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Javelin   Listen
noun
Javelin  n.  
1.
A sort of light spear, to be thrown or cast by the hand; anciently, a weapon of war used by horsemen and foot soldiers; now used chiefly in hunting the wild boar and other fierce game. "Flies the javelin swifter to its mark, Launched by the vigor of a Roman arm?"
2.
(Sport) A wooden shaft resembling a spear, thrown by contestants in a contest called the javelin throw; the one throwing the javelin furthest wins the contest. The javelin throw is one of the field events of the modern Olympic Games.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Javelin" Quotes from Famous Books



... Bedawin are expert horsemen, and are very fond of equestrian sports. Some of their fancy riding is very clever, and great rivalry exists among them, particularly in their "jerid," or javelin, play, when frequently several hundreds of mounted men are engaged in a melee, which, though only intended to be a friendly contest, often results in serious ...
— Peeps at Many Lands: Egypt • R. Talbot Kelly

... silver-hilted, without a guard; and its scabbard, richly embroidered, is composed of several pieces of morocco of different colors. The pistols also are mounted with silver; the poniard has often precious stones in its handle, and its sheath is inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Sometimes a javelin in addition to other arms is carried, which is hurled to a considerable distance with an aim that rarely errs. Having a groove at the but-end, it is used also as a rest for the rifle, besides serving as a pole ...
— Life of Schamyl - And Narrative of the Circassian War of Independence Against Russia • John Milton Mackie

... on the great wall of Stamboul, and the beggar, and the street-merchant with large tray of water-melons, sweetmeats, raisins, sherbet, and the bear-shewer, and the Barbary organ, and the night-watchman who evermore cried 'Fire!' with his long lantern, two pistols, dirk, and wooden javelin. Strange how all that old life has come back to my fancy now, pretty vividly, and for the first time, though I have been here several times lately. I have gone out to those plains beyond the walls with their view of rather barren mountain-peaks, ...
— The Purple Cloud • M.P. Shiel

... feeble hand a javelin threw, Which, flutt'ring, seem'd to loiter as it flew: Just, and but barely, to the mark it held, And faintly tinkled on the ...
— The Aeneid • Virgil

... petty antipathies; and, where the likings are fickle, the dislikings are pretty sure to be tenacious. A keen student of human nature has remarked, that many women "spend force enough in trivial observations on dress and manners, to form a javelin to pierce quite through a character." Women's eyes are armed with microscopes to see all the little defects and dissimilarities which can irritate and injure their friendships. Hence there are so many feminine friends easily provoked to ...
— The Friendships of Women • William Rounseville Alger

... sleeps, Stern Marius then o'er fallen Carthage weeps; Then with enthusiast love the pilgrim roves To seek his footsteps in forsaken groves, Explores the fractured arch, the ruined tower, Those limbs disjointed of gigantic power; Still at each step he dreads the adder's sting, [20] The Arab's javelin, or the tiger's spring; With doubtful caution treads the echoing ground. And asks where Troy or ...
— Eighteen Hundred and Eleven • Anna Laetitia Barbauld

... and green'd the pious charactery, But not ta'en out. Why, there was not a slope Up which he had not fear'd the antelope; And not a tree, beneath whose rooty shade 800 He had not with his tamed leopards play'd; Nor could an arrow light, or javelin, Fly in the air where his had never been— And yet he ...
— Endymion - A Poetic Romance • John Keats

... definite course of study, which included, in succession: (1) leaping and jumping, for general bodily and lung development; (2) running contests, for agility and endurance; (3) throwing the discus, [19] for arm exercise; (4) casting the javelin, for bodily poise and cooerdination of movement, as well as for future use in hunting; (5) boxing and wrestling, for quickness, agility, endurance, and the control of the temper and passions. Swimming and dancing ...
— THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION • ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY

... heart as she turned away; It sang like the lark in the skies of May. The round moon laughed, but a lone red star, [30] As she turned to the teepee and entered in, Fell flashing and swift in the sky afar, Like the polished point of a javelin. Nor chief nor daughter the shadow saw ...
— Legends of the Northwest • Hanford Lennox Gordon

... bull led the band. He was a few feet in advance of all the rest. He came roaring along, his tail erect in the air as a javelin, his head near the ground, and his stout, bony horns projected as if he were just ready to plunge upon his ...
— David Crockett: His Life and Adventures • John S. C. Abbott

... great effect on both sides, but much greater on that of the Cappadocians than on the other. Then, sword in hand and covered by their shields, they came to blows, and Artamene, as we were informed, immolated the first victim [but how about the javelin "effect"?] in this bloody sacrifice. For, having got in front of all his companions by some paces, he killed, with a mighty sword-stroke, the first who offered resistance. [Despite this, the general struggle continues to go against the Cappadocians, though Artamene's exploits ...
— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 - From the Beginning to 1800 • George Saintsbury

... the famous Roman pike. This is a stout weapon, over 6 feet in length, consisting of a sharp iron head fixed in a wooden shaft, and the soldier may either charge with it as with a bayonet, or he may hurl it like a javelin and then fight at close quarters with his sword. On the left arm is a large shield, which may be of various shapes. One common form is curved inward at the sides like a portion of a cylinder some 4 feet in length by 21/2 in width: another is six-sided—a diamond pattern, but with ...
— Life in the Roman World of Nero and St. Paul • T. G. Tucker

