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Undertone   /ˈəndərtˌoʊn/   Listen
Undertone

noun
1.
A quiet or hushed tone of voice.
2.
A subdued emotional quality underlying an utterance; implicit meaning.  Synonym: undercurrent.
3.
A pale or subdued color.  Synonym: tinge.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Undertone" Quotes from Famous Books



... at!" said Mrs. Nettley, busying herself round her stove and speaking in rather an undertone. "He's worse than a sermon to ...
— Hills of the Shatemuc • Susan Warner

... agreed to take me a short distance beyond this creek and there leave me, as they were afraid to go any further. On the bank of the creek we took a farewell smoke. There was a faint glow in the east, showing that it was almost morning. The warriors sang a 'Strong Heart' song for me in an undertone as I ...
— Old Indian Days • [AKA Ohiyesa], Charles A. Eastman

... Polly! I'd better be making tracks. The old man's on the warpath." And in an undertone: "Same old grouser! Never COULD take ...
— Australia Felix • Henry Handel Richardson

... with which Fabio had stabbed his friend; the Malay struck one blow with the branch on the blood-stained blade. A minute passed ... another. Fabio approached the Malay, and stooping down to him, asked in an undertone, 'Is he dead?' The Malay bent his head from above downwards, and disentangling his right hand from his shawl, he pointed imperiously to the door. Fabio would have repeated his question, but the gesture of the commanding ...
— Dream Tales and Prose Poems • Ivan Turgenev

... a few paces ahead, flanked by Robin and the local doctor, who were each endeavouring to secure her undivided attention. She was looking very lovely, in an elusive frock of some ephemeral material veiling a delicate prismatic undertone of colour. She always dressed rather wonderfully, every detail perfect. There was a kind of frail, worldly charm about her clothes—the sort of charm you never find in the clothes of a thoroughly good and virtuous woman, as Lady Susan trenchantly ...
— The Vision of Desire • Margaret Pedler

... he crossed a great bridge and set his foot within the smiling city that has crushed or crowned more poets than all the rest of the world. His breath came quickly as Paris sang to him in a little undertone her vital chant of greeting—the hum of voice and ...
— Roads of Destiny • O. Henry

... thinking that the unsavory reputation of this island may keep those fellows from coming here," Walter observed in an undertone. ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely

... may be persuaded; for I only am master, and I will prove it to the last. These are your credentials, my dear duke, add to them what you may think fitting; I will bear you out in any thing—" "Mercy!" said the duc de Richelieu to me in an undertone, "the king has poured forth all his energy in words; he will have none left to act upon if he meets with any resistance." The marechal knew the king well. "I doubt not, sire," replied the duc de la Vauguyon, "that the respectful duty of mesdames will ...
— "Written by Herself" • Baron Etienne Leon Lamothe-Langon

... to his direction. A mild-eyed ragged tramp drinking tea at the next table moved farther away. A murmur of wonder arose with an undertone of uneasiness. A laugh was heard too, and an exclamation, "There! there!" jeeringly soothing. The waiter looked all round and announced to ...
— Under Western Eyes • Joseph Conrad

... air a glittering cross; there are old men with bowed heads, young men erect, with shaven crowns, and boys in scarlet and white robes, carrying silver censers; there is a clanking of silver chains, a tinkling of little bells, and an undertone of oft-repeated prayer. The effect is startling, and brilliant; the sunlight glances upon the white robes of the men, in alternate stripes of soft shadow and dazzling brightness, the wind plays round their feet as they march heavily along, in a whirl of dust which robs ...
— Normandy Picturesque • Henry Blackburn

... It was quite romantic to be talked to like that. She would like to see the men threaten each other. But then—the scandal— father might never get over it. And if he married again? Speaking slowly, and in an undertone so as not to betray herself, she said: "O Frank, I'm sure you would not do anything that ...
— Spring Days • George Moore

... came and sat beside me in the place usually occupied by M. Arbey. While talking, he interjected in an undertone sarcastic remarks about ...
— The Memoirs of Victor Hugo • Victor Hugo

... place, Lacville, and cheaper than one would think." She leant across the table, and continued in a confidential undertone: "As for us—my husband and I—we have taken a small villa; he has ...
— The Chink in the Armour • Marie Belloc Lowndes

... of the excitement visible in the zouaves on either side of them, who, though silent, were trembling with impatience. Close at hand there was a corporal holding a little tricolor. Two minutes before twelve o'clock the word was passed in an undertone, "Ready," and as the hands indicated it was twelve o'clock, on a command from MacMahon a shout arose of "Vive l'Empereur!" bugles and drums sounded the charge, and the zouaves dashed ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 17 • Charles Francis Horne

... those grown-up children in the Village joyously splashing on their wooden toys or the walls of their absurd and charming "shops" will somehow get into the grey fabric of your life; and a certain eager urging undertone of idealism and hope and sturdy aspiration will make you restless as you follow your common round. Perhaps you will go back. Perhaps you will keep it as a rainbow memory, a visualisation of the make-believe country ...
— Greenwich Village • Anna Alice Chapin

... will none of you agree with me," Lois said; "and I do not know much poetry; but there seems to me to run an undertone of lament and weariness through most of what I know. Now take the 'Death of the Flowers,'—that you were reading yesterday, ...
— Nobody • Susan Warner

