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Rivet   Listen
verb
Rivet  v. t.  (past & past part. riveted; pres. part. riveting)  
1.
To fasten with a rivet, or with rivets; as, to rivet two pieces of iron.
2.
To spread out the end or point of, as of a metallic pin, rod, or bolt, by beating or pressing, so as to form a sort of head.
3.
Hence, to fasten firmly; to make firm, strong, or immovable; as, to rivet friendship or affection. "Rivet and nail me where I stand, ye powers!" "Thus his confidence was riveted and confirmed."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Rivet" Quotes from Famous Books



... city. It would then be comparatively easy, by assaulting the invaders on their several posts, scattered as they were over the country, to overpower them by superior numbers, and shake off their detested yoke before the arrival of fresh reinforcements should rivet it forever on the necks of his countrymen. A plan for a general rising was formed, and it was in conformity to it that the priest was selected by the Inca to bear Almagro company on the march, that he might secure the cooperation of the natives in the country, and then secretly ...
— History Of The Conquest Of Peru • William Hickling Prescott

... honour. No notion of degradation was in it. It was a necessary step to higher honour. And what was the next higher honour? To be set free from service? No. To serve in the harder service of the field; to be a squire to some noble knight; to tend his horse, to clean his armour, to see that every rivet was sound, every buckle true, every strap strong; to ride behind him, and carry his spear, and if more than one attacked him, to rush to his aid. This service was the more honourable because it was harder, and was the next step to higher honour yet. And what ...
— The Seaboard Parish Volume 1 • George MacDonald

... not with iron weapons, but with her own white fingers, she summons all Thebes to come and behold. She calls for her aged father to draw near and see; and for Pentheus himself, at last, that he may mount and rivet her trophy, appropriately decorative there, between the triglyphs of the cornice below ...
— Greek Studies: A Series of Essays • Walter Horatio Pater

... a vertical and also a horizontal joint in the plating, meeting just here—it is the only junction of the kind in this passage-way, so you cannot possibly mistake it. Now, kindly take notice of these vertical and horizontal rows of rivet-heads, and especially of this particular rivet that is common to both rows. There is nothing whatever to distinguish it from the others, is there? No. But if you will place your finger upon it, thus, and push firmly to the left, thus, you will ...
— With Airship and Submarine - A Tale of Adventure • Harry Collingwood

... The rivet was knocked out, the fetters fell to the floor, and the prisoner was passed from the anvil to the further extremity of the room. A second entered. This was a middle-aged man. Reflection seemed with him to have well performed ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. - Volume 10, No. 270, Saturday, August 25, 1827. • Various

... effective and sure. Good-neighborhood, alone, would exact some such provision from every well-disposed community, and there cannot be a doubt that good policy coincides. The abolitionists, beyond a dispute, have only had a tendency to rivet the fetters of the slave, and to destroy the peace of the country. Emancipation has not been extended a single foot by any of their projects; while the whole South has been thrown into an attitude of hostile defiance, not only towards these misguided persons, but to their innocent ...
— New York • James Fenimore Cooper

... low feet staggered, Only the soldered mouth can tell; Try! can you stir the awful rivet? Try! can you lift ...
— Poems: Three Series, Complete • Emily Dickinson

... separates the States of New Hampshire and Vermont. The masses of rocks through which the river forces its way at the Falls, are very grand and imposing; and the surrounding hills, rich with the autumnal tints, rivet the eye. On these masses of rocks are many faces, cut out by the tribe of Pequod Indians, who formerly used to fish in their waters. Being informed that there was to be a militia muster, ...
— Diary in America, Series One • Frederick Marryat (AKA Captain Marryat)

... the 16th the last rivet was driven; but the ice had gained to such an extent that the lower chord was buckled down-stream about eight inches, and the distance was growing steadily. Quickly the traveler was shifted to the false-work beyond the ...
— The Iron Trail • Rex Beach

... period and with keen edges; but as they become dull, the shears are forced apart by the straw and grass—particularly the latter, and the machine fails, as it inevitably must do, in its allotted duty, and for very obvious reasons. If the shear rivet or bolt is kept tight there is too much friction; if loose enough to play freely it is too loose to cut well; and, lastly, it is too liable to wear at the most important point of the whole machine. During the harvest of 1853 in England every effort was made to uphold Bell's machine; ...
— Obed Hussey - Who, of All Inventors, Made Bread Cheap • Various

... remarkably prone to pensive, if not to sorrowful contemplations. And thus the obligation which I felt to silence and reserve, strengthened the morbid impression I had received; whilst the remarkable incident I have adverted to served powerfully to rivet the superstitious chain which was continually gathering round me. The incident was this—and before I repeat it, let me pledge my word of honour, that I report to you the bare facts of the case, without exaggeration, and in the simplicity of truth:—There was ...
— The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey, Vol. 2 - With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg • Thomas de Quincey

... drank the red wine through the helmet barr'd;[204] do you think that this national shame and dastardliness of heart are not written as legibly on every rivet of your iron armour as the strength of the right hands ...
— Selections From the Works of John Ruskin • John Ruskin

... again. "We've worked under severe handicaps," he said. "Look, just suppose a lot of valuable material and equipment were ferried into space. If it's an ordinary government deal, you know how many light-years of red tape are involved. Requisitions have to be filled out in triplicate, every last rivet has to be accounted for—there'd simply have been too much chance of a rebel spy getting a lead on us. It was safer all around to use whatever chance materials could be obtained from salvage or through individual purchases ...
— Security • Poul William Anderson

