"Bite off" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... of a beautiful pink leaf wrapped in a cherry leaf which has been preserved from last year. The leaf gives the cake a delicious flavor and also a cover to protect the fingers from its stickiness. Then three little round brown cakes looking some like chocolate—on a skewer. You bite off the first one whole, then slip the other two as you eat them. Those alone are enough for a meal and very nourishing. All cakes are made from bean paste or like our richest pastries. When that second meal was finished, we said good-bye. The Baroness and her ...
— Letters from China and Japan • John Dewey
... same sound as the tail of a rattle-snake, which seems to indicate the property of the plant; for it is the specific remedy against the bite of that dangerous reptile. The person who has been bit ought immediately to take a root, bite off part of it, chew it for some time, and apply it to the wound. In five or six hours it will extract the whole poison, and no bad consequences need ...
— History of Louisisana • Le Page Du Pratz
... have been fed on the wholesome pasture of the Divine Word in spite of those monstrous, tearing, ravenous wolves, the Pope and his followers. The enemy of God and man, the ancient serpent, may hiss and rage. Yes, the Roman antichrist in his frantic blusterings may bite off his own tongue, may fulminate all kinds of evils, bans, excommunications, wars, desolations, and burnings, as long and as much as he likes. But if we take refuge with the Lord God, what can this inane, worn-out man and water-bubble do to us?" ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... kinds of tricks which poison existence as much as man's jealousy, and are quite as inefficient against infidelity. In the highest degree of passion the jealous man uses violence or resorts to firearms, while the woman scratches, poisons or stabs. Among savages, jealous women bite off their rivals' noses; in civilized countries they throw sulphuric acid in the face. The object is the ...
— The Sexual Question - A Scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study • August Forel
... in public to care to take a back seat when we are all in it, and bite off his nose to spite his face!" said Tom Atkins when he went away from us in his dudgeon, shaking off the dust from his cricketing shoes, so to speak, in testimony against us. "Master Charley will come round and join us when he sees we are in for the ...
— Tom Finch's Monkey - and How he Dined with the Admiral • John C. Hutcheson
... be in the east, where he's been for a month," he mocked. "If he were here, he wouldn't believe you; he'd know you were a liar. He knows I'm engaged to marry——" Bite off the words as he ...
— In the Shadow of the Hills • George C. Shedd
... with ourselves, or what is only conventional, has no real claim upon us." The desire for self-direction has made a thousand philosophies as contradictory as the temperaments of the thinkers. A storehouse of illustration is at hand: Nietzsche advising the creative man to bite off the head of the serpent which is choking him and become "a transfigured being, a light-surrounded being, that laughed!" One might point to Stirner's absolute individualism or turn to Whitman's wholehearted acceptance ...
— A Preface to Politics • Walter Lippmann
... no signals of disquiet. They cropped at the grass without nervousness, perhaps more from habit than hunger. They did not seem to be obtaining much sustenance; clearly they found it hard to bite off mouthfuls of forage. Rather, they chewed sidewise, like a cat, at the ...
— Greener Than You Think • Ward Moore
... and straight up to The Panther, I was sartin it was all over with him, and he was in for his last sickness sure. The Panther had just had things slip up on him in a way that must have made him mad enough to bite off his own head, but the parson fixed it, and The Panther and me are ...
— The Phantom of the River • Edward S. Ellis
... his mother, pausing just as she was about to bite off a thread. "You gave me such a start, Joe! What ...
— Baseball Joe Around the World - Pitching on a Grand Tour • Lester Chadwick
... a country birdkin, twisting his thick bill to talk with a city accent! Ah, you wish to bite off bits of slang? My friend, they are green! Every grape you pick breaks in your jaws, for city grapes are glass bubbles! Having taken from the sparrow only his make-up and grimace, you are just a clumsy understudy, ...
— Chantecler - Play in Four Acts • Edmond Rostand
... stones, fingers twisted, and hoodlums sometimes deliberately try to strangle, gouge out an eye, pull off an ear, pull out the tongue, break teeth, nose, or bones, or dislocate jaws or other joints, wring the neck, bite off a lip, and torture in utterly nameless ways. In unrestrained anger, man becomes a demon in love with the blood of his victim. The face is distorted, and there are yells, oaths, animal snorts and grunts, cries, ...
— Youth: Its Education, Regimen, and Hygiene • G. Stanley Hall
... even the slightest exhilaration of spirit to justify the depressing scene. It was annoying to see frequent notices such as: This Entrance for Brandy-Topers; or Vodka Patients in This Ward; or Inmates Must Not Bite Off the Door-Knobs. It seemed carrying a jest too far when these citizens, most of whom had not even smelt a drink in two years, found themselves billeted into padded cells and confronted by rows of strait-jackets. Moreover, the Home had lain unused for many months: it was dusty, dilapidated, ...
