now and then he would try to back away, or give a jump sideways. The buffalo was wounded and unable to run, but he could still turn around fast enough to keep his head toward the horse, and this he did every time Lieutenant ...
— Army Letters from an Officer's Wife, 1871-1888 • Frances M.A. Roe

... that he could well wish to vanish from the world. The suggestion of suicide, however, he dismisses at once—with a momentary regret, it is true—but he dismisses it—as against the will of God to whom he appeals in his misery. The cause of his misery is now made plain to us—his trouble that passes show, deprives life of its interest, and renders the world a disgust to him. There is no lamentation over his father's death, so dwelt upon by the king; for loving grief does not crush. Far less ...
— The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark - A Study with the Text of the Folio of 1623 • George MacDonald

... down at the Club. Oh, they're very compassionate. I've heard 'em. Dickinson, privately, doesn't think much of Ribblevale paper, and Pugh" (the president of the Ribblevale) "seems worried and looks badly. It's all very clever, but I'd hate to tell you in plain words ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... that slow soakage of Indo-European tribes from Russia, which was to develop the Armenian people of history, are the most momentous signs of coming change to be noted between 800 and 600 B.C. with one exception, the full import of which will be plain at our next survey. This was the eastward movement of ...
— The Ancient East • D. G. Hogarth

... Bacchic goblet; but we touch the one with reverent and clean hands, while the other is tossed aside in the madness of the revel. Men clamor for a new version of the Sacred Scriptures, and profess to be shocked at its plain outspokenness, forgetting that to the pure all things are pure, and that to the prurient all things are foul. It was a reverent and a worshipping age that gave us that treasure, and so long as we have the temper of reverence and worship we shall not ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 6, No. 38, December, 1860 • Various

... The narrative is a plain and unpretending account of the life of a man whose own right arm—to use his own expression—won his rights as a freeman. It is written with the utmost simplicity, and has about it the verisimilitude which belongs to truth, and to truth only when ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 100, February, 1866 • Various

... contemptuous snort for answer. The first speaker had turned on his heel. When he reached the police offices, he rang the bell. The door was answered by a sergeant in plain clothes. "I've found your man for you," said ...
— A Son of Hagar - A Romance of Our Time • Sir Hall Caine

... into the nature of his offence. This, unfortunately, was clear enough, and Walter was far too ingenuous to attempt any extenuation of it. Even if he had not been intentionally idle, it was plain, on his own admission, that he had been guilty of the greatest possible insubordination and disrespect. These offences were rare at Saint Winifred's, and especially rare in a new boy. Puzzled as he was by conduct so unlike the boy's apparent ...
— St. Winifred's - The World of School • Frederic W. Farrar

... happy all the time. You are not happy. There is a little load on your soul. See, you are carrying burdens!' and at that he laid something heavy upon my shoulders. 'It is true,' he chattered on, 'that pilgrims should be always happy, and you are not. That is plain to be seen. Now, be honest about it, ...
— Adventures in the Land of Canaan • Robert Lee Berry

... plain (costa), inter-Andean central highlands (sierra), and flat to rolling eastern ...
— The 2001 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... Cossacombe revel, but the fog came down so thick as a bag; and while he was a-wandering, a dragin (for so he saith it was, though I never seed a dragin myself) passed so close to mun as I be to you, my Lady, and when he looked to the ground he saw the mark of his cloven hoof so plain as could be. And he was pixy-led all that night, my Lady, was the old Jimmy, and when he come home all his money was gone; so I reckon that the pixies is in league with ...
— The Drummer's Coat • J. W. Fortescue

... anaemic look which common nouns have in everyday language. Thus, when Garrick, in his verses Upon a Lady's Embroidery, mentions 'Arachne', it is obvious that he does not expect the reader to think of the daring challenger of Minerva's art, or the Princess of Lydia, but just of a plain spider. And again, when Falconer, in his early Monody on the death of the Prince of Wales, expresses ...
— Proserpine and Midas • Mary Shelley

... self-same tune Underneath an older moon. Life to him is, plain enough, Still a game of blind man's buff. If we listen we may hear Puckish laughter always near, And the elf's apostrophe, "Lord, what ...
— The So-called Human Race • Bert Leston Taylor

... should like to know?" cried Lizabetha Prokofievna, blushing. "I'm sure I am not afraid of plain speaking. I'm not offending anyone, and I ...
— The Idiot • (AKA Feodor Dostoevsky) Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... the warriors, trailing their lances, Sweep o'er the plain upon resistless steeds! There, on the trail, vengeance is launching Swift as the arrow upon the hated foe. In their hearts the whispered war-cry— In their hearts that wailing cry. Low the sound of vengeance breathing. Ride they boldly ...
— The Dead Men's Song - Being the Story of a Poem and a Reminiscent Sketch of its - Author Young Ewing Allison • Champion Ingraham Hitchcock