... so I stray'd Where hangs thy best loved armour on the wall, And pleased myself by filling it with thee! 'Tis yet the goodliest armour in proud Rome, Say all the armourers; all Rome and I Know thee, the lordliest bearer of a sword. Yet, Curtius, stay, there is a rivet lost From out the helmet, and a ruby gone From the short sword hilt—trifles both which can Be righted by to-morrow's noon—"to-morrow's noon!" Was there a change, my Curtius, in my voice When spake I those three words: "to-morrow's noon?" O, I am ...
— Old Spookses' Pass • Isabella Valancy Crawford

... lists were made—the trumpet's blast Rang pealing through the air. My 'squire made lace and rivet fast And brought my tried destrerre. I rode where sat fair Isidore Inez Mathilde Borghese; From spur to crest she scann'd me o'er, Then said "He's not ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various

... rivet ourselves so fast to our humours and complexions: our chiefest sufficiency is to know how to apply ourselves to divers employments. 'Tis to be, but not to live, to keep a man's self tied and bound by necessity to one only course; those are the bravest souls that have ...
— The Essays of Montaigne, Complete • Michel de Montaigne

... itself is made beautifully clear by this Vorspiel and lecture-recital, so that even a mother and child at a matine'e can follow the tone-pictures without difficulty; but the libretto, which is a remarkable specimen of Wagner's alliterative verse, only helps the more to rivet attention and compel admiration. I have given you an idea of the brief overture, and the opera itself opens with a somber recitative, descriptive or symbolic of the Dark ...
— Bluebeard • Kate Douglas Wiggin

... consequence, with haste, diligence, ardour, and faithfulness.... Would ye then wait aright for Christian perfection? Impartially admit the two Gospel axioms, and faithfully reduce them to practice. In order to this, let them meet in your hearts, as the two legs of a pair of compasses meet in the rivet which makes them one compound instrument.... When your heart quietly rests in God by faith, as it steadily acts the part of a passive receiver, it resembles the leg of the compasses which rests in ...
— Fletcher of Madeley • Brigadier Margaret Allen

... trouble they climbed down the chimney and peeped out.... There lay the old Chinaman on the floor ... broken into three pieces.... "This is terrible," said the shepherdess. "He can be riveted," said the chimney-sweep.... The family had the Chinaman's back mended and a strong rivet put through his neck; he looked as good as new, but when "Major-General-field-sergeant-commander-Billy-goat's-legs" again asked for the shepherdess to be his wife, the old Chinaman could no longer ...
— The Rivet in Grandfather's Neck - A Comedy of Limitations • James Branch Cabell

... no man sew;[2] It shall be clinched each ilk and deal, With nails that are both noble and new, Thus shall I fix it to the keel: Take here a rivet, and there a screw, With there bow,[3] there now, work I well, This work, I warrant both good ...
— Everyman and Other Old Religious Plays, with an Introduction • Anonymous

... five o'clock when I arrived before the majestic towers of Christ Church.—The retiring sun brightening the horizon with streaks of gold at parting, shed a rich glow over the scene that could not fail to rivet my attention to the spot. Not all the fatigues of the day, nor the peculiarities of my new situation, had, in the least, abated my admiration of architectural beauties. The noble octagonal tower in the enriched Gothic style, rising ...
— The English Spy • Bernard Blackmantle

... time his disinclination to contract a second marriage, alleging that his first had proved so unfortunate in every way, that he was reluctant to rivet anew the chain which had been so rudely riven asunder; but the unflinching minister did not fail to remind him that much as he owed to himself, he still owed even more to a people who had faith in his wisdom and generosity; and the frank-hearted King ...
— The Life of Marie de Medicis, Vol. 1 (of 3) • Julia Pardoe

... newly smitten from you, while your limbs are yet sore with their chafing, and the sound of their clanking is yet in your ears, that a Tory should come forward and ask your permission—to do what?—to rivet those fetters anew upon you. Will you give him that leave?" And in one voice eight thousand people answered "No," which sealed the ...
— Recollections • David Christie Murray

... with oakum in a way that at once diminished the influx of water; but this was merely a makeshift. It now became a question whether it were possible to effect the necessary repairs while at sea. Our young engineer removed the difficulty. He undertook to rivet an iron-plate over the hole—at least ...
— Under the Waves - Diving in Deep Waters • R M Ballantyne

... chesnaye, thus commemorating by the epithet, the oaks that formed the holy grove. Near it stood the famous temple of Mount Phaunus, which was flourishing in the beginning of the fourth century, and, according to Rivet, was considered one of the three most celebrated in Gaul. Belenus was the divinity principally worshipped in it; but, according to popular superstition, adoration was also paid to a golden calf, which was buried in the hill, and still remains entombed there. Even ...
— Account of a Tour in Normandy, Vol. II. (of 2) • Dawson Turner

... feelingly. "But they did—no use squawking. We can rivet and weld those seams and pump out the shell, and we'd have to fill our air-tanks to capacity for the trip, anyway. And things could be a lot worse—we are ...
— Triplanetary • Edward Elmer Smith

... the Civil Code was low, his opinion of Military Law was at zero. In his previous existence in his native Clydebank, when weary of rivet-heating and desirous of change and rest, he had been accustomed to take a day off and become pleasantly intoxicated, being comfortably able to afford the loss of pay involved by his absence. On these occasions he was accustomed to sleep off ...
— The First Hundred Thousand • Ian Hay

