Diccionario ingles.comDiccionario ingles.com
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Inch   Listen
verb
Inch  v. t.  (past & past part. inched; pres. part. inching)  
1.
To drive by inches, or small degrees. (R.) "He gets too far into the soldier's grace And inches out my master."
2.
To deal out by inches; to give sparingly. (R.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Inch" Quotes from Famous Books



... sir," replied the young cadet. "Wild Bill sends his greetings and says he'll take a three-inch steak instead of flowers when ...
— Treachery in Outer Space • Carey Rockwell and Louis Glanzman

... And oh, let there be no Noah to that flood! Let none survive to tell another tale; for, only when the chronicler of small-beer is dead shall we be able to know men as men, heroes as heroes, poets as poets—instead of mere centres of gossip, an inch of text to a yard of footnote. Then only may we begin to talk of something worth the talking: not merely of how the great man creased his trousers, and call it 'the study of character,' but of how he was great, and whether it is ...
— Prose Fancies • Richard Le Gallienne

... the States lately in rebellion, seemed as full of peril as war itself. In his address at Seneca Falls his field of view, confined to war-burdens and rights withheld from "subjugated" States, did not include the vision that thrilled others, who saw the flag floating over every inch of American territory, now forever freed from slavery. "When we were free from debt," he said, "a man could support himself with six hours of daily toil. To-day he must work two hours longer to pay his share of the national debt.... This question of debt ...
— A Political History of the State of New York, Volumes 1-3 • DeAlva Stanwood Alexander

... footsteps hurtling upstairs at a double, followed by a prolonged and leisurely whispering of silken skirts. Here, clearly, was a matter into which, for the reputation of Cedar Lodge, it was desirable to look without delay. Eliza, therefore, moved to the near side of the door, and, through the three-inch aperture afforded by the rising hinge, raked the landing with a ...
— The Far Horizon • Lucas Malet

... in a great federation,—such may be the destiny of Great Britain in the distant future. I know not; but sure I am, were I a citizen of Great Britain, the prospect would not allure me now to move an inch in such a direction. Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight ...
— The Interest of America in Sea Power, Present and Future • A. T. Mahan

... could have been effected. Dempster was of Scotch descent, but the hereditary high cheek-bone seemed to have got into his nose, which was too heavy a pendant for the low forehead from which it hung. About an inch from the end it took a swift and unexpected curve downwards, and was a curious and abnormal nose, which could not properly be assorted with any known class of noses. A long upper lip, a large, firm, and not quite ugly mouth, with a chin both long and square, ...
— Stephen Archer and Other Tales • George MacDonald

... no reason to suppose will do more than slight bodily harm, but which [60] does kill the other, he commits manslaughter, not murder. /1/ But if the blow is struck as hard as possible with an iron bar an inch thick, it is murder. /2/ So if, at the time of striking with a switch, the party knows an additional fact, by reason of which he foresees that death will be the consequence of a slight blow, as, for instance, that the other has heart ...
— The Common Law • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

... Glass, or brazen syphon DEF (open at D, E and F, but to be closed with cement at F and E, as occasion serves) whose stem F should be about six or eight inches long, but the bore of it not above half an inch diameter, and very even; these I fix very strongly together by the help of very hard Cement, and then fit the whole Glass ABCDEF into a long Board, or Frame, in such manner, that almost half the head AB may lye buried in a concave Hemisphere cut into the Board RS; then I ...
— Micrographia • Robert Hooke

... hoarse cry as he saw the muzzle of the gun within an inch of his head, ready to blow his brains out. Feeling assured that there was no escape for him, he closed his compass and threw it with an angry ...
— Gerfaut, Complete • Charles de Bernard

... you, is it seemly for a dragon of Cappadocia to run away like a robber with his tail under his arm? Further, incommoded as I was by crests, horns, hooks, claws, and scales, I barely escaped a brute who ran half an inch of his ...
— Penguin Island • Anatole France

... little while I behaved better. Soon, however, the spirit of mischief prompting me, I began my tricks again: to my surprise I found that I had no more command over the boat than over the huge barge, which, with its great red-brown sail, was slowly ascending in front of us; I couldn't turn its head an inch in the ...
— The Vicar's Daughter • George MacDonald

... one tenth of an inch long, which sometimes appear on the stems of trees in vast numbers, may be destroyed by the wash ...
— Soil Culture • J. H. Walden

... we have in view)—if I might apply those words to education as Hamlet applied them to the skull of Yorick, I would say—"Now hie thee to the council-chamber, and tell them, though they lay it on in sounding thoughts and learned words an inch thick, to this complexion they must come ...
— Speeches: Literary and Social • Charles Dickens

... interest or of prejudice, or of undue fear for our own properties and lives, to bias us even to the turning of a straw against the unfortunate prisoner. Gentlemen, if you find me travelling a single inch from my case,—if you find me saying a single word calculated to harm the prisoner in your eyes, and unsupported by the evidence I shall call,—then I implore you not to depend upon the vigilance of my learned friend, but to treasure these my errors in your recollection, and to ...
— Paul Clifford, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... the year out of the past four years in Bruttium," I argued. "I know every inch of the ranches perfectly. My uncle never allowed me to become acquainted with anything up here. I was his representative and factor in Bruttium. When I visited him here I was no more than a guest and I have had to learn all the workings of the ...
— Andivius Hedulio • Edward Lucas White

... when Mr. Phillips had gone, "people can see other folks' blunders, but the man that I thought worst mated on the station was the master himself. You'll have to take high ground with Mrs. Phillips, Miss Melville, for if you give her an inch she will take an ell. As for him, he is everything that is reasonable; and the bairns, you must just make them mind you. But she is the one that will ...
— Mr. Hogarth's Will • Catherine Helen Spence

... the shortest Greek measure, a finger's breadth, about 7/20 of an inch. The modern Greek seamen measure the distance of the sun from the horizon by fingers' breadths. Newton's ...
— Plutarch's Lives Volume III. • Plutarch