... of the Latin text is necessary, the more abounding charm of both Satires and Epistles is accessible to the Latinless reader. For the bursts of poetry are brief and rare, issuing from amid what Horace often reminds us are essentially plain prose essays in conversational form, their hexametral garb an unpoetical accident. Two versions present themselves to the unclassical student. The first is Conington's scholarly rendering, hampered sometimes rather than adorned ...
— Horace • William Tuckwell

... to the first entry says that in the train schedules, times from noon to midnight are shown in "dark-face type." In this plain-text edition that cannot be done, so the letters "p" and "a" have been appended to each time to indicate AM ...
— The Greatest Highway in the World • Anonymous

... at the table the young American officer noted that the submarine rolled hardly at all. It was plain that the recent gale had subsided, for the slight rocking of the boat indicated only a gentle swell on the surface ...
— Dave Darrin After The Mine Layers • H. Irving Hancock

... therefore impossible to understand the working of the economic forces without understanding the foundation upon which this system of forces is based. A short list of works on the subject is given at the end of this book. A plain statement here ...
— Manhood of Humanity. • Alfred Korzybski

... there was an interesting detail: at the entrance large panes of glass had been substituted for the walls, so that in winter the sick, sitting in a warm room, could look through the glass partition and follow the services and hear the plain song of Solesmes which the Sisters had the good ...
— The Cathedral • Joris-Karl Huysmans

... of Milcho 'twas said To pass o'er the seas and the plain; Then stood angel Victor on rock, And his footprints to ...
— The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick - Including the Life by Jocelin, Hitherto Unpublished in America, and His Extant Writings • Various

... slung about their shoulders, passes my comprehension. Conceive the condition of mind of that man who imagines that he is an impressive presence when he is patrolling the Rue de la Paix with an alpenstock in his hand! At home we are a plain, well-dressed, well-behaved people, fully up in Art and Letters—that is, among our educated classes, to any other nation—in most elegant studies before all; but our travellers in France and Switzerland slander ...
— The Cockaynes in Paris - 'Gone abroad' • Blanchard Jerrold

... me a remarkable thing, in connection with the four other reasons. 6. The establishing of a fourth Orphan House, which would increase our expenses several hundred pounds a year, would be, after we have gone for five years almost uninterruptedly through trials of faith, a plain proof that I have not regretted this service, and that I am not tired of this precious way of depending upon the Lord from day to day; and thus the faith of other children of God ...
— The Life of Trust: Being a Narrative of the Lord's Dealings With George Mueller • George Mueller

... like my heart, is wholly yours!" he exclaimed ardently. "Command them, and if the devoted love of a faithful, plain-spoken man—" ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... are many cities, castles, and towns, to which people travel partly by land, and partly by water. No country in the world can be compared to this for the multitude of inhabitants; and the whole land is plain, fruitful, and stored with good things. Old Misraim is two league distant from New Misraim, or Cairo; but the old city is now desolate, having many ruins of walls and houses, and not a few remains of the granaries and storehouses, ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 1 • Robert Kerr

... 'I am a plain man, and know nothing about arguments. If a thing be true, let it lead where it will, for it leads ...
— Hypatia - or, New Foes with an Old Face • Charles Kingsley

... wide rolling plain that was almost destitute of trees, and looked, from the moving train, like green billows of the sea with grass growing over them. Father Dan was reading his breviary for the following day, not knowing what he would have to do in it, when the sun set in a great blaze of red beyond the horizon, ...
— The Woman Thou Gavest Me - Being the Story of Mary O'Neill • Hall Caine

... and People's Congresses, held to denounce the barbarities perpetrated in the war, will avail nothing; but the Dutch Reformed Church could fulfil no higher mission than this genuine peace-making. "It may go against their grain to urge our people to yield," he adds, "but it seems to me a plain duty."[233] But such voices were powerless to counteract the effect produced upon the Boers by the demonstrations of hatred against the British Government, manifested by men whose minds had been inflamed by the infamous slanders of the Imperial troops to which the "conciliation" ...
— Lord Milner's Work in South Africa - From its Commencement in 1897 to the Peace of Vereeniging in 1902 • W. Basil Worsfold

... York during those years when she would otherwise have been learning how to wear a mantilla and use a fan, did not attempt such difficulties of the toilet. She knew that she would look unnatural in them, and she adhered to the American fashions of her day. But in a plain frock of dark satin trimmed with minever bands, she looked ...
— Remember the Alamo • Amelia E. Barr

