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noun
Meaning  n.  
1.
That which is meant or intended; intent; purpose; aim; object; as, a mischievous meaning was apparent. "If there be any good meaning towards you."
2.
That which is signified, whether by act lanquage; signification; sense; import; as, the meaning of a hint.
3.
Sense; power of thinking. (R.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Meaning" Quotes from Famous Books



... and that is, when you go to milk her, take with you a pan of burning coals and a pair of tongs. Place the pan on the floor of the stall, and the tongs on the fire, and blow with all your might, till the coals burn brightly. The black cow will ask you what is the meaning of all this, and you must answer what I will whisper to you.' And she stood on tip-toe and whispered something in his ear, and then ...
— The Violet Fairy Book • Various

... shrewd-eyed, astute old fellow, well known in Scarnham for his business abilities and his penetration, chiefly into other people's affairs, looked at Neale with a mingled expression of meaning and inquiry. ...
— The Chestermarke Instinct • J. S. Fletcher

... returns to the Axe and begins to follow up its innumerable bends, one arrives opposite the little town of Colyton, which is not quite on the river. Mr Rogers says that the name comes from the British Collh y tun, and has the pretty meaning of 'the ...
— Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and Coasts • Rosalind Northcote

... "baptize," they observe, that because its first meaning is to wash all over, and because baptism with Christians is always with water, people cannot easily separate the image of water from the word, when it is read or pronounced. But if this image is never to be separated from it, how will persons understand the words of St. ...
— A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume II (of 3) • Thomas Clarkson

... meaning. "He IS a success. Moses, on the ceiling, brought down to the floor; overwhelming, colossal, but ...
— The Ambassadors • Henry James

... sprang away, snapping out, "No, you don't! no, you don't!" Dody, the white kitten, so called by Walter for "Daisy," mewed as hard as she could from Luly's arms. Walter crowed and chuckled, and said, "Boo-bi!" meaning good-by; Luly lisped, "Dood-by, dear mamma, div my yove to gan'ma;" and Kitty said, "Good-by, mamma; I'll be a famous Little Mother—see if I'm not!" And so the ...
— Funny Little Socks - Being the Fourth Book • Sarah. L. Barrow

... Catholic, Mr. Banim, has written a historical novel, of the literary merit of which we cannot speak very highly, for the purpose of inculcating this opinion. The editor of Mackintosh's Fragments assures us, that the standard of James bore the nobler inscription, and so forth; the meaning of which is, that William and the other authors of the Revolution were vile Whigs who drove out James from being a Radical; that the crime of the King was his going further in liberality than his subjects: that he was the real ...
— Critical and Historical Essays Volume 1 • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... seemed to fit the question, but in fact, Tryon's mind and Rena's did not meet. That two intelligent persons should each attach a different meaning to so simple a form of words as Rena's question was the best ground for her misgiving with regard to the marriage. But love blinded her. She was anxious to be convinced. She interpreted the meaning of his speech by her ...
— The House Behind the Cedars • Charles W. Chesnutt

... work sections and races should be forgotten and partisanship should be unknown. Let our people find a new meaning in the divine oracle which declares that "a little child shall lead them," for our own little children will soon control the destinies ...
— U.S. Presidential Inaugural Addresses • Various

... She had cut the end off the lasso with her scissors, and was now tying his feet together with it. "My friend, we know the whole story, and I am ashamed, ashamed," she said oratorically, "of your sex! To frighten a harmless and well-meaning preacher and his wife for the purpose of publicity is not a joke. Such hoaxes are criminal. If you must have publicity, why not seek it in some ...
— Tish, The Chronicle of Her Escapades and Excursions • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... in raising a certain dull indistinct image in my mind of a well-meaning girl, to whom I was bound to feel thankful, and felt so. I thanked Heriot, too, for his friendly intentions. He had never seen the Princess Ottilia. And at night I thanked my grandfather. He bore himself, on the whole, like the good and kindly old gentleman Janet ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... the United States have usually avoided hostile criticism of the Constitution and the decisions of the Supreme Court, and they have reflected this feeling in their acquiescence in the unexpected turn given to the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. The members of the Court, however, have frequently expressed disquietude. Dissenting opinions opposing the view which the Court has taken, have been common. Mr. Justice Harlan ...
— The United States Since The Civil War • Charles Ramsdell Lingley

... see in a moment what I mean. In Duncan Grant there is, I agree, something that reminds one unmistakably of the Elizabethan poets, something fantastic and whimsical and at the same time intensely lyrical. I should find it hard to make my meaning clearer, yet I am conscious enough that my epithets applied to painting are anything but precise. But though they may be lyrical or fantastic or witty, these pictures never tell a story or point ...
— Since Cezanne • Clive Bell

... Sovereign Commander Grand Master of the Supreme Council of the United States. He states further that the Grand Orient of France, as also the Supreme Council of the Scotch Rite of France, "send their correspondence" to the Grand Master of Washington. I conceive that no importance, as indeed no definite meaning, can be attached to this statement beyond the general and not very significant fact that there was some kind of communication between the three centres. In the year 1888 Pike was so little in harmonious relation ...
— Devil-Worship in France - or The Question of Lucifer • Arthur Edward Waite

