"Awl" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... woman of fifty, dark-skinned, dark-eyed, and at the moment softened by a look of tenderness almost maternal. A white turban covered her head, leaving the lobes of the ear exposed, and in them the sign that settled her condition—an orifice bored by a thick awl. She was a slave, of Egyptian origin, to whom not even the sacred fiftieth year could have brought freedom; nor would she have accepted it, for the boy she was attending was her life. She had nursed him through babyhood, tended him as a child, and could ...
— Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ • Lew Wallace
... seen the pierced rock in your drive up, or down, if the clouds broke: not that there is much to see in it; one of the crags of the aiguille- edge, on the southern slope of it, is struck sharply through, as by an awl, into a little eyelet hole; which you may see, seven thousand feet above the valley (as the clouds flit past behind it, or leave the sky), first white, and then dark blue. Well, there's just such an eyelet hole in one of the upper crags of the Diamond Valley; and, from a distance, you think ...
— The Ethics of the Dust • John Ruskin
... that very night he came to the house, and by means of a rope with a hook which he fastened to the wall he climbed on to the roof and descended into the place where the geomancer was sleeping. The man, mistaking him for the tradesman, seized the geomancer and with a sharp awl pierced his eyes, blinding him for ever. But, having thus effected his revenge as he thought, in groping his way out of the house he stumbled into the well and broke his foot. The tradesman, taking him for the geomancer, come for more gold, upbraided him for his insatiable ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 3 • Richard F. Burton
... sees the beads assume a deep red colour, to which succeeds a paler or whitish red, or they become pointed at the upper extremity; on which the fire is removed and the pot suffered to cool gradually: at length it is removed, the beads taken out, the clay in the hollow of them picked out with an awl or needle, and it is then fit for use. The beads thus formed are in great demand among the Indians, and used as pendants to their ears and hair, and are sometimes worn round ...
— History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, Vol. I. • Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
... Consequently they strove to develop knowledge out of general principles—almost out of their heads—by logical reasons. It seems as absurd that learning should come from action on and with physical things, like dropping acid on a stone to see what would happen, as that it should come from sticking an awl with waxed thread through a piece of leather. But the rise of experimental methods proved that, given control of conditions, the latter operation is more typical of the right way of knowledge than isolated ...
— Democracy and Education • John Dewey
... AWL (O. Eng. ael; at one time spelt nawl by a confusion with the indefinite article before it), a small hand-tool ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 - "Austria, Lower" to "Bacon" • Various
... stuck my 'ead in this 'ouse, I knowed as summat was wrong in my line, and I ses to myself: Wot oh, 'e ain't such an awl-mighty liar, arter all—that's drains! An' drains it was, ...
— The Servant in the House • Charles Rann Kennedy
... steps as should make the document good and valid in the eyes of the law. Then, having wrapped it up carefully in a piece of buckskin made water-proof and sweat-proof by bear's-grease rubbed in, Burl, with an awl and two wax-ends, sewed it up securely in the crown of his bear-skin cap. And, as the poor fellow was never left behind, there it remained for the rest of his days, with never a hope that he might some day have occasion to ...
— Burl • Morrison Heady
... Heidelberg, years that brought blessings to the orphan boy as they flew. The God in whom he trusted had provided for him—had awakened a friendly kindness in many warm hearts. And Gotleib, who was at first designed by his relatives to spend his days over the shoemaker's awl and last, at length found himself, by his own ardent exertions and the helpful kindness of others, a student in the University. This was to him a most pure gratification—not because of a love of learning, not because of ambition, to attain a position before his fellow-men. Oh! it was quite ...
— Words of Cheer for the Tempted, the Toiling, and the Sorrowing • T. S. Arthur
... about as broad as high, holding its knotty branches well out in every direction in stiff zigzags, but turning them gracefully upward at the ends in rounded bosses. Though making so dark a mass in the distance, the foliage is a pale grayish green, in stiff, awl-shaped fascicles. When examined closely these round needles seem inclined to be two-leaved, but they are mostly held firmly together, as if to guard against evaporation. The bark on the older sections is nearly black, so that the boles and branches are clearly ...
— Steep Trails • John Muir
... other in reason. Each admits the other side to have feelings. There are points beyond which neither will go. No Irish peasant would treat a captured faery as did the man Campbell tells of. He caught a kelpie, and tied her behind him on his horse. She was fierce, but he kept her quiet by driving an awl and a needle into her. They came to a river, and she grew very restless, fearing to cross the water. Again he drove the awl and needle into her. She cried out, "Pierce me with the awl, but keep that slender, hair- ...
— The Celtic Twilight • W. B. Yeats
... each, we learned, after he understood us, that one was named Wutchee, and the other Wunchee. The meanings of these words I have no need to translate: they were decidedly significant, and amused us a good deal. For sewing the hides together they used an awl of bone. The thread, which was of the sinew of some animal, was thrust through the awl-holes like a shoemaker's waxed-end, and drawn tight. When they had finished, Kit gave Wutchee (or Wunchee, for the life of me I couldn't tell which) a half-dozen pins from a round pin-ball ...
— Left on Labrador - or, The cruise of the Schooner-yacht 'Curlew.' as Recorded by 'Wash.' • Charles Asbury Stephens
... to the table to look after the money and there was a shoemaker under the table, and he stuck his awl into me." That was ...
