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English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Play   /pleɪ/   Listen
Play

verb
(past & past part. played; pres. part. playing)
1.
Participate in games or sport.  "Play cards" , "Pele played for the Brazilian teams in many important matches"
2.
Act or have an effect in a specified way or with a specific effect or outcome.  "This development played into her hands" , "I played no role in your dismissal"
3.
Play on an instrument.
4.
Play a role or part.  Synonyms: act, represent.  "She wants to act Lady Macbeth, but she is too young for the role" , "She played the servant to her husband's master"
5.
Be at play; be engaged in playful activity; amuse oneself in a way characteristic of children.  "I used to play with trucks as a little girl"
6.
Replay (as a melody).  Synonym: spiel.  "She played the third movement very beautifully"
7.
Perform music on (a musical instrument).  "Can you play on this old recorder?"
8.
Pretend to have certain qualities or state of mind.  Synonyms: act, act as.  "She plays deaf when the news are bad"
9.
Move or seem to move quickly, lightly, or irregularly.
10.
Bet or wager (money).  "She plays the races"
11.
Engage in recreational activities rather than work; occupy oneself in a diversion.  Synonym: recreate.  "The students all recreate alike"
12.
Pretend to be somebody in the framework of a game or playful activity.  "Play cowboy and Indians"
13.
Emit recorded sound.  "The stereo was playing Beethoven when I entered"
14.
Perform on a certain location.  "She has been playing on Broadway for years"
15.
Put (a card or piece) into play during a game, or act strategically as if in a card game.  "The Democrats still have some cards to play before they will concede the electoral victory"
16.
Engage in an activity as if it were a game rather than take it seriously.  Synonym: toy.  "Play the stock market" , "Play with her feelings" , "Toy with an idea"
17.
Behave in a certain way.  "Play it safe" , "Play fair"
18.
Cause to emit recorded audio or video.  Synonym: run.  "I'll play you my favorite record" , "He never tires of playing that video"
19.
Manipulate manually or in one's mind or imagination.  Synonyms: diddle, fiddle, toy.  "Don't fiddle with the screws" , "He played with the idea of running for the Senate"
20.
Use to one's advantage.
21.
Consider not very seriously.  Synonyms: dally, trifle.  "She plays with the thought of moving to Tasmania"
22.
Be received or accepted or interpreted in a specific way.  "His remarks played to the suspicions of the committee"
23.
Behave carelessly or indifferently.  Synonyms: dally, flirt, toy.
24.
Cause to move or operate freely within a bounded space.
25.
Perform on a stage or theater.  Synonyms: act, playact, roleplay.  "He acted in 'Julius Caesar'" , "I played in 'A Christmas Carol'"
26.
Be performed or presented for public viewing.  "'Cats' has been playing on Broadway for many years"
27.
Cause to happen or to occur as a consequence.  Synonyms: bring, make for, work, wreak.  "Wreak havoc" , "Bring comments" , "Play a joke" , "The rain brought relief to the drought-stricken area"
28.
Discharge or direct or be discharged or directed as if in a continuous stream.  "The fountains played all day"
29.
Make bets.  "Play the casinos in Trouville"
30.
Stake on the outcome of an issue.  Synonyms: bet, wager.  "She played all her money on the dark horse"
31.
Shoot or hit in a particular manner.
32.
Use or move.
33.
Employ in a game or in a specific position.
34.
Contend against an opponent in a sport, game, or battle.  Synonyms: encounter, meet, take on.  "Charlie likes to play Mary"
35.
Exhaust by allowing to pull on the line.



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"Play" Quotes from Famous Books



... very likely that a way to be in play is to say that a beard which is in the mouth is not eaten. That is a way to play and he who in a complete expression was keeping what he had begotten did come to ask that in working he should be receving what working could ...
— Matisse Picasso and Gertrude Stein - With Two Shorter Stories • Gertrude Stein

... other book this would be self-evident. For example, suppose that I have never read the play of Hamlet. I hear it universally spoken of as one of the greatest works of the human intellect. That naturally and properly creates in my mind the expectation of finding it so. It produces the general belief that it is a great work of genius. But ...
— Orthodoxy: Its Truths And Errors • James Freeman Clarke

... a little boy six years old, who lived with his parents on the bank of the River Thames in England. One day, after dinner, he went to the water's edge to play. ...
— The Nursery, No. 169, January, 1881, Vol. XXIX - A Monthly Magazine for Youngest Readers • Various

... before, it was somewhat of a jest, a sort of childish play on the part of Mistress Edith, though so far as I was concerned it was ...
— Saint George for England • G. A. Henty

... system is a predisposing cause of sexual delinquency, but in the absence of direct evidence, which is obviously difficult to obtain, such claims can only be an expression of personal opinion. Similarly, the terms "play way" and "free expression" have been quoted to show that traditional external disciplines have given way to a concentration on the development of the personality of the child—a development which could lead to licence. ...
— Report of the Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents - The Mazengarb Report (1954) • Oswald Chettle Mazengarb et al.