... hold on the lady's rein," said Cedric, coming up. "By the bright sun above us, but it were shame, I would pin thee to the earth with my javelin—but be well assured, thou shalt smart, Maurice de Bracy, for thy share in ...
— Ivanhoe - A Romance • Walter Scott

... which St. Canutus had brought over from England. The saint, stretching out his arms before the altar, fervently recommended his soul into the hands of his Creator: in which posture he was wounded with a javelin, darted through the window, and fell a victim to Christ. His brother Benedict, and seventeen others, were slain with him, on the 10th of July, 1086, as AElnoth, a contemporary author, testifies, who has specified the date of all the events with the utmost exactness. His wicked brother Olas succeeded ...
— The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints - January, February, March • Alban Butler

... the king conceived to be his enemy. Jonathan's friendship stood the test. His own life hung lightly in the balance, but Jonathan would rather have given his life than fail his friend. He took it in his hand that evening at the royal feast of the new moon; and he played with death as the javelin of the infuriated Saul came hurtling ...
— "Say Fellows—" - Fifty Practical Talks with Boys on Life's Big Issues • Wade C. Smith

... robbers on foot coming up, Pelayo returned to his station between the rocks, where he was assailed by them all at once. He received two of their darts on his buckler, a javelin razed his cuirass, and glancing down, wounded his horse. Pelayo then rushed forth, and struck one of the robbers dead: the others, beholding several huntsmen advancing, took to flight, but were pursued, ...
— Wolfert's Roost and Miscellanies • Washington Irving

... dignified sinecure; the army will rise to the rank of peaceful constables, not having any more use for their bayonets than those worthy people have for their weapons now who accompany the law at assizes under the name of javelin-men. The apparatus of bombs and eighty-four- pounders may disappear from the Alameda, and the crops of cannon- balls which now grow there may give place to other plants more pleasant to the eye; and the great key of Gibraltar may ...
— Notes on a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo • William Makepeace Thackeray

... sense of his speech nor did he apprehend the vehemence of the verse; but he smote his forehead with his hand, in honour of the Cross drawn thereon and kissed it; then he couched his throw spear and ran at Sharrkan. But first he tossed the javelin with one hand in air to such height that it was lost to the spectators' sight; and, catching it with the other hand as do the jugglers, hurled it at Sharrkan. It flew from his grasp like a shooting star and ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton

... the satrap was even more taken with the Spartan, and, waiting behind his father, ran up to the king, and, according to the Persian offer of friendship, said, "I make you my guest," at the same time giving him a javelin. Agesilaus looked about for anything fine enough to offer the young Persian in return, and seeing that a youth in his train had a horse with handsome trappings, asked for them, and made a gift of them to his new friend. The friendship stood the youth in good stead, ...
— Aunt Charlotte's Stories of Greek History • Charlotte M. Yonge

... divine qualities are in this big People, the consummate flower of all that they have done and been, the ultimate product of the Destinies, and English man of men, arrived at last in the fulness of time, is—who think you? Ye worlds, the Ithuriel javelin by which, with all these heroisms and accumulated energies old and new, the English People means to smite and pierce, is this poor tailor's-bodkin, hardly adequate to bore an eylet-hole, who now has the honor to"—Good Heavens, if it were not that ...
— Latter-Day Pamphlets • Thomas Carlyle

... put enmity between the seed of Jubal, who was the "father of all such as handle the harp and pipe," and the seed of Saul, who, I take it, is the first critic of record (and a vigorous one, too, for he accentuated his unfavorable opinion of a harper's harping with a javelin thrust). ...
— How to Listen to Music, 7th ed. - Hints and Suggestions to Untaught Lovers of the Art • Henry Edward Krehbiel

... as a youth of a plump figure, and naked, with a ruddy face, and an effeminate air; he is crowned with ivy and vine leaves, and bears in his hand a thyrsus, or javelin with an iron head, encircled with ivy and vine leaves: his chariot is sometimes drawn by lions, at others by tigers, leopards, or panthers; and surrounded by a band of Satyrs, Bacchae, and Nymphs, in frantic postures; whilst old Sil{}enus, his preceptor, follows on an ass, which crouches ...
— Roman Antiquities, and Ancient Mythology - For Classical Schools (2nd ed) • Charles K. Dillaway

... pain and sent him hopping out of range in double- quick time—a proceeding which raised a hearty laugh at his expense among his companions. A moment later, however, he returned, his eyes sparkling with rage, and would have transfixed me with the light javelin he carried had not another of the party interfered. By the order of this last individual Smellie and I were presently raised from the ground, and each borne by two men, were carried off in the rear of the column of captive blacks, our captors taking up such positions ...
— The Congo Rovers - A Story of the Slave Squadron • Harry Collingwood

... their master, and not till the governor gives the sign. They bring from home the staple of their meal, dry bread with nasturtium for a relish, and to slake their thirst they bring a drinking-cup, to dip in the running stream. In addition, they are taught to shoot with the bow and to fling the javelin. ...
— Cyropaedia - The Education Of Cyrus • Xenophon

... at Bude!' said Cuchulainn. He hurls at him the javelin, so that it went through his armpits, and one of the livers broke in two before the spear. He kills him on his ford; hence is Ath Bude. The Bull is brought into the camp then. They considered then that it would not be difficult to deal ...
— The Cattle-Raid of Cualnge (Tain Bo Cualnge) • Unknown