... air had the indescribably sweet smell of ripening grain, clover-blooms, and new hay; for the high stands of wild hay around the ponds and lakes are all being cut this year, and even the timothy along the roads, and there was a mellow undertone of mowing machines everywhere, like the distant hum of a city. Fat cattle stood knee-deep in a stream as we passed, and others lay contentedly on the clover-covered banks. One restless spirit, with a poke on her neck, sniffed at us as we went by, and tossed ...
— The Next of Kin - Those who Wait and Wonder • Nellie L. McClung

... for him. Nevertheless after a lapse of some minutes the king came back again; after traversing the room once or twice at a quick pace, he planted himself immediately in front of De Scuderi and, throwing his arms behind his back, said in almost an undertone, yet without looking at her, "I should very much like to see your Madelon." Mademoiselle replied, "Oh! my precious liege! what a great—great happiness your condescension will confer upon the poor unhappy ...
— Weird Tales, Vol. II. • E. T. A. Hoffmann

... new undertone of tenderness in her voice—innocent tenderness that openly avowed itself. The reviving influences of the life at the Home had done much—and had much yet left to do. Her wasted face and figure were filling out, her cheeks and lips were regaining their lovely natural colour, as Amelius had seen in ...
— The Fallen Leaves • Wilkie Collins

... with ceaseless whirr and drone, With moss and lichens to the roof o'ergrown An undertone to every other sound, The blind old horse ...
— The Coming of the Princess and Other Poems • Kate Seymour Maclean

... The rustle of leaves, the moaning sedge, The water's lap on its gravelled edge, The wailing pines, and, far and faint, The wood-dove's note of sad complaint,— To the solemn voice of the preacher lent An undertone as of low lament; And the note of the sea from its sand coast, On the easterly wind, now heard, now lost, Seemed the murmurous ...
— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier

... Madame Mayer, with the elderly countess whom she patronised for the sake of deafness, and found convenient as a sort of flying chaperon. The countess could not hear much of the music, but she was fond of the world and liked to be seen, and she could not hear at all what Del Ferice said in an undertone to Madame Mayer. Sufficient to her were the good things of the day; the rest was in no way her business. There was Valdarno in the club-box, with a knot of other men of his own stamp. There were the Rocca, mother and daughter ...
— Saracinesca • F. Marion Crawford

... Eastern Gap into the open lake, where he could cut away across miles of blue water that danced invitingly in the golden sunshine on and on to the horizon's clear rim. All alone out there with the wash of the water, the steady undertone of the engine throbbing in his ears and the cool breeze blowing through his hair, he could ...
— Every Man for Himself • Hopkins Moorhouse

... two-and-twenty, is she not? When you have daughters of your own, my love, I am quite sure you will manage them excellently, and no young man will have a chance of speaking to them; but with Audrey it is another matter.' And then, in a tragic undertone: 'Have you forgotten, wife mine, a certain afternoon when you did me the honour of playing with me three whole sets, and then we cooled ourselves down by the lake, until ...
— Lover or Friend • Rosa Nouchette Carey

... their talk part of the time; and then again they lowered their voices to rumbling growls. At such times he knew that they were speaking of him, and the hum of the undertone was more ominous than open threats. When they talked aloud there was a confused clamor; when they were more hushed there was always the oily murmur of Scottie's voice, taking the lead and directing the current ...
— Way of the Lawless • Max Brand

... with James Anstice was one of gentle weariness. He felt that his life was ended, and that the years were going on in a sort of monotonous anti-climax. Yet, in spite of this undertone of depression, his manner was responsive, genial, even gay at times, and he lived much in the reflected light ...
— Flint - His Faults, His Friendships and His Fortunes • Maud Wilder Goodwin

... loud or hasty word did she hear from him, nor indeed from any member of the family. When he came in from his work his first words were for her: some cheery little speech, yet uttered in rather an undertone, lest his natural abruptness unchecked should startle her. The best massive arm-chair, and the snuggest nook by the kitchen fire, were hers; and by the Bible, which was her constant companion, and lay on a little table which stood beside her, a few bright flowers, as their season came ...
— True to his Colours - The Life that Wears Best • Theodore P. Wilson

... trace Joe, Jerry and Slim through their initial instruction, for it had lasted less than an hour, when an orderly hastily entered the room, saluted the officer who was acting as instructor, and then talked to him for a moment in an undertone. ...
— The Brighton Boys in the Radio Service • James R. Driscoll

... rowed beside us in a boat, and at length with that English pluck which so many English girls possess, she boldly steered into a steamer's swell, and then to the open sea, where, before a soft zephyr murmuring its undertone whispers, we hoisted her parasol for a sail, and the visitors on Dover pier had a novel treat in the ...
— The Voyage Alone in the Yawl "Rob Roy" • John MacGregor

... words to her in an undertone, as also to the servant, drew back the curtain and sent them both out of ...
— The Hollow Needle • Maurice Leblanc

... with a great brown cloak floating from his shoulders—a living picture of Ishmael or those sons of his who dwelt in the tents of Kedar. A few muleteers drew aside to let the horses pass, and exchanged some words in an undertone with Conyngham's guide. Fine-looking brigands were these, with an armoury of knives peeping from their bright-coloured waistbands. The Andalusian peasant is for six days in the week calculated to ...
— In Kedar's Tents • Henry Seton Merriman

... dip in a dingle where the woodcutters have left a log among the hazels, and here, having wheeled Guy into a dappling of sunny discs and leaf-shadows in a grassy bay, we sat down on the log, and talked in an undertone. Our failure to find the Oak-men's church reminded me of the old legends of lost and invisible churches, the bells of which are heard ringing under the snow, or in the depths of the woods, or far away in burning ...
— A Child's Book of Saints • William Canton