... have waited to rivet his chains before manifesting them, but he knew Essie too well to expect her to keep the interview a secret; and he had no time to lose if, as he intended, though he had not told her so, he was to take ...
— Magnum Bonum • Charlotte M. Yonge

... chained down and brought to destruction by powers of nature that dwell there unknown to them: all questions about existence and non-existence; about heaven, hell, and earth; about freedom and necessity, are raised in these struggles for the crown. Even the tenderest feelings that rivet human souls to one another he loves to display upon a background of political life. Then we follow him from the cloudy North into sunny Italy. Shakspeare is one of the intellectual powers of nature; he takes away the veil by which the inward springs of ...
— A History of England Principally in the Seventeenth Century, Volume I (of 6) • Leopold von Ranke

... a little more to say. Jack Mackenzie say we got to break our chains. Those are true words! But how? If we burn the store we only rivet them tighter. ...
— The Fur Bringers - A Story of the Canadian Northwest • Hulbert Footner

... laughed; while others gave the jolly fellow a look that betokened contempt and dismay. "Wait till the second half," said a quiet supporter of the senior club, "and ye'll see what they can dae; they're only making some fun." In pressing forward, leaning against the pailings, were not a few critical rivet boys and iron-workers, whose running comments were amusing in the extreme. Of some young fellows who came down from the city dressed up in style, one of the "black squad" was heard to say, "Don't they look blooming 'swells,' ...
— Scottish Football Reminiscences and Sketches • David Drummond Bone

... and retire to rest; and night after night I waited to see the candles lit, and the salad made, and the last salutations dutifully exchanged, without any abatement of interest. Night after night I found the scene rivet my attention and keep me awake in bed with all manner of quaint imaginations. Much of the pleasure of the "Arabian Nights" hinges upon this Asmodean interest; and we are not weary of lifting other people's roofs ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. XXII (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... at the problem he was. She put away the task of reading it. He departed to see Lady Arpington, and thereby rivet ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... skillet of water doth boil, put them into it; let them but stay in it a very little while, and so let the other skillet of water, wherein they were first boiled, be set to the fire again, and make it to boil, and put in your Plums as before, and then you shall see them rivet over, and yet your Plums very whole; then while they be hot, you must with your knife scrape away the riveting; then take to every pound of Plums a pound and two ounces of Sugar finely beaten, then set a pan with a little fair water on the fire, and when it boils, put in your ...
— A Queens Delight • Anonymous

... the struggle for quality, powers, air, he spends his strength, and yet hardly escapes asphyxiation. He can no more wriggle himself free of the psychic gravitations that invest him than the earth can shake herself loose of the sun, or he of the omnipotences that rivet him to the universe. If by chance one shoots a downy hint of wings, an instant feeling of contrast puffs him with self-consciousness: a tragedy at once: the unconscious being "the alone complete." To attain to anything, ...
— Prince Zaleski • M.P. Shiel

... that followed her answer, she saw that she had somehow dealt her mistress a heavy blow, and the sobs burst out beyond control, choking her. I could see how my chief's face turned livid. He had driven another rivet in the chain—just the one it needed to hold it firmly together. My head was whirling. Could it be possible, after all, that this gentle, cultured girl was really such a fiend at heart that she could strike down.... I put the thought from me. It was ...
— The Holladay Case - A Tale • Burton E. Stevenson

... better story-tellers than Mr. Joseph Hocking, especially when he is dealing with his beloved Cornwall. His stories are thrillingly interesting, and rivet the attention of the reader from beginning ...
— Jack O' Judgment • Edgar Wallace

... that the Magdeburg Centuriators attacked them, and Calvin declared them to be spurious, [64:1] but Dr. Lightfoot says: "The criticisms of Calvin more especially refer to those passages which were found in the Long Recension alone." [64:2] Of course only the Long Recension was at that time known. Rivet replies to Campianus that Calvin's objections were not against Ignatius but the Jesuits who had corrupted him. [64:3] This is the usual retort theological, but as I have quoted the words of Calvin the reader may judge for himself. Dr. ...
— A Reply to Dr. Lightfoot's Essays • Walter R. Cassels

... were watching at the bedside. One of them standing up was the doctor. The other, kneeling beside the bed, was pressing his lips to the dead girl's hands, and seemed to rivet them there in a despairing kiss. It was Jacques, her lover. For more than six hours he had been plunged in a state of heart broken insensibility. An organ playing under the windows had just ...
— Bohemians of the Latin Quarter • Henry Murger

... thus, , mean the direction and the points at which a dimension is taken or marked. Dotted lines, thus,——-, simply connect the same parts or lines in different views of the object. Thus in Figure 38 are a side and an end view of a rivet, and the dotted lines show that the circles on the end view correspond to the circle of the diameters of the head and of the stem, and therefore represent their diameters while showing that both are round. A straight line is in ...
— Mechanical Drawing Self-Taught • Joshua Rose

... fulfil my engagement—no, dearest dearest, it is not right of you. And therefore, as you have these thoughts reasonably or unreasonably, I shall punish you for them at once, and 'chain' you ... (as you wish to be chained), chain you, rivet you—do you feel how the little fine chain twists round and round you? do you hear the stroke of the riveting? and you may feel that too. Now, it is done—now, you are chained—Bia has finished the work—I, Ba! (observe ...
— The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Vol. 1 (of 2) 1845-1846 • Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett

... The evils which grow up in savage tribes are bad enough, the tyranny of mere brute force is to be deplored, but worst of all is that which is sanctioned by statute, and made the very corner-stone of a great civilization. Probably no other system of laws ever did so much to rivet the chains of ...
— Oriental Religions and Christianity • Frank F. Ellinwood