... steal from the music-halls; for your costumes steal from Le Follet; for your ideas steal from anybody that happens to carry such a thing about him; for your play, in its entirety, steal the plot, the characters, the romance, the speeches, and the wit, if it have any, of some attractive novel; and when you have made up your parcel of thefts, tie it together with some string ...
— Wisdom, Wit, and Pathos of Ouida - Selected from the Works of Ouida • Ouida

... Hegira was announced to Miss Mary Ives Geer, that young lady, to the ill-concealed vexation of her mother, and the not-attempted-to-be-concealed exultation of her father, expressed decided disapprobation of the whole scheme. As she was the chief dramatis persona, the very Hamlet of the play, this unlooked-for decision somewhat interfered with Mrs. Geer's plans. All the eloquence of that estimable woman was brought to bear on this one point; but this one point was invincible. Expostulation and entreaty were alike vain. Neither ambition nor pleasure could ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume V, Number 29, March, 1860 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... at half-past seven to the Westminster Play, and took Lord John in my train to Richmond. We had some further conversation in the carriage, in which I asked Lord John whether it was true that Lord Palmerston had got us likewise into a quarrel with America by our ships firing at Panama upon an American merchantman; he said neither he nor ...
— The Letters of Queen Victoria, Vol 2 (of 3), 1844-1853 • Queen Victoria

... sure they shall die, and don't care if they do; whom anxious papas, or brothers, or lovers consign with all speed to those dismal lower regions, where the brisk chambermaid, who has been expecting them, seems to think their agonies and groans a regular part of the play. ...
— Sunny Memories Of Foreign Lands, Volume 1 (of 2) • Harriet Elizabeth (Beecher) Stowe

... now, before they come, what is best for us to do. If they get here before your father and Evans, we must not give them any idea that we expect other guests, nor must we say that we suspect them of foul play. We must give them rope enough with ...
— Polly and Eleanor • Lillian Elizabeth Roy

... no longer child's play to march up to the walls of Fort Slatter, nor was the position of the besieged less perilous. At every assault three or four boys on each side were disabled. It was not an infrequent occurrence for the combatants to hold up a flag of truce while ...
— The Story of a Bad Boy • Thomas Bailey Aldrich

... Edward Bok's training, which he realized more clearly as time went on, was that music had little or no place in his life. His mother did not play; and aside from the fact that his father and mother were patrons of the opera during their residence in The Netherlands, the musical atmosphere was lacking in his home. He realized how welcome an outlet music might be in his now busy life. ...
— A Dutch Boy Fifty Years After • Edward Bok

... base and a pure deism, which, grounded on morality, was in its turn to lay the foundation of ethics. The diversity of characters and modes of thought here showed itself in infinite gradations, especially when a leading difference was brought into play by the question arising as to how great a share reason, and how great a share the feelings, could and should have in such convictions. The most lively and ingenious men showed themselves, in this instance, like butterflies, who, quite regardless of ...
— Autobiography • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

... frequently have a part to play in relation to the constellations. Throughout the codices and, to a less degree, in the stone carvings, we find what have usually been considered to be glyphs for several of the constellations. Numerous calculations in the codices make it ...
— Animal Figures in the Maya Codices • Alfred M. Tozzer and Glover M. Allen

... a Mr. and Mrs. Small, had brought their wherry up the river to visit them, whilst on a cruise. On the Friday they had spent the afternoon on board, and she and her brother had been induced to stay to dinner, and play a game or two afterwards; but her father had been obliged to leave earlier on account of ...
— Adventures in Many Lands • Various

... piper's son, stole a pig and away he ran! "But all the tune that he could play, was 'Over ...
— A Collection of Beatrix Potter Stories • Beatrix Potter

... childhood. Being an only child he played much alone, living in his dreams and imagination and early developing a love for poetry. At the age of eight or nine years he was taken by his parents to Petersburg where he was presented to the heir to the throne, and allowed to play with his children. The good will shown him at that time he never lost throughout his entire life. The year following he was taken to Germany, and while in Weimar was permitted to visit Goethe, which made a lasting impression upon him. Up to the age of ...
— Russian Lyrics • Translated by Martha Gilbert Dickinson Bianchi

... He's nothing but a foundling. He ought to be glad we are willing to dress him up prettily and play ...
— Lo, Michael! • Grace Livingston Hill

... marshes. They were now informed that horses would be sent them on the following day from Jenna. During the greater part of the afternoon, Richard Lander amused himself in teaching the simple hearted chief to play on a child's penny Jews-harp, many of which they had brought with them as presents; but his proficiency, owing to a wonderfully capacious mouth, and teeth of extraordinary size, was not near so flattering ...
— Lander's Travels - The Travels of Richard Lander into the Interior of Africa • Robert Huish

... sign! but [stop]!(89) my old woman [must] play [old hob](90) mit me—so put down dat I can break dat contract, if I choose, in twenty years and a ...
— Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Rip van - Winkle • Charles Burke

... a matter for discussion. The question of second wind did not concern her any more than it does a child, whose ordinary mode of progression is heartbreaking. Bennington found that he was engaged in the most delightful play of his life. He shouted aloud with the fun of it. He had the feeling that he was grasping at a sunbeam, or a mist-shape that ...
— The Claim Jumpers • Stewart Edward White

... the voice. Where the temperament is serene though the intellect be sluggish, an unconquerable dullness opposes every effort to instruct. Where there is cunning but not energy, dissimulation, falsehood, a thousand schemes and tricks are put in play to evade the necessity of application; in short, to the tutor, female youth, female charms are like tapestry hangings, of which the wrong side is continually turned towards him; and even when he sees the smooth, neat external surface he so well knows what knots, long stitches, ...
— The Professor • (AKA Charlotte Bronte) Currer Bell

... smiled at me, and she seemed not a whit disturbed concerning the conversation with his Excellency. I wondered whether this were birth, or training, or both, or a natural ability to cope with affairs. The women of her order had long been used to intercede with sovereigns, to play a part in matters of state. Suddenly I became aware that ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... never so dark at the Poles as in other regions, for the moon and stars seem to possess twice as much light and effulgence. In addition, there is a continuous light, the varied shades and play of which are amongst the strangest ...
— The Smoky God • Willis George Emerson