— English Fairy Tales • Joseph Jacobs (coll. & ed.)
... the middle of the room before a small pine table. His little binding apparatus was before him. In his fingers was a huge upholsterer's needle threaded with twine, a brad-awl lay at his elbow, on the floor beside him was a great pile of pamphlets, the pages uncut. Old Grannis bought the "Nation" and the "Breeder and Sportsman." In the latter he occasionally found articles on dogs which interested him. The former he seldom read. He could not afford to subscribe regularly ...
— McTeague • Frank Norris
... trimmed straight and true, until they are in thickness about the size of ordinary cedar pencils, from twenty-five to twenty-eight inches in length. They must be feathered and weighted either with lead or copper, or by fastening on sharp awl-points or steel ...
— Illustrated Science for Boys and Girls • Anonymous
... what I do!" said Rupert with emphasis. "But I could make a good living that way—I was brought up to it, you see;—and I s'pose she'd like me to take up the old business; but I feel like driving an awl through a board whenever I ...
— The End of a Coil • Susan Warner
... had done with his making and mending, With hope and a peaceful breast, Resigning his awl, as his thread was ending, He slid from his bench, to the grave descending, As high ...
— The Youth's Coronal • Hannah Flagg Gould
... away if anything breaks. We never thought, as these people do, that all repairs to tools and ploughs can be done on the very spot. All that is needed when a strap breaks, is that each ploughman should have an awl and a leather-cutter to stitch the leather. How is it with us in our country? If leather breaks, we farmers say that leather is unclean, and we go back from the fields into the village to the village cobbler that he may mend it. Unclean? Do not we handle that same thing with ...
— The Eyes of Asia • Rudyard Kipling
... of sterile landscape and contrastingly agreeable cottagers' fires of smoking peat turves (period of hibernation). Indoor: discussion in tepid security of unsolved historical and criminal problems: lecture of unexpurgated exotic erotic masterpieces: house carpentry with toolbox containing hammer, awl nails, screws, tintacks, gimlet, tweezers, bullnose plane and turnscrew. Might he become a gentleman farmer of ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce
... West Indies for sugar, and rum, and coffee. Others will stand behind counters, and measure tape, and ribbon, and cambric by the yard. Others will upheave the blacksmith's hammer, or drive the plane over the carpenter's bench, or take the lapstone and the awl and learn the trade of shoemaking. Many will follow the sea, ...
— Grandfather's Chair • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... essentially false in what we see, no matter how the stage manager fills in with old boxes, broken chairs, and the like. But the photoplay interior is the size such a work-room should be. And there the awl and pegs and bits of leather, speaking the silent language of picture writing, can be clearly shown. They are sometimes like the engine in chapter two, the ...
— The Art Of The Moving Picture • Vachel Lindsay
... each of us in pretty good trim for bad weather, even before we had seen the last of the fine. Even the cobbler's art was not out of place. Several old shoes were very decently repaired, and with waxed ends, an awl, and the top of an old boot, I made me quite a respectable sheath ...
— Two Years Before the Mast • Richard Henry Dana
... separate labelled pockets for different tools; each pocket with flap to fasten securely with dress snaps. In this tool-bag put assorted nails, mostly big, strong ones, screws, awl, well-sealed bottle of strong glue, ball of stout twine, a few rawhide thongs, three or four yards of soft strong rope, a pair of scissors, two spools of wire, ...
— On the Trail - An Outdoor Book for Girls • Lina Beard and Adelia Belle Beard
... shop in the bazaars Lal Singh had resumed his awl. He had, as a companion, a bent and shaky old man, whose voice, however, possessed a resonance which belied the ...
— The Adventures of Kathlyn • Harold MacGrath
... order toward the center of the belt, so as to cross all the oblique strands, and make all the inside strands double. Finally pass the end of the lacing through the first hole used, then outward through an awl hole, then hammering it down to cause it to hold. The left side is to be laced in a ...
— Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889 • Barkham Burroughs
... who would work on the dome, there were several delays, and Judge Evans was at one time inclined to cancel the contract, and put some strings in box cars and wear them in place of shoes, but sympathy for the contractor, who had his little awl invested in the material and labor, induced him to put up with ...
— Peck's Sunshine - Being a Collection of Articles Written for Peck's Sun, - Milwaukee, Wis. - 1882 • George W. Peck
... with an awl in his hand, just going to work. The robber saluted him, bidding him good morrow; and perceiving that he was old, said, "Honest man, you begin to work very early; is it possible that one of your age can see so well? I question, even if it were somewhat ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments • Anonymous
... is heavy, and the roads very hard, or the daily distance long, you had better have a collar for the horse: otherwise a breastplate-harness will do. In your kit of tools it is well to have a few straps, an awl, and waxed ends, against the time that something breaks. Oil the harness before you start, and carry about a pint of neat's-foot oil, which you can also use upon the men's boots. At night look out that the harness and all of your baggage are sheltered from ...