... claver, Mary!" cried Margray. "One cannot hear herself think, for the din of your twittering!—I'll cut the sleeve over crosswise, I think,"—and, heedless, she herself commenced humming, in an undertone, '"Cuckoo! ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 11, No. 63, January, 1863 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... Edward Livingston "the most contemptible and degraded of beings, whom no man ought to touch, unless with a pair of tongs." One day, while he was speaking with great freedom of abuse of Mr. Webster, then a member of the House, a Senator informed him in an undertone that Mrs. Webster was in the gallery. He had not the delicacy to desist, however, until he had fully emptied the vials of his wrath. Then he set upon Mr. Speaker Taylor, and after abusing him soundly he turned sarcastically to the gentleman who ...
— Perley's Reminiscences, Vol. 1-2 - of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis • Benjamin Perley Poore

... of juvenile applause greeted her as she hurried into the parlor, and a number of grown people smiled quite musically. Her quick woman-wit showed her how to retaliate and divide the embarrassment of the occasion. As she passed me she said in an undertone,—"Answer quick! Who's that fat lady on the sofa, ...
— Humorous Masterpieces from American Literature • Various

... visions faded; into his remote eyes crept the consciousness of the twentieth century again; he heard the river whistles blowing, and the far dissonance of the streets—that iron undertone vibrating through the metropolis of the West from river to river and from ...
— The Tracer of Lost Persons • Robert W. Chambers

... The latter had a book in her hand, and came forward whispering. "She's asleep," she said very sibilantly. "I have read her to sleep, and she's sleeping beautifully. Have you ever read it?" she asked, with hoarse breaks from her undertone, as she held up one of those cheap library-editions of ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... The same old story! I'm so toed of it all. (To herself, in an undertone.) But how should I feel if it all stopped? (The servant brings ...
— Crucial Instances • Edith Wharton

... they?" commented Judith in an undertone. "Never a question about that ignoble Noble mix-up. Honestly, Jane, do you think Marian will behave like ...
— Jane Allen: Right Guard • Edith Bancroft

... without a hope either in this world or the world to come. She could not but pity him as he stood there cowering and shuddering, and she turned swiftly towards the Prince and spoke to him in a rapid undertone. ...
— In the Days of Chivalry • Evelyn Everett-Green

... enough of men to know the best of them when I find them. I saw it in him the moment I got him up to my cabin and laid him in my bunk. He—he—minded me of one that's gone." His voice dropped to the undertone of reminiscence. "Of one ...
— The Eye of Dread • Payne Erskine

... and stow the lower topsails as well," he shouted; adding in an undertone to Mr Bowles, "I don't know what to expect; but it threatens to be something terrible; and the less canvas we show to it the better. The stay-sail will be quite as much as we ...
— The Pirate Island - A Story of the South Pacific • Harry Collingwood

... have proved so invaluable to the defense. And when court adjourned, and the trio went down the steps to the street, he assured his brother-in-law there was a chance for him to escape, under Foster's cloak. To Marcia he said jocularly, though still in an undertone: "'Snatched like a brand from the burning!'" And he added: "My lady, had you consulted me, I should have suggested the April issue. These magazines have a bad habit of ...
— The Rim of the Desert • Ada Woodruff Anderson

... was drawing to a close when she leaned toward me and spoke in an undertone. As this was the first sign, in so protracted a period, that I might ever again establish relations with the world of men, it came upon me like a Friday's footprint, and in the moment of shock I did not catch what ...
— The Guest of Quesnay • Booth Tarkington

... the want of any device, such as printing, by which they could be cheaply multiplied. But there is a curious fact which suggests that publication was considered undesirable. One section of the Canon of the Mass was called the secret part (secretum), and was recited by the celebrant in an undertone, that it might not become known to the congregation. Similarly, all literary exposition of such central doctrines as the Atonement, or the Trinity, was deprecated by early theologians, who pass by them with the remark that they are ...
— Medieval Europe • H. W. C. Davis

... shame," he soliloquized in an undertone, quite unconscious that he was observed, "that ye should escape, ye villains. Av I only had a musket now—but I han't. Arrah! av it was only a spear. Be the mortial! I think I could crack the skull o' the small wan! Faix, then, ...
— The World of Ice • Robert Michael Ballantyne

... sight of her beautiful bosom, which at once caused my prick to throb almost to bursting, so that when she came to my side, it stood up most manfully. She paused, evidently intent on the sight. She then held the light towards me, and spoke in an undertone, asking me if I was awake. Of course I only breathed the heavier, and lay with my mouth half open, as if in the very deepest first slumber. She then turned her attention to the bulging-out substance, and ventured to touch it ...
— The Romance of Lust - A classic Victorian erotic novel • Anonymous

... but it was not taken. Manuel had left his seat and now stood before her, awed by the undertone of strong emotion in her calmly spoken words, bewildered by the proposal so abruptly made, longing to ask the natural question hovering on his lips, yet too generous to utter it. Pauline read his thought, and answered ...
— Pauline's Passion and Punishment • Louisa May Alcott

... to his daughter, and was intimidating her in what he imagined to be an undertone. "Hold your tongue, Maggie," he said in a thunderous whisper. "Why should you shield the fellow? Where's his ...
— The Innocence of Father Brown • G. K. Chesterton

... alone, Alone in twilight's undertone, With wav'ring shadows growing deep, While long-forgotten faces peep Midst curling mists of smoke, now blown Into a frame that doth enthrone A face that from my heart hath grown. Sweet mem'ries o'er my being creep, ...
— Cap and Gown - A Treasury of College Verse • Selected by Frederic Knowles