... authorized by their superior virtue to look into the gulf without falling, and into the devil's snares without being caught. Do you understand why the lion did not allow himself the very smallest intrigue? He lived a public life, in the street so to speak, on purpose to play the part of a lover sacrificed to duty by the Baroness, and to feast her mind with the sins she had forbidden to her senses. A man who is so privileged as to be allowed to pour light stories into the ear of a bigot is in her eyes a charming man. If this exemplary youth had ...
— Albert Savarus • Honore de Balzac

... used to be very fond of me; she couldn't bear Will because he was teazing her, but I was like a slave to her. 'I want some shells to play,' sez she sometimes, and there I was off to the shore, hunting about for shells for her. 'Take me a ride,' sez she, and up on my shoulder I would hoist her, as happy as a king, with her two little feet in my hands, and her little fat hands ketching tight in my hair, and there's galloping over ...
— Garthowen - A Story of a Welsh Homestead • Allen Raine

... circle of female acquaintance," concluded she, "my balls are generally well attended: those who are not fond of dancing, play at the bouillotte; and the card-money defrays the expenses of the entertainment, leaving me a handsome profit. In short, these six parties, during the month, enable me to pay my rent, and produce me ...
— Paris As It Was and As It Is • Francis W. Blagdon

... received an invitation to go to Glasgow and play football against one of the Glasgow battalions. On Christmas Day a number of the Canadian oarsmen in the different regiments had a race for eights in the Thames. We had eight first class men who had belonged to ...
— The Red Watch - With the First Canadian Division in Flanders • J. A. Currie

... powerfully impressed by the necessity of elevating the condition of women (see remarkable passage in his letters to M. Valat, pp. 84-87). His friendship with Madame de Vaux had deepened the impression, and in the reconstructed society women are to play a highly important part. They are to be carefully excluded from public action, but they are to do many more important things than things political. To fit them for their functions, they are to be raised above material cares, and they are to be thoroughly educated. The family, which ...
— Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 3 of 3) - Essay 10: Auguste Comte • John Morley

... imposes a duty rather than confers a power, is the formal basis of the President's legislative leadership, which has attained great proportions since 1900. This development, however, represents the play of political and social forces rather than any pronounced change in constitutional interpretation. Especially is it the result of the rise of parties and the accompanying recognition of the President as party leader, of the appearance of the National Nominating ...
— The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation • Edward Corwin

... will permit me to say so, from my somewhat distant view (four years make a long period of absence) the big party task is to build up a clearer and more positive foreign policy. We are in the world and we've got to choose what active part we shall play in it—I fear rather quickly. I have the conviction, as you know, that this whole round globe now hangs as a ripe apple for our plucking, if we use the right ladder while the chance lasts. I do not mean that we want or could get the apple for ourselves, ...
— The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Volume II • Burton J. Hendrick

... where hidden waters run. Nothing more presumptuous than the gathering of a few of these tokens will here be attempted, and of these, only such as may help to explain the time when these children, emerging from childhood, began to play their parts in the scene destined to ...
— Mount Music • E. Oe. Somerville and Martin Ross

... a holiday mood on the people. They had come out to enjoy themselves, and here was an entertainment beyond their dreams of pleasure.... It was a dangerous kind of joke to play ... one of them oul' guns might go off, and who knows who might get killed dead ... and it was a serious thing to seize possession of the Post Office ... if the peelers was to come an' catch them at it an' bring them before the magistrates, they'd be damn near transported ... but it was ...
— Changing Winds - A Novel • St. John G. Ervine

... in protesting, had borne it as well as he could, making Davie wait on him, and driving Polly almost to despair in her efforts to amuse him, while she did up the morning work, Mother Pepper being away. "Why don't you play stage-coach, Joel?" proposed Polly now, as Joel couldn't vent his ...
— The Adventures of Joel Pepper • Margaret Sidney

... play, you see—it's all I can do. But the people next door don't like it, though my room, you know, is not against their wall. Therefore I thank you for letting me tell them that you, in the house, don't find me ...
— Sir Dominick Ferrand • Henry James

... the base of the tomb are of even more exquisite workmanship: they represent weeping wo- men, in long mantles and hoods, which latter hang forward over the small face of the figure, giving the artist a chance to carve the features within this hollow of drapery, - an extraordinary play of skill. There is a high, white marble shrine of the Virgin, as extra- ordinary as all the rest (a series of compartments, re- presenting the various scenes of her life, with the Assumption in the middle); and there is a magnifi- cent series of stalls, which are simply the intricate embroidery ...
— A Little Tour in France • Henry James

... the action of the Credential Committee, had been accorded a vote at the previous session on all questions that came up before it. The fact that Colonel Wood, the Secretary, took this action was in line with the general spirit of fair play, which was the keynote of the caucus. The Credential Committee's report elicited shouts of approval. Chairman Lindsley after bringing the house to ...
— The Story of The American Legion • George Seay Wheat

... by taking no very special interest in the boy's education. Violence of direction in education falls flat: man is a lonely creature, and has to work out his career in his own way. To help the grub spin its cocoon is quite unnecessary, and to play the part of Mrs. Gamp with the butterfly in its chrysalis stage is to place ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 5 (of 14) • Elbert Hubbard

... my dainty Davie: The warl' may play you monie a shavie, [ill turn] But for the Muse, she'll never leave ye, Tho' e'er sae puir; [so poor] Na, even tho' limpin wi' the spavie ...
— Robert Burns - How To Know Him • William Allan Neilson

