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Contract   Listen
verb
Contract  v. t.  (past & past part. contracted; pres. part. contracting)  
1.
To draw together or nearer; to reduce to a less compass; to shorten, narrow, or lessen; as, to contract one's sphere of action. "In all things desuetude doth contract and narrow our faculties."
2.
To draw together so as to wrinkle; to knit. "Thou didst contract and purse thy brow."
3.
To bring on; to incur; to acquire; as, to contract a habit; to contract a debt; to contract a disease. "Each from each contract new strength and light." "Such behavior we contract by having much conversed with persons of high station."
4.
To enter into, with mutual obligations; to make a bargain or covenant for. "We have contracted an inviolable amity, peace, and lague with the aforesaid queen." "Many persons... had contracted marriage within the degrees of consanguinity... prohibited by law."
5.
To betroth; to affiance. "The truth is, she and I, long since contracted, Are now so sure, that nothing can dissolve us."
6.
(Gram.) To shorten by omitting a letter or letters or by reducing two or more vowels or syllables to one.
Synonyms: To shorten; abridge; epitomize; narrow; lessen; condense; reduce; confine; incur; assume.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Contract" Quotes from Famous Books



... out their claim at Turton's Creek, went back down the ditch to register them at Foster. It was a great mistake. It was neither the time nor the place for legal forms or ceremony. Time was of the essence of the contract, and they wasted the essence. Other and wiser men stepped on to their ground while they were absent, commenced at once to work vigorously, and the original peggers, when they returned, were unable ...
— The Book of the Bush • George Dunderdale

... girls, for that is what it amounts to, is carried to an extreme by parents who contract their daughters at an early age to the parents of some boy, and the children are regarded as man and wife, though of course each remains with the parents until the age of puberty is reached. Whether or not the whole payment is made in the beginning or ...
— Negritos of Zambales • William Allan Reed

... whose searchings in the archives of Holland we owe so much—found at The Hague a manuscript history of the East India Company, written by P. van Dam in the seventeenth century, in which a copy of Hudson's contract with the Company is preserved. ...
— Henry Hudson - A Brief Statement Of His Aims And His Achievements • Thomas A. Janvier

... the observance of which he sacredly binds himself by the present contract and engagement, should he ever reveal the least portion of it ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 207, October 15, 1853 • Various

... left of the hand, he thought. Bones and ugly tight-stretched hide spotted with brown. Bulging knuckles with yellow cigaret stains. My hand. He tried to tighten it, tried to squeeze Martha's thin one in return. He watched it open and contract a little, but it was like operating a remote-control mechanism. Goodbye, hand, you're leaving me the way my legs did, he told it. I'll see you again in hell. How hammy can you get, ...
— Death of a Spaceman • Walter M. Miller

... blotted thought whenever you are in the mind for it, and with as little ceremony and less legibility than you would think it necessary to employ towards your printer—why, then, I am ready to sign and seal the contract, and to rejoice in being 'articled' as your correspondent. Only don't let us have any constraint, any ceremony! Don't be civil to me when you feel rude,—nor loquacious when you incline to silence,—nor yielding in the manners when you are ...
— The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Vol. 1 (of 2) 1845-1846 • Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett

... Philippa. She had heard all. I saw her dark brow contract in anguish. She was beating her breast furiously—her habit ...
— Much Darker Days • Andrew Lang (AKA A. Huge Longway)

... Sherman Anti-Trust Law were repealed, the law substituted therefor should define the kind of combination among corporations and the kind of agreements among railroads which were permissible, and the commission should be empowered to apply the law to any particular consolidation or contract. Similar provision should be made in respect to railroad mergers, and the purchases by one railroad of the stock of another. The purposes for which new securities might be legitimately issued should also be defined in the statute, and the commission allowed ...
— The Promise Of American Life • Herbert David Croly

... in a cold state without the use of any other tool than a knife to prepare the hoof, and a hammer to drive the nails. Our success in this attempt has been so complete that we are now using the pattern designed especially for Army use in all our contract work. ...
— Rational Horse-Shoeing • John E. Russell

... to Fuller. "Fuller, I want you to help Arcot with the ship to chase the Pirate. You'll get the contract to design the new airliners. Hang the cost. It'll run into billions—but there will be no more fuel bills, no oil bills, and the cost of operation will be negligible. Nothing but the Arcot short wave tubes to buy—and each one good ...
— The Black Star Passes • John W Campbell

... at first made man, Having a glass of blessings standing by, Let us (said he) pour on him all we can: Let the world's riches, which dispersed lie, Contract ...
— The World's Best Poetry Volume IV. • Bliss Carman

... a diaphragm flattened down, liver and stomach and spleen and pancreas jammed out of place, out of shape, out of use; and that, if you were born so, humanity would dictate that you should pad liberally, to save beholders from suffering; but of malice aforethought so to contract yourselves is barbarism in the first degree. And all the while I am saying these homely things, I shall have ten thousand times more real regard and veneration for you than your venders of dainty compliments. Regard? Jenny, Lilly, Carry, Hetty, Fanny, and the rest of you, dearly beloved ...
— Gala-days • Gail Hamilton