... to shed approval. Godefroid, struck with reverence, looked from the old man to Doctor Sigier; they were talking together in an undertone. ...
— The Exiles • Honore de Balzac

... magically and the men vanished below, but at four-thirty they swarmed the port bow, silently if interestedly. If they talked at all it was in a whispering undertone. ...
— The Pagan Madonna • Harold MacGrath

... Hawthorne, "he had never lost his identity.... He had never violated the innermost man, but had carried his conscience along with him." There speaks the local accent of Puritanism, but the voice insisting upon the moral integrity of the individual is the undertone of America. ...
— The American Mind - The E. T. Earl Lectures • Bliss Perry

... duke replied in an undertone, touching his son's arm with the point of the forefinger of his left hand, and pointing up to the panel with the stick he held in his right: "Dawne, if it were not for what that panel conceals—" he ...
— The Heavenly Twins • Madame Sarah Grand

... suddenly, as if renouncing a sacred principle, his brow cleared, and he cried out: "Damn the contract! Joseppi's voice is his own. Joseppi will do as he pleases with it. Let him but make the request, my friend,—and Joseppi will sing till he drops from exhaustion." Lowering his voice to a confidential undertone, he went on: "And that, my friend, is more than you will find Careni-Amori willing to do. There is one cold-blooded, grasping woman for you. Money! She thinks of nothing but money. And flattery! Ah, how she thrives on flattery. ...
— West Wind Drift • George Barr McCutcheon

... with Mrs. James and Basil (the boys in the background), I was glad, glad that Sir Walter had owned so many treasures, and collected so many curiosities; yet I felt an undertone of sadness even in the library (where the twenty thousand books are, given back by those decent bodies, his creditors), a sadness like that which must have pressed on his spirit, thinking of all ...
— The Heather-Moon • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

... in the same quiet, dispassionate undertone, 'I wouldn't mind if it was only myself. But there are so many of us, so many selves, I mean; and they all seem to have a voice in the matter. What is the reality ...
— The Return • Walter de la Mare

... you was away—were away—" In lively undertone Ramsey ran on to tell of Mrs. Gilmore's having in Hugh's absence called in her maid Harriet to show the young lady from Napoleon how to do a bit of stage business without a hint of the stage. At the tale's end the pair glanced round from the nearing Antelope to the Gilmores and back ...
— Gideon's Band - A Tale of the Mississippi • George W. Cable

... yet, without blenching, he grasped his colors with the other hand and swept on into the jaws of this flaming hell at the head of his men. The rain of musketry fire against the trees came to Ned's ears in low undertone like the rattle of myriads of hail stones on the roof ...
— The Southerner - A Romance of the Real Lincoln • Thomas Dixon

... with such intenseness, and sympathized so intimately, that the sermon had throughout a meaning for her, entirely apart from its indistinguishable words. These, perhaps, if more distinctly heard, might have been only a grosser medium, and have clogged the spiritual sense. Now she caught the low undertone, as of the wind sinking down to repose itself; then ascended with it, as it rose through progressive gradations of sweetness and power, until its volume seemed to envelop her with an atmosphere of awe and solemn grandeur. And yet, majestic as the voice sometimes became, there was for ever ...
— The Scarlet Letter • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... sea-fowl were a poor exchange for them; and an island that was "desert" in reality as well as in name, was a decidedly prosaic place on which to spend a few days, or weeks, or months. Of course he made none of these remarks in public; he contented himself with humming in an undertone the words of Alexander Selkirk, as ...
— Under False Pretences - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant

... He stared unbelievingly through the crystal shell. They rose like a Banshee jet. There was a shaggy, monstrous colossus in the distance, taller than the Himalayas—the man who had been beside them. Bork grunted. "Got it! We're all right now." He chanted something in a rapid undertone "All right, relax. That will teach them not to work resonance magic inside a protective ring; the egg knows how we could have got through otherwise. Lucky we were trying at the right time, though. The Satheri must be going crazy. Wait a minute, ...
— The Sky Is Falling • Lester del Rey

... an undertone, "Carry has been showing us her bracelet, and I think it is beautiful; she won't tell whose hair it is—I guess it's her sister's, maybe—but I'm sure yours would make just as pretty a bracelet, ...
— Holidays at Roselands • Martha Finley

... little graveyard, lone At the crossroads there, though the sun sets fair On wild-rose, mound and stone ... A wee bed under the willows— My wife's hand on my own— And our horse stops, too ... And we hear the coo Of a dove in undertone. ...
— A Child-World • James Whitcomb Riley

... Island of Endless Play The River of Sleep The Things that Count Limitless What They Saw The Convention Protest A Bachelor to a Married Flirt The Superwoman Certitude Compassion Love Three Souls When Love is Lost Occupation The Valley of Fear What would it be? America War Mothers A Holiday The Undertone Gypsying Song of the Road The Faith we Need The Price he Paid Divorced The Revealing Angels The Well-born Sisters of Mine Answer The Graduates The Silent Tragedy The Trinity The Unwed Mother to the Wife Father and Son Husks Meditations The ...
— Poems of Purpose • Ella Wheeler Wilcox

... for the guitar and moonlight. These modinhas have quite a peculiar character. They are little, graceful, lyrical snatches of song, with a rather melancholy cadence; even those of which the words are gay not being quite free from this undertone of sadness. One hears them constantly sung to the guitar, a favorite instrument with the Brazilians as well as the Indians. This put us all into a somewhat dreamy mood, and we approached the end of our journey rather silently. ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 101, March, 1866 • Various