... careering about the room for the amusement of his infant friend, as well as his own, mimicking with a reed the menacing attitude of the Abencerrages and Zegris engaged in the Eastern sport of hurling the JERID, or javelin; and at times sitting down beside her, and caressing her into silence and good humour, when the petulant or timid child chose to become tired of remaining an inactive spectator of his boisterous sport; when, on a sudden, he observed one of the panelled compartments ...
— Peveril of the Peak • Sir Walter Scott

... trees were arched together and interlaced, their lower branches set with flowering orchids like hothouse plants upon a window-ledge. The dense foliage allowed only a random beam of sunlight to pass through and pierce the pool, like a brilliant, quivering javelin. Long vines depended from the limbs above, falling sheer and straight as plumb-lines; a giant liana the size of a man's body twined up and up until ...
— The Ne'er-Do-Well • Rex Beach

... sounded from hill to hill, and the sea answered with crashing surges that leaped high upon the shore. Suddenly, from the utter darkness, a javelin of lightning flashed through the pines, but they only ...
— Flower of the Dusk • Myrtle Reed

... of an ancient town a furious battle is being fought between two great states. Early in the day one of the generals, a brave and just man, is pierced in the breast with a javelin. He is carried to a little hill, where his first question is whether his shield is safe; and when he sees it he allows his wound to be examined. The weapon remains in the wound, and the weeping attendants fear to draw it out; but he, only waiting to ...
— Little Folks (November 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various

... havoc was made in the advance column by frequent surprises. Now and again would appear a few juramentados, or sworn Mahometans, who sought their way to Allah by the sacrifice of their own blood, but causing considerable destruction to the invading party. With a kris at the waist, a javelin in one hand, and a shield supported by the other, they would advance before the enemy, dart forward and backwards, make zigzag movements, and then, with a war-whoop, rush in three or four at a time upon a body of Christians twenty times their number, giving no ...
— The Philippine Islands • John Foreman

... is told. Now sing I thee, Castor the Tyndarid, lord of rushing horse And shaking javelin, ...
— Theocritus • Theocritus

... came to the rescue. "The throwing of the javelin, the proper term for all weapons of this character, was an interesting thing from the earliest times. The lighter weapons are thrown by grasping them between the thumb and the two first fingers; but the heavy ones like this need a firmer grasp, and on account of their weight ...
— The Wonder Island Boys: The Tribesmen • Roger Finlay

... night and treacherous ways. What should he do? what force employ To rescue the beloved boy? Plunge through the spears that line the wood, And death and glory win with blood? Not unresolved, he poises soon A javelin, looking to the Moon: "Grant, goddess, grant thy present aid, Queen of the stars, Latonian maid, The greenwood's guardian power; If, grateful for success of mine, With gifts my sire has graced thy shrine, If e'er myself have brought thee spoil, ...
— National Epics • Kate Milner Rabb

... Tuileries. The warriors, with proud demeanor and stately tread, marched along, with quivers of arrows at their backs, and bows in their hands. Tomahawks and scalping knives were ostentatiously displayed, and the scalps of enemies dangled at their javelin points, as badges of their nobility. Of these they were more proud than were ever English, French, or Spanish grandees of the decoration of stars or garters. The women and the dogs came next. They were alike regarded as necessary drudges to bear ...
— The Adventures of the Chevalier De La Salle and His Companions, in Their Explorations of the Prairies, Forests, Lakes, and Rivers, of the New World, and Their Interviews with the Savage Tribes, Two Hu • John S. C. Abbott

... between the races, come the athletic sports; foot-racing and wrestling, rope-dancing and high leaping, quoit-throwing and javelin matches. One man runs a race with a fleet Cappadocian horse; another expert rider drives two bare-backed horses twice around the track, leaping from back to back as the horses dash around. Can you see any very great difference between the circus ...
— Historic Boys - Their Endeavours, Their Achievements, and Their Times • Elbridge Streeter Brooks

... baidars, and pursued the game with which land and water were stocked: they had never seen it in such plenty; and being passionately fond of the chase, they fired away without ceasing, and even brought down some of the game with a javelin. The Aleutians are as much at home in their little leathern canoes, as our Cossacks on horseback. They follow their prey with the greatest rapidity in all directions, and it seldom escapes them. White and grey pelicans about twice the size of our geese were here in great ...
— A New Voyage Round the World, in the years 1823, 24, 25, and 26, Vol. 2 • Otto von Kotzebue

... privilege of watching (and it is also said assisting in) the gymnastic exercise of naked young girls, who from their earliest youth entered into contests with each other in wrestling and racing and in throwing the quoit and javelin.[266] The age of marriage was also fixed, special care being taken that the Spartan girls should not marry too soon; no sickly girl was permitted to marry.[267] In the supreme interest of the race love was regulated. The ...
— The Truth About Woman • C. Gasquoine Hartley

... no longer to drag their victims to the cannibal ovens, nor to pile up the skulls of their enemies so as to show their own bravery. The writer said they were beginning happier lives in which the awful terror of the javelin and the club, and the horror of demons ...
— The Book of Missionary Heroes • Basil Mathews

... sculpture. One is a colossal group, representing St. Michael conquering Satan; another is a figure of the celebrated warrior, Godfrey of Bouillon, mounted on horseback; and a third, is an Amazon, who is just about to hurl her javelin at a ferocious tiger, who has fastened on the neck and shoulders of her frightened horse. Here is also a figure of Mazeppa on the wild horse, which is extremely well made, and, perhaps, reminds those of my little friends ...
— The World's Fair • Anonymous