... of individuals. Not that we can believe, with some theoretical writers, that there ever was a time when there was no such thing as society; and that, from the impulse of reason, and through a sense of their wants and weaknesses, individuals met together in a large plain, entered into an original contract, and chose the tallest man present to be their governor. This notion, of an actually existing unconnected state of nature, is too wild to be seriously admitted; and besides it is plainly contradictory to the revealed accounts of the primitive origin of mankind, and their preservation ...
— Commentaries on the Laws of England - Book the First • William Blackstone

... question, then, of signing the marriage-contract?" Athos bowed. "Has he chosen a wife whose fortune and position accord with ...
— Ten Years Later - Chapters 1-104 • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... you wish to live in disgrace, after going back on your contract and agreement with us, we will be angry with you while you are alive and in death our Brother Laws will give you a cold welcome; they will know that you have done your ...
— Authors of Greece • T. W. Lumb

... and the stretch of Firth of Clyde right down to Bute and the Lesser Cumbrae. Even in summer the garden, while scrupulously tidy, would have offered but little colour display; its few flower beds were as stiff in form and conventional in arrangement as a jobbing gardener on contract to an uninterested proprietor could make them. And on this autumn afternoon, when the sun seemed to rejoice coldly over the havoc of yesterday's gale and the passing of things spared to die a natural death, the eye was fain to look beyond to the beauty of the ...
— Till the Clock Stops • John Joy Bell

... and the latter then interpreted to the Indians, the return message going the same route back to the Colonel. Inasmuch as the treaty had been upon the basis of certain trade articles that were to have been furnished by the Utah Indian agent, and were not furnished, the contract was not completed. Ammon M. Tenney, a mere lad, spent several months in Las Vegas at that time. Hatch and Haskell returned to their homes in Utah in ...
— Mormon Settlement in Arizona • James H. McClintock

... serious. The brighter father's face became, the more closely did those white eyebrows contract. Not for a single moment did she take her eyes off father's face; and, as often as he looked at her with his merry, smiling countenance, a cold shudder ran through her ancient frame. Nor could she let father's unusual gayety pass ...
— Debts of Honor • Maurus Jokai

... other friends and relations. But it was beyond her power effectually to withstand or elude the constant and unceasing persecution of Lady Ashton, who, laying every other wish aside, had bent the whol efforts of her powerful mind to break her daughter's contract with Ravenswood, and to place a perpetual bar between the lovers, by effecting Lucy's union with Bucklaw. Far more deeply skilled than her husband in the recesses of the human heart, she was aware that in this way she might strike a blow of ...
— Bride of Lammermoor • Sir Walter Scott

... under Europeans, in sugar-mills. An experienced overseer from Java will point out to them the best lands for coffee and sugar, and the best modes of planting and rearing both. It is also a very good plan, to contract with a party to grow the cane, (the proprietor helping him with small advances,) which the landlord engages to take at so much per thousand when ripe, to be delivered at the mill door. The grower, in such cases, is generally a poor man, and require ...
— Trade and Travel in the Far East - or Recollections of twenty-one years passed in Java, - Singapore, Australia and China. • G. F. Davidson

... of this nature really care about them. The 'Morning Chronicle' seemed to regret that Peel's Bill should give satisfaction more than it rejoiced that the Dissenters were to obtain it. Marriage is made a civil contract for the Dissenters, and a slight civil form is substituted for the religious ceremony of the Church of England. This relieves them from all their grievance; but it is now said that they lie under a degradation, because it is not also made a civil contract ...
— The Greville Memoirs - A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV and King William IV, Vol. III • Charles C. F. Greville

... York men made a contract to deliver three shiploads of coal at Bordeaux at a certain price. After they had signed the contract, freight rates from Baltimore to the French port almost doubled. This was the first of their troubles. When their vessel finally reached Bordeaux, the dock was so crowded with ...
— The War After the War • Isaac Frederick Marcosson

... signed a contract. I couldn't reconsider if I wanted to. It's just seven minutes to train time. Kiss me—there's a dear lad—and don't row ...
— Told in a French Garden - August, 1914 • Mildred Aldrich

... recovered. About this time I met an official of the government railway at Ilo, who desired me to return and accept a position as engineer on the road. I told him of my troubles in that town with the officials. He met me soon afterwards, with a contract duly drawn up for eighteen months' service and a guarantee that I should not be ...
— Where Strongest Tide Winds Blew • Robert McReynolds

... The singular contract between the prairie merchant and his ci-devant guide has just reached conclusion as a rustling is heard among the branches of the cottonwoods, accompanied ...
— The Lone Ranche • Captain Mayne Reid

... their religion, just as both of them tacitly agree to follow the ways of the world in the host of minor social matters. If, therefore, either of them turns to some other creed, the person so turning has, so to speak, broken the contract. The utmost he or she can contend for is forbearance. If a woman embraces catholicism, she may seek tolerance, but she has no right to exact conformity. If the man becomes an unbeliever, he in like manner breaks the bargain, and may be justly asked ...
— On Compromise • John Morley