... by peculiar fears, since our last talk, that something might happen before that time. I've actually lain awake at night and thought about it! And I want to forestall all chances. I want to rivet him ...
— Black Jack • Max Brand

... him while he let His armourer just brace his greaves, Rivet his hauberk, on the fret The while! His foot... my memory leaves No least stamp out, nor how anon He pulled his ringing gauntlets ...
— Dramatic Romances • Robert Browning

... The people cannot afford to let these railroads alone. This hall, crowded with railroad lobbyists, as the frogs thronged Egypt, is an admonition to all honest legislators that it is unsafe to allow the monopolies the chance to rivet the chains which already fetter the limbs of those whom circumstances place in ...
— A Unique Story of a Marvellous Career. Life of Hon. Phineas T. • Joel Benton

... fronts are slightly convex, with a depression like a cup in the centre, and they measure two inches and a quarter across the face of each. On the back side, opposite the depressed portion, is a copper rivet or nail, around which are two separate plates by which they were fastened to the leather. Two small pieces of leather were found lying between the plates of one of the bosses; they resemble the skin of a mummy, and ...
— The Antediluvian World • Ignatius Donnelly

... a low tone, 'that when the big ship was buildin', one o' the plate-riveters disappeared in some hole between the two skins o' the ship hereabouts, and his comrades, not bein' able to find him, were obliged at last to rivet him in, which they did so tight that even his ghost could not get out, so it goes on tappin', as you hear, an' is likely to go on ...
— The Battery and the Boiler - Adventures in Laying of Submarine Electric Cables • R.M. Ballantyne

... them vulgar at first, and savoring of the shop; but they are useful and handy, and we cannot do without them. They rivet, they forge, they coin, they "fire up," "brake up," "switch off," "prospect," "shin" for us when we are "short," "post up" our books, and finally ourselves, "strike a lead," "follow a trail," "stand up to the rack," "dicker," "swap," and "peddle." They are "whole teams" beside the ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 6, No. 38, December, 1860 • Various

... noncoms of the enlisted Solar Guard, their scarlet uniforms spotted with grime, were all reflected back to the Polaris unit as they eyed the sleek ship from the needlelike nose of her bow to the stubby opening of her rocket exhausts. Not a seam or rivet could be seen in her hull. At the top of the ship, near her nose, a large blister made of six-inch clear crystal indicated the radar bridge. Twelve feet below it, six round window ports showed the position ...
— Stand by for Mars! • Carey Rockwell

... direction of the water spaces in the boiler itself, so as to induce circulation of water; the introduction of the feed-water at the top instead of near the bottom; the more careful management now usual on the part of engineers; and lastly, the use of larger plates, welded horizontal seams, drilled rivet holes, and more perfect workmanship throughout. A modification of double-ended boiler is that introduced by Mr. Alfred Holt. It has many decided advantages, but is costly to make. The formation of the two ends into separate fire-boxes ...
— Scientific American Suppl. No. 299 • Various

... that his words were completely drowned, and he received a sudden shock when the brilliant beam of a searchlight flashed up from the ground, and, after a circling swoop, found them and held them in its fierce eye. Every stay and rivet was as clearly visible to him as though it had been noonday, and ...
— With Haig on the Somme • D. H. Parry

... each bar was a hole capable of taking a good stout rope swifter, which was set up taut when the bars were opened, so as to keep them spread at right angles. Four other holes were punched, two in each bar, about midway between each end and the centre rivet; these were for the ...
— For Treasure Bound • Harry Collingwood

... the remaining tubes need not be described in detail. The second was floated on the 3rd December, and set in its permanent place on the 7th January, 1850. The others were floated and raised in due course. On the 5th March, Mr. Stephenson put the last rivet in the last tube, and passed through the completed bridge, accompanied by about a thousand persons, drawn by three locomotives. The bridge was opened for public traffic on the 18th March. The cost of the whole work ...
— Lives of the Engineers - The Locomotive. George and Robert Stephenson • Samuel Smiles

... Corals, pink and delicate, rivet continents together; ivy tendrils, that a child may break, bold Norman walls with bonds of iron; a little ring, a toy of gold, a jeweller's bagatelle, forges chains heavier than the galley-slave's: so a woman's look may fetter ...
— Wisdom, Wit, and Pathos of Ouida - Selected from the Works of Ouida • Ouida

... peevishly, and was about to crumple it, apparently to throw it in the fire, when a casual glance at the design seemed suddenly to rivet his attention. In an instant his face grew violently red—in another as excessively pale. For some minutes he continued to scrutinize the drawing minutely where he sat. At length he arose, took a candle ...
— Selections From Poe • J. Montgomery Gambrill

... movement was a failure in Germany itself. Their campaign of reason could make no headway against the "League of Six"—the six great iron and steel companies of the West, who, with their paid lansquenets of the press and hired accelerators of public opinion, clamour for annexation so that they may rivet the chains of their industrial monopoly on the whole ...
— Face to Face with Kaiserism • James W. Gerard

... for social intercourse, to spend, their time in light and trifling conversation. The consequence is, they bring leanness upon their own souls; and if any impenitent sinners witness their conduct, it helps to rivet upon them their carnal security. "Let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel." And remember, Christ has declared that every idle word shall be brought into judgment. "Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner ...
— A Practical Directory for Young Christian Females - Being a Series of Letters from a Brother to a Younger Sister • Harvey Newcomb