... "I like not horse-play. But let them be prepared; and let the High Bailiff collect his civil officers, and command the Sheriffs to summon their worshipful attendants from javelin-men to hangmen, and have them in readiness, in case of any sudden tumult—double the sentinels on the doors of the palace—and see no ...
— Peveril of the Peak • Sir Walter Scott

... one is not obliged to return to its owner a thing deposited: for example, one will not give back a dagger when one knows that he who has deposited it is about to stab someone. Let us pretend that I have in my hands the fatal draught that Meleager's mother will make use of to kill him; the magic javelin that Cephalus will unwittingly employ to kill his Procris; the horses of Theseus that will tear to pieces Hippolytus, his son: these things are demanded back from me, and I am right in refusing them, knowing ...
— Theodicy - Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil • G. W. Leibniz

... Shade, By his Recorded Verse Immortal made. But, Sir, his livelier Figure to engrave, With Branches added to the Bays you gave: No Muse could more Heroick Feats rehearse, Had with an equal all-applauding Verse, Great Davids Scepter, and Sauls Javelin prais'd: A Pyramide to his Saint, Interest, rais'd. For which Religiously no Change he mist, } From Common-wealths-man up to Royalist: } Nay, would have been his own loath'd thing call'd Priest. } Priest, whom with so much Gall he does describe, 'Cause once unworthy ...
— Anti-Achitophel (1682) - Three Verse Replies to Absalom and Achitophel by John Dryden • Elkanah Settle et al.

... folk! Let the husbandmen take their farming tools and return to their fields as quick as possible, but without either sword, spear or javelin. All is as quiet as if Peace had been reigning for a century. Come, let everyone go till ...
— Peace • Aristophanes

... of man finds higher and higher powers. Once he throttled his game, and often perished in the desperate struggle; then he trapped it; then pierced it with the javelin; then shot it with an arrow, or set the springy gases to hurl a rifle-ball at it. Sometime he may point at it an electric spark, and it shall be his. Once he wearily trudged his twenty miles a day, then he took the horse ...
— Recreations in Astronomy - With Directions for Practical Experiments and Telescopic Work • Henry Warren

... fearless step he pursues his way through the leafy shade, and traverses the treacherous surface of the morass. Beneath yon giant oak he has encountered the fiercest inhabitant of those solitudes—the wild bull; but it has fallen beneath his javelin, which yet protrudes from it bushy neck, and, as it lies struggling on the greensward, making the wood ring again with its bellowings, his dagger is raised to give it the final stroke.—Observe him once ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 348 • Various

... sixth of 195 flour. The prince, Muley Teeb, seated on an eminence in this spacious tent, resembled what we should imagine the patriarch Abraham to have been, entertaining his friends; or Saul upon his throne, with his javelin in his hand. He had twelve lanciers, six on each side of him in a row, standing with their lances erect, the Prince having one in his hand. It appears that this is the Arabian etiquette; and the Arabs appeared much gratified ...
— An Account of Timbuctoo and Housa Territories in the Interior of Africa • Abd Salam Shabeeny

... offensive armor was a short, straight two-edged sword (gladius), about two feet long, worn by privates on the right side, so as not to interfere with the shield, but on the left side by officers. The javelin (pilum) was a heavy wooden shaft with an iron head, the whole about seven feet long and weighing fully ten pounds. All legionary soldiers were Roman citizens. The auxiliaries were hired or drafted troops, and were always light-armed. ...
— History of Rome from the Earliest times down to 476 AD • Robert F. Pennell

... disobliged, that he openly reviled his father; telling first, by way of ridicule, stories about his conversations at home, and the discourses he had with the sophists and scholars that came to his house. As for instance, how one who was a practicer of the five games of skill, having with a dart or javelin unawares against his will struck and killed Epitimus the Pharsalian, his father spent a whole day with Protagoras in a serious dispute, whether the javelin, or the man that threw it, or the masters of the games who appointed these sports, were, according to the strictest and best reason, to be accounted ...
— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough

... sharp, and traceless. Just as Rufus and Winthrop had made their bow, and before they had time to speak, another bow claimed Elizabeth's return, and the tongue that went therewith was beforehand with theirs. The speaker was a well dressed and easy mannered man of the world; but with a very javelin of an eye, as ready for a throw as a knight's lance of old, and as careless what it met in its ...
— Hills of the Shatemuc • Susan Warner

... that one stone alone weighed an ounce. Then did Sigvaldi cut his ship adrift & went about, with the intention of fleeing; Vagn Akason cried out to him bidding him stay, but never a moment would Sigvaldi heed give to what he said, so Vagn sent a javelin after him, and smote the man who held the tiller. Earl Sigvaldi rowed out of the battle with thirty-five ships and left twenty-five ...
— The Sagas of Olaf Tryggvason and of Harald The Tyrant (Harald Haardraade) • Snorri Sturluson

... lead me to her; that exalted virtue With firmer nerve shall bid me grasp the javelin; Shall bid my sword with more than lightning's swiftness. Blaze in the front of war, and glut its rage With blow repeated ...
— The Grecian Daughter • Arthur Murphy

... javelin-like upon us as we struggled through the heavy peat-hags; we lost our bearings and determined to make for any light that we might descry in lonely farm or shepherd's sheil on this forsaken waste. We had almost given ...
— Border Ghost Stories • Howard Pease