... your Oath, the manner of your Coronation, doth shew plainly, that the kings of England, although it is true, by the law the next person in blood is designed: yet if there were just cause to refuse him, the people of England might do it. For there is a Contract and a bargain made between the King and his people, and your Oath is taken; and certainly, Sir, the bond is reciprocal; for as you are the Liege Lord, so they Liege Subjects. And we know very well, that hath been so much spoken of, Ligeantia est duplex. This we know, ...
— State Trials, Political and Social - Volume 1 (of 2) • Various

... a rough calculation of the resources of the printing office and of the output, and saw how little hope there was for a business drained dry by the all-devouring activity of the brothers Cointet; for by this time the Cointets were not only contract printers to the town and the prefecture, and printers to the Diocese by special appointment—they were paper-makers and proprietors of a newspaper to boot. That newspaper, sold two years ago by the Sechards, father ...
— Eve and David • Honore de Balzac

... her Majesty's English or Scottish subjects, nor of any other Christian nation, within this province, shall contract matrimony with any negro or mulatto; nor shall any person, duly authorized to solemnize marriage, presume to join any such in marriage, on pain of forfeiting the sum of fifty pounds; one moiety thereof to her Majesty, for and towards ...
— Report of the Decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Opinions of the Judges Thereof, in the Case of Dred Scott versus John F.A. Sandford • Benjamin C. Howard

... have less importance than that of the other features, for it always seems that by the eyes we should judge most justly. As a matter of fact, I think that the passions leave no trace in them, although they express the emotions of the moment clearly enough. The dark pupils may flash with anger, contract with determination, expand with love or fear; but so soon as the mind ceases to be under the momentary influence of any of these, the pupil returns to its normal state, the iris takes its natural color, and the eye, if seen through a hole in a screen, expresses ...
— Paul Patoff • F. Marion Crawford

... "The contract has been drawn up," said the king, "under our own eye, specially discharging the potestas maritalis, and agreeing they shall live separate. So buckle them, my Lord Bishop, as fast as you can, that they may ...
— The Fortunes of Nigel • Sir Walter Scott

... sell so many barrels of flour, at such a price, on time, as it is called,—that is, you engage to receive, or to deliver, so many barrels, at the prices and in the times agreed upon, in the hope, that, before the period of your contract comes round, prices will have so varied as to enable you to buy, or sell, the quantity bargained for, upon terms that will give you a profit. In a word, you simply agree to run the risk of a change of prices such as ...
— Atlantic Monthly Volume 7, No. 40, February, 1861 • Various

... eyes went wide in horror. She could feel the scalp upon her head contract with fright. Her terror-filled gaze was frozen upon that awful figure that loomed so large and sinister above her, for the thing had moved! She had seen it with her own eyes. There could be no mistake—no hallucination of overwrought nerves about it. The Blentz ...
— The Mad King • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... said the man, still grimly. "I did not hire you to be a lady. I hired you to do the housework. I can't have you here unless you keep your share of the contract. ...
— Janice Day, The Young Homemaker • Helen Beecher Long

... grubstaked him. But this banker was no sucker, if he did have the name of staking every bum in Nevada. He was generous with his men and he give 'em all they asked for, but before he planked down a dollar he made 'em sign a contract that a corporation lawyer couldn't break. Well, when Wunpost said he'd quit, Mr. Eells says all right—no hard feeling—better luck next time. But when Wunpost went back and opened up this vein Mr. Eells was Johnny-on-the-spot. He steps up to that hole ...
— Wunpost • Dane Coolidge

... brick until he was thirty-five," she added nonchalantly. "I've thought some of taking him in with me on this contract, for some men, working men especially, are ...
— The Lady Doc • Caroline Lockhart

... from himself, and partly from his acquaintances, he resolved to find some other education for his son, and went away convinced, that a scholastick life has no other tendency than to vitiate the morals and contract the understanding: nor would he afterwards hear with patience the praises of the ancient authors, being persuaded that scholars of all ages must have been the same, and that Xenophon and Cicero were professors of some former university, and therefore mean and selfish, ignorant ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D, In Nine Volumes - Volume the Third: The Rambler, Vol. II • Samuel Johnson

... of his own free will, the lender may keep it. In answer to the question whether the lender may keep what the borrower paid, not out of gratitude but out of fear—fear that otherwise loans might be refused him in future—Liguori says, "To be usury it must be paid by reason of a contract, or as justly due; payment by reason of such a fear does not cause interest to be paid as an actual price." Again Liguori tells us, "It is not usury to exact something in return for the danger and expense of regaining the principal." The old subterfuges of "Damnum ...
— History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom • Andrew Dickson White

... and filthy robes of the priests of his own religion. Fray Luis spoke the Quiche language with fluency, and during several days he gave instructions and explanations, which resulted in the cacique's conversion; that of the others followed as a matter of course. The friar had brought with him the contract signed by the Governor, and he explained its conditions and importance very fully; this document was a more valuable instrument of conversion than would have been an authentic manuscript epistle of St. Paul. The cacique's conversion was complete, and with his own hands he overthrew the national ...
— Bartholomew de Las Casas; his life, apostolate, and writings • Francis Augustus MacNutt