— In the Sweet Dry and Dry • Christopher Morley
... And, by Gor, none on you has de right to dat whale; dat whale belong to some one else. I know some o' you has berry brig mout, brigger dan oders; but den de brig mouts sometimes has de small bellies; so dat de brigness ob de mout is not to swallar wid, but to bite off de blubber for de small fry ob sharks, dat can't get into de scrouge to help demselves. Well done, old Fleece! cried Stubb, that's Christianity; go on. No use goin' on; de dam willains will keep a scrougin' and slappin' each oder, Massa Stubb; dey don't ...
— Moby-Dick • Melville
... pack them up quite differently. They do not hang by one leg, but they sit down quite comfortably on a branch while they bite off the wings ...
— Scenes and Characters • Charlotte M. Yonge
... he raised it to his lips and tried to bite off a piece, but only to break off what felt like wood, which refused to crumble but gradually began ...
— !Tention - A Story of Boy-Life during the Peninsular War • George Manville Fenn
... It made me almost hysterical to be sitting there, waited on by a footman and a sleek butler, and remember that I had been living for three weeks like a brigand, with every man's hand against me. I told Sir Walter about tiger-fish in the Zambesi that bite off your fingers if you give them a chance, and we discussed sport up and down the globe, for he had hunted ...
— The Thirty-nine Steps • John Buchan
... Tyr placed his hand in his mouth as a pledge of good faith. Then they tied him as before, and laughingly bade him break the silken cord. The huge creature stretched himself as before, and tried with all his might to burst away; but Gleipner held him fast, and the worst that he could do was to bite off the hand of unlucky Tyr. And this is why Tyr is called ...
— The Story of Siegfried • James Baldwin
... so they inflicted wanton mutilations on the unfortunate merchants whom they regarded as their natural prey. Even the greatest of them, like Francis von Sickingen, were not ashamed to "let their horses bite off travellers' purses" now and then. But it was not only the nobles who became gentlemen of the road. A well-to-do merchant of Berlin, named John Kohlhase, was robbed of a couple of horses by a Saxon squire, and, failing to get ...
— The Age of the Reformation • Preserved Smith
... ascertained by Mr. Salvin (26. On the tail-feathers of Motmots, 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' 1873, p. 429.) has a more direct bearing on the present question; for he has shewn that the motmots, which are known habitually to bite off the barbs of the two central tail- feathers, have the barbs of these feathers naturally somewhat reduced. (27. Mr. Sproat has suggested ('Scenes and Studies of Savage Life,' 1868, p. 25) this same view. Some distinguished ethnologists, amongst others M. Gosse ...
— The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex • Charles Darwin
... that a little tete-noire dog had received a portion of frozen fish from its master out of all proportion to its inconsiderable size, so, as soon as Rory's back was turned, showed its disapproval of such favouritism by knocking the favoured one down, and trying to bite off the tips of its ears. As the other dogs, with their peculiar new Queensberry instincts, at once piled on to the one that was getting the worst of it, Rory had to put down the chicken leg he was enjoying to arbitrate with his whip in the usual way. He gave the jealous Muskymote an extra smack ...
— The Rising of the Red Man - A Romance of the Louis Riel Rebellion • John Mackie
... here, Bill! to-day Arn't we blest wi' a seet o' gooid luck? Here's a apple! an th' mooast on it's saand: What's rotten aw'll throw into th' street— Worn't it gooid to ligg thear to be faand? Nah booath on us con have a treat." Soa he wiped it, an rubb'd it, an then Sed, "Billy, thee bite off a bit; If tha hasn't been lucky thisen Tha shall share wi me sich as aw get." Soa th' little en bate off a touch, T'other's face beemed wi pleasur all throo, An' he sed, "Nay, tha hasn't taen much, Bite agean, an bite bigger; ...
— Yorkshire Lyrics • John Hartley
... was nobody's fault but his! I shall tell him I'm like the Christian religion, for which people are always making apologies that it doesn't want! Two years! Patience! It will be very good for Robin, and four-and-twenty is quite soon enough to bite off one's wings, and found an ant-hill. As to being bullied into being kissed, pitied, pardoned, and trained by Honor, I'll never sink so low! No, ...
— Hopes and Fears - scenes from the life of a spinster • Charlotte M. Yonge
... In the midst of the dance and revelry a bloody rabbit appeared to accuse Reynard of tearing off one of his ears, while the garrulous crow, Merkinau, related how the same unscrupulous wretch had pretended death merely to befool Sharfenebbe, his wife, and induce her to come near enough for him to bite off her head. Nobel the king, upon hearing these complaints, immediately swore that within six days he would besiege Reynard in his castle, would take him prisoner, and would make him suffer the penalty ...
— Legends of the Middle Ages - Narrated with Special Reference to Literature and Art • H.A. Guerber
... the man, and his face came close to Peter's, his teeth gleaming as if he were going to bite off Peter's nose. "Out with ...
— 100%: The Story of a Patriot • Upton Sinclair
... with me that Blackamoor was at the bottom of all the trouble. I had the boys catch him and make him fast again, this time with a small dog-chain, which he could not bite off. He cawed vigorously, but we kept him at anchor for a week or more. And meanwhile the Italian camp was moved to a point six miles farther along the ...
