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Plain   Listen
verb
Plain  v. t.  (past & past part. plained; pres. part. plaining)  
1.
To plane or level; to make plain or even on the surface. (R.) "We would rake Europe rather, plain the East."
2.
To make plain or manifest; to explain. "What's dumb in show, I'll plain in speech."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Plain" Quotes from Famous Books



... was one of the most beautiful in Europe. Placed upon a plain along the banks of the Scheld, shaped like a bent bow with the river for its string, it enclosed within it walls some of the most splendid edifices in Christendom. The world-renowned church of Notre Dame, the stately ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... the little village famed of yore, with meadows rich in flocks, and plenteous grain, whose peasants knelt beside each vine-clad door, As the sweet Angelus rose over the plain," will be introduced to Mrs. Hezekiah Skinner, and ...
— Four Months in a Sneak-Box • Nathaniel H. Bishop

... Then everything was plain: there had been no attack in the night, the breeze had sprung up with the sun, and the brig was gliding at a fair ...
— Old Gold - The Cruise of the "Jason" Brig • George Manville Fenn

... often am I to say, I don't want you? The last part of this year, after the pain was over, I've been as glad to be without you as during the first part of the year you were glad to be without me. Isn't that plain?" ...
— Married Life - The True Romance • May Edginton

... said one good thing about it was, that the biggest part of my speech was Republican, anyhow; and that I told them a good many plain truths, too, while ...
— Twenty Years of Hus'ling • J. P. Johnston

... effort he controlled himself, lifted his hat slightly to Lynette, turned and leaped back to the stone he had quitted, strode through the reed-beds, and plunged back into the tangled boscage. That he did not continue his walk, but turned back towards the town, was plain, for his retreat could be traced by the shaking of the thick bush and the high grasses through which he forced his way. It did him good to battle even with these vegetable forces, and the hooked thorns ...
— The Dop Doctor • Clotilde Inez Mary Graves

... village, whither he knows his master and young mistress to have gone. For while riding along going at a gentle canter, a cock "ostrich" starts up before his horse, and soon after the hen, the two trotting away over the plain to one side. It so chances that but the day before his master had given him instructions to catch a male ostrich for some purpose of natural history—the first he should come across. And here was one, a splendid ...
— Gaspar the Gaucho - A Story of the Gran Chaco • Mayne Reid

... plain, from her whole conduct and behaviour, that she had not so good an opinion of herself, however deserved; since, whenever she was urged to give her sentiments on any subject, although all she thought fit to say ...
— Clarissa Harlowe, Volume 9 (of 9) - The History Of A Young Lady • Samuel Richardson

... they bore helped the retreating party, and rendered the bearers plain objects for the marksmen, while the deafening roar of echoes after every discharge had its effect, and checked the savages more than seeing one or ...
— Fire Island - Being the Adventures of Uncertain Naturalists in an Unknown Track • G. Manville Fenn

... reason for giving you rewards. The idea of food for to-morrow had escaped my notice altogether, and I would say that both Jules and I were so satisfied with what we have had that we didn't give a thought to it. But it's just plain common sense—the common sense which you seem to have got a store of, Henri—which should prepare us to look to to-morrow, to make provision for the future, particularly when it can be done so easily. You get off, Henri, but take care that ...
— With Joffre at Verdun - A Story of the Western Front • F. S. Brereton

... fell together from the sky, Two little drops of rain; One cheered a blossom like to die, One fell upon the plain. One made the thirsty wilderness A lovely blooming place; One came a drooping flower to bless, And give it light ...
— Chatterbox, 1906 • Various

... Why torment either him or me? I do like your brother; in a certain way I like him much. But no earthly consideration would induce me to marry him. Is it not so glaringly plain that he would marry me for my money only, that you have not even dared to ...
— Framley Parsonage • Anthony Trollope

... blaze of a sun. It was the first sun—the first real sun—he had seen for many days, and with Peter he went to the rim of the barren a hundred yards distant. He wanted to shout. As far as he could see the white plain was ablaze with eye-blinding light, and never had the sky at Cragg's Ridge been clearer than the sky that ...
— The Country Beyond - A Romance of the Wilderness • James Oliver Curwood