... improvements in the art of war. Superior weapons double the courage and efficiency of our troops, carry dismay to the foe, and diminish the cost and delays of warfare. The match-lock and the field-piece in their rudest form triumphed over the shield, the spear, and the javelin, while the long-bow, once so formidable, is now rarely drawn, except by those who cater for sensation-journals. The king's-arm and artillery of the last war cannot stand before the Minie rifle and Whitworth cannon any more than ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 8, No. 46, August, 1861 • Various

... forward from Heaven's edge, and the spring of his ankles shot him downwards with his wings furled behind him. So he went slanting earthward through the evening with his sword stretched out before him, and he was like a javelin that some hunter hath hurled that returneth again to the earth: but just before he touched it he lifted his head and spread his wings with the under feathers forward, and alighted by the bank of the broad Flavro that divides the city of Nombros. And down the bank of the Flavro he fluttered low, ...
— A Dreamer's Tales • Lord Dunsany [Edward J. M. D. Plunkett]

... to represent any benign Chinese god; the aspect of the yellow figure was anything but benevolent. The features were terrific; scowls infested its grotesque countenance; threatening brows bent inward; angry eyes rolled in apparent fury; its double gesture with sword and javelin was violent and almost humorously ...
— The Dark Star • Robert W. Chambers

... which first of the two the encounter should venture, Proving the perilous journey. Bele at last took his helmet, Shaking two lots therein. Watched by the stars Thorstein saw by their shimmer His was the lot first appearing. A blow from his javelin of iron Cleft the huge bolts and strong locks. He descended. Did any one question What was revealed in the cavern, then was he silent and shuddered. Bele at first heard strange music. It rang like the song of a goblin; Then was a clattering noise, like ...
— Fridthjof's Saga • Esaias Tegner

... to prayer, and that one was a watchtower only: from first to last, while the palaces of the other cities of Italy were lifted into sullen fortitudes of rampart, and fringed with forked battlements for the javelin and the bow, the sands of Venice never sank under the weight of a war tower, and her roof terraces were wreathed with Arabian imagery, of golden globes suspended ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 1, April, 1851 • Various

... derive comfort from a belief popular in Bohemia, that King David sits in the moon playing on the harp. My sympathy would go out too strongly for my own comfort, towards David evoking melody in such a lonely spot, far from all his lady friends; I might even imagine him sighing for Saul's hurtling javelin to break the monotony. To these days belongs also the institution of the rosary by Pope Gregory XII, in memory of the victory of Christendom at Lepanto in 1571. The rosary was indeed known as early as the eleventh century, but not in ...
— From a Terrace in Prague • Lieut.-Col. B. Granville Baker

... Assize absolutely fined the High Sheriff of a county one hundred pounds for the mingled contempt shown in neglecting to provide him with an escort of javelin-men and introducing the irrepressible "Right tooral lol looral" into a speech delivered at the opening of circuit. Nor was the song all that was wonderful in Jem Baggs. His "make-up" was superb. The comic genius of Robson ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 80, June, 1864 • Various

... revolutionary means of killing which would make guns and rifles powerless has not been developed. It is still a question of throwing or shooting projectiles accurately at your opponent, only where once it was javelin, or spear, or arrow, now it is a matter of shells for anywhere from one mile to twenty miles; and the more hits that you could make with javelins or arrows and can make with shells the more likely it is that victory will incline to your ...
— My Second Year of the War • Frederick Palmer

... him: beyond all others he will prove a stout and strong commander. And by strong, I mean, not one so hale of body as to tower above the stoutest of the soldiery themselves; no, nor him whose skill to hurl a javelin or shoot an arrow will outshine the skilfullest; nor yet that mounted on the fleetest charger it shall be his to bear the brunt of danger foremost amid the knightliest horsemen, the nimblest of light infantry. No, not these, ...
— The Economist • Xenophon

... spake through kindness. Seeing one of his kinsmen lying in the blood, he clasped him in his arms and would have borne him hence, when the bold minstrel shot him above the dead to death. The flight began as the others saw this deed, and all fell to cursing this selfsame minstrel. He snatched javelin, sharp and hard, the which had been hurled at him by a Hun, and cast it with might across the court, far over the folk. Thus he forced Etzel's warriors to take lodgement further from the hall. On every side the people feared ...
— The Nibelungenlied • Unknown

... moment, in the early summer of 1566, many thousands of burghers, merchants, peasants, and gentlemen, were seen mustering and marching through the fields of every province, armed with arquebus, javelin, pike and broadsword. For what purpose were these gatherings? Only to hear sermons and to sing hymns in the open air, as it was unlawful to profane the churches with such rites. This was the first great popular phase of the Netherland rebellion. Notwithstanding the edicts and the inquisition ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... give a party for him!' suggested Miss Phoebe. 'I should like to see a Queen's counsel for once in my life. I have seen javelin-men, but that's the greatest thing in the legal line ...
— Wives and Daughters • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

... kindly-faced man, whom the preacher addressed as "Brother Hodges," knelt and offered prayer. The supplication was very tender and childlike. Even by the light of faith he did not seek to penetrate the veil of divine intention, nor did he throw his javelin of prayer straight against the Deity's armour of eternal reserve. He left all to God, as a child lays its burden at its father's feet, and many eyes were moist as the people rose ...
— The Uncalled - A Novel • Paul Laurence Dunbar