... apparently to await the moment when it might suit his friend to enter into an explanation of his future intentions, and to give a narrative of what had passed since their separation. The other understood his meaning, and discovered his own mode of reasoning in the matter, by addressing ...
— The Deerslayer • James Fenimore Cooper

... said, however, that the meaning of "Race-Suicide" has actually been squarely faced by those who have most vehemently raised that cry. Translated into more definite and precise terms this cry means, and is intended to mean: "We want more births." That is what it definitely means, ...
— Little Essays of Love and Virtue • Havelock Ellis

... with the same meaning, that was at once stern and sad. The exact purport of these sentences remained fixed in my mind, so that even at this distance of time I am quite ...
— Uncle Silas - A Tale of Bartram-Haugh • J.S. Le Fanu

... occupants of the carriages that Rendel had seen going rapidly along the road knew the meaning of the scene that had taken place under their eyes; the others were in a state ...
— The Arbiter - A Novel • Lady F. E. E. Bell

... dinner tray, Tapping the shoulder of the nighest guest, With a peculiar smile, which, by the way, Boded no good, whatever it expressed, He asked the meaning of this holiday; The vinous Greek to whom he had addressed His question, much too merry to divine The questioner, filled up ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 6 • Lord Byron

... one of those little and seemingly trifling incidents which never escape the memory, and are always a source of pride, especially to those who are comparatively young. When Sherman read Hooker's despatch, which he interpreted as meaning that my corps was not in position to protect Hooker's flank, he said in substance, if not literally, and with great emphasis: "That is not true. I sent Schofield an order to be there. I know he received the order, ...
— Forty-Six Years in the Army • John M. Schofield

... the Acta Publica of the senate, and also to the officers who kept the military accounts and enforced the due fulfilment of contracts for military supplies. In its English form the word has undergone a gradual limitation of meaning. At first it seems to have denoted any clerk or registrar; then more particularly the secretary and adviser of any joint-stock company, but especially of an insurance company; and it is now applied specifically to ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... doctor sat down to get the better nerve-sustainer of a good meal. But even as he reached his hand for the fragrant coffee that his wife had poured for him, he felt a single dull throb in one of his temples, and knew too well its meaning. He did not lift the coffee to his mouth, but sat with a grave face and an unusually quiet manner. He had made a serious mistake, and he knew it. That glass of wine had stimulated the relaxed nerves of his stomach too suddenly, and sent a shock to the exhausted brain. ...
— Danger - or Wounded in the House of a Friend • T. S. Arthur

... at what she saw to be her father's meaning. Once she would have felt as he did and have believed that their god could be propitiated by blood and agony. But now she knew that all such cruel sacrifices were worse than vain; and deeply she regretted her own inability to bring her countrymen, and especially her own beloved ...
— The Pilgrims of New England - A Tale Of The Early American Settlers • Mrs. J. B. Webb

... infallibly, for there might be sentences in which more than one of these words would make sense, and it would be impossible to determine which the writer meant to use. Now the old Hebrew as it came from the hands of the original writers was all in this form; while, therefore, the meaning of the writer can generally be gained with sufficient accuracy, you see at a glance that absolute certainty is out of the question; that the Jewish scholars who supplied these vowel points a thousand years or more after the original manuscripts were written ...
— Who Wrote the Bible? • Washington Gladden

... said. "Your meaning is at last plain to me. Noblesse oblige. Ah, yes, that old saying comes true all the world over. You have not the advantage of good birth. I thought—for a long time I thought that you were the exception that proved the rule. You were the lady made by nature's own hand. ...
— The Honorable Miss - A Story of an Old-Fashioned Town • L. T. Meade

... son, embrace them. For two years I have, neither directly nor indirectly, heard from them. There has been on this island for six months a German botanist, who has seen them in the garden of Schoenbrunn a few months before his departure. The barbarians (meaning the English authorities at St. Helena) have carefully prevented him from coming to give me any ...
— Famous Affinities of History, Vol 1-4, Complete - The Romance of Devotion • Lyndon Orr

... fullness of meaning! The possibilities of life, its achievements—physical, intellectual, spiritual. Got up to the top!—the climax of ...
— Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete - The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Albert Bigelow Paine

... top; tuft on head of birds; "a cop" may have reference to one or other meaning; Gifford and others interpret as "conical, terminating in ...
— Every Man In His Humour • Ben Jonson

... miles. In some far-off land where the winds go down the dust particles settle again to the earth. After a long, long time, enough dust collects to form a thick layer of the richest soil. This is called aeolian soil, from the word AEolus, meaning ...
— Conservation Reader • Harold W. Fairbanks

... definite meaning to Webster? He knew nothing of the West. He sat with his leonine eyes fixed upon young America in the person of Douglas. No, as for that, Douglas did not know how truly he was speaking. He could not see in what ...
— Children of the Market Place • Edgar Lee Masters