... and dry, and during rain and snow, but still with such irregularities that no general rule could be established. At Clermont the difference between the highest and the lowest state of the mercury was 1 inch 3½ lines; at Paris the same; and at Stockholm ...
— Pascal • John Tulloch

... and trod his catlike way to the library. Once there he proceeded to make a minute inspection of the telephone. He turned the handle just the fragment of an inch and a queer smile came over his face. Then he crept as silently upstairs, opened the window of the bathroom quietly, and slipped on to the leads. There were a couple of insulators here, against the wire of one of which Henson tapped his knuckles gently. The wire gave back ...
— The Crimson Blind • Fred M. White

... became unbearably violet, then disappeared; and as it disappeared the shielding wall began to give way. It did not cave in abruptly, but softened locally, sagging into a peculiar grouping of valleys and ridges—contesting stubbornly every inch of position lost. And gray Roger knew that the planetoid was doomed. His supposedly impregnable screen was failing in spite of its utmost measure of energy, and, that defense down, the citadel would not last a minute. Therefore he summoned a chosen few of his ...
— Triplanetary • Edward Elmer Smith

... she took snuff as noisily, and fidgeted and lolled about in her chair as freely as ever. It never seemed to have struck her that she was a princess. Zinaida on the other hand was rigid, almost haughty in her demeanour, every inch a princess. There was a cold immobility and dignity in her face. I should not have recognised it; I should not have known her smiles, her glances, though I thought her exquisite in this new aspect too. She wore a light barege dress with pale ...
— The Torrents of Spring • Ivan Turgenev

... measured nearly 80 feet high, and the trunk was nearly 3 feet in diameter at 3 feet from the ground." A drawing of this tree, made by the count in the autumn of that year, was lent to Loudon by Michaux, and the engraving prepared from that sketch (on a scale of 1 inch to 12 feet) is herewith reproduced. At Kew the largest tree is one near the herbarium (a larger one had to be cut down when the herbarium was enlarged some years ago, and a section of the trunk is exhibited in Museum No. 3). Its present dimensions are: height, 62 feet; ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 417 • Various

... government or of democracy. They have not thought the thing out. They hold no ordered creed of human organization or advancement. They leave all to chance and think, when they think at all, that chance determines it. And yet the Great Hope persists, and I think I have grown an inch by it. ...
— The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Volume I • Burton J. Hendrick

... good while ago, and I still think, that you are making a mountain out of a mole-hill, David. Elinor Brentwood is a true woman in every inch of her. She is as much above caring for false notions of caste as you ...
— The Grafters • Francis Lynde

... crime. Who can, with any face, liken a dear friend to a murderess? Whereas now there are no little symptoms of fascinating ruthlessness, graceful ingratitude, or ladylike selfishness, observable among our charming acquaintance, that we may not immediately detect to an inch, and more effectually intimidate by the simple application of the Becky gauge than by the most vehement use of all ten commandments. Thanks to Mr. Thackeray, the world is now provided with an idea, which, if we mistake not, will be the ...
— Famous Reviews • Editor: R. Brimley Johnson

... their formation in a manner beyond all praise; the cavalry swept the horsemen of the enemy from the field, as the tide rolls the wreck upon the shore; the artillery could not be surpassed by that of any army in Europe: towards the close of the action, the manner in which two 8-inch howitzers, ordered up by Sir Harry Smith himself, were worked, excited the admiration ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... him at their mercy; they could do with him what they wished. One of them was pulling at the folds of cloth; Teeny-bits could feel the man's hands on his bare back. Suddenly the hands paused in their work; then the sweater was pushed an inch or two higher and there came to Teeny-bits' ears one of the strangest sounds that he had ever heard: an exclamation, a startled cry in syllables that, though wild and meaningless in themselves, conveyed an unmistakable effect,—discovery and the highest degree of astonishment. This strange cry ...
— The Mark of the Knife • Clayton H. Ernst

... England, to Savannah, in Georgia." Dr. Franklin was then unanimously chosen Postmaster-General. The ledger in which he kept the accounts of his office is now in the Post-office Department. It is a half-bound book of rather more than foolscap size, and about three-fourths of an inch thick, and many of the entries are in Dr. Franklin's own handwriting. Richard Bache succeeded Dr. Franklin November 7, 1776, and Mr. Bache ...
— The Postal Service of the United States in Connection with the Local History of Buffalo • Nathan Kelsey Hall

... you shall join a division at the front. Your old colonel will have one this very week if it can be managed here, and he will be glad of your services; but I tell you, between ourselves, that I do not believe McClellan can be made to budge an inch from where he stands until positive orders are given from here. You go—not on leave, but on duty—for a week, and then we'll have work for you in the ...
— A War-Time Wooing - A Story • Charles King

... German troops under General von Francois fell upon the Russians and forced them to retire toward the Olpiny-Biecz line. The ground of the Russian positions on Mount Viatrovka and Mount Pustki in front of Biecz had been "prepared" by 21-centimeter (7-inch) Krupp howitzers and the giant Austrian 30.5-centimeter (10-inch) howitzers from the Skoda-Werke at Pilsen. The shells of the latter weigh nearly half a ton, and their impact is so terrific that ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume III (of VIII) - History of the European War from Official Sources • Various

... entrenched on the left side of the Butte, the French on the right. And day and night for four years there has been an incessant battle over its summit of grenades, bombs and shells; a terrible hand-to-hand fight in which neither one of the contestants yields an inch of ground. A brook of blood runs its interrupted course on each slope. On the south slope it is red with German blood; with French blood ...
— Fighting France • Stephane Lauzanne

... new art. The essence of the Gothic style is the dissolution of all that is heavy and material—the victory of spirit over matter. Walls were broken up into pillars and soaring arcades; monotonous facework was tolerated less and less, and every available inch was moulded into a living semblance. The result may be studied in the incomparable facades of many of the cathedrals in the North of France; and in tower-pieces almost vibrating with life and passion such as that of St. Stephen's in Vienna. The conflict between matter and pure ...
— The Evolution of Love • Emil Lucka