... deposit the treasure in his fob; and then, as if he conceived the benevolence called for some requital on his part, he gathered close up to Edward, with an expression of countenance peculiarly knowing, and spoke in an undertone, 'If his honour thought ta auld deevil Whig carle was a bit dangerous, she could easily provide for him, ...
— Waverley, Or 'Tis Sixty Years Hence, Complete • Sir Walter Scott

... been whistling at the window, said to Drake in a cynical undertone: "The man is hipped and sore. He has lost his challenge, and we ought to make allowances ...
— The Christian - A Story • Hall Caine

... same minor undertone of unrest sounding ominously through every line; the same illogical, unhappy attitude which implied so much and said so little, leaving him uneasy and disconcerted, conscious of the vague recklessness and veiled reproach—dragging him back from the present ...
— The Younger Set • Robert W. Chambers

... managed to do so. My comparatively youthful appearance won for me, however, the good favour of the buxom landlady, who, after repeatedly declaring to other applicants that she had not a corner left in the whole house, took me aside and said in an undertone: "listen, I will put you in a little cabinet upstairs. I will show you the way by and by. But don't tell anybody." And she added compassionately: "Mon pauvre garcon, you look frozen. Go into the kitchen. There is a good fire there, and you will ...
— My Days of Adventure - The Fall of France, 1870-71 • Ernest Alfred Vizetelly

... as a pleasant jest, And set at nought the Syndic and the rest, Maintaining, in an angry undertone, That he should do what pleased him with his own. And thereupon the Syndic gravely read The proclamation of the King; then said: "Pride goeth forth on horseback grand and gay, But cometh back on foot, ...
— Successful Recitations • Various

... announcement begets no sign of responsive grief on the face of the stolid child before her. She never whipped a child in her life. If she had, and it had but roused some positive anger in the child, instead of that undertone of complaint which is always oozing out of every one of them, I think It would have been a gain. But the poor lady is one of the whiny-piny people, and must be in preparation for a development of which I have no prevision. The only stroke of originality I thought I knew of her was this; ...
— The Vicar's Daughter • George MacDonald

... tiller, he pulls out his watch from under a thick jacket and bends his head over it in the light cast into the boat. Time's up. His pleasant voice commands, in a quiet undertone, "Larguez." A suddenly projected arm snatches the lantern off the quay—and, warped along by a line at first, then with the regular tug of four heavy sweeps in the bow, the big half-decked boat full of men glides out of the black, breathless shadow ...
— A Personal Record • Joseph Conrad

... orchids—everything—danced around in a circle, and I just seemed to catch the back of my chair as it flew past. Jim had ordered away the wines and brought out some weak and cheap Chianti. Dallas looked gloomy at the change, but Jim explained in an undertone that Aunt Selina didn't approve of expensive vintages. Naturally, the meal was ...
— When a Man Marries • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... a moment strung herself to the attitude of offended pride. But it passed. She smiled to his smile, and, playing with the tassel of her chair, responded in a serious undertone. ...
— The Crown of Life • George Gissing

... just two weeks from that day that the storm broke at the Yellow Jacket Mine. A deep undertone of discontent and rebellion had filled the air during that time. Job had felt it more plainly than he had heard it. The superintendent had kept a calm, firm face, though Job knew he was anything ...
— The Transformation of Job - A Tale of the High Sierras • Frederick Vining Fisher

... a monument!' observed Mr. Fotheringham, in an undertone to Theodora, who started, and would have been angry, but for his merry smile. He then turned to the child, whose face was indeed stupefied with sullenness, as if in the resistance she had forgotten the original cause. 'What! you have not said it all this time? What's your name? I ...
— Heartsease - or Brother's Wife • Charlotte M. Yonge

... I went night before last with Aunt Lydia?" Bertie resumed, as she fingered the remaining two or three of a row of shining teaspoons. "To the opera"—in an awe-struck undertone; "to Rig-o-letto. Aunt Lydia couldn't get a box—she said they were all taken for the season; but we had seats close to one side, just below the boxes. Such a grand place! Ever since the Auditorium was opened I've been hoping to see it, and now ...
— With the Procession • Henry B. Fuller

... some trivial reply, but immediately began to hum in a happy undertone. She was feeling surprisingly light-hearted herself. The role of benefactor was an unusual one, and she ...
— The Little Colonel's Chum: Mary Ware • Annie Fellows Johnston

... and George seem at last to have made friends," said Harding Watton to Letty, in a laughing undertone. "I have no doubt she is trying to win him over. Well she may! Before the next few weeks are over the Government will be in a fix with this Bill; and not even their 'beautiful lady' will help them out. Maxwell looks as glum ...
— Sir George Tressady, Vol. I • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... paper he had received from the British Towing and Shipping Company. The mate wrinkled his half inch of knobbly brow as he read the paper in a low undertone, after the ...
— The Cruise of the Dry Dock • T. S. Stribling

... orchestral undertone, The plaining wail of muted violin, The hushed oboe and the distant din, Of muffled drum or viol's raucous groan— Sudden arises one pure voice-like tone, A silver trumpet's tongue that stirs the soul ...
— The Path of Dreams - Poems • Leigh Gordon Giltner

... impression and effect produced by the deep, drowsy, hollow, hoarse, guttural, ceaseless, and monotonous hum, which proceeded from about four hundred individuals, half asleep and at prayer; for their cadences were blended and slurred into each other, as they repeated, in an awe-struck and earnest undertone, the prayers in which they were engaged. It was certainly the strangest sound I ever heard, and resembled a thousand subterraneous groans, uttered in a kind of low, deep, unvaried chant. Nothing could produce a sense of gloomy alarm in a weak superstitious mind ...
— The Station; The Party Fight And Funeral; The Lough Derg Pilgrim • William Carleton