... finishing or transmitting the long particular letter, which I am now undertaking to write, I think the matter it will contain is too interesting to rest only in my memory, or in short notes, which nobody but myself can well unfold the meaning of. I shall, therefore, write on as my health will permit, and when finished, shall convey this letter by the first prudent American that may go from hence to ...
— The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. VIII • Various

... Belgium were obliterated from the map of Europe, the world would be the poorer and Europe put to shame. The proofs which Belgium has given of her nationality will never be forgotten while liberty has any value or patriotism any meaning among men. We cannot do less than echo the general sentiment of admiration for a constancy to national ideals which has left Belgium at the mercy of Huns less forgivable than those of Attila. But the case against her oppressor is not to be founded solely or mainly on ...
— Why We Are At War (2nd Edition, revised) • Members of the Oxford Faculty of Modern History

... into which I had sunk during all those months of danger and disappointment. It shook me into life. If I was to save him, not a moment was to be lost. Clubfoot would act swiftly, I knew. So must I. But first I must find out what the situation was, the meaning of Clubfoot's presence in Monica's house, of those soldiers in the park. And, above all, was Monica herself at ...
— The Man with the Clubfoot • Valentine Williams

... intonations that convey intelligence, and the characters or symbols of these significant sounds are detected by the human eye. Some of the more docile animals have been supposed capable of comprehending the meaning of a few individual words, but no one worthy of belief, has affirmed that they could understand a sentence or distinct proposition: still less, has any person, however confiding in the marvellous, ever ventured ...
— On the Nature of Thought - or, The act of thinking and its connexion with a perspicuous sentence • John Haslam

... altar. These arms were formed of bronze, and being placed farther back than the altar with its incense, were seen through the curling smoke by lamps so disposed as to illuminate the whole archway. "The meaning of this," thought the simple barbarian, "I should well know how to explain, were these fists clenched, and were the hall dedicated to the pancration, which we call boxing; but as even these helpless Greeks use not ...
— Waverley Volume XII • Sir Walter Scott

... intelligence sometimes revolts at what seems to be oppression and injustice. But he puts away from him the fallacy that all men are equal—they are not equal, their very inequality proves it. Some must rule and some be ruled; for some life must be pleasanter and more full of meaning than it is for others; some men must be strong and some weak, just as some women are beautiful and some ugly. It is not their fault; it is their misfortune, and they suffer for it. Which brings me to the principal objection I have to your proposal. ...
— The Destroyer - A Tale of International Intrigue • Burton Egbert Stevenson

... that young lady about Sally," Fenwick says quietly. For half a second—such alacrity has thought—Vereker takes his meaning wrong; thinks he really believes in the other young lady. Then it flashes on him, and he knows how his companion has been seeing through him all the while. But so lovable is Fenwick, and so much influence is there in the repose of his strength, ...
— Somehow Good • William de Morgan

... Fund of their church and about time, too, I say. I like to broke my neck there a week ago last Sunday night, when our minister was away. Caught my foot in a hole in the carpet, and a little more and wouldn't have gone headlong. So, it's: "Why, I've been meaning for more than a year, to call on you, Mrs.—. Mrs.—(Let me look at my list. Oh, yes) Mrs. Cooper, but we've had so much sickness at home—you know my husband's father is staying with us at present, and he's ...
— Back Home • Eugene Wood

... meaning for the best, offered to come and sit with His Majesty, and smoke a cigar with him, and console him. The ROYAL KINDNESS supplied Bulbo with a cigar; he had not had one, he said, since he was ...
— The Rose and the Ring • William Makepeace Thackeray

... of the Scriptures. All of them were written in rather mysterious language—with references to trumpets, vials, seals, beasts with many heads and many horns, and so on. This was to keep their heathen rulers from understanding the real meaning. It would not have been safe openly to predict that in a few years God was going to send all Romans ...
— Hebrew Life and Times • Harold B. Hunting

... title of this volume I have called myself a "Free Quaker." The term has no meaning for most of the younger generation, and yet it should tell a story of many sad spiritual struggles, of much heart-searching distress, of brave decisions, and of ...
— Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker • S. Weir Mitchell

... reserved are reserved to the people. What people? The first thought is that they are the people of the States severally; for the constitution understands by people the state as distinguished from the state government; but if this had been its meaning in this place, it would have said, "are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people" thereof. As it does not say so, and does not define the people it means, it is necessary to understand ...
— The American Republic: Its Constitution, Tendencies, and Destiny • A. O. Brownson

... the meaning of "Lammer beads?" They are almost always made of amber, and are considered as a charm to keep away evil of every kind; their touch is believed to cure many diseases, and they are still worn by many old people in Scotland round ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 66, February 1, 1851 • Various

... whom they were granted, but the confirmation of them by the Bill is such, that it puts them in a worse condition than they were before, as we conceive; . . . (4) because several words are inserted in the bill, which are not in the Articles, and others omitted, which alter both the sense and meaning, ...
— History of the Catholic Church from the Renaissance • Rev. James MacCaffrey

... recollection which Angel had thought of and talked to Betty about so often, that it made quite a landmark in her life: the recollection of a day in that dreary time when she sat, a little lonely, frightened child, only dimly understanding the meaning of her black frock, by the cradle where baby Betty was asleep, crying in a hushed, awed way, as much at the grave faces and the drawn blinds as because papa and mamma had gone away, for they must surely ...
— Two Maiden Aunts • Mary H. Debenham

... all alike." Of this nature are all those propositions whose terms are known to all, as, Every whole is greater than its part; and, Things which are equal to the same thing are equal to one another. Some propositions again are self-evident only to the wise, who understand the meaning of the terms: as, to one who understands that an angel is not a body, it is self-evident that an angel is not in a place by way of circumscription; [Footnote 11] which is not manifest to others, who do not understand the term." (St. Thos., 1a ...
— Moral Philosophy • Joseph Rickaby, S. J.