... subject for the purpose of improving shorthand; at that time I contrived a wooden mouth with lips of soft leather, and with a valve over the back part of it for nostrils, both which could be quickly opened or closed by the pressure of the fingers, the vocality was given by a silk ribbon about an inch long and a quarter of an inch wide stretched between two bits of smooth wood a little hollowed; so that when a gentle current of air from bellows was blown on the edge of the ribbon, it gave an agreeable tone, as it vibrated ...
— The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society - A Poem, with Philosophical Notes • Erasmus Darwin

... authority. He would stand upon the bridge for hours, with folded arms and impassive face, staring ahead as the oily waters moved slowly under the bow of the stern-wheeler. Now and again he would turn to give a fierce order to the steersman or to the patient Yoka, the squat black Krooman who knew every inch of the river, and who stood all the time, his hand upon the lever of the telegraph ready to "slow" at the first sign of a ...
— Bones - Being Further Adventures in Mr. Commissioner Sanders' Country • Edgar Wallace

... difference between the world's humility and the humility of the Gospel. As the world uses the word, "condescension" is a stooping indeed of the person, but a bending forward, unattended with any the slightest effort to leave by a single inch the seat in which it is so firmly established. It is the act of a superior, who protests to himself, while he commits it, that he is superior still, and that he is doing nothing else but an act of grace towards those ...
— The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated: In Nine - Discourses Delivered to the Catholics of Dublin • John Henry Newman

... journeyman carpenter, who was shingling a shed by the road side, seeing the child, and seeing the danger, though a stranger to the parents, jumped from the top of the shed, ran into the road, and snatched up the child from scarcely an inch before the hoof of the leading horse. The horse's leg knocked him down; but he, catching the child by its clothes, flung it back out of the way of the other horses, and saved himself by rolling back with surprising agility. The mother of the child, who ...
— The Child at Home - The Principles of Filial Duty, Familiarly Illustrated • John S.C. Abbott

... if you and Genslinger and S. Behrman didn't run the whole show down here. Come on, let's have it, Ruggles. What does S. Behrman pay Genslinger for inserting that three-inch ad. of the P. and S. W. in his paper? Ten thousand a ...
— The Octopus • Frank Norris

... cotton and three of woolen goods; Ericsson's caloric-engine; a hydrostatic pump; some nautical instruments; Cornelius's chandeliers for burning lard oil—now the light of other days, thanks to our new riches in kerosene; buggies of a tenuity so marvelous in Old-World eyes that their half-inch tires were likened to the miller of Ferrette's legs, so thin that Talleyrand pronounced his standing an act of the most desperate bravery; soap enough to answer Coleridge's cry for a detergent for the lower Rhine; and one bridge model, forerunner ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. XVII, No. 99, March, 1876 • Various

... for Ten Days, Disputing Every Inch of Ground with the Kaiser's Troops—Germans Push Their Way Through France in Three Main Columns—Official Reports of the Withdrawing ...
— America's War for Humanity • Thomas Herbert Russell

... and devotion. And, look you, what hath she done to the English? It was rumoured through the city that so soon as the relief army approached the English lines, there would be an attack in force, and our comrades would be driven back at the sword's point, and have to fight every inch of the way. Yet what has been the truth? The Maid led us to the spot which commanded the road—well in the heart of the English lines. Their fortresses were humming like hives of bees disturbed. The English knew what was being done, and watched it all; yet not a gun was fired, not an archer ...
— A Heroine of France • Evelyn Everett-Green

... everything. In this small saucepan is a little stock made by stewing two or three bones and scraps (with no fat whatever), a sprig of parsley, a few rings of onion, which have been fried till brown, an inch of celery, and five or six peppercorns in water. I do not know whether you noticed that this stock has been stewing by the side of the fire ever since we came into the kitchen; I have skimmed it every now and then, and covered ...
— Little Folks (July 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various

... all the same, and honestly would have cried, but that, simply, her dress was really too tight. It was a pity she had been so obstinate with the dressmaker about her waist for this particular day; an inch more or less would have made so little difference to her appearance before the world, and such an enormous amount to her own comfort. 'You look lovely, Mamma—as though you couldn't breathe!' Ella had ...
— Love's Shadow • Ada Leverson

... trembling Omega observed that the water of the lake was receding inch by inch. Then by chemical action on the coral beds and on the rocks, he created a dense cloud and caused it to form over the lake, thus in a measure protecting it from the sun's rays. But day by day, despite the sheltering cloud, ...
— Omega, the Man • Lowell Howard Morrow

... ants, they are very fastidious about removing their dead companions. I buried one about half an inch beneath the soil. Very soon several congregated about the spot and commenced digging with their fore feet, after the manner of digger-wasps, throwing the earth backward. They soon unearthed and ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, November, 1878 - of Popular Literature and Science • Various

... arrived at a large area of sand in the bend of the stream, that was evidently overflowed when the river was full. This surface of many acres was backed by a forest of large trees. Upon arrival at this spot the aggageers, who appeared to know every inch of the country, declared that, unless the elephants had gone far away, they must be close at hand, within the forest. We were speculating upon the direction of the wind, when we were surprised by the sudden trumpeting of an elephant, that proceeded from the ...
— In the Heart of Africa • Samuel White Baker

... Merrimac would have been ineffective but for the remarkable guns with which the little craft was armed—two eleven-inch rifled cannon, the invention of John Adolph Dahlgren. Dahlgren had been connected with the ordnance department of the navy at Washington for many years, and his inventions had revolutionized United ...
— American Men of Mind • Burton E. Stevenson