... hands off," Doris often confided to Martin. "It is only fair play while the children are at Dondale. You were right—Miss Phillips is a wonderful woman—I have learned to trust her absolutely. She has appreciated what I tried to do for the girls; is building on it; she will return them to me—not different, but—extended! ...
— The Shield of Silence • Harriet T. Comstock

... seeking nothing for ourselves but what we shall wish to share with all free peoples, we shall, I feel confident, conduct our operations as belligerents without passion and ourselves observe with proud punctilio the principles of right and of fair play we profess ...
— Germany, The Next Republic? • Carl W. Ackerman

... exoteric phraseology of the Puranas and other Smritic literature. At the outset, therefore, the Eastern Initiate declares the evidence of those Orientalists who, abusing their unmerited authority, play ducks and drakes with his most sacred relics, ruled out of court; and before giving his facts he would suggest to the learned European Sanskritist and archeologist that, in the matter of chronology, the difference in the sum of their series of conjectural historical events, proves them to be ...
— Five Years Of Theosophy • Various

... eyelids," said Batouch. "It is bad for to-morrow. When Allah sends the sands we should cover the face and play the ladies' game within the cafe, we should not travel on the road towards ...
— The Garden Of Allah • Robert Hichens

... city sank quite away. He was for the time being wholly a creature of the primeval forest, and while his breath was the very breath of the wild he felt with it a frolic fancy that demanded some outlet. He must sleep, but he would like to play a new trick upon ...
— The Keepers of the Trail - A Story of the Great Woods • Joseph A. Altsheler

... very night!" Millar cried, laughing satanically and triumphantly. "To-night I shall play with her as I please. Oh, what joy! What exquisite joy! For ten ...
— The Devil - A Tragedy of the Heart and Conscience • Joseph O'Brien

... your criticism after the play is over," retorted Uncle Jap decisively. "I'm talkin' now. Pick up that thar pen, and don't lay it down agen till I tell ye, or," the muzzle of the Colt almost touched the perspiring forehead of the Colossus, "or else, by Golly, thar'll be a terr'ble muss to clean up in here to-morrer mornin'. ...
— Bunch Grass - A Chronicle of Life on a Cattle Ranch • Horace Annesley Vachell

... anger nor my supplications were able to move her. And yet she asserts that she loves me; she dares to say that she shares my passion! Oh, she is a cold-hearted, cruel coquette; it gladdens her to behold my sufferings, and to play with my heart!" ...
— Napoleon and the Queen of Prussia • L. Muhlbach

... not, 'cause I do not play Still with your curls, and kiss the time away. You blame me too, because I can't devise Some sport to please those babies in your eyes: By love's religion, I must here confess it, The most I love when I the least express it. Small griefs find tongues: full casks ...
— The Hesperides & Noble Numbers: Vol. 1 and 2 • Robert Herrick

... especially in so far as it ascribes a "moral" (a word always used by him in an ironical sense) self-government to man. In Fourier's world, on the other hand, every man is supposed, at all times, to give free rein to every passion; and the play of these gratifications constitutes the harmonie, in which the poorest find more enjoyment than do kings at the present time. (See 207 of this work.) B. The main thing to further this is a radical reform ...
— Principles Of Political Economy • William Roscher

... see the play took place in the years before the five-cent theaters had become a feature of every crowded city thoroughfare and before their popularity had induced the attendance of two and a quarter million people in the United States every twenty-four hours. ...
— Twenty Years At Hull House • Jane Addams

... the words I spoke? Why, may be I was half in joke— May be I just might say— Besides that was not half so bad; For Jane, I only said he had More time than I to play. ...
— Books for Children - The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 3 • Charles and Mary Lamb

... shoulders to his small aristocratic feet. His muscles were long, graceful and knitted across his arms, chest, and stomach like lace leather. He was built for swift enduring action and could only have sprung from a race of men who had spent their lives in play and luxury. ...
— The Cruise of the Dry Dock • T. S. Stribling

... the whist! Why did I ever play at whist, Edward? My poor Mr. Milliken used to like ...
— The Wolves and the Lamb • William Makepeace Thackeray

... a second leading sector. The Maldivian Government began an economic reform program in 1989 initially by lifting import quotas and opening some exports to the private sector. Subsequently, it has liberalized regulations to allow more foreign investment. Agriculture and manufacturing continue to play a minor role in the economy, constrained by the limited availability of cultivable land and the shortage of domestic labor. Most staple foods must be imported. Industry, which consists mainly of garment production, boat building, and handicrafts, ...
— The 2001 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... and wide, far as a jav'lin's flight Hurl'd by an arm that proves its utmost strength. O'er this their columns pass'd; Apollo bore His AEgis o'er them, and cast down the wall; Easy, as when a child upon the beach, In wanton play, with hands and feet o'erthrows The mound of sand, which late in play he rais'd; So, Phoebus, thou, the Grecian toil and pains Confounding, sentest panic through their souls. Thus hemm'd beside the ships they made their stand, While each exhorted each, and ...
— The Iliad • Homer

... right," Tom concurred. "Nobody's denyin' it. The trouble is labor ain't quite got its eyes open. It ought to play politics, but the politics ought to be ...
— The Valley of the Moon • Jack London

... a little boy. A divine little boy and a divine little girl used to come and play with him every day. But the little boy alone could see them. His parents could not see them, but believed their ...
— Aino Folk-Tales • Basil Hall Chamberlain

... of king Pandu, having gone through all the purifying rites prescribed in the Vedas, began to grow up in princely style in the home of their father. Whenever they were engaged in play with the sons of Dhritarashtra, their superiority of strength became marked. In speed, in striking the objects aimed at, in consuming articles of food, and scattering dust, Bhimasena beat all the sons of Dhritarashtra. The son of the Wind-god pulled them by the hair and ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa - Translated into English Prose - Adi Parva (First Parva, or First Book) • Kisari Mohan Ganguli (Translator)