... an undertone of reviling. Some speak familiarly of subjects which we are not accustomed to mention, and others are ...
— The Chinese Boy and Girl • Isaac Taylor Headland

... and pursued his way alone, And as he went he murmured, in a thoughtful undertone: "I'm a happy little Spider, and I'm very glad indeed, That I was born an octoped and ...
— The Jingle Book • Carolyn Wells

... like the beating of a great, muffled heart, and with a slow and solemn movement, rolled and swept in long chains of sound through the house, till, at last, a clear, sweet, flutelike warble broke in and ran up and down, seeming to wind in and out with the heavy undertone. Hagar came in just then with her flaming candle, and began to rattle about among ...
— Culm Rock - The Story of a Year: What it Brought and What it Taught • Glance Gaylord

... la Rue to take off his habit, get him gone from the convent, and meet him near a great tree on the high-road from Meaux to Vaulx-Courtois. Rigoux met him there and took him to a certain Maitre Pierre, who, after a few words exchanged in an undertone with Rigoux, sent De la Rue to the stable, after his return whence he saw no more of Rigoux. Thereupon Pierre and his wife made him good cheer, telling him that for the love of Maitre Rigoux they would treat him well, and that he ...
— Among My Books - First Series • James Russell Lowell

... was dressed in his hunting clothes, scarlet with gold lace, the very clothes he wore that day when he met her in St. Leonard's Wood, begged of her a drink, and stole a kiss. He had preserved his youth and good looks. When he smiled, he still displayed magnificent teeth. Catherine said to him in an undertone: ...
— Famous Modern Ghost Stories • Various

... is something to eat," Miss Marguerite Wade confided in an undertone to Tony Cornish, a few minutes later in Lady Ferriby's drawing-room. She said this with a little glance of amusement, as Cornish stood before her with two plates of biscuits, which certainly ...
— Roden's Corner • Henry Seton Merriman

... the poor fellow has at home, and he had to earn daily bread for them, somehow, so he served as surveyor, and that was his treachery," said one of my neighbours in an undertone. As the banished man passed out, I sat down on the seat he quitted. "It is ill luck to sit in a traitor's chair," said a well-meaning man at my elbow; but I smiled and ...
— Dr. Dumany's Wife • Mr Jkai

... had intended part of what she said should be overheard, Tony, a little bewildered, allowed himself to be rushed out of the conservatory, protesting in an undertone that it didn't matter about being heard or seen, as they ...
— Bandit Love • Juanita Savage

... probably an assemblage of persons residing in the neighbourhood who wished to see her. She rose, opened the window, and appeared in the balcony; immediately all these worthy people said to her, in an undertone: "Courage, Madame; good Frenchmen suffer for you, and with you; they pray for you. Heaven will hear their prayers; we love you, we respect you, we will continue to venerate our virtuous King." The Queen burst into ...
— Memoirs Of The Court Of Marie Antoinette, Queen Of France, Complete • Madame Campan

... spoil his dignity," said Russ fiercely in an undertone. "I'll go with you," he said to the sailor. "I ...
— The Moving Picture Girls at Sea - or, A Pictured Shipwreck That Became Real • Laura Lee Hope

... voices of the leaders chant clear and high in vibrant unison, the multitude of the priestly choir recite in profoundest undertone the mighty verses; and the sound of their recitation is like ...
— Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan • Lafcadio Hearn

... entered, as she did in "Janet's Repentance," an entirely new field, with wonderful insight into the common life of uninteresting people, with a peculiar humor, great power of description, rare felicity of dialogue, and a deep undertone of serious and earnest reflection. And yet I confess, that when I first read "Adam Bede," twenty-five years ago, I was not much interested, and I wondered why others were. It was not dramatic enough to excite me. Many parts of it were ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume VII • John Lord

... men; and everything considered, it is our lot to risk our lives; but she," asked he, in an undertone. ...
— The Three Musketeers • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... settled back in deep satisfaction and lighted a fresh cigar. And the boy, standing before the blazing logs, which kept up a pleasant undertone to the music of his ...
— Short Stories of Various Types • Various

... dollars in the way of trade, in as large amounts as you will, and I will find the man, and that, too, in the lugger, who will see you out in't to your heart's content. Harkee, Philip-o; tell the gentleman, in an undertone, like, about the three kegs of tobacco we got out of the Virginy ship the day we made the north end of Corsica, and perhaps that will satisfy him we are not his enemies. There is no use in bawling it out so that the woman can hear what you say, or the men who are ...
— The Wing-and-Wing - Le Feu-Follet • J. Fenimore Cooper

... Abram to Basha, in an undertone, as she paused in her walk to and fro by the spinning-wheel to join a broken thread. "But there never was a coward yet, man or woman, 'mong the Heaths, an' I've known 'em off an' on these seventy year. Now there was ole Gineral Heath," he continued, holding up the axe helve and viewing it critically ...
— Our Boys - Entertaining Stories by Popular Authors • Various

... there sat a little old lady who was placidly drinking her tea, and taking no part in the melancholy chorus. 'Well, I must say,' she remarked, turning to me and speaking in an undertone, 'I ...
— More Trivia • Logan Pearsall Smith

... to do with apes or devils,' Sir Richard went on, in an undertone. 'It concerns De Aquila, than whom there was never bolder nor craftier, nor more hardy knight born. And, remember, he was an old, old ...
— Puck of Pook's Hill • Rudyard Kipling