... should be taken that the possession of this book without a valid contract for production first having been obtained from the publisher, confers no right or license to professionals or amateurs to produce the play publicly or in ...
— Wappin' Wharf - A Frightful Comedy of Pirates • Charles S. Brooks

... other pupils for his vacant time, but he decided against this at once, and returned to his own room. Three o'clock found him back at the door, knocking scrupulously, The idea of performing his side of the contract, of tendering his goods and standing ready at all times to deliver them, was in his commercially mature mind. This time he had brought a neat piece of paper with him, and wrote upon it, "Called, three P.M.," and signed it as before, ...
— Philosophy 4 - A Story of Harvard University • Owen Wister

... hab forget to bring de grub," interposed Sam, to explain this apparent breach of contract on his part. "I'se cook, an' not used fo' ter go widout my vittles ...
— The Island Treasure • John Conroy Hutcheson

... that civilisation is the causa malorum and that what is named progress is really regress. But Rousseau found a way of circumventing pessimism. He asked himself, cannot equality be realised in an organised state, founded on natural right? The Social Contract was his answer, and there we can see the living idea of equality detaching itself from the dead theory of degradation. [Footnote: The consistency of the Social Contract with the Discourse on Inequality ...
— The Idea of Progress - An Inquiry Into Its Origin And Growth • J. B. Bury

... Samivel,' replied the old gentleman, 'good-vill, stock, and fixters, vill be sold by private contract; and out o' the money, two hundred pound, agreeable to a rekvest o' your mother-in-law's to me, a little afore she died, vill be invested in your name in—What do ...
— The Pickwick Papers • Charles Dickens

... Martindale might look reprovingly at Arthur's eagerness, but the matter was no less important to him. He had begun life with an expenditure as large as his income could bear; and as his children had grown up, and unprosperous times had come, he had not been able to contract his expenses. Of late he had almost been in difficulty as to the means of meeting the calls for the year, economy was a thing unknown and uncomprehended by his wife; and the giving up the house in London had been the only reduction he ...
— Heartsease - or Brother's Wife • Charlotte M. Yonge

... cummin to Mr. Burrell's memory, to become Lady Sudleigh. Everyone said it was a most proper alliance, the proposed bride having money and beauty and the bridegroom-elect birth, political influence, and quite as much love as was necessary to such a matrimonial contract. ...
— A Singer from the Sea • Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

... very dearly, but I've had enough of marriage. I've done my duty. I don't see how I could keep on loving a man after I married him, even if he weren't a cripple. The process of adjustment is simply frightful. Marriage is just a contract binding ...
— Still Jim • Honore Willsie Morrow

... were entered into with H. C. Kimball for a contract to carry the mail between Independence, Missouri, and Salt Lake City. Young saw in this the nucleus of a big company that would maintain a daily express and mail service to and from the Mormon centre, and he at once organized the Brigham Young ...
— The Story of the Mormons: • William Alexander Linn

... Mendarva began a long tale, the sum of which was that the light-house had begun of late to show signs of age, to rock at times in an ominous manner. The Trinity House surveyor had been down and reported, and Mendarva had the contract for some immediate repairs. "But 'tis patching an old kettle, my son. The foundations be clamped down to the rock, and the clamps have worked loose. The whole thing'll have to come down in the end; you ...
— The Ship of Stars • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... the prince. "If you will allow me two weeks to fulfil the contract, and if you'll prepare a festa for the night two weeks hence, I'll endeavour to present the most beautiful princess in the ...
— Tales of Giants from Brazil • Elsie Spicer Eells

... witchcraft, and divination, effects that far outstrip the belief in amulets, he observes "We should not reject all of this kind, because it is not known how far those contributing to superstition, depend on natural causes. Charms have not the power from contract with evil spirits, but proceed wholly from strengthening the imagination: in the same manner that images and their influence, have prevailed on religion, being called from a different way of use and application, sigils, incantations, ...
— Thaumaturgia • An Oxonian

... concentrated on the largest island of Diego Garcia, where joint UK-US defense facilities are located. Construction projects and various services needed to support the military installations are done by military and contract employees from the UK, Mauritius, the Philippines, and the US. There are no industrial or agricultural activities on the islands. When the Ilois return, they plan to ...
— The 2003 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... girls, and cigarette girls, and music girls, all in their native costumes. There was prosperity for a time, and rich promise, until the Prince ran against the callous, unsympathetic Occident in the shape of the contract ...
— Fifth Avenue • Arthur Bartlett Maurice

... out, on inquiry, that only Vibbard was of age; his friend being quick in study, had entered college early, and nearly two years stood between him and his majority; so that, if their contract was to be binding, they would have to defer it for that length of time. I was prepared for their disappointment; but Silverthorn, after an instant's reflection, seemed quite satisfied. As they were going, he hurried back, leaving his friend out of ...
— Stories by American Authors, Volume 3 • Various