... and every day will be full of just such questions. Take the problem of climate. A patient comes to you with asthma and wants to know where he can breathe; another comes to you with phthisis and wants to know where he can live. What boy's play is nine tenths of all that is taught in many a pretentious course of lectures, compared with what an accurate and extensive knowledge of the advantages and disadvantages of different residences in these and other complaints would ...
— Medical Essays • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... them, Chayne had to build up the terrible scene which had taken place between Sylvia and her father in the little back room of the house in Hobart Place. He looked round the lighted room, listened to the ripple of light voices, and watched the play of lively faces and bright eyes. There was an incongruity between these surroundings and the words which he ...
— Running Water • A. E. W. Mason

... such as he requires and describes; he further gives the address where communications must be sent for the negotiation and conclusion of the business. There are other notices which describe a woman who has been seen at the play or elsewhere, and announces that some one has determined to marry her. If any one has a dream which seems to him to predict that a certain number will be lucky in the lottery, he proclaims that fact, and offers a consideration to the possessor of the ...
— De Libris: Prose and Verse • Austin Dobson

... strives to attract the boy's attention and win him to her side. They all run and leap in the merry morning-air, and, as we watch them more nearly, we know them to be the royal family out larking before Paris is astir. Play on, great Emperor, sweet lady, and careless boy-prince! You have hung up a picture in our gallery of memory, very pleasant to look at, this cold night in America. May you always be as happy as when you romped together in ...
— Atlantic Monthly Volume 7, No. 40, February, 1861 • Various

... he said. "You will not deny that they are young ladies. Now listen. They shall tell you themselves whether my rules make any difference between them and you. Helena! Eunice! do I allow you to read novels? do I allow you to go to the play?" ...
— The Legacy of Cain • Wilkie Collins

... once or twice, perhaps, varying the monotony of their movement by walking for a little while and joining in the singing. The physical exertion, which is really very great, as the dance calls into play nearly every muscle of the body, seems never to weary them in the least, and they frequently keep up a shout for hours, resting only for brief intervals between the different songs. Yet, in trying to imitate them, I was completely tired out ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 2, August, 1863 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... preaches, and they begin another chant. Let us look around a little. I am sure you are already interested and surprised at what you see. Here is a group of three little graves; on one, we find three dolls' heads, a quantity of shells, marbles, dishes and other toys with which the children used to play. On another, is a tin kitchen, a bell, a doll in a chair, a marble under a sugar-bowl cover, and part of a tea-set. On another, that of a grown person, is a long pipe with a paper of tobacco, medicine ...
— American Missionary, Volume 44, No. 6, June, 1890 • Various

... legal profession have been swayed by sudden and momentary impulses; or whether they have been impelled by principles which are inherent in their pursuits, and which will always recur in history. I am incited to this investigation by reflecting that this particular class of men will most likely play a prominent part in that order of things to which the events of our time ...
— Democracy In America, Volume 1 (of 2) • Alexis de Tocqueville

... a scene in some old play with himself in the role of the hero signing away his soul to the devil, but an interruption kept him from taking the chair. There was a racket at the door—a half-sobbing, half-scolding voice, and the laughter of a man; then Bud Mansie appeared ...
— Riders of the Silences • John Frederick

... sometimes called, Robin Goodfellow) was a shrewd and knavish sprite, that used to play comical pranks in the neighbouring villages; sometimes getting into the dairies and skimming the milk, sometimes plunging his light and airy form into the butter-churn, and while he was dancing his fantastic shape in the churn, in vain the dairymaid would ...
— Tales from Shakespeare • Charles and Mary Lamb

... it was most unjust that we should detain them by raising legal quibbles for the purpose of keeping them here till the time arrived when the South might not require them. I think public opinion will go with us on this point, for John Bull—with all his failings—loves fair play[1149]." ...
— Great Britain and the American Civil War • Ephraim Douglass Adams

... extraordinary soprano has been discovered in Alexandria; a wondrous contralto has been fished up from Riga. The instrumental phenomena are not one whit scarcer. Classical pianists pour in from Germany principally; popular pianists, who delight in fantasias rather than concertos, and who play such tricks with the keyboards, that the performances have much more of the character of legerdemain than of art, arrive by scores; violinists, violoncellists, professors of the trombone, of the ophicleide, of the bassoon, of every unwieldy and unmanageable instrument ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 436 - Volume 17, New Series, May 8, 1852 • Various

... here again we find an arrangement identical in principle with that by which certain animals recognise the vertical, namely the pressure of free particles on the irritable wall of a cavity. In the higher plants, Nemec and Haberlandt believe that special loose and freely movable starch-grains play the part of the otoliths or statoliths of the crustacea, while the protoplasm lining the cells in which they are contained corresponds to the sensitive membrane lining the otocyst of the animal. What is of special interest in our present connection ...
— Darwin and Modern Science • A.C. Seward and Others

... The play idea will always appeal to the minds of children. History, so often thought to be a dry subject, is made a live wide awake game when the pupils live the parts. The great men and women of history are made real ...
— History Plays for the Grammar Grades • Mary Ella Lyng

... consequences of no exercise having become conspicuous, there has been adopted a system of factitious exercise—gymnastics. That this is better than nothing we admit; but that it is an adequate substitute for play we deny. The truth is that happiness is the most powerful of tonics. By accelerating the circulation of the blood, it facilitates the performance of every function; and so tends alike to increase health where it exists, and to restore it when it has been lost. Hence ...
— The World's Greatest Books—Volume 14—Philosophy and Economics • Various