... most in my time—there is a kind of sixth sense that waves the red flag. I saw the signal clear enough, and yet I couldn't tell you why. Next instant I spotted a boot under the window curtain, and then I saw why plain enough. ...
— The Valley of Fear • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

... all know, that liberty to follow one's opinion is a good thing. It is not always so in worldly affairs even, but of late years it has come largely in vogue in religious matters. And here is the part of his will that pertains to her. You would not understand the preamble, so I will tell it in plain words. To you, Pani, is given the house and a sum of money each year. To the child is left a yearly portion until she is sixteen, then, if she becomes a Catholic and chooses the lot of a sister, it ceases. Otherwise ...
— A Little Girl in Old Detroit • Amanda Minnie Douglas

... properly," observed Mrs. Hableton, with a satisfactory smile on her hard face. "When you wants young men to stop with you, the rooms must be well furnished, an' Mr. Whyte paid well, tho' 'e was rather pertickler about 'is food, which I'm only a plain cook, an' can't make them French things which ...
— The Mystery of a Hansom Cab • Fergus Hume

... ye send for me again for?" he snapped. This old country doctor was never chary of plain speaking, and his brusqueness had increased his popularity. Many of his patients were simple countrywomen, who had greater belief in that which they feared. They repeated his half-savage speeches to each other, and added, "He's a good doctor, if ...
— Madelon - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

... chance. It's my affair—not hers. There'd be arguments, at the very least. She tramples tactlessly. And it's plain you're abnormally sensitive; and rather fierce ...
— Far to Seek - A Romance of England and India • Maud Diver

... silenced, the discharges of musketry had ceased. On the great plain of Kunersdorf, where, a few hours before, a bloody battle had been raging, all was quiet. Could this be called repose? How cruel was the tranquillity which rested now upon ...
— Frederick The Great and His Family • L. Muhlbach

... asses in the manager's mill, usually raise the right arm, as though partisan meant the instrument in their grasp. O lame and impotent! As if a little bit of a truncheon could bruise a ghost! What says Ossian, speaking of a ghost? "The dim stars twinkled through his form." A plain proof of his want of substance. ...
— The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 4, April 1810 • Various

... never saw so many "types" in my life, as one haughtily says in the Casino at Monte Carlo. Most of the girls were pretty, but there were people of all sorts of shapes and sizes; and you can't conceive how the pretty, just right ones, back in rocking-chairs on the veranda after luncheon, looked at the plain, just wrong ones who ventured to amble past them in humble quest of other chairs. Good gracious me! I wouldn't have run that gauntlet for any prize less than winning Jack's love, unless I simply adored my own clothes ...
— The Lightning Conductor Discovers America • C. N. (Charles Norris) Williamson and A. M. (Alice Muriel)

... view over the whole Lombard plain; not a site in view, or approximate view at least, without its story. Autumn is now painting all the abundance of verdure,—figs, pomegranates, chestnuts, and vines, and I don't know what else,—all in ...
— Life and Letters of Robert Browning • Mrs. Sutherland Orr

... suddenly. Something glittered in the nearest red pool before him. Gold, surely! But, wonderful to relate, not an irregular, shapeless fragment of crude ore, fresh from Nature's crucible, but a bit of jeweler's handicraft in the form of a plain gold ring. Looking at it more attentively, he saw that it bore the inscription, ...
— Frontier Stories • Bret Harte

... the room were soiled and bare, except for blue-prints of drawings from which the projectile was being built in neighbouring foundries. There were but two plain, hard chairs in the room. The doctor sat on one with a pillow doubled up under him for a cushion. He was bending over a draughting board, which was propped up on the bed during the day and ...
— Pharaoh's Broker - Being the Very Remarkable Experiences in Another World of Isidor Werner • Ellsworth Douglass

... their capture was being planned, the herd of quaggas had remained in sight, disporting themselves upon the open plain. It was a tantalizing sight to Hendrik, who would have liked much to have shown his marksman skill by "creasing" one. But the young hunter saw that it would be imprudent to fire at them there, as ...
— Popular Adventure Tales • Mayne Reid

... you, Blaine," shouted the boatswain when he identified his shipmate, and grasped his hand. "Shiver my timbers if I'm not rejoiced to see a man that speaks plain English! Where's ...
— Up The Baltic - Young America in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark • Oliver Optic

... a body of men with number of divergent opinions is for those who have similar or allied aims to get together and take combined action. But the moment that has happened you have got a party system. The party system is, indeed, first a plain recognition of these facts, and then an ...
— The Adventure of Living • John St. Loe Strachey



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