... such meaning into this remark, and so much more in the contortion of visage which accompanied it, that the girl stood regarding him ...
— Sea Urchins • W. W. Jacobs

... position to understand more clearly the meaning of the Convention of July 3, 1890, between the Congo Free State and the Belgian Government. By its terms the latter pledged itself to advance a loan of 25,000,000 francs to the Congo State in the course of ten years, without interest, on condition that at the ...
— The Development of the European Nations, 1870-1914 (5th ed.) • John Holland Rose

... they could not approach without breaking the host that encompassed him, they said by the mouth of one of them, "Know, sir, that the English be halted, well and regularly, in three lines of battle, and show no sign of meaning to fly, but await your coming. For my part, my counsel is that you halt all your men, and rest them in the fields throughout this day. Before the hindermost can come up, and before your lines of battle are set in order, ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume II. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot

... from the Emperor Constantine—giving it thus an antiquity as great and an origin as authoritative as that claimed for the Pope by the false Donation of Constantine (L. and P., v., 45; vii., 232). This is the meaning of Henry's assertion that the Pope's authority in England was "usurped," not that it was usurped at the expense of the English national Church, but at the expense of his prerogative. So, too, we find instructive ...
— Henry VIII. • A. F. Pollard

... of Whiskey, and looked about him with an air of peculiar meaning. His pride—his shallow, weak, contemptible pride, was up, while the honest pride that is never separated from firmness and integrity, was cast aside and forgotten. Scaddhan came in, and placing the two tumblers before Toal, that worthy immediately emptied first one of them, and ...
— Phelim O'toole's Courtship and Other Stories • William Carleton

... a happy inspiration she waved her hand to the ancient jack against the wall, and 'Dolph sprang for it, though he understood the command only. But he was a heavy dog, and as the rusty machine began to revolve under his weight, his wits jumped to the meaning of it, and he began to ...
— True Tilda • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... ceased to pit the plain meaning of Genesis against the no less plain meaning of Nature. Their more candid, or more cautious, representatives have given up dealing with Evolution as if it were a damnable heresy, and have taken refuge in one of two courses. Either they deny that Genesis was meant to teach ...
— The Reception of the 'Origin of Species' • Thomas Henry Huxley

... gave him no great welcome. She stopped in the work that had but been begun. The winter day was none too bright, and the best of the light would soon be past, she said. The engagement could stand over. In any event, he was there ("he," of course, meaning Cope), and a present delay would only add to the total number of his calls. Hortense began to wipe her brushes and to ...
— Bertram Cope's Year • Henry Blake Fuller

... What is the meaning of this? Did you not see me disinfecting the whole hall, and now the whole kitchen is infected, all the rye ...
— Fruits of Culture • Leo Tolstoy

... observation as a serious compliment; but Cedric, who better understood the Jester's meaning, darted at him a severe and menacing look; and lucky it was for Wamba, perhaps, that the time and place prevented his receiving, notwithstanding his place and service, more sensible ...
— Ivanhoe - A Romance • Walter Scott

... rendering "booby" follows Cuvier's note to the French translation. The "booby" is the "booby gannet." The Spanish dictionaries give pelican as the meaning of Alcatraz. The gannets and the pelicans were formerly classed together. The word Alcatraz was taken over into English and corrupted to Albatros. Alfred Newton, Dictionary of ...
— The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot, 985-1503 • Various

... that person today who disregarded Bhishma the son of Santanu, and Drona, and Vidura, while they urged him to make peace? How can he accept good counsels, who from folly, O Janardana, insolently disregarded his own aged sire as also his own well-meaning mother while speaking beneficial words unto him? It is evident, O Janardana, that Duryodhana took his birth for exterminating his race! His conduct and his policy, it is seen, point to that line, O lord! He will not give us our kingdom yet! This is my opinion, O Achyuta! ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 - Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 • Unknown

... he began at once (we had just been introduced), "is that it lacks plot. Been meaning to meet and tell you that for a long time. Your characterization's all right, and your dialogue. In fact, I think they're good. But your stuff lacks raison d'etre—if you know what ...
— Cheerful—By Request • Edna Ferber