... liege lord protruding from her mouth! A fish's eye will do for bait, though the anal fin is better. One of the natives here told me that when he wished to catch large trout (and I judged he never fished for any other,—I never do), he used for bait the bullhead, or dart, a little fish an inch and a half or two inches long, that rests on the pebbles near shore and darts quickly, when disturbed, from point to point. "Put that on your hook," said he, "and if there is a big fish in the creek, he is bound to have it." But the darts ...
— In the Catskills • John Burroughs

... conspicuous on the outside. I cannot speak with precision as to the length of the tubes, as the clay when examined had been broken up into large rough masses in digging for the foundations of houses. The largest noticed was about three inches long, and the general width one-eighth of an inch. They often run parallel to each other, but at unequal distances. I now have to notice what I consider a remarkable circumstance, namely, that all the tubes contained a solid cylinder of clay, and in every instance where the worms occurred under the circumstances ...
— Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society - Vol. 3 - Zoology • Various

... air, Surely you were strongly liquored when you saw your Chuckster there. One familiar face, however, you will very likely see, If you'll only treat the natives to a call in Tennessee, Of a certain individual, true Columbian every inch, In a high judicial station, called by 'mancipators Lynch. Half an hour of conversation with his worship in a wood, Would, I strongly notion, do you an infernal deal of good. Then you'd understand more clearly than you ever did before, Why an independent patriot freely spits upon the floor, Why ...
— The Bon Gaultier Ballads • William Edmonstoune Aytoun

... head. Her eyes flashed up at him in one quick look of terror, but never by an inch did she raise toward her father's, now, her pale, affrighted face. "It was a great temptation, father," she said slowly. "A ...
— The Old Flute-Player - A Romance of To-day • Edward Marshall and Charles T. Dazey

... dastardly way by the mouth of a Minister. England, the great mother, was not answerable for that most unholy of crimes; it was the talking men, the glib Parliament cowards. Burnes was cut to pieces and an army lost. Crime brings forth crime, and thus we had to butcher more Afghans. Every inch of India has been bought in the same way; one war wins territory which must be secured by another war, and thus the inexorable game is played on. In Africa we have fared in the same way, and thus from many veins the red stream is drained, ...
— The Ethics of Drink and Other Social Questions - Joints In Our Social Armour • James Runciman

... shrub of trailing habit, and with flowers resembling those of the Arbutus, but much smaller. The leaves are entire, dark green in colour, and about an inch long, and obovate or oblong in shape. Fruit globular, of a bright red, smooth and shining. This is a native shrub, being found in Scotland, northern ...
— Hardy Ornamental Flowering Trees and Shrubs • A. D. Webster

... I found from ample inspection afterwards, was lipped like her sister's, the hair, about half an inch long, scarcely covered the mons, and only slightly came down the outer lips, her thighs were plump and round, her calves big for her age; she was clean in her flesh, but alas! thick blue stockings with holes ...
— My Secret Life, Volumes I. to III. - 1888 Edition • Anonymous

... appears that the Indians divided their beads into two general classes, the wompam, or white beads, and suckauhock, or dark beads. Both white and black consisted of highly polished, testaceous cylinders, about one-eighth of an inch in diameter and a quarter of an inch long, drilled length-wise and strung upon fibres of hemp or the tendons of wild beasts. Suckauhock was made from the stem of the Venus mercenaria, or common round clam, popularly known as the quauhaug; wampum from the column and ...
— Wampum - A Paper Presented to the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society - of Philadelphia • Ashbel Woodward

... and began to struggle with the scuttle-board again, hoping that the Chinaman who was seeking shelter from the pirates' bullets had made it possible for us to escape. The board was looser, and I slipped it to one side nearly an inch, ...
— The Devil's Admiral • Frederick Ferdinand Moore

... flattered by it; and I believe that it was to Prince Borghese that he said one day at his levee, "Pauline is predestined to marry a Roman, for from head to foot she is every inch a Roman." ...
— The Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte • Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton

... be clear. So he began, following his right hand with his left: '"The badness of this writing is because I am blind and cannot see my pen." H'mph!—even a lawyer can't mistake that. It must be signed, I suppose, but it needn't be witnessed. Now an inch lower—why did I never learn to use a type-writer?—"This is the last will and testament of me, Richard Heldar. I am in sound bodily and mental health, and there is no previous will to revoke."—That's all right. Damn the pen! Whereabouts on the paper was I?—"I leave everything that ...
— The Light That Failed • Rudyard Kipling

... was quite a work of superfluity; so, consoling myself with the vast responsibility with which, all at once, I found myself invested, I went and turned in, anathematising every created thing above an inch high and a foot below the same dimensions. However, in a very sound sleep I soon forgot everything—even the horrible scene I had ...
— Rattlin the Reefer • Edward Howard

... Houx, 2008 ft., form together Mont-d'Or, agroup of mountains covered with vineyards and meadows. The wine is thin, but the cheese is one of the best and most celebrated in France. They are soft, round, and flat, about 5 inches in diameter and half an inch thick, like round pancakes. They are made from a mixture of cow and goat's milk, and are said to derive their peculiar flavour from the vine leaves on which the goats feed during a considerable portion of the year. The cheeses of Mont Dore (likewise famous) ...
— The South of France—East Half • Charles Bertram Black

... Sandwich consisted of one eighteen-pounder, two twelve-pounders, and two 51/2-inch howitzers. Back of these artificial breastworks extended both a wilderness and the garden of Canada. Beyond the meadows, aflame with autumn wild-flowers, beyond the cultivated clearings, rose a forest ...
— The Story of Isaac Brock - Hero, Defender and Saviour of Upper Canada, 1812 • Walter R. Nursey

... legally hold; which would be, of course, only the triangle, though our staking necessarily overlapped this area on all sides. If we should be lucky enough to make a strike, ground space for our operations was going to be at a premium, and at the very best there wasn't an inch of room ...
— Branded • Francis Lynde

... his ears a fraction of an inch, but did not move. Even that fraction of an inch caught ...
— The Country Beyond - A Romance of the Wilderness • James Oliver Curwood