... of acknowledgment was ever given for having a second time saved the Empire from dismemberment, though this service was entirely extra-official, it being no part of my contract with the Brazilian Government to put down revolution, nor to take upon myself the responsibility and difficult labour of reducing half the Empire to the allegiance which it had perhaps not without cause repudiated—at ...
— Narrative of Services in the Liberation of Chili, Peru and Brazil, - from Spanish and Portuguese Domination, Volume 2 • Thomas Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald

... intelligence is due to fact that I have only recently received official information of my triumph, which my family are now engaged in celebrating at Calcutta with paeans of transport, illuminations, fireworks, an English brass band, and delicacies supplied (on contract ...
— Baboo Jabberjee, B.A. • F. Anstey

... trial, Moscow, 1871; testimony of physicians and examination of the accused) which served the double purpose of checking haemorrhage, as would a thermo-cautery, and avoiding infection. Another method consisted in searing the orifice of the vagina so that the scar tissue would contract it in such a manner as to effectually prevent ...
— The Satyricon, Complete • Petronius Arbiter

... harm. Dora didn't know about all this before, Aunt only told her after Mother's death. Dora thinks it is better not to marry at all, unless one is madly in love with a man. And then only by a marriage contract!! In that case that would be excluded. But I always imagined a marriage contract was made because of a dowry and money affairs generally; and never thought of its having such a purpose. Frau Mayer, whom we met in the ...
— A Young Girl's Diary • An Anonymous Young Girl

... turned-her out of the house into the street, where she was at the mercy of the first passer-by. Women of noble or wealthy families found in their fortune a certain protection from the abuse of marital authority. The property which they brought with them by their marriage contract, remained at their own disposal.* They had the entire management of it, they farmed it out, they sold it, they spent the income from it as they liked, without interference from any one: the man enjoyed the comforts which it procured, but he could not touch ...
— History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 3 (of 12) • G. Maspero

... it was obvious that time and labor were wasted when a farmer took a few sacks of potatoes to the railway and another a sack of wool. There was no difficulty about the tender, because Osborn was chairman of the small Slate Company; the trouble was that the contract would help Bell to carry out another plan. The fellow was greedy, and was getting a rather dangerous control; he had already a lease of the limekilns and Allerby mill. But his rents were regularly paid, and it was an advantage to deal with one prosperous tenant ...
— The Buccaneer Farmer - Published In England Under The Title "Askew's Victory" • Harold Bindloss

... for him whatever she wished. He sent much gold and silver to Abraham, and diamonds and pearls, sheep and oxen, and men slaves and women slaves, and he assigned a residence to him within the precincts of the royal palace.[73] In the love he bore Sarah, he wrote out a marriage contract, deeding to her all he owned in the way of gold and silver, and men slaves and women slaves, and the province of Goshen besides, the province occupied in later days by the descendants of Sarah, because it was their property. ...
— The Legends of the Jews Volume 1 • Louis Ginzberg

... my life that this chronicle will not fully record. One of them is my courtship and marriage, and the other my connection with a government contract with the Indian department. Otherwise my life shall be as an open book, not only for my own posterity, but that he who runs may read. It has been a matter of observation with me that a plain man like myself scarcely ever ...
— Reed Anthony, Cowman • Andy Adams

... to prevent inundations, and a fine bridge connects the city with its suburbs. St Jago is about 90 miles from the sea, and about 20 from the foot of the main ridge of the Andes, whose lofty summits clad in perpetual snow form a fine contract with the continual verdure of a beautiful surrounding district. The streets are all in straight lines, thirty-six feet broad, and intersecting each other at right angles, and every house is amply ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 5 • Robert Kerr

... knowledge of her, led me to believe that she was boarded at a young ladies' school with my little sisters. I lived on the vain hope of the holidays, and meantime every effort was made to drive me into a marriage which my very soul abhorred, the contract being absolutely made by the two ladies, the mothers, without my participation, nay, against my protest. I was to be cajoled or else persecuted into it—sold, in fact, that my mother's debts might be paid before her husband's return! I knew my Uncle Belamour ...
— Love and Life • Charlotte M. Yonge

... Edmond About, and Michelet tell us, the extravagant demands of love for dress lead women to contract debts unknown to their husbands, and sign obligations which are paid by the sacrifice of honor, and thus the purity of the family is continually undermined. In England there is a voice of complaint, sounding from the leading periodicals, that the extravagant demands of female ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 102, April, 1866 • Various

... this contract came men and machinery to open up a test well. For weeks hauling was done up the creek bottom, there being no road leading to the oil spring where the first drilling was to ...
— Mr. Opp • Alice Hegan Rice

... reconciled with God, they may find their true loves. Astrological divinations on the subject are certainly common enough in Eastern stories; a remarkable instance will be given later on. At the present day, Lane tells us, the numerical value of the letters in the names of the two parties to the contract are added for each name separately, and one of the totals is subtracted from the other. If the remainder is uneven, the inference drawn is favorable; but if even, the reverse. The pursuit of Gematria is apparently ...
— The Book of Delight and Other Papers • Israel Abrahams