— How to Camp Out • John M. Gould
... 'bout how Brer Rabbit done Brer Wolf," said Uncle Remus, scratching his head with the point of his awl, 'he 'low, he did, dat he better not be so brash, en he sorter let Brer Rabbit 'lone. Dey wuz all time seein' one nudder, en 'bunnunce er times Brer Fox could er nab Brer Rabbit, but eve'y time he got de chance, his mine ...
— Uncle Remus • Joel Chandler Harris
... presence, such as Bibles, would 'fly from her,' and she was bewitched, and carried off into odd places, like the butler at Lord Orrery's. Nicholas Pyne gave identical evidence. At Ragley, Mr. Greatrakes declared that he was present at the trial, and that an awl would not penetrate the stool on which the unlucky enchantress was made to stand: a ...
— Cock Lane and Common-Sense • Andrew Lang
... of compelling cobblers to make any declaration on the true faith of a Christian. Any man would rather have his shoes mended by a heretical cobbler than by a person who had subscribed all the thirty-nine articles, but had never handled an awl. Men act thus, not because they are indifferent to religion, but because they do not see what religion has to do with the mending of their shoes. Yet religion has as much to do with the mending of shoes as with the budget and the army estimates. ...
— Critical and Historical Essays Volume 2 • Thomas Babington Macaulay
... snapped at them, and his eyes gleamed with a smile sharp as an awl. Then holding his head in an attitude of direct challenge, with a short, thick pipe between his teeth, he walked behind them, and now and then called out: "Well, who ...
— Mother • Maxim Gorky
... shrubs, resinous; leaves simple, mostly evergreen, relatively small, entire, needle-shaped, awl-shaped, linear, or scale-like; stipules none; flowers catkin-like; calyx none; corolla none; ovary represented by a scale (ovuliferous scale) bearing the naked ovules ...
— Handbook of the Trees of New England • Lorin Low Dame
... moving "in the subtlest equilibrium, clinging with its hooked talons to the slippery surface of the leaf"; we watch all the details of its methods and the progress of its labours. We see the flexed leaf assume the vertical under the awl-stroke which the insect applies to the pedicle, "when, partially deprived of sap, the leaf becomes more flexible, more malleable; it is in a sense partly paralysed, only half alive." Then we follow the rolling process; "the imperturbable deliberation ...
— Fabre, Poet of Science • Dr. G.V. (C.V.) Legros
... carefully finished, which accounts for its having been more rarely copied. If we examine the knives, awls, scrapers, and saws, we come to the same conclusion, although comparison is not so easy. "A knife is always a knife, an awl is always an awl," remarks M. Cartailhac; "they were made at every period, and their resemblance to each other proves ...
— Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric Peoples • The Marquis de Nadaillac
... all sorts of manufactured wares, and to the West Indies for sugar, and rum, and coffee. Others will stand behind counters, and measure tape, and ribbon, and cambric, by the yard. Others will upheave the blacksmith's hammer, or drive the plane over the carpenter's bench, or take the lapstone and the awl, and learn the trade of shoe-making. Many will follow the sea, ...
— True Stories from History and Biography • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... are prepared for the wonders these shears have to show, you find that on one handle is a hammer-head, and that they can be used as a hammer. Close to the hammer-head a screw-driver is arranged. At the point of the shears is an awl for boring holes; and, most practical of all, the scissors when they are opened out form ...
— The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 20, March 25, 1897 - A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls • Various
... show you,' said his interesting companion; and she held up with her other hand a shoemaker's awl and a hammer. 'You must never do these things with a gimlet, because the wood-dust gets in; and when the buyers pour out the brandy that would tell them that the tub had been broached. An awl makes no dust, and the hole nearly closes up again. Now ...
— Wessex Tales • Thomas Hardy
... still sobbing moved a little aside. Kuzma Vassilyevitch repeated his suggestion. The girl looked at him askance through her hair which had fallen over her face and was wet with tears. (At this point Kuzma Vassilyevitch always assured us that this glance pierced through him "like an awl," and even attempted once to reproduce this marvellous glance for our benefit) and laying her hand within the crooked arm of the obliging lieutenant, set off ...
— Knock, Knock, Knock and Other Stories • Ivan Turgenev
... indoor diversion is the "deer's foot" game, played with six deer hoofs on a string, ending in a bone or steel awl. The object is to throw it in such a way as to catch one or more hoofs on the point of the awl, a feat which requires no little dexterity. Another is played with marked plum-stones in a bowl, which are thrown like ...
— Indian Child Life • Charles A. Eastman
... worth on the double vowels. I alreddy agree with the English Society on "faather", "feel" and "scuul", and am going to do all I can for niit, and for spredding the oo in floor and door into snore, more, hole, poke, etc. "Awl", "cow" and "go" are spelt wel, and their spelling shoud be spred. These seem to be the lines of least resistance. I find that they work ...
— The Unpopular Review, Volume II Number 3 • Various
... next night I had a great awl that I kept in the window, the which awl I saw fall down ye chimney into ye ashes. I bid ye boy put ye same awl in ye cupboard which I saw done, and ye door shut too. When ye same awl came down ye chimney again in our sight, and I took it ...
— The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 4 • Various
... it to the lady Belerma, as his friend when at the point of death had commanded him. He said in reply that they spoke the truth in every respect except as to the dagger, for it was not a dagger, nor little, but a burnished poniard sharper than an awl." ...
— Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
... his een an' niver oppened 'em agean till he'd done, an' if he'd kept his maath shut aw should ha' been better suited still. Ov coorse he wor honcored, an' he coom back an' sang "Be—e—eutifool oil of the Se—e—e—he!" wol he fair fooamd at th' maath, but awl wave mi opinion o' that. Then coom th' gem o'th' evening, an' th' chap wor a gem 'at sang it. Th' cheerman sed he was always proud to be able to sit an' listen to such like, for it show'd what a deal better world ther might be if we all did ...
— Yorksher Puddin' - A Collection of the Most Popular Dialect Stories from the - Pen of John Hartley • John Hartley
... his hands, the knuckles whereof were unwashably embalmed with pitch, had not of themselves betrayed the fact, the awl hanging beside his leather apron, and evidently left there by accident, would have declared that the individual in question belonged to that estimable section of the community whose business in life it is to provide humanity with corns. ...
— The Day of Wrath • Maurus Jokai
... instructions. Our fears are apt to betray us into absurdities, and confuse the memory; so that good men, like Manoah, speak or act inconsistently with themselves, and their own more deliberate convictions. Happy they who are blessed with an intelligent awl pious companion, whose kind suggestions may detect their errors, refresh their recollections, quell their fears, and comfort their desponding hours! Thus "two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labour. For, if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but wo ...
— Female Scripture Biographies, Vol. I • Francis Augustus Cox
... and Director of all Good; and the other, the Angel of Darkness, who is the Author and Director of all Evil; that these two are in a perpetual struggle with each other; and that where the Angel of Light prevails, there the most is good; awl where the Angel of Darkness prevails, there the most is evil. That this struggle shall continue to the end of the world; that then there shall be a general resurrection, and a day of judgment, wherein just retribution shall be rendered to all according to their works; ...
— The Grounds of Christianity Examined by Comparing The New Testament with the Old • George Bethune English
... deposited on the floor. Having so done—and with a flourish—he now continued: "Now I'll show you if you'll watch me," and he began showing Cowperwood how the strips were to be laced through the apertures on either side, cut, and fastened with little hickory pegs. This done, he brought a forcing awl, a small hammer, a box of pegs, and a pair of clippers. After several brief demonstrations with different strips, as to how the geometric forms were designed, he allowed Cowperwood to take the matter in hand, watching over his shoulder. The financier, quick at anything, manual ...
— The Financier • Theodore Dreiser
... he would almost wish himself a soldier, and in the field fighting for his country. And then the hammer, it was observed, would come down upon his lapstone with double force, as if he were splitting the head of one of the enemy open, or his awl would go through the leather, as if he were plunging a bayonet into the ...
— Whig Against Tory - The Military Adventures of a Shoemaker, A Tale Of The Revolution • Unknown
... look as if they might have been hammered out by the emigrants. One of these nails is so firmly imbedded in rust alongside a screw, that the two are inseparable. Metallic buttons are found well preserved, a sewing awl is quite plainly distinguishable, and an old-fashioned, quaint-looking bridle-bit retains much of its original form. Some of the more delicate and perishable articles present the somewhat remarkable appearance of having increased in size by the accumulations of rust and earth in which ...
— History of the Donner Party • C.F. McGlashan
... a base. Bore a hole in the center and insert a square stick, about 10 in. long. For arms, use two pieces about 3/8 in. thick and 10 in. long. Fasten these together in the form of a cross and nail to the top of the upright with a single nail. An awl may be used to make the hole a little larger than the nail so that the arms will revolve easily. Suspend a box seat of wood or cardboard from each arm to complete ...
— Primary Handwork • Ella Victoria Dobbs
... of an inch long, attached to, and hitched on as it were to the tip of the nectary, roundish, white, awl-shaped, very viscid, becoming as the flower decays of a deep purple brown colour, and usually splitting into three pieces, continuing attached to the nectary till ...
— The Botanical Magazine, Vol. 4 - Or, Flower-Garden Displayed • William Curtis
... were not warm. Then the people took the leg bone of the deer and splintered it So they made sharp pieces for awls. Then they took buffalo skins and sinews, and with the awl they fastened the skins together. So they made ...
— Myths and Legends of the Great Plains • Unknown
... kno i hav got enny mony. yu wont now wil yu. i am first rate heer, only that gude fur nuthin snipe of liz madwurth is heer yit—but i hop tu git red ov her now. yu no i rote yu bout her. give my luv to awl inquiren friends. this is from your sister ...
— The First Violin - A Novel • Jessie Fothergill
... pale features began to work, awl the large deep eyes filled with tears, and the neat moment she fell back into a ...
— A Siren • Thomas Adolphus Trollope
... should learn a trade. A few miles from Kit's forest home, there lived a Mr. David Workman, a saddler. To him he was apprenticed. With Mr. Workman young Carson remained two years, enjoying both the confidence and respect of his employer; but, mourning over the awl, the hide of new leather, the buckle and strap; for, the glorious shade of the mighty forest; the wild battle with buffalo and bear; the crack of the unerring rifle, pointed at the trembling deer. Saddlery is an honorable employment; but saddlery never made a greater ...