... appeared at Stirling, where James resided, than he acquired the affections of the young monarch; and joining his interests with those of James Stuart, of the house of Ochiltree, a man of profligate manners, who had acquired the king's favor, he employed himself, under the appearance of play and amusement, in instilling into the tender mind of the prince new sentiments of politics and government. He represented to him the injustice which had been done to Mary in her deposition, and made him entertain thoughts either of resigning the crown into her hands, or of associating ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part D. - From Elizabeth to James I. • David Hume

... other, with a frank stare of astonishment. "Excuse me, but tennis without a racquet, you know—are you going to play with your hands?" ...
— The Mummy and Miss Nitocris - A Phantasy of the Fourth Dimension • George Griffith

... vulpine paw: and even that is an accomplishment which he wishes he hadn't got. There are Chryselephantine statues, but no purely elephantine ones. And, though we speak in a general way of an elephant trumpeting, it is only by human blandishments that he can be induced to play the drum. But man, savage or civilised, simple or complex always desires to see his own soul outside himself; in some material embodiment. He always wishes to point to a table in a temple, or a cloth on a stick, or a word on a scroll, or a badge on a coat, and say: "This is the ...
— Utopia of Usurers and other Essays • G. K. Chesterton

... rabbit of Coole into this house!" she says, with quite a catch in her voice that brings Miss Penelope into prominent play. ...
— Rossmoyne • Unknown

... suddenly into Jerusalem the Golden. Right and left are rows of gorgeous, fantastic sanctuaries, all gold, vermilion and glass mosaic, and within them sit marble figures, bland, enigmatic personages who seem to invite approach but offer no explanation of the singular scene or the part they play in it. If analyzed in detail the artistic merits of these shrines might be found small but the total impression is unique. The Shwe Dagon has not the qualities which usually distinguish great religious ...
— Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Charles Eliot

... The vegetation consisting of a scattered growth of stunted pion and cedar, interspersed with occasional stretches of dull-gray sage, imparts an effect of extreme monotony to the landscape. The effect is in marked contrast to the warmth and play of color frequently seen elsewhere ...
— A Study of Pueblo Architecture: Tusayan and Cibola • Victor Mindeleff and Cosmos Mindeleff

... watched the play they smiled; and through the man's arm crept the woman's hand, and with the confidence of perfect trust she leaned her head against ...
— Darkness and Dawn • George Allan England

... any. He wouldn't dare. This country won't stand for that kind of a play with a girl. Arizona would hang him to the first telegraph pole that ...
— Steve Yeager • William MacLeod Raine

... out o' this, b'y, till I show ye the bastes," responded Pat; and, with a hasty good-bye to Mrs. Moss, Ben followed his new leader, sorely tempted to play some naughty trick upon him in ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, January 1878, No. 3 • Various

... and the romance of the play were still warm and vital, in his imagination, infusing his thoughts with a roseate glamour of unreality, wherein all things were strangely possible. The iridescent imagery of the Arabian Nights of his boyhood (who has forgotten the fascination of those three fat ...
— The Day of Days - An Extravaganza • Louis Joseph Vance

... overheard your remarks a few minutes ago," Mr. Owl explained. "I'd like to watch this hole-crawling contest. And I'll stay here and be the umpire—and see that there's fair play." ...
— The Tale of Grumpy Weasel - Sleepy-Time Tales • Arthur Scott Bailey

... Severino and other defences of Matanzas, were the flagship New York, the monitor Puritan, and the cruiser Cincinnati. The Spaniards fired the first gun, and then the New York took up a position between two batteries and delivered broadsides right and left. Then the Puritan's big guns came into play, and then the Cincinnati poured a stream of shells into the forts. It did not take long to knock the Spanish defences into sand-heaps—only about half an hour—and then the American ships stood out to sea. As they were doing so, the ...
— Young Peoples' History of the War with Spain • Prescott Holmes

... are worth a louis," he explained to me. "The red, a hundred francs. The yellow, five hundred. The green, a thousand. Oh, it's the devil of a game that we play here. ...
— Atlantida • Pierre Benoit

... 57, for instance, White must not play P-B4. Therefore he can only win by gaining the ...
— Chess Strategy • Edward Lasker

... cheek doth play— 'Tis Mary's hand upon my brow! But let me check this tender lay Which none may hear but she and thou! Like the still hive at quiet midnight humming, Murmur it to ...
— Poems of Coleridge • Coleridge, ed Arthur Symons

... ill, and soon afterwards dying, was installed in a little house which overlooked the sea, witnessing the frequent experiments tried on the new vessels, sometimes even the little encounter that took place with the English ships. The First Consul braved all inclemencies of weather; he was eager "to play his great game." "I received your letter of the 18th Brumaire," wrote he to Cambaceres. "The sea continues to be very bad, and the rain to fall in torrents. Yesterday I was on horseback or in a boat all day. That is the same thing as telling you I was continually wet. At this season nothing can ...
— Worlds Best Histories - France Vol 7 • M. Guizot and Madame Guizot De Witt

... pleasures of the other senses play a different part in man and in other animals. For in other animals pleasures do not result from the other senses save in relation to sensibles of touch: thus the lion is pleased to see the stag, or to hear its voice, in relation to his food. On the other ...
— Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) • Thomas Aquinas

... lotus-trees encircling a fountain in which fish like Salammbo's were swimming; and then in the background, against the wall of the temple, spread a vine, the branches of which were of glass and the grape-bunches of emerald, the rays from the precious stones making a play of light through the painted columns ...
— Salammbo • Gustave Flaubert