... bought me out; do you know to what a point of insanity a woman can sometimes love? She was an honest woman, and very sensible, although completely uneducated. Would you believe that this honest and jealous woman, after many scenes of hysterics and reproaches, condescended to enter into a kind of contract with me which she kept throughout our married life? She was considerably older than I, and besides, she always kept a clove or something in her mouth. There was so much swinishness in my soul and honesty ...
— Crime and Punishment • Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... as well as another, since he is rich. You can marry him, and pay your present debts, and contract new, for thousands instead of hundreds:—this is what you CAN ...
— Helen • Maria Edgeworth

... this, as in all other branches of traffick: nor can I conceive that any argument can be drawn from them against the practice; for if every part of commerce is to be prohibited, which has furnished villains with opportunities of deceit, we shall contract trade ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, Vol. 10. - Parlimentary Debates I. • Samuel Johnson

... to obtain the revival of a barony that was in abeyance, and of which she would be the only heir, assuming that my rights were invalid, inclined her to believe that my father was already married, when he entered into the solemn contract with my mother. But from that curse too, I ...
— Home as Found • James Fenimore Cooper

... David, "I don't know as much about girls as I do about some things; my experience hain't laid much in that line, but I wouldn't like to take a contract to match her on any limit. I guess," he added softly, "that the consideration in that deal 'd have to be 'love an' affection.' Git up, old lady," he exclaimed, and drew the whip along old Jinny's back like a caress. ...
— David Harum - A Story of American Life • Edward Noyes Westcott

... unconscious grandeur; yet, though above the ordinary height, he was not very tall-five feet eleven at the utmost-and far from being very erect. On the contrary, there was that habitual bend in his proud neck which men who meditate much and live alone almost invariably contract. But there was, to use an expression common with our older writers, that "great air" about him which filled the eye, and gave him the dignity of elevated stature, the commanding aspect that accompanies the upright carriage. His figure was inclined to be slender, though broad of shoulder and ...
— What Will He Do With It, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... the credit of the fancy-smitten Duke in such an urgency of suit as might else breed some question of his manliness; while her winning infirmity, as expressed in the tender violence with which she hastens on "a contract and eternal bond of love" with the astonished and bewildered Sebastian, "that her most jealous and too doubtful soul may live at peace," shows how well the sternness of the brain may be tempered into amiability by ...
— Shakespeare: His Life, Art, And Characters, Volume I. • H. N. Hudson

... said, 'here we part. I have performed my contract—at some awkwardness, if I was recognized. But never mind that. How do ...
— The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid • Thomas Hardy

... Romish Church lifted her standard here. The brothers of the Society of Jesus, if they did not convert the king, certainly had him in a humor to bring all of his regal powers to bear upon his subjects to turn them into the Catholic Church. He actually took the contract to turn his subjects over to this Church! But this shrewd savage did not agree to undertake this herculean task for nothing. He wanted a white wife. He told the missionaries that he would deliver his subjects to Christianity for ...
— History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880. Vol 1 - Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens • George W. Williams

... the control-room; a hoarse cry goes up from the crew. The officers draw their revolvers. Evidently the injured periscope has caused a leak. Before anything can be done there is a tremendous grinding, rending explosion; the thin steel walls contract under the force of the released energy. Above them the destroyer crew gazing eagerly at the geyser-like volume of water arising from the sea descry pieces of metal, dark objects of all sorts. The sea quiets and up from the depths arise clouds of oil, spreading slowly over ...
— Our Navy in the War • Lawrence Perry

... their character. Such traits caught a singular and imposing hue from the grave deportment of these men, so dignified that they might almost be accused of pomposity. It was next to impossible that they should not contract a taste for this stateliness, when we consider that they had almost always before them the most exquisite type of gravity of manner in the followers of Islam, whose qualities they appreciated and appropriated, even while engaged in repelling their ...
— Life of Chopin • Franz Liszt

... the maxim homo homini lupus (man to man a wolf; or, freely, "man eats man") the characteristic motto of our era, while Hobbes only made it the ruling principle of the "state of nature" of mankind, before the making of the "social contract." ...
— Socialism and Modern Science (Darwin, Spencer, Marx) • Enrico Ferri

... keep apart from your people if the Council wishes," Arcot agreed, "but there is no real danger. We are so vastly different from you that it will be impossible for you to get our diseases, or for us to contract yours. However, if the Council wants it, we will ...
— Islands of Space • John W Campbell

... replied, "I don't think so. I have been talking with Uncle Julius about it, and he says he has a nephew who is out of employment, and who will take the contract for ten dollars, if you will furnish the mule and cart, and board ...
— The Conjure Woman • Charles W. Chesnutt

... feigning, he knelt by him and peered into his face, placed his hand upon his chest above his heart, felt his pulse with awkward fingers. He wondered, now, if he had not killed him, outright, for Frank's head had struck the ground with a terrific impact. But Layson's nostrils soon began to dilate and contract with a spasmodic breathing. He ...
— In Old Kentucky • Edward Marshall and Charles T. Dazey