— The Life and Adventures of Kit Carson, the Nestor of the Rocky Mountains, from Facts Narrated by Himself • De Witt C. Peters
... a light bright blue colour, and 1in. to 11/2in. across. The corolla is bell-shaped, the five divisions being deeply cut, which allows the flower to expand well; the calyx is neat and smooth, the segments long and awl-shaped; the flower stalks are short, causing the numerous erect branches to be closely furnished with bloom during favourable weather. The leaves of the root are very large and stalked, of irregular shape, but for the most part broadly oval or lance-shaped. The edges are ...
— Hardy Perennials and Old Fashioned Flowers - Describing the Most Desirable Plants, for Borders, - Rockeries, and Shrubberies. • John Wood
... desiccated builders of the cliff house. At one end of the room he had come upon what to him was a very interesting heap of their no less ancient possessions. Most of the beautiful old pottery had been smashed, but among the fragments Lennon found several ceremonial stones and tablets, a bone awl, many obsidian arrowheads, and ...
— Bloom of Cactus • Robert Ames Bennet
... did not find chemists necessary, he considered that the Republic did not need writers, painters and musicians. These were all useless individuals, and the Republic would give them a little surprise by putting a labourer's spade or a shoemaker's awl into their hands. George Sand considered this idea ...
— George Sand, Some Aspects of Her Life and Writings • Rene Doumic
... sh e ch urch tooth wh ose that sh all ch ase loth wh ite this sh ould ch est girth wh ale thus sh ake ch ange thin wh eat thine sh ame ch alk thick wh eel there sh ape ch ain think wh ack their sh are ch ance throat wh ip them sh ark ch arge thorn wh irl though sh arp ch ap three wh et thou sh awl ch apel third wh ey sh ed ch apter thaw wh isper sh ear ch arm wh istle ...
— How to Teach Phonics • Lida M. Williams
... the wild-wood meal That crowned, or failed to crown, the day; Too honest or too tame to steal You broke into the beaten way; Plied loom or awl like other men, And learned to love the guineas' chink— Oh, recreant sires, who doomed me then To earn so ...
— Grass of Parnassus • Andrew Lang
... about two inches below the xiphoid cartilage. The stomachal contents, consisting of bacon, cabbage, and cider, were evacuated. Shortly after the reception of the injury, an old soldier sewed up the wound with an awl, needle, and wax-thread; Archer did not see the patient until forty-eight hours afterward, at which time he cleansed and dressed the wound. After a somewhat protracted illness the patient recovered, notwithstanding the extent of injury ...
— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould
... joyful. "See!" she exclaimed. "Many things! I have found a knife, and I have found a broken kettle; and here is an awl made from a bone; and here is something which I think their women use in scraping hides." She showed me all these things, last the saw-edged bone, or scraping hoe of the squaws, used for dressing hides, as she ...
— The Way of a Man • Emerson Hough
... stirred, and everything seemed to have dozed off to sleep in the quiet sunshine. Old Ned Brown, the cobbler, and general "handy-man" of the village, who, in days gone by, had often bound bats and done other odd jobs for "Miss Fenleigh's young nevies," laid down his awl, and gazed out of the window of his ...
— Soldiers of the Queen • Harold Avery
... the medicine. Captain Lewis talked with the Indian chiefs all day. They promised to let some young Indians show the way over the mountains. The captains gave each soldier some of their goods and sent him out to get food. Captain Lewis wrote that each man had "only one awl and one knitting- pin, half an ounce of vermilion, two needles, a few skeins of thread, and a yard of ribbon." Two of the men took their goods with them in a canoe. The canoe turned over. They lost all their goods. They just ...
— The Bird-Woman of the Lewis and Clark Expedition • Katherine Chandler
... go out free. Surely when Christ calls you to liberty, you will not turn from Him to the tyrannous masters whom you have served, and, like the Hebrew slave, let them fasten you to their door-posts with their awl through your ear. Do you hug your chains and ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Isaiah and Jeremiah • Alexander Maclaren
... Cobblers-Awl, n. bird-name. The word is a provincial English name for the Avocet. In Tasmania, the name is applied to a Spine-Bill (q.v.) from the shape of ...
— A Dictionary of Austral English • Edward Morris
... along, and carried him to a house which was about a mile further along. When they reached the house he refused to be carried in, for he knew he would surely lose his feet if he went in where it was warm. He asked for an awl and punctured his feet full of holes and had the men pour them full of brandy. This, while it was excruciatingly painful, both at the time and afterwards, saved ...
— Old Rail Fence Corners - The A. B. C's. of Minnesota History • Various
... the columns still; 760 Last of the howling host which once was Bell's, [liv] Matilda snivels yet, and Hafiz yells; And Merry's [119] metaphors appear anew, Chained to the signature of O. P. Q. [120] When some brisk youth, the tenant of a stall, Employs a pen less pointed than his awl, Leaves his snug shop, forsakes his store of shoes, St. Crispin quits, and cobbles for the Muse, Heavens! how the vulgar stare! how crowds applaud! How ladies read, and Literati laud! [121] 770 If chance some wicked wag should pass his jest, 'Tis sheer ill-nature—don't the world ...