... extremities of the sheep-fold at the same time, I must leave you and one of the dogs to guard this one while I go the other. He steals with all the caution of a cat, nor will you hear him, but the dog will, and will give him the first fall. If, therefore, you are not active when he is down to rivet his neck to the ground with this spear, he will rise up and kill both you and the dog. ...
— Anecdotes of Dogs • Edward Jesse

... with my youthful legs tucked under me, and the bridle rein of El Mahdi over my arm, while I hammered a copper rivet into my broken stirrup strap. A little farther down the ridge Jud was idly swinging his great driving whip in long, snaky coils, flicking now a dry branch, and now a red autumn leaf from the clay road. The slim buckskin ...
— Dwellers in the Hills • Melville Davisson Post

... be seen!" said I; and having measured my plank and sawed it to proper length I began to rivet it to the frame, making such din with my hammer that she, unable to make herself heard, presently strode away in a ...
— Martin Conisby's Vengeance • Jeffery Farnol

... negro themselves, as judges, to pronounce in favor of the constitutionality of this ordinance. It is an admirable illustration of the progress of the age, that the very instruments which were used a few years before to rivet tighter the chains of the slave, should be employed to break those very chains to fragments. It shall forever stand forth to the honor of American legislation that it attained to more than poetic justice in using the very means once employed to repress and crush ...
— History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States • Wiliam H. Barnes

... not in the least calculated to control the impetuosity, or guide the enthusiasm of her ardent and reckless child. This Mr. Germaine seemed acutely to feel; and I could read his fears in the fixed gaze of prophetic anxiety which he would often rivet on the varying countenance of his happy and unconscious daughter. His health was already gradually declining, and he evidently dreaded the future, when his favorite should be left in many respects guardianless amid the world's temptations. In my capacity as pastor, I was a frequent ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII. No. 5. May 1848 • Various

... ecclesiastical power, (it being by statute law annexed to the crown,) and assuming to himself that papal title of supreme head of the Church, &c., which is sharply taxed by orthodox divines of foreign churches. Thus, that most learned Rivet, taxing Bishop Gardiner for extolling the king's primacy, saith, "For, he that did as yet nourish the doctrine of the papacy, as after it appeared, did erect a new papacy in the person of the king."—Andrew Rivet, Expli. Decalog. Edit. ii. page 203. Judicious ...
— The Divine Right of Church Government • Sundry Ministers Of Christ Within The City Of London

... is it that Plutarch has succeeded in exciting an interest which continues to attract and rivet the attention of readers of all ages and classes to this day? In the first place, because the subject of his work is great men, who occupied a prominent place in the world's history, and because he had an ...
— Character • Samuel Smiles

... after all, enigmas," he said "even to the man who has faith. There are doubts that remain even after the true philosophy is completed in every rung and rivet. And here is one of them. Is the normal human need, the normal human condition, higher or lower than those special states of the soul which call out a doubtful and dangerous glory? those special powers of knowledge or sacrifice which are ...
— The Napoleon of Notting Hill • Gilbert K. Chesterton

... the Quai de la Gare station are 19.69 in. in diameter; they are built up of steel plates riveted, and this Professor Riedler considers to have been a serious error on account of the extra resistance offered by the large number of rivet heads. ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 803, May 23, 1891 • Various

... the common people—was quite remarkable. He professed liberal sentiments, sympathy with the people in their privations and labors, and affected beyond everything a love of peace. In his manifestoes of a policy of universal peace, few saw that love of war by which he intended to rivet the chains of despotism. He was courteous and urbane in his manners, probably kind in disposition, not bloodthirsty nor cruel, supremely politic and conciliating in his intercourse with statesmen and diplomatists, and generally simple and unstilted in his manners. He was also capable ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume X • John Lord

... charge against the influence of the spell under which he believed him to have fallen. Then the young man was again the pupil; he listened humbly and reverently to the repetition of the great truths which the father strove to rivet on his mind, and joined earnestly in the prayers for truth and constancy. As daylight broke, and he at length laid himself down to rest, his latest vision was that of the good man kneeling by him with that rapt look of contemplation which seemed to foreshadow ...
— The Forest of Vazon - A Guernsey Legend Of The Eighth Century • Anonymous

... been torn to tatters like the rest. But, as it was, his absence saved him; her imagination clothed him with an almost mythic excellence; his brilliant letters added to the impression; and then, at intervals of about two years, he appeared in Paris for six weeks—just long enough to rivet her chains, and not long enough to loosen them. And so it was that she fell before him with that absolute and unquestioning devotion of which only the most dominating and fastidious natures are capable. ...
— Books and Characters - French and English • Lytton Strachey

... situations induced them to abstain from taking up new residences, and from mixing indiscriminately with the Europeans, they had become comparatively social, and commenced an intercourse which was calculated to rivet the prosperity of the colony. Those insulting attacks and sanguinary recriminations which had disgraced the earlier years of the establishment, no longer existed, to disturb the tranquillity and excite the alarms of the settlers; many of the convicts had reformed their lives, and, instead ...
— The Present Picture of New South Wales (1811) • David Dickinson Mann

... repine if I take cold or fever. Let John Grueby pass the night beneath the open sky—no one will repine for HIM. But forty thousand men of this our island in the wave (exclusive of women and children) rivet their eyes and thoughts on Lord George Gordon; and every day, from the rising up of the sun to the going down of the same, pray for his health and vigour. My lord,' said the speaker, rising in his stirrups, 'it is a glorious cause, and must not be forgotten. My lord, it ...
— Barnaby Rudge • Charles Dickens