— The Junior Classics Volume 8 - Animal and Nature Stories • Selected and arranged by William Patten
... obleeged to tell ye it's hard work. Too much hair in the stew! They stick their paws in the pot an' grab out a chunk an' chaw it an' bolt it, like a dog, an' wipe their hands on their long hair. They brag 'bout the power o' their jaws, which I ain't denyin' is consid'able, havin' had an ol' buck bite off the top o' my left ear when I were tied fast to a tree which—you hear to me—is a good time to learn Injun language 'cause ye pay 'tention clost. They ain't got no heart er no mercy. How they kin grind up a captive, like wheat in the millstuns, an' laugh, an' ...
— In the Days of Poor Richard • Irving Bacheller
... big storm the surf dashes up to the top o' the rock. But on this day I'm talkin' of, there was one gee-whopper of a sea. It broke off a chunk of rock weighin' every ounce o' half a ton, the way you'd bite off a piece o' candy, an' just chucked that rock at the lantern, breakin' a pane of glass, clear at ...
— The Boy With the U. S. Life-Savers • Francis Rolt-Wheeler
... induced to bite off his own nose and then to sing a paean of victory. It's nauseating—senseless. There is no earthly use striving for such blockheads; they'd crucify any Saviour." Thus half consciously Senator Smith salved his conscience, ...
— The Quest of the Silver Fleece - A Novel • W. E. B. Du Bois
... let them be killed most mercifully; let any one who likes love the sharks, and pet the sharks, and tie ribbons round their necks and give them sugar and teach them to dance. But if once a man suggests that a shark is to be valued against a sailor, or that the poor shark might be permitted to bite off a nigger's leg occasionally; then I would court-martial the man—he is a ...
— All Things Considered • G. K. Chesterton
... were so bold as to come before our faces and take bites out of the whale's body. Some of these sharks were eight and nine feet long, and when I saw them open their horrid jaws, armed with three rows of glistening white sharp teeth, I could well understand how easily they could bite off the leg of a man, as they often do when they get the chance. Sometimes they would come right up on the whale's body with a wave, bite out great pieces of the flesh, turn over on their bellies, ...
— Fighting the Whales • R. M. Ballantyne
... failed, however, and so the day dragged on interminably, with no help from without for a mind weary of waiting. The customary dinner was passed up. Everybody snatched a bite off the kitchen table without breaking away from the work. Three or four times people arrived with packages from relatives or friends. Each visitor had to be treated, even though he be a stranger of the humblest character. Then dull monotony reigned once more, and Keith resumed ...
— The Soul of a Child • Edwin Bjorkman
... others in their praise advance The monstrous branches sent from France; You ope your mouth as 'twere a door, And bite off half an inch, not more; And then perforce you lay aside A tasteless ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, April 29, 1914 • Various
... anchor when it holds fast in the ground on reaching it. Also, the hold which the short end of a lever has upon the thing to be lifted. Also, to bite off the top ...
— The Sailor's Word-Book • William Henry Smyth
... mice sat down to spin; Pussy passed by, and she peeped in. "What are you at, my little men?" "Making coats for gentlemen." "Shall I come in and bite off your threads?" "No, no, Miss Pussy, ...
— Boys and Girls Bookshelf; a Practical Plan of Character Building, Volume I (of 17) - Fun and Thought for Little Folk • Various
... more effectual means of annoyance than larger bodies. As all the warriors were converts of the Canadian missions, and as prisoners were an article of value, cases of torture were not very common; though now and then, as at Exeter, they would roast some poor wretch alive, or bite off his fingers and sear the ...
— A Half Century of Conflict - Volume I - France and England in North America • Francis Parkman
... brother Greyback— Yowling And howling In nocturnal strife, Spitting and staring Cursing and swearing, Ripping and tearing, Calling thee "Sausagetail," Abbreviate thy suffix? Or did thy jealous wife Detect yer In some sly flirtation, And, after caudal lecture, Bite off thy termination? ...
— The Book of Humorous Verse • Various
... and went out for a run on the village green. They were at once assailed as detestable foreign devils by about two hundred and forty-three gaunt, razorbacked village sows, and were only rescued from a cruel death after every one had lost its tail. Why is it that pigs of different breeds always bite off each other's tails? I claimed fifty cents per tail, and was awarded $3.50 damages, to be paid by the community generally. The community refused to pay. His Honour then notified by the town crier that I was at liberty to shoot any pig ...
— Ridan The Devil And Other Stories - 1899 • Louis Becke
... Heaven send that the day when you are not gossiped about is far distant! Do you want to bite off your nose to spite your pretty face? You are the sort of person who makes myths. You can't turn around without making one. That's your singular good luck. A whole staff of publicity men, working day and night, couldn't do for you what ...
— Youth and the Bright Medusa • Willa Cather |