— Byron's Poetical Works, Vol. 1 • Byron
... (Sisymbrium officinale), with rigid, spreading branches, and spikes of tiny pale yellow flowers, quickly followed by awl-shaped pods that are closely appressed to the stem, abounds in waste places throughout our area. It blooms from May to November, like ...
— Wild Flowers Worth Knowing • Neltje Blanchan et al
... again, looking as Shep did when Cousin Ann told him to get up on the couch, and took up his needle and awl. ...
— Understood Betsy • Dorothy Canfield
... poor Christian in the house wanted most, that went first. Mother was a notable woman, so if she did but look round, away flew her thimble. Father lived by cordwaining, so about sunrise Jack went diligently off with his awl, his wax, and his twine. After that, make your bread how you could! One day I heard my mother tell him to his face he was enough to corrupt half-a-dozen other children; and he only cocked his eye at her, and next minute ...
— The Cloister and the Hearth • Charles Reade
... chasm she was trying to bridge, and busy with the hanging strings. Slowly the maze of loose threads takes a sacklike form, the bottom of the nest thickens, till some morning you see the movement of the bird inside it; her beak comes through the sides from within, like a needle or an awl, seizes a loose hair or thread, and jerks it back through the wall and tightens it. It is a regular stitching or quilting process. The course of any particular thread or fiber is as irregular and ...
— Under the Maples • John Burroughs
... shells all told. The first eight or ten failed to explode for the reason that the fuses had not been punched. Finally, Capt. Ennis discovered that his shells were not exploding, and, on inquiry, found that there was no fuse-punch in the battery. He succeeded in finding a brad-awl, which, luckily, some member of the battery had in his pocket, and showed a sergeant how to punch the fuse with a brad-awl. After this the mortar shells exploded all right. None of this fire, however, was directed at the city; it was directed ...
— The Gatlings at Santiago • John H. Parker
... Alligator River Portraits of "Charley" and "Harry Brown" Mount Nicholson, Expedition Range, etc. Peak Range Red Mountain Fletcher's Awl, etc. Campbell's Peak Mount M'Connel. Ranges seen from a granitic hill between second and third camp at the Burdekin Robey's Range Grasshopper View near South Alligator River ...
— Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia • Ludwig Leichhardt
... that the beads begin to become pointed at their upper extremities he removes the fire from about the pot and suffers the whole to cool gradually. the pot is then removed and the beads taken out. the clay which fills the hollow of the beads is picked out with an awl or nedle, the bead is then fit for uce. The Indians are extreemly fond of the large beads formed by this process. they use them as pendants to their years, or hair and sometimes wear them ...
— The Journals of Lewis and Clark • Meriwether Lewis et al
... this project was, for some time, successful, and that Savage was employed at the awl longer than he was willing to confess; nor was it, perhaps, any great advantage to him, that an unexpected discovery determined him to ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes - Volume the Eighth: The Lives of the Poets, Volume II • Samuel Johnson
... sightly a country as ever Adam and Eve had to themselves; but it wa'n't home. Howsomever, after a while the savages took to me mightily. I was allers handy with tools, and by good luck I'd come off with two jack-knives and a loose awl in my jacket-pocket, so I could beat 'em all at whittlin'; and I made figgers on their bows an' pipe-stems, of things they never see,—roosters, and horses, Miss Buel's old sleigh, and the Albany stage, driver'n' all, and our yoke of oxen a-ploughin',—till nothin' would serve ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 5, March, 1858 • Various
... Bull will lend his hide, By Phoebus newly tann'd and dry'd; For thee they Argo's hulk will tax, And scrape her pitchy sides for wax: Then Ariadne kindly lends Her braided hair to make thee ends; The points of Sagittarius' dart Turns to an awl by heavenly art; And Vulcan, wheedled by his wife, Will forge for thee a paring-knife. For want of room by Virgo's side, She'll strain a point, and sit[6] astride, To take thee kindly in between; And then the Signs will ...
— The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Volume I (of 2) • Jonathan Swift
... arrowheaded[obs3]; arrowy[obs3], barbed, spurred. acinaciform; apiculate[obs3], apiculated[obs3]; aristate[obs3], awned, awny[obs3], bearded, calamiform[obs3], cone-shaped, coniform[obs3], crestate[obs3], echinate[obs3], gladiate[obs3]; lanceolate[obs3], lanciform; awl, awl-shaped, lance-shaped, awl-shaped, scimitar-shaped, sword-shaped; setarious[obs3], spinuliferous[obs3], subulate[obs3], tetrahedral, xiphoid[obs3]. cutting; sharp edged, knife edged; sharp as a razor, keen as a razor; sharp ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... notches, which will exactly receive the ends of the uprights, as seen at (a). Before adjusting these pieces, the four sides of the boards should be pierced with small holes, as is also shown in the diagram (a). These may be punched with a brad-awl, and should be about half an inch apart, and three-eighths of an inch from the edge of the board. Each one of the uprights may then be secured in place by two long brads, one being hammered each way into each side of the notch. Next proceed to cut four more of ...
— Camp Life in the Woods and the Tricks of Trapping and Trap Making • William Hamilton Gibson
... nothing higher of us than confidence from the heart for everything good, so that we may proceed right and straightforward and use all the blessings which God gives no farther than as a shoemaker uses his needle, awl, and thread for work, and then lays them aside, or as a traveler uses an inn, and food, and his bed only for temporal necessity, each one in his station, according to God's order, and without allowing any of these things to be our food or idol. Let this suffice with respect ...