... novels, but I fear that the results don't bear out his theory that a man may do anything which he sets his will to. I thought mine was not so bad (I have done nine chapters), but Cullingworth says he has read it all before, and that it is much too conventional. We must rivet the attention of the public from the start, he says. Certainly, his own is calculated to do so, for it seems to me to be wild rubbish. The end of his first chapter is the only tolerable point that he has made. ...
— The Stark Munro Letters • J. Stark Munro

... sylph to-night, Anne," said he, as she danced about him. "Ah," he continued, after regarding her for a few seconds with a look of intense admiration, "you want to rivet my chains the tighter,—you look most bewitching. Why are you so much dressed to-night?—jewels, sash, and satin slippers," he ...
— The Garies and Their Friends • Frank J. Webb

... details as these were being attended to, lines were being strung here and there to bring about the passage by the city of Brooklyn and the Legislature of New York State of ordinances and laws which should allow this and compel that to be done, and so rivet the various links ...
— Frenzied Finance - Vol. 1: The Crime of Amalgamated • Thomas W. Lawson

... then resolved. Jane's decision shall be deliberate. I will not bias her by prayers or blandishments. Her resolution shall spring from her own judgment, and shall absolutely govern me. I will rivet myself to her side, or vanish forever, according ...
— Jane Talbot • Charles Brockden Brown

... the general conversation with an appropriate pepper of heartlessness, had really put it very well. She had said that while she didn't suppose one house party over Labor Day would more than partially rivet a broken heart, it honestly was a relief for everybody else to get Oliver out of the house for a while, and mother needn't look at her that way because she was as sorry as any of the rest of them for poor old Oliver but when people went about like walking cadavers ...
— Young People's Pride • Stephen Vincent Benet

... has contributed so much as this to excite a fondness for the study of Natural Philosophy in youthful minds. The familiar comparisons with which it abounds, awaken interest, and rivet the attention of the pupil. It is introduced, with great success into the ...
— A New Guide for Emigrants to the West • J. M. Peck

... domination. The legislative, executive, and judicial authorities are all in their hands—the preservation, propagation, and perpetuation of the black code of slavery—every law of the legislature becomes a link in the chain of the slave; every executive act a rivet to his hapless fate; every judicial decision a perversion of the human intellect to the justification of wrong.'—'Its reciprocal operation upon the government of the nation is, to establish an artificial majority in the slave representation over that of the free people, in the ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society

... good accountant. Every now and then he is required to sign some fresh document, of the contents of which he knows nothing, but the effect of which is always the same—viz., to heap up his liabilities and rivet his fetters more firmly, and punctually on pay day every month, the grim old man waylays him and compels him to disgorge his wages, allowing him so much grain and spices as will keep him in condition till next pay day. In a word, Mukkun is a slave. Yet he does not jump into the ...
— Behind the Bungalow • EHA

... vague, unconfessed resentment at the tie that seemed to hold me in servitude to her standards of private living and public act. I felt I was caught, and none the less so because it had been my own act to rivet on my shackles. So long as I still held myself bound to her that resentment grew. Now, since I had broken my bonds and taken my line it withered again, and I could think of ...
— The New Machiavelli • Herbert George Wells

... buy it this day week." Instead of the prime vegetables more fittingly described by the word primeval, artfully displayed in the window for the delectation of the military man and his fellow country-woman the nursemaid, honest Flicoteaux exhibited full salad-bowls adorned with many a rivet, or pyramids of stewed prunes to rejoice the sight of the customer, and assure him that the word "dessert," with which other handbills made too free, was in this case no charter to hoodwink the public. Loaves of six pounds' ...
— A Distinguished Provincial at Paris • Honore de Balzac

... it? Has Great Britain any enemy in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British Ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject ...
— Types of Children's Literature • Edited by Walter Barnes

... thereunto. I would suffer no man to read but the priest, and confine his reading to his breviary. I would burn your books together with your bones on the first convenient opportunity. I would observe an austere propriety of conduct, and be especially careful not to loosen one rivet in the tremendous yoke I was forging for the minds ...
— The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales • Richard Garnett

... of a remarkable volume. Already over 20,000 copies have been sold—and little wonder, for it is a book to read and re-read. It will rivet the attention of the reader, and hold it right through. It pulsates with human interest, with human feeling, love and joy ...
— Platform Monologues • T. G. Tucker

... the question which had lighted up the flames of civil war in Kansas and had produced dangerous sectional parties throughout the Confederacy. It was of a character so paramount in respect to the condition of Kansas as to rivet the anxious attention of the people of the whole country upon it, and it alone. No person thought of any other question. For my own part, when I instructed Governor Walker in general terms in favor of submitting the constitution to the people, I had no object in view except the all-absorbing ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Section 4 (of 4) of Volume 5: James Buchanan • James D. Richardson

... driftless are my words! And my thoughts themselves how driftless! Since I cannot comprehend, Cannot pierce the secrets hidden In this little book that I Found by chance with others mingled. I its meaning cannot reach, Howsoe'er my mind I rivet, Though to this, and this alone, Many a day has now been given. But I cannot therefore yield, Must not own myself outwitted:— No; a studious toil so great Should not end in aught so little. O'er this ...
— The Two Lovers of Heaven: Chrysanthus and Daria - A Drama of Early Christian Rome • Pedro Calderon de la Barca