... running riot. But when once the intention is grasped you find beneath that playful foam of seeming fun and frolic a very astonishing and deep philosophy, and the whole wild masquerade is filled with meaning. Read 'The Shaving of Shagpat,' earnest young men and maidens. There is not much that is better for mere amusement in all the libraries, and if you care for the ripe conclusions of a scholar and a gentleman who ...
— My Contemporaries In Fiction • David Christie Murray

... burst." "No, no," observed a ninth, "he'll stick fast at the bottom, take my word for it; he has a natural alacrity in sinking."—"And yet," remarked a tenth, "I have seen him in the clouds."—"Then was he cloudy, I suppose," cried the eleventh. "So dark," replied the other, "that his meaning could not be perceived."—"For all that," said the twelfth, "he is easily seen through."—"You talk," answered the thirteenth, "as if his head was made of glass."—"No, no," cried the fourteenth, "his head is made ...
— The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Volume I • Tobias Smollett

... pale, and very resolute. The look which had come into her face for so short a time ago had had its meaning. The time for action had come. It was sooner than she had ...
— The New Tenant • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... of land. If the essential thing about rent were that it is a material product and consists of a sum of differential quantities, these incomes certainly would be rents. Popular thought, however, attaches another meaning to this term, and we therefore limit ourselves to saying that these differential incomes or surpluses may be determined in amount by the principle of rent. They can be described and measured exactly as the Ricardians described the income ...
— Essentials of Economic Theory - As Applied to Modern Problems of Industry and Public Policy • John Bates Clark

... his way to Egypt ... and to Upper Egypt, until they came to the Emeer Moosa, the son of Nuseyr; and when he knew of his approach he went forth to him and met him, and rejoiced at his arrival; and Talib handed to him the letter. So he took it and read it, and understood its meaning; and he put it upon his head, saying, I hear and obey the command of the Prince of the Faithful. He determined to summon his great men; and they presented themselves; and he inquired of them respecting that which had been made known to him by the letter; whereupon they said, O Emeer, ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol. 2 • Charles Dudley Warner

... born at Obersontheim in Swabia, on the 26th of April 1739. His father, a well-meaning soul, officiated there in the multiple capacity of schoolmaster, precentor, and curate; dignities which, with various mutations and improvements, he subsequently held in several successive villages of the same district. Daniel, from the first, was a thing of inconsistencies; his ...
— The Life of Friedrich Schiller - Comprehending an Examination of His Works • Thomas Carlyle

... in, and was clothed with such garments as they. Then Christian smiled and said, "I think verily I know the meaning of this." ...
— The Riches of Bunyan • Jeremiah Rev. Chaplin

... right or left, as one should say "starboard helm" or "port helm," and both doing the same, two vessels pass clear of one another; and to this day the gondoliers of Venice use the old words, and tell long-winded stories of their derivation and first meaning, which seem quite unnecessary. But in Beroviero's time, the gondola had only lately come into fashion, and every one adopted it quickly because it was much cheaper than keeping horses, and it was far more pleasant to be taken quickly by water, by shorter ways, than to ride in the narrow ...
— Marietta - A Maid of Venice • F. Marion Crawford

... the bunk-house, and with prayers of simple fervour that the so-and-so Chink may be struck dead while his hand is still on the rope. This prayer is never answered; so something like a dozen men dress hurriedly and reach the Arrowhead kitchen hurriedly, meaning to perform instantly there a gracious deed which Providence has ...
— Ma Pettengill • Harry Leon Wilson

... upon the table and looked knowingly and deeply into Hart's eyes. Her voice grew very low, but clear and full of meaning. ...
— Mistress Nell - A Merry Tale of a Merry Time • George C. Hazelton, Jr.

... polishing madly. No reasonable person could see cause for this operation, because the pan already glistened like silver. "Well!" she ejaculated. She imparted to the word a deep meaning. "This, my prophecy, has come to pass." It was ...
— The Monster and Other Stories - The Monster; The Blue Hotel; His New Mittens • Stephen Crane

... iron ball was fastened. Accompanying them was a white man, in whose belt was stuck a revolver, and who carried in one hand a stout leather strap, about two inches in width with a handle by which to grasp it. The gang paused momentarily to look at the traveller, but at a meaning glance from the overseer fell again to their work of hoeing cotton. The white man stepped to the fence, and Colonel ...
— The Colonel's Dream • Charles W. Chesnutt

... explain about the fits. When his daughter just said, "Father will have a fit," I thought she spoke in a Pickwickian sense, meaning, "Father will experience annoyance." But when I heard him having it, I realized that she had probably been quite literal. When father has a fit he bangs his umbrella to the floor and jumps on it. Also he tears his hair. I have ...
— The Window-Gazer • Isabel Ecclestone Mackay

... book in father's library will tell you about it. It tells the meaning of every word; father said so. A ...
— Odd • Amy Le Feuvre

... right, too, Jack Winters," snapped the girl, her eyes flashing with spirit. "I'll compose a scathing letter that will give Maude something to think about from now to Thanksgiving. And let me say that I'll be meaning every word of it, too. Why, after what we've seen you boys do in practice I just feel that fellows like Fred, and some of the others of course, in the bargain, just can't be whipped by any old school team that plays. Those are my sentiments, and I ...
— Jack Winters' Gridiron Chums • Mark Overton