... how sometimes deserving courage is rewarded if it just goes on deserving long enough. After about an hour's hand-to-saw bout with the old plank I was just chewing through the last inch of the last of the four sides of nest number two when I suddenly stopped and listened. Far away to the front of the house I heard hot oaths being uttered by the engine in a huge racing-machine with a powerful chug with which I was quite familiar. While I listened, ...
— The Golden Bird • Maria Thompson Daviess

... the concentrates from the washing machines are picked out by hand; the finer are sent to the pulsators. Each shaking-table of the pulsators is made of corrugated iron plates in several sections with a drop of about an inch ...
— Wealth of the World's Waste Places and Oceania • Jewett Castello Gilson

... a four-inch stock you get a cut an inch or one and a half inch wide. You have a large space that is not covered ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association, Report of the Proceedings at the Fourth Annual Meeting - Washington D.C. November 18 and 19, 1913 • Various

... done instanter. Their only failing is that they become tired of a long course. But in any operation, even the women sit unmoved. I have been quite astonished again and again at their calmness. In cutting out a tumor, an inch in diameter, they sit and talk as if they felt nothing. 'A man like me never cries,' they say, 'they are children that cry.' And it is a fact that the men never cry. But when the Spirit of God works on their minds they cry most piteously. Sometimes ...
— The Personal Life Of David Livingstone • William Garden Blaikie

... appreciable quantity. "The arc of a circle," says Sir J. Herschell, "subtended by one second, is less than the 200,000th part of the radius, so that on a circle of six feet in diameter, it would occupy no greater linear extent than 1-5700 part of an inch, a quantity requiring a powerful microscope to be discerned at all."[A] The largest body in our system, the sun, whose real diameter is 882,000 miles, subtends, at a distance of 95,000,000 miles, but an angle of little more than 32; while so admirably are the best instruments constructed, that both ...
— The Uses of Astronomy - An Oration Delivered at Albany on the 28th of July, 1856 • Edward Everett

... drawer on the right inside of the upper part of the desk, as he had seen Lord Ostermore do that day, a little over a week ago. He thrust his hand into the opening, and felt along the sides for some moments in vain. He went over the ground again slowly, inch by inch, exerting constant pressure, until he was suddenly rewarded by a click. The small trap disclosed itself. He pulled it up, and took some papers from the recess. He spread them before him. They were the documents he sought—the king's letter ...
— The Lion's Skin • Rafael Sabatini

... farther from it every day. From daybreak to sunset I found it hard to realize that it was the capital of an invaded country fighting for its very existence, and the invader no farther from the Boulevards than Noyon, Soissons, and Rheims—on a battle-front that has not changed more than an inch or two—and often an inch or two in the ...
— On the Edge of the War Zone - From the Battle of the Marne to the Entrance of the Stars and Stripes • Mildred Aldrich

... But remember that one inch outside the door of pardon, and you are in as much peril as though you were a thousand miles away. Many a shipwrecked sailor has got almost to the beach, but did not get on it. There are thousands in the world of the lost who came very ...
— New Tabernacle Sermons • Thomas De Witt Talmage

... chapel and shrine of our Black Lady from the other portion of the building; and so numerous, so constant, and apparently so close, had been the pressure and friction of each succeeding congregation, for probably more than two centuries, that some of these rails, or bars, originally at least one inch square, had been worn to half the size of their pristine dimensions. It was with difficulty, on passing them, that I could obtain a peep at the altar; which, however, I saw sufficiently distinctly to perceive ...
— A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume Three • Thomas Frognall Dibdin

... a house. In about ten days, with the help of one man, I had the timber cut and on the spot for a log-cottage twenty-two by twenty-four. Some part of this I not only cut, but assisted in carrying on my own back. But for every inch of over-exertion I got my pay at night, when I was sure to be 'double and twisted' with the rheumatism. I have located about two miles east of the old fort, where you counseled with the Indians at this place. ...
— Personal Memoirs Of A Residence Of Thirty Years With The Indian Tribes On The American Frontiers • Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

... gratify, but not to inflame or to mislead." He then recounts without exaggeration the pains and caution with which he sought reform, while steering clear of innovation. He heaved the lead every inch of way he made. It is grievous to think that a man who could assume such an attitude at such a time, who could give this kind of proof of his skill in the great, the difficult art of governing, only held a fifth-rate office for some ...
— Burke • John Morley

... wolf freedom in the flock?—that you've only to say, 'This is a brother—a man of God'—and no proof is asked! nobody questions! The blind, beastly, bigoted, blathering blockheads! I feel very much like setting off straight, and licking John Hinkley, though he's my own uncle, within an inch of his life! He and John Cross—the old fools who are so eager to impose their notions of religion upon everybody, that anybody may impose upon them—they two have destroyed this poor young creature. It's at their door, in part, this crime, and this ...
— Charlemont • W. Gilmore Simms

... seen. Finding a firm strip of land between the forest and an arm of the sea, they gently grounded the Callisto, and not being altogether sure how the atmosphere of their new abode would suit terrestrial lungs, or what its pressure to the square inch might be, they cautiously opened a port-hole a crack, retaining their hold upon it with its screw. Instantly there was a rush and a whistling sound as of escaping steam, while in a few moments their barometer ...
— A Journey in Other Worlds - A Romance of the Future • John Jacob Astor

... Chandler, her Mother Testified, That being at the search of Rose Cullender, they found on her Belly a thing like a Teat, of an Inch long; which the said Rose ascribed to a strain. But near her Privy-parts, they found Three more, that were smaller than the former. At the end of the long Teat, there was a little Hole, which appeared, as if newly Sucked; and upon straining it, a white Milky matter issued ...
— The Wonders of the Invisible World • Cotton Mather