... you and that braw lad of yours are like David and Jonathan, and" (with a stern wag of his white head) "I'm not so sure that I won't turn myself into Saul and fling my javelin at him ...
— A Son of Hagar - A Romance of Our Time • Sir Hall Caine

... I hated the son of Jesse from the beginning, I made light of my lord's dread of him, but who can reason against an Evil Spirit from God; and while David was playing the second time, my lord cast a javelin at him to kill him. When the Evil Spirit departed, the desire to destroy David departed with it. After Saul had cast the javelin, Jonathan pleaded with his father for David, and Saul listened, and swore that no harm should befall him; but when David soon afterwards ...
— Miriam's Schooling and Other Papers - Gideon; Samuel; Saul; Miriam's Schooling; and Michael Trevanion • Mark Rutherford

... hundred and fifty yards they had paused, and were widening out so as to advance in loose open rank and allow each man to throw his javelin. They shouted; the spearmen in the circle replied, and levelled their spears. Felix fixed his eye on one of the gipsies who was ordering and marshalling the rest, a chief. He drew the arrow swiftly but quietly, the string hummed, the pliant yew obeyed, and the long arrow ...
— After London - Wild England • Richard Jefferies

... seriously. All my intention was but to make a little sport with such public and fair game as Mr. Pitt, Mr. Wilberforce, Mrs. Fitzherbert, the Devil, &c.—gentry dipped in Styx all over, whom no paper javelin-lings can touch. To have made free with these cattle, where was the harm? 'twould have been but giving a polish to lampblack, not nigrifying a negro primarily. After all, I cannot but regret my involuntary virtue. Damn ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 5 • Edited by E. V. Lucas

... knife. The assassin at once fled and would have escaped detection, had he thrown away the sword. The weapon led to his being recognized by one of the Scythians on the staff of Antoninus, and he was brought down with a javelin. As for Martialius [lacuna] the military tribunes pretending to come to ...
— Dio's Rome, Vol VI. • Cassius Dio

... upon all sorts of instruments; and when the princes were learning to ride she would not permit them to have that advantage over her, but went through all the exercises with them, learning to ride also, to bend the bow, and dart the reed or javelin, and often-times outdid them in the race, and other ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments vol. 4 • Anon.

... pastoral nomadism on the grassy plains. However, when the Spaniards introduced horses and cattle into South America, the Indians and half-breeds of the llanos and pampas became regular pastoral nomads, known as llaneros and gauchos. They are a race of horsemen, wielding javelin and lasso and bola, living on meat, often on horse-flesh like the ancient Huns, dwelling in leather tents made on a cane framework, like those of the modern Kirghis and medieval Tartars, dressed in cloaks of horsehide sewn together, and raiding ...
— Influences of Geographic Environment - On the Basis of Ratzel's System of Anthropo-Geography • Ellen Churchill Semple

... flint have also been found in barrows, though not commonly. Four such blades, which might perhaps have been javelin heads, were found in one barrow at Winterbourne Stoke. They represent a very high standard of workmanship, and elegance of form and finish. Three are of a delicate leaf-shape, while the fourth is lozenge-shaped. ...
— Stonehenge - Today and Yesterday • Frank Stevens

... age. He was often at court, and the emperor even condescended to present his son Rhodolph at the font for baptism. As the child grew, he was trained to all athletic feats, riding ungovernable horses, throwing the javelin, wrestling, running, and fencing. He early gave indications of surprising mental and bodily vigor, and, at an age when most lads are considered merely children, he accompanied his father to the camp and to the court. Upon the death of his father, Rhodolph inherited ...
— The Empire of Austria; Its Rise and Present Power • John S. C. Abbott

... later of those lost empires whose very masterpieces are to us like petrified monsters. From this height, after long histories unrecorded, fell the forgotten idol of the Jebusites, on that day when David's javelin-men scaled the citadel and carried through it, in darkness behind his coloured curtains, the god whose image had never been made by man. Here was waged that endless war between the graven gods of the plain and the invisible god of the mountain; from here the hosts carrying the sacred ...
— The New Jerusalem • G. K. Chesterton

... the javelin" is another phase of this pastime. The javelin is four to five feet in length, three quarters of an inch in thickness, and fitted with a barbed end, slightly heavier than the spear end. The "object of the game" is to throw the javelin ...
— Boy Scouts Handbook - The First Edition, 1911 • Boy Scouts of America

... there, he still poured forth his songs on his ill-fated love, regarding the hardships of captivity as light, in comparison with the pangs of absence from his mistress. The husband of the lady, stung with jealousy, recognizing Macias through the bars of his prison, took deadly aim at him with his javelin, and killed him on the spot. The weapon was suspended over the poet's tomb, in the Church of St. Catherine, with the inscription, "Here lies ...
— Handbook of Universal Literature - From The Best and Latest Authorities • Anne C. Lynch Botta

... directing the attack, he was struck by a javelin in the heel. The Romans ceased from the attack and crowded round their general but, as soon as they ascertained that his wound was not serious, they returned to the attack with ...
— For the Temple - A Tale of the Fall of Jerusalem • G. A. Henty