... suddenly remarked Thad in an undertone. "You see, he has both Tip and Leon along with him, and they're grinning as they look over this way. I warrant you Nick has been elaborating on that fine scheme of his; and, in anticipation, they can already see you held up in that lonely ...
— The Chums of Scranton High on the Cinder Path • Donald Ferguson

... wish I had known that,' the detective said to his assistant, hurriedly and angrily. 'Well, we've blundered—he's gone—you should have been here, as I said! I was sold by that woman, Miss Aldclyffe—she watched me.' He hastily gave directions in an undertone to this man. The concluding words were, 'Go in to the rector—he's up. Detain Miss Aldclyffe. I, in the meantime, am driving to Casterbridge with this one, and for help. We shall be sure to have him ...
— Desperate Remedies • Thomas Hardy

... could half imagine the old turbulent fellow winking slyly at me and saying in that undertone you hear when you forget the thunders for a moment: "Don't you worry about me, little man. It's all a joke, and I don't mind. Only to-morrow and then another to-morrow, and there won't be any smelters ...
— The River and I • John G. Neihardt

... pressed his lips together with that fearfully stern expression which, with his short stature, had earned him the nickname in the army of "Little Louis XI.," and an officer behind me who wad heard my question and the answer, added in an undertone, "And he had taken ...
— Memoirs • Prince De Joinville

... canteen of aguardiente, how many of his men were killed. The captain began cursing the foot, and telling how he had been run over, having tried to stand,—and would have made a long talc, but Colonel Waters touched him on the shoulder, and said in undertone,—"Lead your company off. You are ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 27, January, 1860 • Various

... the dry grass of the yard, browner, dustier than ever, and at the portulaca waving on top of the pyramid of stones. He could hear Jim's whistle as he moved about the yard; some one at the back door was talking to Mary in a hushed, eager undertone; over on her porch Dolly was singing happily, sinking her voice to a mere murmur now and then at a low remonstrance from within the house. It all made a sort of accompaniment ...
— McClure's Magazine, Vol 31, No 2, June 1908 • Various

... humble-bee, in a very impressive undertone, as if it were a secret that he did not wish any one else to hear, "that you are a very re-mark-a-ble young person to have been able to remind me, at a moment's notice, that some ...
— Dreamland • Julie M. Lippmann

... work of the later Italian realists, stand, in "Old Pictures in Florence," as representatives of the life and thought that produced them. In "A Toccata of Galuppi's" the music revivifies the superficial gaiety, the undertone of fear, in the life of eighteenth century Venice. Highly significant in this connection are the poems in which he traces the evolution of art. Running through "Old Pictures in Florence" and "Fra Lippo Lippi" we ...
— Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning • Robert Browning

... her head. "For the others, landward. Those opalescent clouds streaking the sky are merely the undertone of Venice; they are ...
— Literary Love-Letters and Other Stories • Robert Herrick

... Senor will accompany me to the stable?" suggested his host, when the meal was over, the mild words being backed by an undertone of considerable authority. Stuart would have liked to protest, for he was feeling chipper and lively, but, just as he was about to speak, he remembered Andy's remark, on board the motor boat, about "food for fishes." Probably Cecil's allies were ready for any kind of bloodshed, and the boy judged ...
— Plotting in Pirate Seas • Francis Rolt-Wheeler

... hair, made wigs, bled, dressed wounds, and performed other offices. When the daily papers were not in the hands of the people he retailed the current news, and usually managed to scent the latest scandal, which he was not slow to make known—in confidence, and in an undertone, of course. He was an intelligent fellow, with wit as keen as his razor; urbane, and having the best of tempers. It has been truthfully said of this old-time tradesman that one might travel from pole to pole and never encounter an ill-natured or ...
— At the Sign of the Barber's Pole - Studies In Hirsute History • William Andrews

... nothing, nothing at all!... (In an undertone, with a mocking grimace) Never mind, you've had some, you've had some and you're going ...
— The Blue Bird: A Fairy Play in Six Acts • Maurice Maeterlinck

... trying to recover his equanimity by devoting himself to the cult of Eve, he heard the colonel whisper in a confidential undertone to ...
— A Comedy of Masks - A Novel • Ernest Dowson and Arthur Moore

... luxuriance over the dark shaggy neck of the faithful Wolfe, who seemed as if proud of the beloved burden that rested so trustingly upon him. Sometimes the careful dog just unclosed his large eyes, raised his nose from his shaggy paws, snuffed the night air, growled in a sort of undertone, and then ...
— Lost in the Backwoods • Catharine Parr Traill

... say, George," asked Billie in an undertone, "if we side-step the Amber Drawing-Room? I'm wild to get into that garden. There's a man working among those roses. Maybe he would ...
— A Damsel in Distress • Pelham Grenville Wodehouse

... had indulged in a little desultory conversation, Will Corrie, who, meanwhile, consulted with Alice in an undertone, brought them back to the point that was ...
— Gascoyne, the Sandal-Wood Trader • R.M. Ballantyne

... such as me,' said Mr. Dolbiac solemnly. Then he looked at his hostess, and called out in an undertone: 'I've begun.' ...
— A Great Man - A Frolic • Arnold Bennett

... want anything, take the occasion of a waiter being near to you, to ask for it in an undertone. To shout out "Waiter!" or order one about, as if you were in a restaurant, is a ...
— Frost's Laws and By-Laws of American Society • Sarah Annie Frost