... was not sorry, after my presentation was over, to return to Sir W.'s and hear Lady H. play, whose music breathes the most pastoral Sicilian ideas, and transports me to green meads on the sea-coast, where I wander ...
— Dreams, Waking Thoughts, and Incidents • William Beckford

... clouds that have been gathering a long, long while, break over the country, and all is tumult from end to end. The Seventh Regiment "boys" go down to Washington, with brave, laughing, high-hearted Jim, who understands that it is no child's play, but a bitter struggle that will call forth the best energies of the country, and who enlists for "three years or the whole war." Ben hurries home, and takes his place in the ranks. When things are at their lowest ebb, and men's hearts are sinking with fear, ...
— A Little Girl of Long Ago • Amanda Millie Douglas

... demands to secure its support, for the purpose of advancing their own ambitious aims. Rome is in the field with the basest and most fatal intentions, and with the most watchful and tireless energy. It is destined to play an important part in our future troubles; for this is the very beast which the two-horned beast is to cause the earth and them that dwell therein to worship, and before whose eyes it is to ...
— The United States in the Light of Prophecy • Uriah Smith

... the suitors he bade Odysseus begone. A quiet answer made him imagine he had to deal with a poltroon and he challenged him to a fight. The proposal was welcomed with glee by the suitors, who promised on oath to see fair play for the old man in his quarrel with a younger. But when they saw the mighty limbs and stout frame of Odysseus, they deemed that Irus had brought trouble on his own head. Chattering with fear Irus had to be forced to the combat. One blow ...
— Authors of Greece • T. W. Lumb

... own view: he feels painfully like the hapless supernumerary whom he has seen mounting an obvious step-ladder behind a screen of rock-work on his way to a wedding in the chapel or a coronation in the Capitol. The difference is, that here the permission to play his role is ...
— Lippincott's Magazine. Vol. XII, No. 33. December, 1873. • Various

... his play immediately and went before them up to the door, with tears in his eyes on account of Crescimir's rebuke. As they reached the veranda Crescimir caught the little elf up in his arms and kissed his rosy lips; the ...
— A Napa Christchild; and Benicia's Letters • Charles A. Gunnison

... me," agreed Grace. "Were it not for the fact that my intuition tells me that the map is going to play an important part in our journey, I should not have been in favor of making a copy of it, so take good care ...
— Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders on the Great American Desert • Jessie Graham Flower

... long backed by persecuting laws, had, in the course of many generations, been found unable to propagate its doctrines, and barely able to maintain its ground; a church so odious that fraud and violence, when used against its clear rights of property, were generally regarded as fair play; a church whose ministers were preaching to desolate walls, and with difficulty obtaining their lawful subsistence by the help of bayonets,—such a church, on our principles, could not, we ...
— How to Write Clearly - Rules and Exercises on English Composition • Edwin A. Abbott

... quarrel with time and space: the lower love fears them, while the higher defies them. — And he could not help seeing that Funkelstein was one to win favour in ladies' eyes. Very regular features and a dark complexion were lighted up by eyes as black as Euphra's, and capable of a wonderful play of light; while his form was remarkable for strength and symmetry. Hugh felt that in any company he would attract immediate attention. His long dark beard, of which just the centre was removed to expose a finely-turned chin, blew over each shoulder as often as they met the ...
— David Elginbrod • George MacDonald

... In my opinion, no human being in America since Washington, perhaps, has been so honored and vindicated. The result shows that the great heart of the American people beats true and is in the direction of fair play for all, regardless of race or color. Nothing has ever occurred which has given me more faith in all races or shows more plainly that they will respond to high ideals when properly ...
— Booker T. Washington - Builder of a Civilization • Emmett J. Scott and Lyman Beecher Stowe

... and on the walls were about 3,000 photographs of school buildings, grounds, interiors with children at work and at play, manual classes at sewing, basketry, weaving, in the shops and the gardens, plans and drawings in full of model rural school buildings; evolution of the schoolhouses, showing the first log building, its successors until the modern school structure is reached, and noted places and buildings in ...
— Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission • Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

... hostility, for he expected that a French army would shortly appear in India. This hope was frustrated by Nelson's victory. Nevertheless, he believed that the time would come when he would be able to co-operate with a French invasion; he tried to play a waiting game, and evaded the British attempts at pacification. Mornington determined to put an end to his subterfuges, and, in February, 1799, ordered an invasion of Mysore under General Harris, the governor of Madras. ...
— The Political History of England - Vol. X. • William Hunt

... their white caps conspicuous in the streets everywhere as they walked orderly in threes and fours to inspect the town. In the square outside the Consulate a squad from the flagship were setting up a temporary band-stand, where the ship's band was to play when evening fell, while Hutcheson, perspiring in his uniform, drove with the Admiral to make the calls of courtesy upon the ...
— The Czar's Spy - The Mystery of a Silent Love • William Le Queux

... are going amongst a flock of drunkards (fato de barrachos)," he answered. "Take care that they do not play you a trick." ...
— The Bible in Spain • George Borrow

... the underside the blue neck is succeeded by green, the green from the centre of the breast to the end of the tail by pure white; the tail can be expanded to a half circle, and each feather widening towards the end makes the semicircle complete around the edge. When catching the ephemeridae that play above the water, the tail is not expanded: it is reserved for times of courtship. I have seen the female sitting quietly on a branch, and two males displaying their charms in front of her. One would shoot up like a rocket, than suddenly expanding the snow-white tail like an inverted ...
— A Book of Natural History - Young Folks' Library Volume XIV. • Various