— The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther
... OUT TENONS AND MORTISES.—A sharp-pointed knife must always be used for making all marks. Never employ an awl for this work, as the fiber of the wood will be torn up by it. A small try square should always be used (not the large iron square), and this with a sharp-pointed compass and bevel square will enable you to turn out a satisfactory piece ...
— Carpentry for Boys • J. S. Zerbe
... (from the Fr. broche, originally an awl or bodkin; a spit is sometimes called a broach, and hence the phrase "to broach a barrel"; see BROKER), a term now used to denote a clasp or fastener for the dress, provided with a pin, having a hinge or spring at one end, and a catch or loop at ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 - "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" • Various
... consideration; and so long as the CRISPINS will make him fits which are not convulsions, and will sew in a way which shall produce no crop of corns, and remind him, by the neatness of their work, of Lovely PEGGY, it is the intention of the Senor PUNCHINELLO to patronize the Native American awl altogether. ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 17, July 23, 1870 • Various
... always showed heat when they found a big service clasp-knife hung about a captured Englishman's neck on a lanyard, calling it a barbarous weapon because of the length of the blade and long sharp brad-awl which folded into a slot at the back of the handle; but an equally grim bit of cutlery in a Bavarian's bootleg seemed to them an entirely proper tool for a ...
— Paths of Glory - Impressions of War Written At and Near the Front • Irvin S. Cobb
... his cigarette, unembarrassed. Peter bent attentively over his work, making nervous stabs with his awl. There was a long silence. An organ-grinder played a waltz outside, unregarded; and, failing to annoy anybody, moved on. Denzil lit another cigarette. The dirty-faced clock on ...
— The Big Bow Mystery • I. Zangwill
... which their masters had given them, and their children by these wives, (if any,) behind them, as their masters' possession. If, however, they chose to remain with their wives and children, the ear of the servant was bored with an awl to the door-post, and ...
— The Sable Cloud - A Southern Tale With Northern Comments (1861) • Nehemiah Adams
... sat eagerly attentive in his corner of the sofa, heard of the trumpet of the common gnat[2], and of its proboscis, which serves at once for an awl, a saw, and ...
— Tales And Novels, Volume 1 • Maria Edgeworth
... hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him. ... And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go away from thee; because he loveth thee and thine house, because he is well with thee; then thou shalt take an awl, and thrust it through his ear into the door, and he shall be thy servant forever. And also unto thy maid-servant thou ...
— Woman: Man's Equal • Thomas Webster
... within the heart as being of small compass, and this agrees indeed with the individual soul which elsewhere is compared to the point of an awl, but not with Brahman, which is greater than everything.—The reply to this objection has virtually been given before, viz. under I, 2, 7, where it is said that Brahman may be viewed as of small size, for the purpose of ...
— The Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Ramanuja - Sacred Books of the East, Volume 48 • Trans. George Thibaut
... daguerreotyping—the tools of the rigger, grappler, sail-maker, block-maker, Goods of gutta-percha, papier-mache, colours, brushes, brush-making, glaziers' implements, The veneer and glue-pot, the confectioner's ornaments, the decanter and glasses, the shears and flat-iron, The awl and knee-strap, the pint measure and quart measure, the counter and stool, the writing-pen of quill or metal—the making of all sorts of edged tools, The brewery, brewing, the malt, the vats, everything that is done by brewers, also by ...
— Poems By Walt Whitman • Walt Whitman
... material was gone, they covered the entire shoe with green beeve or mule hide, drawn together and sewed upon the top, with the hair inside, which protected the upper as well as the sole leather. The sewing was done with an awl and buckskin strings. These simple expedients contributed greatly to the comfort of the party; and, indeed, I am by no means sure that they did not, in our straitened condition, without the transportation necessary for carrying disabled men, save the lives of some of them. Without the awl and ...
— The Prairie Traveler - A Hand-book for Overland Expeditions • Randolph Marcy
... see, boss, hit's jest like dis: When y'awl blow dem bugles ter retreet, Ah don't want ter be troubled ...
— Best Short Stories • Various
... a kind of grain. ow'er, one who owes. lead, a metal. adds, joins to. led, did lead. adz, a joiner's tool. read, perused. ale, a liquor. red, a color. ail, to feel pain. read, to peruse. ate, did eat. reed, a plant. eight, twice four. all, the whole. ant, an insect. awl, a sharp ...
— McGuffey's Eclectic Spelling Book • W. H. McGuffey
... vigilance the Chief of the Odours offered the Suffet a little malobathrum to taste in an electrum spoon; then he pierced three Indian bezoars with an awl. The master, who knew the artifices employed, took a horn full of balm, and after holding it near the coals inclined it over his robe. A brown spot appeared; it was a fraud. Then he gazed fixedly at the Chief of the Odours, and without ...
— Salammbo • Gustave Flaubert
... Hydnaceae described here are in the genus Hydnum. In this genus the fruiting surface is on spine, or awl-shaped processes, which are either simple or in some cases the tips are more or less branched. The plants grow on the ground or on wood. The species vary greatly in form. Some are provided with a more or less regular cap and a stem, while others are shelving or bracket shaped, and still ...