... me the copy of the contract which had been prepared for him. That evening at the cost of much labor he and I went over the indenture word for word, and when we had finished Sir George thought it was very good indeed. He seemed to think that all difficulties in the way of the marriage ...
— Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall • Charles Major

... that first half-real something which I name the objective mystery, until it becomes all the colours, shapes, sounds and so forth, produced by the impression upon the soul of all the other personalities brought into contract with it by the omnipresent personality of the ...
— The Complex Vision • John Cowper Powys

... A contract has been recently made by the English government for a cable to be laid from Falmouth to Gibraltar, 1200 miles, which is to be ready in June next. This will be succeeded by one from Gibraltar to Malta and Alexandria, thus ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume V, Number 29, March, 1860 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... which supply the muscles of my glottis, I should become suddenly dumb. The voice is produced only so long as the vocal chords are parallel; and these are parallel only so long as certain muscles contract with exact equality; and that again depends on the equality of action of those two nerves I spoke of. So that a change of the minutest kind in the structure of one of these nerves, or in the structure of the part in which it originates, or of the ...
— Darwiniana • Thomas Henry Huxley

... whose Dictionary of Commerce Dr. Johnson wrote the Preface. JOHNSON. 'Old Gardner the bookseller employed Rolt and Smart to write a monthly miscellany, called The Universal Visitor. There was a formal written contract, which Allen the printer saw. Gardner thought as you do of the Judge. They were bound to write nothing else; they were to have, I think, a third of the profits of this sixpenny pamphlet; and the contract was for ninety-nine years. I wish I had thought of giving this to Thurlow, in the ...
— Life of Johnson - Abridged and Edited, with an Introduction by Charles Grosvenor Osgood • James Boswell

... from Agra accompanied by many thousands, and hunts all the country for thirty or forty coss round about, and so continues till the end of March, when the great heats drive him home again. He causes a tract of wood or desert to be encompassed about by chosen men, who contract themselves to a near compass, and whatever is taken in this enclosure, is called the king's sykar, or game, whether men! or beasts, and who ever lets aught escape loses his life, unless pardoned by the king. All the beasts thus taken, if man's meat, are ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. VIII. • Robert Kerr

... the dowry and contract had been agreed upon and signed, the publishing of the banns occurred. Probably this custom was general throughout the colonies; indeed, the Church of England required it in Virginia and South Carolina; ...
— Woman's Life in Colonial Days • Carl Holliday

... understood how, in their state of aerobian life, the alcoholic ferments have failed to attract attention. These ferments are only cultivated out of contract with air, at the bottom of liquids which soon become saturated with carbonic acid gas. Air is only present in the earlier developments of their germs, and without attracting the attention of the operator, ...
— The Harvard Classics Volume 38 - Scientific Papers (Physiology, Medicine, Surgery, Geology) • Various

... make a single alteration in the scene. There was a fine storm. The star declared that if the change was not made at once she would leave the company. In making this declaration she knew her strength. Her husband was rich; a contract was nothing to her. There was not another actress of her ability to be found; the season was too late. There was not another woman available, nor would any other manager lend one. As the opening performance was but two weeks hence, you will realize why Warrington's mood ...
— Half a Rogue • Harold MacGrath

... taken our measures, that we need apprehend no great difficulty in attaining the end aimed at. Among the Saints, there was not the slightest suspicion of our character—at least none had yet shown itself. We should be free to come and go, as we pleased: since the very nature of our contract required it. Camp and caravan would be alike accessible to us—at all hours, I might say—and surely opportunities would not be lacking for the accomplishment of ...
— The Wild Huntress - Love in the Wilderness • Mayne Reid

... sighed, and so did the Queen; they knew they never should find another such beautiful Princess. But, then, the King had not kept his part of the contract and found the gold-horned cow, and he could not compel her to be a Princess ...
— The Pot of Gold - And Other Stories • Mary E. Wilkins

... the genie," said Edmund. "Abstruse questions, Marian; but perhaps it is because they contract the space, so as to bring it more to the level of our capacity, make it less grand, and more what we can get into keeping. To be sure, he would be a presumptuous man who tried to make an exact likeness of that," he ...
— The Two Guardians • Charlotte Mary Yonge

... upon myself which would be called benefits if I bestowed them upon another? If to receive a certain thing from another would lay me under an obligation to him, how is it that if I give it to myself, I do not contract an obligation to myself? why should I be ungrateful to my own self, which is no less disgraceful than it is to be mean to oneself, or hard and cruel to oneself, or neglectful of oneself?" The procurer is ...
— L. Annaeus Seneca On Benefits • Seneca

... please. I have told you already, and now I repeat it for the last time, I will not go with you to the altar, because neither of us has proper affection for the other to warrant such a union; because it would be an infamous pecuniary contract, revolting to every true soul. Hugh, cherish no animosity against me; I merit none. Because we cannot be more, shall we be less ...
— Macaria • Augusta Jane Evans Wilson