... sixteen or eighteen inches; and never exceeds five feet. The length is ordinarily several hundred and sometimes several thousand feet. It is made in sections or "boxes" twelve or fourteen feet long. The boards are an inch and a half thick, and are sawn for that special purpose, the bottom boards being four inches wider at one end than the other. The narrow end of one box therefore fits in the wide end of another, and in that way the ...
— Hittel on Gold Mines and Mining • John S. Hittell

... unenlightened, return to your ship, you, my best friend, with all who might be with you, stolen upon, that night, in your hammocks, would never in this world have wakened again. Do but think how you walked this deck, how you sat in this cabin, every inch of ground mined into honey-combs under you. Had I dropped the least hint, made the least advance towards an understanding between us, death, explosive death—yours as mine—would ...
— The Piazza Tales • Herman Melville

... furniture in this way, then we examined the house itself. We divided its entire surface into compartments, which we numbered, so that none might be missed; then we scrutinized each individual square inch throughout the premises, including the two houses immediately adjoining, with ...
— The Great English Short-Story Writers, Vol. 1 • Various

... with him, he closed the door of his cell, and neither went out nor would allow any one but the priest to enter for more than three years; and for eleven years and seven months he paced the room upon a diagonal line from corner to corner, until he wore the first flooring, of two-and-a-quarter-inch ...
— Manuel Pereira • F. C. Adams

... had been very similar to Garlock's own, except in that her monster was an intense green in color and looked something like a bat about four feet long, with six-inch ...
— The Galaxy Primes • Edward Elmer Smith

... . . . so that, while only paying very little attention to the outward observances of religion, I have remained, as I told you, a bar of iron as regards dogmas. Oh! as to that, I would not give way an inch, a hair-breadth, and Leon is the first to tell me that I am right. After all, dogma is everything; practice, well, what would you? If I could bring Leon round, it would be quite another thing. How glad I am to have spoken ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... lived on for several years, dying inch by inch, secluded in his house, and never conversing with the priest. He attended church, but did not occupy his front seat. He was so strong that his agony lasted eight ...
— Recollections of My Youth • Ernest Renan

... batsman raised his bat, expecting it to fly past the wicket. To his horror it nipped in. Down came the bat in frantic haste. Heaven be praised! Just in time! The bat just snicked the ball off. It missed the wicket by an eighth of an inch and ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, June 24, 1914 • Various

... coming true. Mais, Voyons! c'est plus fort que moi! Do you care so much—would it break your heart—would you let me work—and never, never get in the way? Would you be content that art should come first and you second? I can promise you no more than that—not one little inch! Would you ...
— The History of David Grieve • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... the mucous membrane of the genital organs and urinary tract. They join at each extremity, forming the anterior and posterior commissures (uniting together). Between the posterior commissure (union) and the margin of the bowel is a space of about an inch in extent, the Perineum. It is important to remember this part, for it is often torn in labor, to a greater or ...
— Mother's Remedies - Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers - of the United States and Canada • T. J. Ritter

... lifted to the man's face and then, unable to stand any longer, Jan fell weakly to the ground and pulled himself forward, inch by inch, to show that he meant no harm, and all the while his ragged tail kept beating very feebly. The man looked at him, then ...
— Prince Jan, St. Bernard • Forrestine C. Hooker

... like Westby and Carroll and Morrill and Collingwood, was out on the pond, paddling round in a canoe. He was crouched on one knee in the middle, and the canoe careened over with his weight, so that the gunwale was only an inch or two above the surface. He was evidently an expert paddler, swinging the craft round, this way and that, without ever taking the paddle ...
— The Jester of St. Timothy's • Arthur Stanwood Pier

... the sex life so that some men and women become pure in the accepted sense, it will always be true that men and women will be vaguely or definitely attracted to each other. Like the atmospheric pressure which though fifteen pounds to the square inch at the sea level is not felt, so there exists a sex pressure, excited by men and women in each other. There is a smoldering excitement always ready to leap into flame whenever the young and attractive of the sexes meet. The conventions of modesty tend to restrict the excitement, to neutralize the ...
— The Foundations of Personality • Abraham Myerson

... cotton, or ether down, is produced on a large tree, called the pullam tree. The quantity which the usual size bears may be computed at about 4 cwt. in pods of 6 to 9 inches long, 4-1/2 in circumference, and about 1-1/2 inch in diameter, which, upon being exposed to the heat of the sun, is distended to an incredible bulk. It is much superior to down for the couch, and, from its elasticity, might be of great utility in the ...
— Observations Upon The Windward Coast Of Africa • Joseph Corry

... took a good look at the stone which she had given me. It was intensely black, of extreme hardness, and oval in shape—just such a flat stone as one would pick up on the seashore if one wished to throw a long way. It was about three inches long, and an inch and a half broad at the middle, but rounded off at the extremities. The most curious part about it were several well-marked ridges which ran in semicircles over its surface, and gave it exactly the appearance ...
— The Captain of the Pole-Star and Other Tales • Arthur Conan Doyle

... policemen: but (the Lord be praised) I was too much for him. There are legal formalities to fulfil yet; and I won't budge an inch, Lois, not one inch, my dear, till he's fulfilled every one of them. Mark my words, child, that ...
— Miss Cayley's Adventures • Grant Allen

... and the mornings colder. As the weeks passed the approach of winter began to push autumn back. Once or twice there was an inch of snow in the night that melted within a few hours. The Farquhar party began to talk of getting back to London, but there was an impending consolidation of properties that held the men at Goldbanks. For a month it had been understood that they would be leaving in a few days now, but ...
— The Highgrader • William MacLeod Raine

... shadows, thinking that Jimmy too long delayed to die. That evening land had been reported from aloft, and the master, while adjusting the tubes of the long glass, had observed with quiet bitterness to Mr. Baker that, after fighting our way inch by inch to the Western Islands, there was nothing to expect now but a spell of calm. The sky was clear and the barometer high. The light breeze dropped with the sun, and an enormous stillness, forerunner of a night without wind, descended ...
— The Nigger Of The "Narcissus" - A Tale Of The Forecastle • Joseph Conrad