... Rivet Law, 1871.*—As, from the drift of its proceedings, the royalist character of the Assembly began to stand out in unmistakable relief, there arose from republican quarters vigorous opposition to the ...
— The Governments of Europe • Frederic Austin Ogg

... splendid Pieta of Scalza—a work in which the marble seems to live a cold, dead, shivering life. They do not heed Angelico's and Signorelli's frescoes on the roof and walls. The interchange of light and gloom upon the stalls and carved work of the canopies can scarcely rivet so intense a gaze. All eyes seem fixed upon a curtain of red silk above the altar. Votive pictures, and glass cases full of silver hearts, wax babies, hands and limbs of every kind, are hung round it. ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete - Series I, II, and III • John Symonds

... do without him. It is very galling to the master to feel that his power is slipping from him into the hands of a subordinate, and he is apt to assert himself by spasmodic attempts at interference which generally make matters worse and rivet his chains more tightly. There was a small factory in Eastthorpe in which a couple of grindstones were used which were turned by water-power at considerable speed. One of them had broken at a flaw. It had flown to pieces while revolving, and had nearly caused a serious ...
— Catharine Furze • Mark Rutherford

... colored population disturbs the security of the planters, and forces many to manumit their slaves through sheer terror. The expatriation of this class, therefore, manifestly tends to quiet the apprehensions of the oppressors, to rivet more firmly the chains of the slaves, to make their services in higher demand, and to render ...
— Thoughts on African Colonization • William Lloyd Garrison

... now with his eyes half closed, "you are going to tell me that, although the man may have been battered and bruised, he really feels no pain, because of the unnatural excitement of the moment; but there you only rivet the argument against yourself; for I maintain—and not from theory, but from knowledge—that that very excitement is an exaltation of the spirit, which may be cultivated and relied upon to conquer pain and the ...
— The Ghost of Guir House • Charles Willing Beale

... table sat the Chief. His features were swarthy but elegant. He was splendidly dressed in new clothes, and had that voluptuous, dreamy air of grandeur about him which would at once rivet the gaze of folks generally. In answer to a highly enthusiastic call he arose and delivered an able and eloquent speech. We regret that our space does not permit us to give this truly great speech in full—we can merely give a synopsis ...
— The Complete Works of Artemus Ward, Part 3 • Charles Farrar Browne

... "and my resolution is already formed. I have not yet forgotten that my late lord your sovereign more than once assured me that had he, while at war with Henri III, gained possession of the Chateau Trompette, he could have made himself Duc de Guienne. A fact like this is well calculated to rivet ...
— The Life of Marie de Medicis, Vol. 2 (of 3) • Julia Pardoe

... by all the trumpets of the sky, Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields, Seems nowhere to alight: the whited air Hides hills and woods, the rivet and the heaven, And veils the farm-house at the garden's end. The sled and traveller stopped, the courier's feet Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed In a tumultuous privacy of storm." Emerson. ...
— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier

... much sweetness utter'd; for in loose And idle play of ostentatious terms He dealt not, though he were the younger man. But when the wise Ulysses from his seat Had once arisen, he would his downcast eyes 260 So rivet on the earth, and with a hand That seem'd untutor'd in its use, so hold His sceptre, swaying it to neither side, That hadst thou seen him, thou hadst thought him, sure, Some chafed and angry idiot, passion-fixt. ...
— The Iliad of Homer - Translated into English Blank Verse • Homer

... reach an eternal stillness in these high altitudes, but with every thousand feet of ascent the gale grew stronger. My machine groaned and trembled in every joint and rivet as she faced it, and swept away like a sheet of paper when I banked her on the turn, skimming down wind at a greater pace, perhaps, than ever mortal man has moved. Yet I had always to turn again and tack up in the wind's eye, for it was not merely a height record that ...
— Danger! and Other Stories • Arthur Conan Doyle

... destruction of a whole people merely because they will be free.... Your treasure is wasting fast: the blood of your brethren is pouring out, and all this to form chains for a free people and eventually to rivet them on yourselves." On 1st August 1793 a Government agent found the MS. from which this placard was printed in the house of a liquor-seller in Edinburgh. It was in the writing of a minister, Palmer: so were two letters referring to ...
— William Pitt and the Great War • John Holland Rose

... shops Joe worked as in a trance. Every iron rivet that he drove into a wooden hoop was duly informed of the romantic occurrence of the morning, and as some four thousand rivets are fastened into four thousand hoops in the course of one day, it will be seen that the matter was duly considered. The stray spark ...
— Miss Mink's Soldier and Other Stories • Alice Hegan Rice

... trade, lady, so we know how to put in a rivet or two, enough to take you safely home, at any rate; but they don't ought to send that harness out again, it's as rotten as can be. Mr. Rivers's, did you say? Why, it's his farm as we're going to, to pick strawberries, as soon as we can get ...
— The Madcap of the School • Angela Brazil

... perfection of the histrionic art, and complain of the insufficiency of the existing means for its realization. But in general the answer to this question is by no means so difficult. The object proposed is to produce an impression on an assembled multitude, to rivet their attention, and to excite their interest and sympathy. In this respect the poet's occupation coincides with that of the orator. How then does the latter attain his end? By perspicuity, rapidity, ...
— Lectures on Dramatic Art - and Literature • August Wilhelm Schlegel trans John Black

... children forgot their fear in their desire to see this funny machine. He handled the bread-knife with many flourishes, whistled over the edge to see how blunt it was, pretended the blade was loose, and put it on the anvil to rivet it. "It must have been used to cut paving-stories with," said he. But this was absurd; the blade was neither loose nor had it been misused. ...
— Ditte: Girl Alive! • Martin Andersen Nexo