... me of F.F. from Symond's, is new to me. I sometimes throw out in the shop remote hints about the sale of books, all the while meaning only mine; but they have no skill in construing the timid wishes of a modest author; they are not aware of his suppressed sighs, nor see the blushes of hope and fear tingling his cheek; they are provokingly silent, and petrify ...
— A Publisher and His Friends • Samuel Smiles

... is not quite certain), in imitation of the Chaldaean Noah, Ut-napistim, who, on coming out of the ark, made an offering /ina zikkurat sade/, "on the peak of the mountain," in which passage, it is to be noted, the word /zikkurat/ occurs with what is probably a more original meaning. ...
— The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria • Theophilus G. Pinches

... capture of the British convoy, consisting of some two hundred waggons, and meaning to our army the loss of about a million pounds of food. Every one was put on quarter rations, consisting of a biscuit and a half a day and half a tin of 'bully' beef. On such a food supply as this were our troops expected to perform their terrible march. Until they passed Jacobsdal they ...
— From Aldershot to Pretoria - A Story of Christian Work among Our Troops in South Africa • W. E. Sellers

... practically ignore the gossiping tongue, if we are naturally sensitive and highly strung we cannot help feeling some sting from the unkind or untrue speech. Poor Nehemiah, unmoved though he was by the gossip, yet feels it necessary to remember the meaning of his name, and to turn from Sanballat's letter to 'the Lord ...
— The King's Cup-Bearer • Amy Catherine Walton

... squatter outlaws to be within reach of water. This gives the vicinity something of the appearance of a poorly sustained prairie-dog town. And except these shacks, there is nothing between Calabasas, Thief River, and the mountains except sunshine and alkali. I say nothing, meaning especially nothing, in the ...
— Nan of Music Mountain • Frank H. Spearman

... seemed to comprehend the meaning of my cries; for he made off with me through the aperture by which he had entered, carrying me along as easily as if I was an infant in arms. As he made off through the window, my companions, whose responding shouts I had just before heard, made their ...
— Dick Onslow - Among the Redskins • W.H.G. Kingston

... death!—ah! in presence of the lifeless remains of a beloved being, what heart so withered, what brain so blighted by doubt, as not to repel forever the odious thought that these sacred words: God, Justice, Love, Immortality—are but vain syllables devoid of meaning! ...
— Led Astray and The Sphinx - Two Novellas In One Volume • Octave Feuillet

... no time to appear hurried.' Captain Sir Frederick Thesiger carried this letter ashore,[1] with a flag of truce, and delivered it to the crown-prince, at the Sally Port. The latter sent to know the precise meaning of Nelson, and he replied thus:—'Lord Nelson's object in sending the flag of truce was humanity; he therefore consents that hostilities shall cease, and that the wounded Danes may be taken on shore. And Lord Nelson will ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 457 - Volume 18, New Series, October 2, 1852 • Various

... when uttered by some Senator or Congressman of note. Usually these false statements took the form of assertions that we had asked preposterous questions of applicants. At times they also included the assertion that we credited people to districts where they did not live; this simply meaning that these persons were not known to the active ward ...
— Theodore Roosevelt - An Autobiography by Theodore Roosevelt • Theodore Roosevelt

... by the side of a young or old woman now, I try to give our conversation a ticklish turn; I forget all reserve and I try to make her talk of those jokes which nettle, those words of double meaning which excite, and to lead her up to the only subject that interests and holds me, to find out what she feels in her body as well as in her heart, on that night, when for the first time, she has to undergo the nuptial ordeal. Some do not appear to understand me, ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume II (of 8) • Guy de Maupassant

... her. "The word of the Lord came unto His prophet Gib, saying, Smite and spare not, for the cup of the abominations of Babylon is now full. The hour cometh, yea, it is at hand, when the elect of the earth, meaning me and two—three others, will be enthroned above the Gentiles, and Dagon and Baal will be cast down. Are ye still in the courts of bondage, young man, or seek ye the true light which the Holy One of Israel has vouchsafed to me, John Gib, ...
— Salute to Adventurers • John Buchan

... to do," resumed Mr. Leeds, closing the box carefully, "I examined the papyrus and discovered two words whose meaning was unknown to me. I deciphered them, and tried to pronounce them aloud. Scarcely had I uttered the first word when I felt the box slipping from my hands, as if pressed down by an enormous weight, and it glided along the floor, whence I vainly endeavored ...
— The Reign of Greed - Complete English Version of 'El Filibusterismo' • Jose Rizal

... the High-priest advanced to help him up the steps, for he was feeble with age. He waved them aside, and beckoning to his daughter, rested his hand upon her shoulder and by her aid mounted the throne. I thought that there was meaning in this; it was as though he would show to all the assembly that this princess ...
— Moon of Israel • H. Rider Haggard

... the good of His friends. Do not think," she continued, coming a step nearer in her earnestness, "that I make such allusions to pain you, but only in my sincere wish to help you, and illustrate my meaning by something you know so well. Did death make havoc in your mother's case? Was it not rather a sombre-liveried janitor that opened for her the ...
— Opening a Chestnut Burr • Edward Payson Roe