... echoed all over the house. Perhaps this bad play will furnish him with the materials for another 'Folle Querelle,'[3] which will make us laugh as much as the first. Ninon and the Prince sided with Despreaux. They defended the ground inch by inch, but without being able to cover the retreat of Britannicus. I am curious to know how the little rival of the great Corneille will take this failure, for it certainly is one. The worst of the business for him is, that every one remarked some very clear and very audacious allusions. ...
— The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, April 1844 - Volume 23, Number 4 • Various

... it. Instead of the steeple-crowned hat, jauntily feathered and looped, these irregulars wore huge sombreros, much the worse for time and weather, flapped over their faces. For the velvet jacket with the two-inch tail, which had nearly broken up the friendship between Mr. Pickwick and Mr. Tupman, when the latter gentleman proposed induing himself with one, on the occasion of Mrs. Leo Hunter's fancy-dress breakfast,—for this integument, I say, these minions of the ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I., No. 3, January 1858 - A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics • Various

... the back part of an old wig. But D—— made it (our head) all carded together and twisted up. When it first came home, aunt put it on, & my new cap on it, she then took up her apron & mesur'd me, & from the roots of my hair on my forehead to the top of my notions, I mesur'd above an inch longer than I did downwards from the roots of my hair to the end of my chin. Nothing renders a young person more amiable than virtue & modesty without the help of fals hair, red Cow tail, or D—— (the barber).[74] Now all this mamma, I have just been reading over to my aunt. She is ...
— Diary of Anna Green Winslow - A Boston School Girl of 1771 • Anna Green Winslow

... honoured instead of being despised Haereticis non servanda fides Hanging of Mary Dyer at Boston Hangman is not the most appropriate teacher of religion Hard at work, pouring sand through their sieves Hardly an inch of French soil that had not two possessors Hardly a distinguished family in Spain not placed in mourning He often spoke of popular rights with contempt He did his work, but he had not his reward He who confessed well was absolved well He spent more time at table than the ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... not move from this cabin an inch further than to the burial ground," replied Mrs. Wentworth, "but if you fear it is my intention to escape, let one of your policemen remain here ...
— The Trials of the Soldier's Wife - A Tale of the Second American Revolution • Alex St. Clair Abrams

... expecting him, and perhaps had not yet forgotten his command. He might be unreasonable, and so he had to make haste to get there and back. So he decided to take a short cut by the back-way, for he knew every inch of the ground. This meant skirting fences, climbing over hurdles, and crossing other people's back-yards, where every one he met knew him and greeted him. In this way he could reach the High Street in half ...
— The Brothers Karamazov • Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... strain or stress in our thinking nor does the element of improbability obtrude itself. We think along a straight and level road where no hills arise to obstruct the view. Each succeeding day marks an inch or so of progress toward the goal. But should we set the responsibilities of the bank president over against the powers of the child, the disparity would overwhelm our thinking and our minds would be thrown into confusion. Our thinking is level and easy only when we conceive ...
— The Reconstructed School • Francis B. Pearson

... All three bodies were beaten back in succession. For four days the Count made every effort to force the defile, and failed. Two colonels, eight captains, and four hundred men fell in these desperate assaults, without gaining an inch of ground. On the fifth day a combined attack was made with the reserve, composed of Spanish companies, but this, too, failed; and the troops, when ordered to return to the charge, refused to obey. The Count, who commanded, is said to have wept as he sat on ...
— The Huguenots in France • Samuel Smiles

... went over every inch of space—I don't know how many times I had done so since the murder—but found absolutely nothing that was not already familiar to me. It was miserably aggravating that every search I undertook in this ...
— The Paternoster Ruby • Charles Edmonds Walk

... distance of more than 3 deg. from the sun, appeared barely one-third of that length on the best negatives. Little more could be seen of them either in Barnard's exquisite miniature pictures, or in the photographs obtained by W. H. Pickering with a thirteen-inch refractor—the largest instrument so far ...
— A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century - Fourth Edition • Agnes M. (Agnes Mary) Clerke

... considerable knowledge of the chemistry of combustion, of practical geometry, and of the physical properties of steam. So nice, indeed, is the valve-adjustment of the locomotive, as depending upon the work it has to do, whether fast or slow, light or heavy, that a single eighth of an inch too much or too little will so affect its power as to entirely unfit it for doing its duty with any ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. II., November, 1858., No. XIII. • Various

... brothers nor his friends abroad could turn the old man one inch from the road upon which he had set his foot. The fact is, that he knew well that his franchise proposals would not bear examination; that, in the words of an eminent lawyer, they 'might as well have been seventy years as seven,' so complicated and impossible were the conditions. For a long ...
— The War in South Africa - Its Cause and Conduct • Arthur Conan Doyle

... Betty promptly, "and thirsty, probably, and proud—awfully proud." She turned upon Helen suddenly. "Helen Chase Adams, do you know I might have been down there with the subs. Katherine told me this morning that it was nip and tuck between Marie Austin and me. If I'd tried harder—played an inch better—think of it, Helen, I might have been down ...
— Betty Wales Freshman • Edith K. Dunton

... not to be beguiled into dealing with Dunks. Dunks did give, it was true, nine for sixpence; but then Pauline had measured them once with Miss Bibby's tape measure—measured them "longways, and broadways, and fatways," and Benson's had been fully half an inch superior. ...
— In the Mist of the Mountains • Ethel Turner

... most unnatural monsters who ever disgraced the history of mankind. Yet the atrocities of the Inquisitors, like the battlefields of Napoleon and other heroes, were not only natural, but they have their prototypes in every cubic inch of stagnant water, or ounce of diseased tissue. And stagnant water is as natural as sterilised water; and diseased tissue is as natural as healthy tissue. Wholesale murder is Nature's first law. She creates only to kill, and applies ...
— The Crack of Doom • Robert Cromie