... started by Charles K. Smith, of Battle Creek, Michigan, U.S.A., and commonly called in the Latin Quarter by his sobriquet of Chalks, went our rounds in an undertone; ...
— Grey Roses • Henry Harland

... had reached them from the President on the previous morning, by which time He had completed His visitation, and received the assent of the Emergency Councils of the world. This Snowford commented upon in an undertone, and added a word or two as to details, as the four stood together looking out over ...
— Lord of the World • Robert Hugh Benson

... in an emphatic undertone. "See what there is in knowing to choose faithful allies! My watchman was ...
— The Prince of India - Or - Why Constantinople Fell - Volume 1 • Lew. Wallace

... Bawdrey's assertion that she and Captain Travers were in league with each other, for that day they were constantly together, constantly getting off into out-of-the-way places, and constantly talking in an undertone of something ...
— Cleek: the Man of the Forty Faces • Thomas W. Hanshew

... the side of her lover, and showing off her fondness for him in rather a ridiculous manner. A young friend and myself, who were rather amused at this, determined, in a thoughtless moment, that we would, just for the fun of the thing, run Fisher down in a confidential undertone to each other, yet loud enough for her to hear us, if a good opportunity for doing so offered. Before long, we noticed her sitting alone in a corner near one of the folding-doors. We managed to get near, yet so as not to appear ...
— Lessons in Life, For All Who Will Read Them • T. S. Arthur

... before?" Senator Warfield asked Hawkins in an undertone which Lorraine heard distinctly. "You're a deputy, Hawkins. If this keeps on, I'm afraid you will have to take her in and have her committed for insanity. It's a shame, poor thing. At her age it is pitiful. Look how she has ...
— Sawtooth Ranch • B. M. Bower

... people's cleverness and of their simplicity. She thrilled, she consciously flushed, and turned pale with the certitude—it had never been so present—that she should find herself completely involved: the very air of the place, the pitch of the occasion, had for her so positive a taste and so deep an undertone. The smallest things, the faces, the hands, the jewels of the women, the sound of words, especially of names, across the table, the shape of the forks, the arrangement of the flowers, the attitude of the servants, the ...
— The Wings of the Dove, Volume 1 of 2 • Henry James

... you may see half-naked any evening for a couple of francs," La Cibot answered in an undertone for Mme. Chapoulot's ear. ...
— Cousin Pons • Honore de Balzac

... said in an undertone, for David's ears alone, "You look ver' unhappy, an' pale lak leetle boy! Wat happen w'en you look t'rough ze glass up there, eh? Or ees it zat you grow frighten because ver' soon you stan' up an' fight Concombre Bateese? Eh, coq ...
— The Flaming Forest • James Oliver Curwood

... a gloomy dinner for the Freshman, baked funeral meats and he the corpse. Mrs. Perkins gave him a motherly smile and told him in a careful undertone that she was glad he was going to be one of her boys, after which he felt childishly close to tears. He sat out-doors with the others and smoked and joined weakly in the singing. The roses clinging to the porch had never been so sweet; the Rho dog had never nosed so affectionately against his ...
— Stanford Stories - Tales of a Young University • Charles K. Field

... words Asher caught the undertone of courage, and he knew that a battle for supremacy was on, a struggle between ...
— Winning the Wilderness • Margaret Hill McCarter

... special color is taken in one hand and, its legs and wings being secured to prevent fluttering, it is waved over the person or persons in whom the evil influence is thought to dwell and at the same time a short address is made in an undertone to this same influence,[29] bidding it betake itself to other parts. The chicken may be then killed ceremonially and eaten, but if it is not killed it becomes consecrated and is given to the priest until it can be ...
— The Manbos of Mindano - Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir • John M. Garvan

... he inquired, in an undertone. I was really angry. If this was Colonel Clay, the curate was obviously giving him the cue, and making it much more difficult for us to catch him, now we might possibly have lighted on the ...
— An African Millionaire - Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay • Grant Allen

... up?" asked Lawrence in an undertone. After all, if the architect's posthumous fame had depended on him, it would not have been worth much effort. Mrs. Copley, it may be mentioned, had passed on while Dolly and St. Leger had stood talking outside; and ...
— The End of a Coil • Susan Warner

... closer observer than Sally at this moment would have noticed that chat in an undertone had already set in in the back drawing-room even before the Hungarians had stopped dancing. Also that the applause that came therefrom, when they did stop, had a certain perfunctory air, as of plaudits something else makes room for, and comes back ...
— Somehow Good • William de Morgan

... meditation of the subject. A Lovers' Quarrel is in every respect a contrast. It is a whimsical and delicious lyric, with a flowing and leaping melody, a light and piquant music deepened into pathos by a mournful undertone of retrospect and regret, not without a hope for the future. All Browning is seen in this pathetic gaiety, this eagerness and unrest and passionate make-believe of a lover's mood. Evelyn Hope strikes a tenderer ...
— An Introduction to the Study of Browning • Arthur Symons

... into the house. The Doctor started to follow, but the Big Business Man held him back. "It is better not," he said in an undertone, "don't you think?" Oteo was standing near them, and the Big Business Man motioned to him. "Besides," he added, "I'm worried about Jack. I think we ought to go up after him. I don't think it ought to take us ...
— The Girl in the Golden Atom • Raymond King Cummings

... surprise, recalling my features but not my identity. I leaned over my horse's neck, and spoke in an undertone: ...
— The Bright Face of Danger • Robert Neilson Stephens



Words linked to "Undertone" :   tone of voice, substance, tincture, tint, shade, meaning, tone



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