... but then the gloom Grew blacker: thunder rumbled in the air, And lightnings rent the cloud; and Ruksh, the horse, Who stood at hand, utter'd a dreadful cry: No horse's cry was that, most like the roar 500 Of some pain'd desert lion, who all day Has trail'd the hunter's javelin in his side, And comes at night to die upon the sand:— The two hosts heard that cry, and quak'd for fear, And Oxus curdled as it cross'd his stream. 505 But Sohrab heard, and quail'd not, but rush'd on, And struck again; and again Rustum bow'd His ...
— Narrative and Lyric Poems (first series) for use in the Lower School • O. J. Stevenson

... the Greeks and all the rest imagined that he would fall upon them suddenly, before they could form their ranks; 3. and Cyrus, leaping from his chariot, put on his breastplate, and, mounting his horse, took his javelin in his hand, and gave orders for all the rest to arm themselves, and to take their stations each in his own place. 4. They accordingly formed with all expedition; Clearchus occupying the extremity of the right wing ...
— The First Four Books of Xenophon's Anabasis • Xenophon

... all looks and thoughts with her. She was dressed to please her own fancy, evidently, with small regard to the modes declared correct by the Rockland milliners and mantua-makers. Her heavy black hair lay in a braided coil, with a long gold pin shat through it like a javelin. Round her neck was a golden torque, a round, cord-like chain, such as the Gaols used to wear; the "Dying Gladiator" has it. Her dress was a grayish watered silk; her collar was pinned with a flashing diamond brooch, the stones looking as fresh as morning ...
— Elsie Venner • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... weight in gold. The humble citizens who produced the head of Flaccus are said to have been defrauded of their reward; but the action of the man who wrested the head of Gracchus from the first possessor of the prize and bore it on a javelin's point to Opimius, long furnished a text to the moralist who discoursed on the madness of greed and the thirst of gold. Its unnatural weight is said to have revealed the fact that the brain had been extracted and the cavity filled with molten ...
— A History of Rome, Vol 1 - During the late Republic and early Principate • A H.J. Greenidge

... of the men chosen for these occupations, they should be strong and swift and active, with ready limbs not only able to follow the cattle but to defend them from the incursions of wild beasts and of brigands: men who can load the packs on the sumpter beasts: can run and throw a javelin.[148] ...
— Roman Farm Management - The Treatises Of Cato And Varro • Marcus Porcius Cato

... few, and every branch seemed so easy to them, that their teachers were astonished at the progress they made. The princess had a passion for music, and could sing and play upon all sorts of instruments she could also ride and drive as well as her brothers, shoot with a bow and arrow, and throw a javelin with the same skill as ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments • Andrew Lang.

... horses and riders upon them, and a light chariot without a seat, accompanied by a fighting man on foot carrying a small shield, and having a charioteer mounted to guide the horses; also, he was bound to furnish two heavy-armed men, two archers, two slingers, three stone-shooters, and three javelin men, who were skirmishers, and four sailors to make up a complement of twelve hundred ships. Such was the order of war in the royal city—that of the other nine governments was different in each of them, and would be wearisome ...
— The Antediluvian World • Ignatius Donnelly

... is secured, and man is spared the humiliation of witnessing again scenes like those which followed the destruction of the Roman Empire. Now look to the warriors of modern times; you see the spear, the javelin, the shield, and the cuirass are changed for the musket and the light artillery. The German monk who discovered gunpowder did not meanly affect the destinies of mankind; wars are become less bloody by becoming less personal; mere brutal ...
— Consolations in Travel - or, the Last Days of a Philosopher • Humphrey Davy

... whom he had despatched to Raymond Berenger, arrested his purpose. This rude envoy entered the hall bare-legged, excepting the sandals of goat-skin which he wore, and having on his shoulder a cloak of the same, and a short javelin in his hand. The dust on his garments, and the flush on his brow, showed with what hasty zeal his errand had been executed. Gwenwyn demanded of him eagerly, "What news from Garde Doloureuse, ...
— The Betrothed • Sir Walter Scott

... wonderful skill in throwing the javelin. "One species, with a thong attached to it, which remained in the slinger's hand, that he might recall the weapon, was especially dreaded by the Spaniards." Their various weapons were pointed with bone or obsidian, and ...
— The Story of Extinct Civilizations of the West • Robert E. Anderson

... as a short lever, by means of which the spear could be launched not only with more precision but with much greater force than if thrown simply by hand like a javelin. ...
— Red Rooney - The Last of the Crew • R.M. Ballantyne

... tied, Sustain'd the sword that glitter'd at his side: His youthful face a polish'd helm o'erspread; The waving horse-hair nodded on his head: His figured shield, a shining orb, he takes, And in his hand a pointed javelin shakes. With equal speed and fired by equal charms, The Spartan hero ...
— The Iliad of Homer • Homer

... will go like a javelin to the heart of many a home. Madame Marneffes are to be seen in every sphere of social life, even at Court; for Valerie is a melancholy fact, modeled from the life in the smallest details. And, alas! the portrait will not cure any man of the folly of loving these sweetly-smiling angels, ...
— Cousin Betty • Honore de Balzac

... before breakfast, I strolled out, and walked round the cathedral, passing on my way the sheriff's javelin-men, in long gowns of faded purple embroidered with gold, carrying halberds in their hands; also a gentleman in a cocked hat, gold-lace, and breeches, who, no doubt, had something to do with the ceremonial of the Sessions. I saw, too, a procession of a good many ...
— Passages From the English Notebooks, Complete • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... life was to be that kind of woman for which there is really, I find, no better word than Christian, and that the only road to this end was to be trodden by way of character. The ancient Persians (as we all know) were taught to hurl a javelin, ride a horse, ...
— McClure's Magazine, Volume VI, No. 3. February 1896 • Various