... food is put into the grave along with the dead body, which is interred without a coffin. I have sometimes seen one of the nearest relatives leap into the grave and strike the body with his foot, but the meaning of this strange proceeding I never could clearly understand. Some curious ceremonies are observed on All Souls' Day. In every house in which a member of the family has died in the course of the ...
— Travels in Peru, on the Coast, in the Sierra, Across the Cordilleras and the Andes, into the Primeval Forests • J. J. von Tschudi

... and, on observing on his men's coats a badge all full of points, with this device—monstrorum terror,—'the terror of monsters,' he said wittily, pointing to the men, 'Behold there the terror, and here the monster!' meaning himself. 'And if either of the Kings had a hundred thousand of such, they would be fitter to fright their enemies than to hurt any one of them.' He took occasion, also, to let his attendants know of what a great and noble family he was, and how much blood had been spent in the cause of the Monarchs ...
— Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745 - Volume II. • Mrs. Thomson

... be alarmed. You will see me defend myself gaily—that is, if I happen to be in spirits; and by spirits, I don't mean your meaning of the word, but the spirit of a bull-dog when pinched, or a bull when pinned; it is then that they make best sport; and as my sensations under an attack are probably a happy compound of the united energies of these amiable animals, you may ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. IV - With His Letters and Journals • Thomas Moore

... sustain erroneous doctrines or unchristian practices, some will seize upon passages of Scripture separated from the context, perhaps quoting half of a single verse as proving their point, when the remaining portion would show the meaning to be quite the opposite. With the cunning of the serpent, they entrench themselves behind disconnected utterances construed to suit their carnal desires. Thus do many wilfully pervert the word of God. Others, who have an active imagination, seize upon the figures and symbols of ...
— The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan • Ellen G. White

... physical changes which occur are familiar to all, but the deep meaning of these changes is less generally understood. The parent who has wisely guided the child to this critical period has done much, but it would be a mistake to suppose that all has now been ...
— The Renewal of Life; How and When to Tell the Story to the Young • Margaret Warner Morley

... papers of Huxley's, of Clifford's, and several worn volumes of mental pathology. The brooding intellect was for ever raising the same problem, the same spectre world of universal doubt, in which God, conscience, faith, were words without a meaning. ...
— The History of David Grieve • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... his double suit for a wife and an earldom, which the Prince rejected in the manner we have seen. The Chevalier, constantly engaged in his own multiplied affairs, had not hitherto sought any explanation with Waverley, though often meaning to do so. But after Fergus's declaration he saw the necessity of appearing neutral between the rivals, devoutly hoping that the matter, which now seemed fraught with the seeds of strife, might be permitted to lie over till the ...
— Waverley, Or 'Tis Sixty Years Hence, Complete • Sir Walter Scott

... with a laugh. "You'll steer us against the dock. Yes, Richard Gordon who runs the Alton's yacht, Royal, is my friend," he answered, beginning to sense the true meaning of the affair. ...
— The Girl Scouts at Sea Crest - The Wig Wag Rescue • Lillian Garis

... that semblance of a glittering bird's-nest there, but with the picture came recollections of words and sentences spoken by the grandfather, though the listener, half-drowsily, had heard but the sound of an old, earnest voice—and even the veteran's meaning finally took on a greater definiteness till it became, in the grandson's thoughts, something clear and bright and beautiful that he knew without being just sure where or how he had ...
— Ramsey Milholland • Booth Tarkington

... the ashes of their birth, and pregnant with a lightning which has yet found no conductor. All high poetry is infinite; it is as the first acorn, which contained all oaks potentially. Veil after veil may be undrawn, and the inmost naked beauty of the meaning never exposed. A great poem is a fountain for ever overflowing with the waters of wisdom and delight; and after one person and one age has exhausted all its divine effluence which their peculiar relations enable them to share, another and yet another succeeds, and new relations are ever developed, ...
— A Defence of Poetry and Other Essays • Percy Bysshe Shelley

... half of this, being honest fellows in the main, and desiring time to put heads together about the meaning; but one there was who knew too well that his treacherous sin had found him out. He strove to look like the rest, but felt that his eyes obeyed heart more than brain; and then the widow, who had watched ...
— Mary Anerley • R. D. Blackmore

... to be for him—that? What was the meaning of it? A terrible disappointment came over Wolfgang, for—had he not waited for the text as for a revelation? The text was to be a judgment of God. It was to tell him what was true—or what was not ...
— The Son of His Mother • Clara Viebig

... this book was first announced, made a mistake most natural upon seeing the sub-title as it then stood, A TALE OF SUNDRY ADVENTURES. "This sounds like a historical novel," said one of them, meaning (I take it) a colonial romance. As it now stands, the title will scarce lead to such interpretation; yet none the less is this book historical—quite as much so as any colonial romance. Indeed, when you look ...
— The Virginian - A Horseman Of The Plains • Owen Wister