... This I would rather not submit to. That Hardin is talented, energetic, usually generous and magnanimous, I have before this affirmed to you and do not deny. You know that my only argument is that "turn about is fair play." This ...
— The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Complete - Constitutional Edition • Abraham Lincoln

... but there was a delightful gneiss island, of about thirty acres in extent, and nearly two miles away, to which I used to be occasionally despatched to quarry lintels and corner stones, and where work had all the charms of play; and the quiet Sabbaths were all my own. So long as the laird and his family were at the mansion-house of Flowerdale—at least four months of every year—there was an English service in the parish church; but I had come to the place this season before the laird, and now remained ...
— My Schools and Schoolmasters - or The Story of my Education. • Hugh Miller

... excitedly, as Master Budd entered; "come along, Tommy Budd, you can play too. Now Charity Cora, look out for Is'bella! We're going to ...
— Donald and Dorothy • Mary Mapes Dodge

... success, leading to wretched failures. But so far as he was concerned, the only apparent effect of these discomfitures was to make him all the more determined to discharge successfully the stupendous trust committed to his care, and to bring into play the manifold resources of his well ordered military mind. He guided every subordinate then, and in the last days of the rebellion, with a fund of common sense and superiority of intellect, which have left an impress so distinct as ...
— The Memoirs of General Philip H. Sheridan, Vol. II., Part 5 • P. H. Sheridan

... England's a-wasting all away! You aren't got the sperrit you had, my lad; and instead o' coming to me cheery-like, and saying, 'Now, Ben, get out the swords and let's have a good fence, or a bit o' back-sword or broad-sword-play, or a turn with the singlestick or staves,' you're always a-sticking your nose into musty old parchments, or dusty books, along o' Master Palgrave ...
— The Young Castellan - A Tale of the English Civil War • George Manville Fenn

... white girl. Whether or not it was well written I don't know; but it seemed as if the hand of destiny had led me to it, for the hero's plight was so similar to the situation of Running Elk that it seemed almost uncanny, and I wondered if this play might afford me some solution of ...
— Laughing Bill Hyde and Other Stories • Rex Beach

... satisfactory production. The subject is English, the music is English, and the "book" is English too. So when we applaud the new Opera, we have the satisfaction of knowing that our cheers are given in the cause of native talent triumphant. This is appropriate to the "time" of the play (the commencement of the thirteenth century), which is the very epoch when the Saxons were beginning to hold their own in the teeth of their Norman conquerors. But leaving patriotism out of the question (a matter which, it is to ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 98, February 8, 1890 • Various

... by its religious reality in Rome, he was ten thousand times more impressed by its scientific courage here in Lourdes. For here religion seemed to have stepped down into an arena hitherto (as he fancied) restricted to the play of physical forces. She had laid aside her oracular claims, her comparatively unsupported assertions of her own divinity; had flung off her robes of state and authority and was competing here on equal ...
— Dawn of All • Robert Hugh Benson

... undetermined, the President being embarrassed concerning the policy to be pursued, by the division of his constitutional advisers. On which Mr. Adams remarked: "These cabinet councils open upon me a new scene, and new views of the political world. Here is a play of passions, opinions, and characters, different from those in which I have been ...
— Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams. • Josiah Quincy

... cigar. There was always something, some sacrifice to make, and seldom for art's sake. It is all very well to witness a play from the other side of the footlights; everything appears to work out so smoothly, easily and without effort. To this phenomenon is due the amateur dramatist—because it looks simple. A play is not written; ...
— Half a Rogue • Harold MacGrath

... a Tragedy, acted at the theatre-royal, and printed in 4to 1673. It is dedicated to the lord Clifford of Chudleigh. The plot of this play is chiefly founded in history, giving an account of the cruelty of the Dutch towards our countrymen at ...
— The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) - Vol. III • Theophilus Cibber

... Gambling at cards was more common among the people than suited either the priests or the civil authorities, as the records often attest. Less objectionable amusements were afforded by the corvees recreatives or gatherings at a habitant's home for some combination of work and play. The corn-husking corvee, for reasons which do not need elucidation, was of course the most popular of these. Of study or reading there was very little, for only a very small percentage of the people could read. Save for a few manuals of devotion there were no books in the home, and very few anywhere ...
— The Seigneurs of Old Canada: - A Chronicle of New-World Feudalism • William Bennett Munro

... man in the moon! You taze me all ways that a woman can plaze; For you dance twice as high with that thief, Pat McGhee, As you do when you're dancing a jig, Love, with me; Though the piper I'd bate, for fear the old chate Wouldn't play you your ...
— The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson • Edward A. Moore

... people being middle-aged and steady, John, and pretend that we are a humdrum couple, going on in a jog-trot sort of way, it's only because I'm such a silly little thing, John, that I like, sometimes, to act as a kind of Play with Baby, and ...
— The Cricket on the Hearth • Charles Dickens

... composed of work-girls from a Lancashire factory recently journeyed to Paris to play a team of French female footballers. With women forcing an entry into the ranks of minor professions, such as the Law and Politics, it is doubtful if even the sacred precincts of professional football can now be considered safe, and Mr. Punch wonders if he may soon find ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 159, November 24, 1920 • Various

... display for our benefit rather arbitrary authority toward others. The first individual coming under his immediate notice is a young man torturing a harp. Summoning the musician, the pasha summarily orders him to play "Yankee Doodle." The writer arrived in Constantinople with the full impression that it was the mosqne of St. Sophia that has the famons six minarets, having, I am quite sure, seen it thus quite frequently accredited in print, and I mention this ...
— Around the World on a Bicycle V1 • Thomas Stevens



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