... was the writer's lot to ramble over that beautiful country while these interesting scenes were presented; while the wilderness still glowed in its pristine luxuriance: while the prairie-grass and the wild flowers still covered the plain, and the deer continued to frequent his ancient haunts, and while the habitations of the new settlers were so widely and so thinly scattered, that the nearest neighbors could scarcely have exchanged the courtesy of an annual visit without the aid of the seven-leagued boots of ancient story. ...
— Great Indian Chief of the West - Or, Life and Adventures of Black Hawk • Benjamin Drake

... go with me still, Through the field and the wood, o'er the plain and the hill, In the roar of the sea, in ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume VI - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various

... debris, for they could be plainly seen by those on shore, but it was not until people stopped to think and to ask themselves questions, which startled them in a ghastly way, that the fact became plain that instead of a pitiful hundred or two of victims at least a thousand were in that roaring, crackling, loathsome, blazing mass upon the surface of the water and in the huge, inaccessible arches of the ...
— The Johnstown Horror • James Herbert Walker

... plain, top-shaped, crowned, and whitish, with two brown bands; spire rather depressed; crowned, blunt; the epidermis pale greenish-brown; the inside white, with two broad blue bands, in the front of which is enclosed the ...
— Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia] [Volume 2 of 2] • Phillip Parker King

... vary the metaphor) loading the ship of state with a necessary ballast, whereas in truth he was disturbing its balance and preventing it from sailing free. He succeeded in imbuing both men of property and the mass of the "plain people" with the idea that the well-to-do were the peculiar beneficiaries of the American Federal organization, the result being that the rising democracy came more than ever to distrust the national ...
— The Promise Of American Life • Herbert David Croly

... in these forests, but an armed heel is not less wanting to him who would push a roadster from the Connecticut to the Wish-Ton-Wish, between a rising and a setting sun! The stranger no longer journeys in the saddle, as is plain by the sign that his boot beareth no spur. When he worried, by dint of hard pricking, the miserable hack that proved food for the wolves, through the forest, he had better appointments. I saw the bones of the animal no later than this day. They have been polished by fowls and frost, ...
— The Wept of Wish-Ton-Wish • James Fenimore Cooper

... according to his own preferences. These are rights in the sense that they are conditions of the welfare of its members which a well-ordered State will seek by every means to fulfil. But it is not suggested that the way of such fulfilment is plain, or that it could be achieved at a stroke by a revolutionary change in the tenure of property or the system of industry. It is, indeed, implied that the State is vested with a certain overlordship over property in general and a supervisory power over industry in ...
— Liberalism • L. T. Hobhouse

... with pine needles. Delicate wild-flowers are seen in their season. In April I found wild peas in blossom, harebells, morning-glories, poppies, and many varieties of yellow flowers. I also saw hummingbirds, butterflies, swallows, and squirrels, and here and there patches of plain white old-fashioned snow. It is a novel spectacle to see a small boy snowballing a butterfly. In the spring even dead trees are glorified with a mantle of golden green moss. It covers the trunks of some of the living pines, making an artistic background for ...
— A Truthful Woman in Southern California • Kate Sanborn

... by now, and it is impossible to say what path she has taken. There are the hills;' and he pointed to a long range of rising ground stretching almost parallel with the course followed by the river Tana, but gradually sloping down to a dense bush-clad plain about five miles short of ...
— Allan Quatermain • by H. Rider Haggard

... King ordered the army to assemble on a given day on the great sandy plain that stretches as far as the eye can see around the city. Then he addressed ...
— The Cat and the Mouse - A Book of Persian Fairy Tales • Hartwell James

... speak also of the middle classes, of the men who own the house in which the working man lives. I must speak, too, of the wealthy tradesman; I must speak- -it is a sad thing to have to say it—of our own class as well as of others. Sanitary reform, as it is called, or, in plain English, the art of health, is so very recent a discovery, as all true physical science is, that we ourselves and our own class know very little about it, and practise it very little. And this society, I do hope, will bear in mind that it is ...
— Sanitary and Social Lectures and Essays • Charles Kingsley

... So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chief's men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy. So we took that village too, and I gives the Chief a rag from my coat and says, 'Occupy till I come;' which was scriptural. By way ...
— Short Stories Old and New • Selected and Edited by C. Alphonso Smith

... man," she explained, "is a detective dressed as a gentleman. It's as plain as pikestaff! The boy's received this warning and dropped it. He has done something he shouldn't and is escaping ...
— Tish, The Chronicle of Her Escapades and Excursions • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... with her. We learnt from them that the second hut belonged to an absent native who was out hunting, the father of a pretty little girl who now obeyed their signal and came forth. They said the water on the plain had dried up, and that the only water-holes remaining were to the west, viz. at our camp, and to the south, where they said there were two water-holes. As they had informed us, the absent native made his appearance at sunset, but his bag was very light, so we once more ...
— Expedition into Central Australia • Charles Sturt