... Murray," said he, "with such assistance, I hope to reinstate your brave uncle in Bothwell Castle, and soon to cut a passage to even a mightier rescue! We must carry off Scotland from the tyrant's arms; or," added he, in a graver tone, "we shall only rivet ...
— The Scottish Chiefs • Miss Jane Porter

... substance:—The cross is commonly used in China, and consists of any flat boards of sufficient size, the upright shaft being usually eight to ten feet high. The transverse bar is fixed by a single nail or rivet, and is therefore often loose, and may be made sometimes to traverse a complete circle. It is not so much an instrument of punishment in itself, as it is an operation-board whereon to confine the criminal, not with nails, but ropes, to ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 233, April 15, 1854 • Various

... Davies were the last to finish their work, and as they fastened the last rivet to the last hinge Ben looked up and shook his head. To the giant woman who stood watching him it seemed only that he was tired. She failed to notice that Sally had drifted off to one side and was ...
— Daughters of Doom • Herbert B. Livingston

... stagin' is let down, an with the tread of a conqueror who should come ashore but my brother Jeff! Thar's nothin' in his hands; he ain't got nothin' with him that he ain't wearin'. An' all he has on is a old wool hat, a hick'ry shirt, gray trousers, an' a pair of copper-rivet shoes as red as a bay hoss. As he strikes the bank, Jeff turns an' sweeps the scene with the eye of a eagle. Then takin' a bogus silver watch outen his pocket, he w'irls her over his head by the leather string an' lets her go out ...
— Wolfville Days • Alfred Henry Lewis

... fear threatened to turn him into clay, but he met it with scorn, strove against it, would not and did not yield. Still the figure stared, as if it would fascinate him into limpest submission. Slowly at length it rose, and with a look that seemed meant to rivet the foregone stare—a look of mingled pain and fierceness, turned, and led the way from the room, whereupon the spell was so far broken or changed, that he was able to rise and follow him: even in his dreams he was a boy of courage, and feared nothing so much as yielding to fear. The figure went ...
— Warlock o' Glenwarlock • George MacDonald

... history for that," replied the doctor, "and the only people I can suggest would be the Phoenicians; but I may be quite wrong, for gold has been searched for and used by most ancient people.—Allow me, Sir James;" and he took back the piece of cement and with the point of his knife picked out a little rivet, which he tried with a sharp blade. "Yes," he said; "pure gold. You see it's quite soft. Why, I can cut it almost as easily as a piece of lead. Here's another little rivet. I should say this has been a piece cut off a length ...
— Dead Man's Land - Being the Voyage to Zimbambangwe of certain and uncertain • George Manville Fenn

... places, and the secret of accomplishing the most for Him is to recognize our places from Him and our service in it as pleasing Him. In the great factory and machine there is a place for the smallest screw and rivet as well as the great driving wheel and piston, and so God has His little screws whose business is simply to stay where He puts them and to believe that He wants them there and is making the most of their lives in the little spaces that ...
— Days of Heaven Upon Earth • Rev. A. B. Simpson

... up and down the room feverishly, as a man might pace a prison in the first few moments of captivity. There was no escape! If he disappeared again, it would only rivet suspicion the more closely. There was no place to which he could fly, no shelter save on the other side of the life which he had just begun to love. His physical condition began to alarm him. He felt his forehead by accident and found it damp ...
— The Cinema Murder • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... were alone and had made ourselves comfortable, the old gentleman turned to me, seemed to look me through and through for several seconds, so intently did he rivet his gaze upon me, and ...
— The Log of a Privateersman • Harry Collingwood

... Administration Building. Stern justice was now overtaking these wretches. False to the working-class, and eager to serve the Air Trust—not only eager to serve, but zealous in any attack on the proletariat, and by their very employment serving to rivet the shackles on the world—now they were abandoned ...
— The Air Trust • George Allan England

... gear as well; of course this form of armour allowed of no real ornamentation, for there was no space larger than the links of the chain upon which to bestow decoration. Each link of a coat of mail was brought round into a ring, the ends overlapped, and a little rivet inserted. Warriors trusted to no solder or other mode of fastening. All the magnificence of knightly apparel was concentrated in the surcoat, a splendid embroidered or gem-decked tunic to the knees, which ...
— Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages • Julia De Wolf Addison

... ever hammer fixed rivet," said the smith. "The town hath given the Johnstone a purse of gold, for not ridding them of a troublesome fellow called Oliver Proudfute, when he had him at his mercy; and this purse of gold buys for the provost the Sleepless Isle, which the King grants him, for the King pays all in the ...
— The Fair Maid of Perth • Sir Walter Scott

... have searched for him patiently, but I have searched in vain? Should I be justified in doing this? Should I be justified in letting the chain which I have slowly put together, link by link, drop at this point, or must I go on adding fresh links to that fatal chain until the last rivet drops into its place and the circle is complete? I think, and I believe, that I shall never see my friend's face again; and that no exertion of mine can ever be of any benefit to him. In plainer, crueler words I believe him to be dead. Am ...
— Lady Audley's Secret • Mary Elizabeth Braddon



Words linked to "Rivet" :   occupy, plunge, soak up, recall, cogitate, hear, cerebrate, zoom in, concentrate, center, ornamentation, fix, secure, engulf, decoration, centre, pore, engage, immerse, think, pin, steep, absorb, rivetter



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