... their union. All his thoughts were there; he accepted the family because it was a part of Ona. And he was interested in the house because it was to be Ona's home. Even the tricks and cruelties he saw at Durham's had little meaning for him just then, save as they might happen to affect ...
— The Jungle • Upton Sinclair

... the tone sustained, and perfect harmony of colour. The intellectual attainments of the merely learned man, on the contrary, resemble a big palette covered with every colour, at most systematically arranged, but without harmony, relation, and meaning. ...
— Essays of Schopenhauer • Arthur Schopenhauer

... popularity too much, and allowed the press to get ahead. It would now be very difficult to check it. I added that he went to make great reductions and had made some. That that had rendered him unpopular. He was honest and well-meaning. The King said he should go down to Bushey soon, and as I was living near he would have me over at eleven o'clock some morning, and give me some hours to make him acquainted with the state of India. I told him of the secret letter ...
— A Political Diary 1828-1830, Volume II • Edward Law (Lord Ellenborough)

... meaning of Mr. Wormwood's last work," continued Lord Vincent. "My shortest way lay through that churchyard about a mile hence, which is such a lion in this ugly part of the country, because it has three thistles and a tree. Just as I got there, ...
— Pelham, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... of the New Testament; "down to 'grace and truth,'" as she recollected. What a jumble of repetitions it had been to her, then! Sentences so much alike that she could not remember them apart, or which way they came. All at once the simple, beautiful meaning ...
— Real Folks • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney

... of personal experience is necessary. It is true that Darwin quotes with approval Huber's saying that "a little dose of judgment or reason often comes into play, even with animals low in the scale of nature." (Ibid. page 205.) But we may fairly interpret his meaning to be that in behaviour, which is commonly called instinctive, some element of intelligent guidance is often combined. If this be conceded the strictly instinctive performance (or part of the performance) is the outcome of heredity and due to the direct ...
— Darwin and Modern Science • A.C. Seward and Others

... small island—the name meaning "Vay Island," Pulo being simply the Malay word for "island"—situated near the island of Banda. The English post thereon which is mentioned in the text was of little consequence, according to Richard Cocks—see his Diary, 1615-22 (Hakluyt Society's publications, London, 1883), i, pp. 269, 274, ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XVIII, 1617-1620 • Various

... Niagara Falls with her bald old husband—and she would only laugh and pause to toss a faded rose out of the window, and then go right on dancing. But perhaps, some day, when tears had taught her the real meaning of life ...
— Gentle Julia • Booth Tarkington

... into philosophy the algebraic idea of negative quantities. It is one of Kant's grandest gleams into hidden truth. Were it only for the merits of this most masterly essay in reconstituting the algebraic meaning of a negative quantity [so generally misunderstood as a negation of quantity, and which even Sir Isaac Newton misconstrued as regarded its metaphysics], great would have been the service rendered to logic by Kant. But there is a greater. From this ...
— The Notebook of an English Opium-Eater • Thomas de Quincey

... will. Do you know what is the meaning of these afternoon fevers and night sweats ...
— The Missing Bride • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth

... she, the proud and blessed, who had always considered herself quite as spunky as another person, had bolted in a panic. And she had bolted too fast, it seemed, to consider even that, with that cry, there had come a new element into the situation, disturbing to the old argument. The full reach and meaning of Jack Dalhousie's letter seemed to be coming upon her now for the first time, just when she had ritually cremated it. Out of the pink saucer had mysteriously blown the knowledge that the author of that poor composition could no more be pictured ...
— V. V.'s Eyes • Henry Sydnor Harrison

... that bad system of mercenary warfare were illustrated on these occasions. During his lifetime, the conditions of Italy were so changed by Charles V.'s imperial settlement in 1530, that the occupation of Condottiere ceased to have any meaning. Strozzi and Farnesi, who afterwards followed this profession, enlisted in the ranks of France or Spain, and won their ...
— New Italian sketches • John Addington Symonds

... beheld old Roger Chillingworth himself, standing in the remotest corner of the market-place and smiling on her; a smile which—across the wide and bustling square, and through all the talk and laughter, and various thoughts, moods, and interests of the crowd—conveyed secret and fearful meaning. ...
— The Scarlet Letter • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... them," said Mr. Jarvie, in a whisper, "Daoine Schie,—whilk signifies, as I understand, men of peace; meaning thereby to make their gudewill. And we may e'en as weel ca' them that too, Mr. Osbaldistone, for there's nae gude in speaking ill o' the laird within his ain bounds." But he added presently after, on seeing one or two lights which twinkled before us, "It's deceits o' ...
— Rob Roy, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott

... briskly. "No, I shan't mind it at all." She looked Miss Towell significantly in the eyes, hoping that her words would carry all the meaning she was putting into them. "I shan't mind—anything you want me to do, ...
— The Dust Flower • Basil King



Words linked to "Meaning" :   essence, effect, meaningful, thought, mean, strain, burden, signified, well-meaning, undertone, undercurrent, substance, symbolisation, core, symbolization, pregnant, connotation, subtlety, spirit, content, gist, significant, purport, semantics, intension, lexical meaning, refinement, message, intent, implication



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