... without metaphor, and cannot be misunderstood. The distinction itself is right. For organic is (as Kant has already defined it) an unity in parts. A granite mountain is not more thoroughly granite than a square inch of granite, but a man without hands ...
— Chips From A German Workshop. Vol. III. • F. Max Mueller

... stretched himself, looked at the clout, looked at his bow, and set a black-winged arrow on the string. Then he drew, it seemed but lightly and carelessly, as though he thought the distance small. Away flew the shaft, and sank into the red a good inch within the leftmost arrow of ...
— Red Eve • H. Rider Haggard

... orderly men. So, Aristotle and other ancients supposed perfection to obtain in all natural facts, because it appeared to exist in some; and so, the Stoics tried to prove the equality of all crimes by reference to various similes and metaphors (as, that the man held half an inch below the surface will be drowned as certainly as the man at the bottom of the sea; and that want of skill is shown as much in steering a straw-laden boat as a treasure galleon on to the rocks). But, in fact, the connection by causation ...
— Analysis of Mr. Mill's System of Logic • William Stebbing

... cut down from six volumes to four, and with her first literary earnings, after assisting her father, she bought an Irish harp and a black mode cloak, being always devoted to music and dress. At this time her strongest ambition was to be every inch a woman. She gave up serious studies, to which she had applied herself, and cultivated even music as a mere accomplishment, fearful lest she should be considered a ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 22. October, 1878. • Various

... of October, when the loss was discovered. On the seventh the house was again looked over, inch by inch. ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 12, No. 32, November, 1873 • Various

... said Gypsy, under her breath, and did not stir an inch. Distance certainly lent enchantment to the view when Mrs. Surly was in ...
— Gypsy's Cousin Joy • Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

... plate at each person's place and lay the cutlery and silver beside it about one inch from the edge of the table, in the order of use, those used first on the outside, or farthest from the plate. At dinner these plates are usually placed ...
— Ontario Teachers' Manuals: Household Management • Ministry of Education

... must be very different from women," she replied. "I will give you leave to paint me on every square inch of the church, walls and roof, and defy you to spoil any charm you think I have, if you will only not make me awkward or silly; and you may make me as self-conscious as Esther's St. Cecilia there, only she ...
— Esther • Henry Adams

... Admiral Wynter to put to sea; with orders to act if opportunity offered, but to declare when he did so that he had transgressed his instructions on his own responsibility. In January, 1560, Wynter appeared in the Forth, seduced the French into firing on him from the fort of Inch Keith, and blew the fort to pieces—in self-defence. Meantime, D'Elboeuf, brother of Guise, had sailed with a powerful flotilla, which was however almost annihilated by a storm. For a time then at least there was no danger of another French expedition to Scotland. Wynter's fleet commanded ...
— England Under the Tudors • Arthur D. Innes

... her brow retired an inch or two from his shoulder; but she heard him quietly out, and then drew back and confronted him, pale, and, ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 104, June, 1866 • Various

... Camors. He was not a coward; he would not have budged an inch before an enraged tiger; but he would have travelled a hundred miles on foot to avoid the shadow of ridicule. Profiting by the warning and a moment when he seemed unobserved, he slid from the tree, jumped into the next ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... the only display Mr. Budlong ever received in that paper without paying for it—excepting the time when he ran for Mayor on the opposition ticket and was referred to in letters an inch high as ...
— Mrs. Budlong's Chrismas Presents • Rupert Hughes

... thermometer stood at 23 degrees, and the pond was frozen three-quarters of an inch thick. There was however so little water left that only three of the bullocks could be supplied before starting. The natives who had promised to go on with us nevertheless remained behind; but we proceeded by our old route to Goobang creek, and encamped on its left ...
— Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Vol 1 (of 2) • Thomas Mitchell

... any room of the house. The ready-made curtains are also charming. There are muslin curtains with applique borders cut from flowered cretonne; sometimes the cretonne is applique on net which is let into the curtain with a four-inch hem at the bottom and sides. A simpler style has a band of flowered muslin sewed on the white muslin, or used as a ruffle. It is also added to the valance. There are many kinds of net and lace curtains ready for use that will ...
— Furnishing the Home of Good Taste • Lucy Abbot Throop

... where they had been standing the ice began to open in a curious, wavy, zigzag line, gradually extending to right and left. At first it was a faint crack, not much more than large enough to admit a knife-blade; but as they watched it slowly opened, till it was an inch—a foot—across, and then all sound ceased, and they could look down for a short distance before the sides came together, the whole ...
— The Crystal Hunters - A Boy's Adventures in the Higher Alps • George Manville Fenn

... obtained with circular jets. Yet as the general conclusions from both are found the same, it will avoid unnecessary prolixity by using the data from experiments made with a circular jet of 0.05 square inch area, discharging a stream at the rate of 40 ft. per second. This amounts to 52 lb. of water per minute with an available head of 25 ft., or 1,300 foot-pounds per minute. The tubes which received and directed ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 460, October 25, 1884 • Various

... should be large enough to have Rhode Island about one inch long, and the game should be played around a table with the sides named North, South, ...
— The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 28, May 20, 1897 - A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls • Various

... of the animal spirits resulting from their adequate performance, so he was aware of his measuring and comparing, inasmuch as he was aware that the line A—B was longer than the line C—D, or that the point E was half an inch to the left of the point F. For so long as we are neither examining into ourselves, nor called upon to make a choice between two possible proceedings, nor forced to do or suffer something difficult or distressing, in fact so long as we ...
— The Beautiful - An Introduction to Psychological Aesthetics • Vernon Lee



Words linked to "Inch" :   foot, UK, U.S., march on, mil, square measure, Britain, go on, ft, every inch, United Kingdom, acre inch, America, United States of America, US, progress, linear unit, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, U.K., pica em, in, move on, Great Britain, pica, area unit, cubic inch, ligne, edge, United States, U.S.A.



Copyright © 2024 Diccionario ingles.com