... geniuses ought not to marry, any more than lunatics. The law ought to provide for it. Genius, in either party, if you can establish the fact, should annul the contract, ...
— The Creators - A Comedy • May Sinclair

... either as principal or agent—(a) Makes or enters into or enforces or seeks to enforce any rule, order, regulation, contract, agreement or arrangement in restraint of or with intent to restrain, prevent or hinder the marriage of any person (N.B. A woman is a "person" in Western Australia) who is in his employment or in the employment of his principal, and is of the age ...
— Women Workers in Seven Professions • Edith J. Morley

... himself, as a margin to work on; aiming at six or five per cent profit for himself, on small contracts and at a four, three or two and one-half per cent profit for himself on million dollar ones. Changes and afterthoughts from his clients in carrying out a contract are inevitable. W. J. wants a margin on which to allow for contingencies and for his ...
— The Ghost in the White House • Gerald Stanley Lee

... sort of matter he meant to broadcast from his high-class station, and they agreed it was solemn enough; it was all solemn and sad and gloomy, just the stuff for a cemetery. So when Remington Solander agreed to build the new iron fence they made a formal contract with him, and I drew up the clause for the will, and he bought six lots on top of the high knoll and began erecting his ...
— Solander's Radio Tomb • Ellis Parker Butler

... treasury is empty, and the greater part of the pharaoh's property belongs to the temples. He must contract new debts yearly even to maintain his household; and since there will be no Phoenicians among you, ye must borrow of the temples. In this way, when ten years have passed, his holiness may he live through eternity! will lose what is left of his ...
— The Pharaoh and the Priest - An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt • Boleslaw Prus

... Harvey Steptoe with the mail contract for sixty dollars a month, three trips a week between Red Gap and Surprise Valley, forty-five miles each way, barely making enough extra on express matter and local freight to come out even after buying horse-feed. Then comes parcels ...
— Somewhere in Red Gap • Harry Leon Wilson

... creature accepted the good fortune sent her with a grateful heart; and was ready to accept as much more as you pleased. Having paid off her debts to her various milliners, tradesmen, and purveyors, she forthwith proceeded to contract new ones. Mrs. Betty, her ladyship's maid, went round informing the tradespeople that her mistress was about to contract a matrimonial alliance with a young gentleman of immense fortune; so that they might give my lady credit to any amount. Having heard the same story twice or thrice before, the ...
— The Virginians • William Makepeace Thackeray

... sergeant-major of the fifth battery, who imitated his chief in drinking, and Trumpeter Henke of his own, the sixth battery, two seasoned gamblers. The two other members of the party were to be the landlord of the White Horse, and the fat baker, Kuehn, who held the contract for the white bread supplied to the regiment. To the baker in particular he had allotted the role of loser, as he had the ...
— 'Jena' or 'Sedan'? • Franz Beyerlein

... the ring, and once more went on to find the wide opening they had reached rapidly contract till once more it resembled the jagged passage through which ...
— Sappers and Miners - The Flood beneath the Sea • George Manville Fenn

... robberies committed by individuals: In Switzerland, "the Directorial commissary, Rapinat, the major-general, Schawembourg and the ordinance commissary, Rouhiere, each carried away a million tournois." "Rouhiere, besides this, levied 20 per cent. on each contract he issued, which was worth to him 350,000 livres. His first secretary Toussaint, stole in Berne alone, 150,000 livres. The secretary of Rapinat, Amberg, retired with 300,000 livres." General Lorge carried off ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 4 (of 6) - The French Revolution, Volume 3 (of 3) • Hippolyte A. Taine

... were futile; she began to weaken from the choking. Jones took another rope, and tightening a noose around her back paws, which he lassoed as she rolled over, he stretched her out. She began to contract her supple body, gave a savage, convulsive spring, which pulled Jones flat on the ground, then the terrible wrestling started again. The lasso slipped over her back paws. She leaped the whole length of the other lasso. Jones caught it and fastened ...
— The Last of the Plainsmen • Zane Grey

... no one present having a word more to say against it, Harry and I exchanged rings; and Mr. Truelocke in a few pathetic words besought Heaven's blessing on our contract. I do believe Harry would not have been sorry could he have called me wife before he went away; but, every one frowning on this fancy of his when he distantly hinted it, he did not urge it; and truly ...
— Andrew Golding - A Tale of the Great Plague • Anne E. Keeling

... rate will not exceed $9.00 a year—that's less than two and a half cents a day. Think of it—by paying an amount so small that you will never miss it, you will secure benefits on over two thousand sicknesses—any one of which you may contract tomorrow." ...
— Business Correspondence • Anonymous

... Alexander. How happy he was, said the great general, when he visited Troy, "in having while he lived so faithful a friend, and when he was dead so famous a poet to proclaim his actions"! In our century, as more in consonance with society under the regime of contract, when force has largely given, pay to craft, we feel in greater sympathy with Ulysses; "The one person I would like to have met and talked with," Froude used to say, "was Ulysses. How interesting it would be to have his opinion on universal suffrage, and on a House of Parliament ...
— Historical Essays • James Ford Rhodes



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