"Dilly" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... and she knew it. It was nothing to me anyway, and I could always plead that I was her servant and an Englishman, and didn't care a damn for this particular Emperor or any other. None the less, if she hadn't smiled upon me as she did at that particular moment—smiled like a daffy-down-dilly in April, and squeezed my hand as soft as June roses, which the same appeared to be done by accident, I might have left it alone, after all. As it was, I had set off at seven o'clock on the following evening, ...
— The Man Who Drove the Car • Max Pemberton
... the right, while none denied it. The leading journal at the North said: "Let the erring sisters depart in peace." But all of our overtures were rejected by the administration at Washington, and a policy of evasion, or dilly-dallying, was kept up by those in authority at the North. All the while active preparations were going on to coerce the State by force of arms. During this time other States seceded and joined South Carolina, and formed the ...
— History of Kershaw's Brigade • D. Augustus Dickert
... men, he saw Dr. Rees, editor of the Encyclopaedia, who had dined with Dr. Johnson and John Wilkes at Dilly's—not at the first dinner probably, for Boswell gives a list of the guests which does not include his name, but doubtless at the second, in 1781. Dr. Rees said that Wilkes won his way to Johnson's ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XVII. No. 101. May, 1876. • Various
... under a hill," and peeled apples; nothing more seductive, in infantile attitude, than the little boy and girl, who, with their arms around each other, stand watching the black-cat in the plum-tree. Then there is Daffy-down-dilly, who has come up to town, with "a yellow petticoat and a green gown," in which attire, aided by a straw hat tied under her chin, she manages to look exceedingly attractive, as she passes in front of the white ...
— De Libris: Prose and Verse • Austin Dobson
... she passed her husband to her seat at the table, and he stood still watching her as she began pouring coffee. It was always a pleasure to watch her. The butler drew out the gentleman's chair firmly. It was time his master took his seat with his lady. There was too much of this dilly-dallying. De Forest came lazily forward ...
— Only an Incident • Grace Denio Litchfield
... two years' close observation of the Prussians in action had not changed Page's opinion of their motives or of their methods; in 1916, as in 1914, Page could see in this struggle nothing but a colossal buccaneering expedition on the part of Germany. "As I look at it," he wrote, "our dilly-dallying is likely to get us into war. The Germans want somebody to rob—to pay their great military bills. They've robbed Belgium and are still robbing it of every penny they can lay their hands on. ...
— The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page, Volume II • Burton J. Hendrick
... spent nearly L30,000 in Ashbourne. An omnibus was then running between Ashbourne and Derby, which out of courtesy to the French was named a "diligence," the French equivalent for stage-coach; but the Derby diligence was soon abbreviated to the Derby "Dilly." The roads at that time were very rough, macadamised surfaces being unknown, and a very steep hill leading into the Ashbourne and Derby Road was called bete noire by the French, about which Canning, who was an occasional passenger, wrote the ...
— From John O'Groats to Land's End • Robert Naylor and John Naylor
... scruples of his lordship's Reverend adviser, Padre Ambrosio, this connexion was suddenly dissolved at Paris; when Mrs. C——, no longer acknowledged as my lady, was at an hour's notice packed off in the Dilly for Dover, and her jewels, in half the time, packed up in their casket and despatched to Lafitte's, in order to raise the ways and means for the ...
— The English Spy • Bernard Blackmantle
... enuf!" says Woodley first sighting it. "I reck'n the skunk's tellin' us the truth, 'bout that stick o' timber being a finger-post. Tharfor, no more dilly-dallying but on to't quick as our critters can take us. Thar's a man's life in danger; one that's dear to me, as I reckon he'd be to all o' ye, ef ye knowed him, same's I do. Ye heerd what the old kurnel sayed, as we war startin' out: cost what it mout, Charley Clancy air ...
— The Death Shot - A Story Retold • Mayne Reid
... Dilly seconded the motion. They had not the effrontery to wrap up their motives in specious expressions of concern for my health, but stated their point of view with brutal frankness, as is their wont. I was an old dear, they conceded, and of course Kitty was ...
— The Right Stuff - Some Episodes in the Career of a North Briton • Ian Hay
... years later, mail trains were at once put on,—the directors undertaking to perform the distance of 113 miles within 5 hours by day and 5.5 hours by night. As additional lines were opened, the old four-horse mail coaches were gradually discontinued, until in 1858, the last of them, the "Derby Dilly," which ran between Manchester and Derby, was taken off on the opening of the ...
— Lives of the Engineers - The Locomotive. George and Robert Stephenson • Samuel Smiles
... song, And one that was pleasant and jolly: And that should be 'Hence, Melancholy!' 'Now give me a dance,' quoth Doll, 'Come, Jeffrery, play up Mad Moll, 'Tis time to be merry and frisky, - But first I must have some more whiskey.' 'Oh! you're right,' says Arthur, 'my love! My daffy-down-dilly! my dove! My everything! my wife! I ne'er was so pleased in my life, Since my name it was Arthur O'Bradley!' O! rare Arthur O'Bradley! wonderful Arthur O'Bradley! ...
— Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of England • Robert Bell
... think so, you know. I imagine that pretty Anne Shirley, who is visiting Ella Kimball, doesn't. I saw her and Dr. Irving out walking this afternoon, looking very well satisfied with themselves. If you dilly-dally much longer, Sue, you will let Max ...
— Further Chronicles of Avonlea • Lucy Maud Montgomery
... restless, and keen on expediting a Waterloo. The obliging guard had thrown open the gates to gratify the "niggers"—on condition that British heads only were to be hit! The natives itched to hit somebody, and could not afford to let slip so good a chance by dilly-dallying over details. They agreed to the terms; but were fortunately herded together again before they could strike a blow. It may have been only a slip of the tongue on the guard's part; but the canons of martial law held such "slips" to be unpardonable. The one in question ...