— Studies of American Fungi. Mushrooms, Edible, Poisonous, etc. • George Francis Atkinson
... loosely, by a small copper or brass wire. Transported to any distance, exposed to any weather, or buried in the ground, they will not be obliterated. Pieces of sheet lead, tin, or zinc, cut wide at one end, and written on with a sharp awl, and narrow at the other end, to be bent around a limb, will answer a pretty good purpose. Any soft wood, made smooth, and a little white paint applied, and written on with a good pencil, will preserve the mark for a long time. Fasten with small wire. There are many labels, ...
— Soil Culture • J. H. Walden
... I had Sindri's awl," sighed the dwarf, and instantly his brother's awl was in his hand. Swiftly it pierced the lips of the mischief-maker, and swiftly Brok sewed them together and broke off the thread at ...
— Young Folks Treasury, Volume 2 (of 12) • Various
... to mark figures on the silver. Often they cut out of paper a pattern, which they lay on the silver, tracing the outline with an awl. These tools are sometimes purchased and sometimes made by the Indians. I have seen one made from a broken knife which had been picked up around the fort. The blade had been ground down to ...
— Navajo Silversmiths • Washington Matthews
... class of Hebrew servants is mentioned Ex. 21:5, 6. "If the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free; then his master shall bring him to the judges: he shall also bring him to the door or to the door-post, and he shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever." Deut. 15:17, the same law adds, "And also to thy maid-servant shalt thou do likewise." But in Lev. 25:39, 40, 53, it is expressly enacted that one who served longer than six years was not to be treated or considered as an EVEDH, evedh, one contracting for ...
— Is Slavery Sanctioned by the Bible? • Isaac Allen
... things, dear pledge, are not in all men's power; The wiser sort of shrub affects the ground; And sweet content of mind is oftener found In cobbler's parlour, than in critic's bower. The sorest work is what doth cross the grain; And better to this hour you had been plying The obsequious awl with well-waxed finger flying, Than ceaseless thus to till a thankless vein; Still teazing Muses, which are still denying; Making a stretching-leather ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb IV - Poems and Plays • Charles and Mary Lamb
... Mother was a Kitchen-Maid.' Poor Fred! What will Honoria say? She thought so highly of him. Pray Tell it her gently. I've no right, I know you hold, to trust my sight; But Frederick's state could not be hid! Awl Felix, coming when he did, Was lucky; for Honoria, too, Was half in love. How warm she grew On 'worldliness,' when once I said I fancied that, in ladies, Fred Had tastes much better than his means! His hand was worthy of a Queen's, Said she, and actually shed tears The night he left us for two ...
— The Victories of Love - and Other Poems • Coventry Patmore
... are remarkable. The arrow will penetrate the skin (the stem having an awl-like point) at a distance of ten or fifteen yards, and twenty yards is not an uncommon limit to its range. This is used for killing small birds, as well as in idle sport. A few handfuls of blady grass supply a sheaf of missiles, ...
— My Tropic Isle • E J Banfield
... in place, and shone with cleanliness. And not only externally was all in order, but had it pleased the commander in chief to look under the uniforms he would have found on every man a clean shirt, and in every knapsack the appointed number of articles, "awl, soap, and all," as the soldiers say. There was only one circumstance concerning which no one could be at ease. It was the state of the soldiers' boots. More than half the men's boots were in holes. But this defect was ...
— War and Peace • Leo Tolstoy
... which are few and inexpensive, will be required: A pair of clams (Fig. 4), cost 1s. 6d.; knife (Fig. 5), 6d.; half dozen awl blades, 1/2d. each; three or four boxwood handles, 11/2d. each; 3 foot rule, 1s.; hammer, 1s.; a packet of harness needles, size 4, cost 21/2d. (these have blunt points); a bone (Fig. 6) will also be required for rubbing the stiffening into place, cost about 3d.; and a ball each of hemp and wax for ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 561, October 2, 1886 • Various
... and handed him over to Brock, telling him, however, that although Loki's head was rightfully his, he must not touch his neck. Hindered from obtaining full vengeance, the dwarf determined to punish Loki by sewing his lips together, and as his sword would not pierce them, he borrowed his brother's awl for the purpose. However, Loki, after enduring the gods' gibes in silence for a little while, managed to cut the string and soon after was as loquacious ...
— Myths of the Norsemen - From the Eddas and Sagas • H. A. Guerber
... daylight. But now at last, with a sigh of relief, he rose. The hour of his redemption was come, the moment of it at hand. Outwardly calm, he was within eager as a lover to reach Lucky Croale's back parlour. His hand trembled with expectation as he laid from it the awl, took from between his knees the great boot on the toe of which he had been stitching a patch, lifted the yoke of his leather apron over his head, and threw it aside. With one hasty glance around, as if he feared some enemy lurking near to prevent ...
— Sir Gibbie • George MacDonald
... up merrily and started singing "Cock-a-doodle-doo! I was sitting under the wall, plaiting shoes, when I lost my awl, but I found a little coin, and I bought a little scarf, and gave it to ...
— More Russian Picture Tales • Valery Carrick |