... the thoughts That through his brain are travelling, And, starting up, to Bruce's heart He launched a deadly javelin: Fair Ellen saw it when it came, And, stepping forth to meet the same, Did with her body cover The ...
— English Critical Essays - Nineteenth Century • Various

... have been transmigrating from one room to another, and your packet found me half tired and half excited, and whole grave. But I could not choose but laugh at your Oxford charge; and when I had counted your great guns and javelin points and other military appurtenances of the Punic war, I said to myself—or to Flush, 'Well, Mr. Boyd will soon be back again with the dissenters.' Upon which I think Flush ...
— The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1 of 2) • Frederic G. Kenyon

... of the real persons in the drama. One night, as he was repeating the part of Alexander, with his wooden representative of Clitus, (an elbow chair), and coming to the speech where the old general is to be killed, this young mock Alexander snatched a poker, instead of a javelin, and threw it with such strength, against poor Clitus, that the chair was killed upon the spot, and lay mangled on the floor. The death of Clitus made a monstrous noise, which disturbed the master in the parlour, who called out to know the reason; ...
— The Book of Three Hundred Anecdotes - Historical, Literary, and Humorous—A New Selection • Various

... tent floated two large banners, each from the summit of a tall javelin, the head of which was of burnished gold. One of these enormous flags was green; the other was blood-red. The first was the sacred standard of the Prophet Mohammed, and accompanied the grand vizier in his capacity of representative ...
— Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf • George W. M. Reynolds

... Brittany and Anjou the second; the king, Guy, and the men of Poitou the third; the English and Normans, grouped round the royal standard, the fourth; the Hospitallers the fifth; and behind them marched the archers and javelin men. At three o'clock in the afternoon, the army was all arranged in order of battle, when all at once a multitude of Saracens appeared in rear, who descended from the mountains which the Crusaders had just crossed. ...
— Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 366, April, 1846 • Various

... almost without a blow. Thinking that the Greeks might be intercepted and cut off, Cyrus charged the centre in person with his bodyguard, and routed the opposing troops; but dashing forward in the hope of capturing Artaxerxes, was himself pierced by a javelin, and fell dead on the field. So ended the career of the most brilliant Persian since Cyrus the Great had established the Persian Empire; brave, accomplished, the mirror of honour, just himself and the rewarder of justice in others, generous and ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol XI. • Edited by Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton

... Presidential aspirations, was his defense of General Fry, whom Conkling sought to have impeached, but who was successfully vindicated and afterwards promoted by the War Department. During the struggle Conkling hurled a javelin of taunt and invective, incisive, but thought to be unjust, inducing a response said to have been terrific in its onslaught, confounding the speaker and raising excitement in the House to the highest pitch. I transcribe an epitome of the speech, which will be seen to have ...
— Shadow and Light - An Autobiography with Reminiscences of the Last and Present Century • Mifflin Wistar Gibbs

... little crowd of fishermen gathered around us, as the dingledekooch ran bows on the beach, and Picton, warm with exercise and excitement, leaped ashore, flourishing his piscatorial javelin with an air of triumph, which oddly contrasted with the faces of the Louisburghers, who looked at him and at his game, with countenances of great gravity—either real or assumed. Presently, another boat ran bows on the beach beside our own, and from ...
— Acadia - or, A Month with the Blue Noses • Frederic S. Cozzens

... knees. The shield, worn by the heavy-armed infantry, was not round, like that of the Greeks, but oval or oblong, adapted to the shape of the body, and was made of wood or wicker-work. The weapons were a light spear, a pilum or javelin six feet long, terminated by a steel point, and a sword with a double edge, adapted to striking or pushing. The legion was drawn up eight deep, and three feet intervened between rank and file, which disposition gave great activity, and made it ...
— The Old Roman World • John Lord

... was made on us, under cover of darkness, by the fanatical natives. The attempt was defeated with little difficulty, and with only a trifling loss on our side. I was among the wounded, having been struck by a javelin, or spear, while I was passing ...
— The Two Destinies • Wilkie Collins

... music, was expressing her dislike to the singing of an anthem in her own church one day, when a neighbor said: "Why, that is a very old anthem! David sang that anthem to Saul." To this the old lady replied: "Weel, weel! I noo for the first time understan' why Saul threw his javelin at David when the lad ...
— Toasts - and Forms of Public Address for Those Who Wish to Say - the Right Thing in the Right Way • William Pittenger

... appearance of fraud or imposture. He was known to a friend of mine (now living), who frequently called upon him at his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, which were not then enclosed. He tells me he has often seen him throw a javelin there, and strike a small mark at a surprising distance. It is a pity," he adds, "that this work of Drury's is not better known, and a new edition published[1] (it having been long out of print); as it contains much more particular and authentic accounts of that large and ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 196, July 30, 1853 • Various

... rising at the same time in his stirrups, impatient at the interruption of his journey, he launched his [v]javelin at poor Fangs, who, having lost his master, was now rejoicing at his reappearance. The javelin inflicted a wound upon the animal's shoulder and narrowly missed pinning him to the earth; Fangs fled howling from the presence ...
— The Literary World Seventh Reader • Various



Words linked to "Javelin" :   shaft, lance



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