— The Siege of Kimberley • T. Phelan
... 'DILLY JONES' is one of those unfortunate wights 'just whose luck' it is never to succeed in any thing they undertake. In a state of 'mellow' mental abstraction, while lamenting that the trade of one's early days might not likewise ...
— The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, February 1844 - Volume 23, Number 2 • Various
... "Dilly, Dilly, come and be killed!" Cried good Mrs. Bond to the ducks, in the story. Conceive with what rapture the victims were thrilled, And then picture the joy of our Turtle friends, filled ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 104, March 4, 1893 • Various
... think of another way, Jim, the meeting is still open." Garlock was wiping his eyes. "But it'll have to be a dilly. I'm not exactly enamored of Lola's idea, either, but as the answer it's one hundred percent to as many decimal places as you want to take ...
— The Galaxy Primes • Edward Elmer Smith
... want to see you about. It was just before I left, an' we was standin' at the gate, nigh my hoss and buggy. It had got sorter dark, and—well, I'll tell you all about it. Alf, I've heard fellows say (and they was men that had had experience with women, too)—I've heard 'em say that the chap that dilly-dallies with a woman, and always acts as sweet as pie, never makes no headway. Them fellows say you've just got to be sorter firm with a girl that won't make up her mind—that women like to have a man show that he ain't scared out ...
— Dixie Hart • Will N. Harben
... she uttered these words, she put on a serious look, and gave orders that he should be taken out and administered twenty blows with the bamboo. When the servants perceived that lady Feng was in an angry mood, they did not venture to dilly-dally, but dragged him out, and gave him the full number of blows; which done, they came in to report that the punishment had ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin
... the term for hair in Kabi dialect, Mary River, Queensland. Dirrang and jirra are corresponding words in the east of New South Wales. The aboriginal word dilli has been tautologically increased to dilly-bag, and the word is used by bushmen for a little bag for odds-and-ends, even though made of ...
— A Dictionary of Austral English • Edward Morris
... act of folly or of desperation. If I could hope to contend successfully against him, it would be necessary for me to be as foolish and as desperate. I must go in for a headlong game. It was to be a regular steeple-chase. No dilly-dallying—no shuffling—no coquetting—no wooing—but bold, instant, and immediate action. And why not? Our intercourse on the ice had been less than a day, but those hours were protracted singly to the duration of years, and we had been forced into intimacy by the peril of our path ...
— The Lady of the Ice - A Novel • James De Mille
... Daffy-down-dilly came up in the cold, Through the brown mould Although the March breezes blew keen on her face, Although the white snow lay in many a place. Daffy-Down-Dilly. ...
— The World's Best Poetry — Volume 10 • Various
... school building at the west end of the dormitory. I stepped inside to see how it was, and finding it squarely facing the setting sun, I thought I would melt. In spite of autumn having already set in, the hot spell still lingered, quite in keeping with the dilly-dally atmosphere of the country. I ordered the same kind of meal as served for the students, and finished my supper. The meal was unspeakably poor. It was a wonder they could subsist on such miserable stuff and keep on "roughing it" in that lively fashion. Not only that, they were always hungry for ...
— Botchan (Master Darling) • Mr. Kin-nosuke Natsume, trans. by Yasotaro Morri
... with whisky. Why, a feller as long as you be needs a good jolt for every foot of yuh—and that's about fifteen when you're lengthened out good. Come on—don't be a damn' chubber! Yuh got to sample m' hospitality. Hey, Tom! set out about a quart uh your mildest for Daffy-down-Dilly. He's dry, clean down to his ...
— The Long Shadow • B. M. Bower
... the seventeenth century the locality had become quite famous for its bookshops. Nat Ponder, who 'did time' for publishing a seditious pamphlet, was Bunyan's publisher. John Dunton's shop was at the sign of the Black Raven. No. 22 was the residence of the brothers Charles and Edward Dilly, and it was here, at a dinner, that Dr. Johnson's prejudices against Wilkes were entirely broken down by the latter's brilliant conversation. The Dillys were great entertainers, and all the more notable literary people of the period were to be met at their house. They amassed ...
— The Book-Hunter in London - Historical and Other Studies of Collectors and Collecting • William Roberts
... shows the splendor and wisdom of her military genius like her instant comprehension of the size of the change which has come about, and her instant perception of the right and only right way to take advantage of it. With her is no sitting down and starving out; no dilly-dallying and fooling around; no lazying, loafing, and going to sleep; no, it is storm! storm! storm! and still storm! storm! storm! and forever storm! storm! storm! hunt the enemy to his hole, then turn her French hurricanes loose and carry him ...
— Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc - Volume 1 (of 2) • Mark Twain
... contingents trailing along the yellow sands, carrying in well-worn dilly-bags oysters and scraps of half-baked fish smeared with smoke, and gritty. All their lives had they trudged along the convenient margin of the sea, where the receding tide leaves a firm, level, ...
— Tropic Days • E. J. Banfield
... slight nobody at all edible to society," she said, "for I don't believe in that. I shall have Miss Lucy Grey, of course, from Grey's Park, for she is the cream-dilly-cream of Allington, she and your Aunt, Miss McPherson," turning to Daisy, "and mebby I shall ask Hanner Jerrold, though she never goes anywheres—that's Grey's aunt," and now she nodded to Bessie, who at the mention of the name Jerrold, evinced a little interest in what ...
— Bessie's Fortune - A Novel • Mary J. Holmes
... whole of last season, on the Eureka, who was the first every morning, between four and five to sing out 'Great works?' Who was the last dilly-dallying at the cradle after sunset? I appeal to my fellow-diggers, and ...
— The Eureka Stockade • Carboni Raffaello |