... her heart felt lighter than for many days past; for if Katherine could laugh and make jokes in this fashion, it was plain there was no harm done. So she drew a long breath and went on: "I wish you would try to be serious for a few minutes and listen to me. What is only fun to you may be grim earnest to poor Mary, and I like her so well that I do not care to think of ...
— A Countess from Canada - A Story of Life in the Backwoods • Bessie Marchant

... The plain English of all which is, that Josephine Harris had determined to fathom the whole of the mystery lying between Richard Crawford and his cousin, no matter what deceptions she might be called upon to pursue in carrying out her plan, or ...
— Shoulder-Straps - A Novel of New York and the Army, 1862 • Henry Morford

... by placing the writing to be forged upon a transparency over a strong light, and then superimposing the paper upon which the forgery is to be made. The outline of the writing underneath will then appear sufficiently plain to enable it to be traced with pen or pencil, so as to produce a very accurate copy upon the superimposed paper. If the outline is with a pencil, it is ...
— Disputed Handwriting • Jerome B. Lavay

... then past large grazing grounds—where cattle might be counted by the thousand—and numerous ranchos or farms, the white farm buildings, surrounded by little garden patches, scattered over the hill sides. We at length came to an extensive plain, with groups of oaks spread over its surface, and soon afterwards reached the neglected Mission of Santa Clara, where we halted for a few hours. On leaving here our road was over a raised causeway some two or three miles in length, beneath an avenue of shady trees, which extended ...
— California • J. Tyrwhitt Brooks

... thankful office to offer advice; and advice is the more unpalatable, not only from the difficulty of the service recommended, but often from its very obviousness. We are fired with anger against those who make themselves the spokesmen of plain obligations; for they seem to insult ...
— The Pocket R.L.S. - Being Favourite Passages from the Works of Stevenson • Robert Louis Stevenson

... into dark attics. I have found in almost every place one or more Christian women who kindly offered to assist me, but few would dare visit those filthy places, fearing contagious diseases. Having had the small pox, and all other common contagious diseases, with my very plain habits of living, I dared to visit the sick and dying in any of these loathsome places, many of which ...
— A Woman's Life-Work - Labors and Experiences • Laura S. Haviland

... plain (costa), inter-Andean central highlands (sierra), and flat to rolling eastern ...
— The 2008 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... seems plain, the separation of Mr. Ridley from his home and children is to cut the last strand of the cord that holds him away from destruction, then our first work, if we would save him, is to help his daughter to maintain ...
— Danger - or Wounded in the House of a Friend • T. S. Arthur

... to render what has been said still more plain, it may be proper to make use of an illustration by means of numbers: we must recollect however that it is merely for the sake of illustration, for we have not data to enable us to reduce either the excitability, or excitement, or stimulus, to numerical calculation; if we could do this, ...
— Popular Lectures on Zoonomia - Or The Laws of Animal Life, in Health and Disease • Thomas Garnett

... servile sense, and indeed no man ought to be poor; and in an ideal world no man would be one or the other. Just how we are to get a world without servants or servile people, is perhaps a little more plain than how we are to get Mr. Bellamy's world without poor people, which, however, amounts to nearly the same thing. At least we will get a less servile world, as machinery and organization make service less and less personal. Bread has long been to a great ...
— The Unpopular Review, Volume II Number 3 • Various

... "A ring, a plain gold circle, with my name and that of another inscribed on it, and which I would not lose for the world. I hung it on a pin in this pin-cushion last night before I went to bed. I would swear I did, and now it is missing," answered Cap, still pursuing ...
— Capitola the Madcap • Emma D. E. N. Southworth

... the swift horse of progress by the bridle and say—thus far and no farther; and in the meantime let us be kind to each other; let us be decent towards each other. We are all travelers on the great plain we call life and there is nobody quite sure, what road to take—not just dead sure, you known. There are lots of guide-boards on the plain and you find thousands of people swearing today that their guide-board is the only board that shows the right ...
— Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll - Latest • Robert Green Ingersoll

... laughter at this, whereat his companion stared. Before he had recovered himself she was scouring the plain with her other neighbour. The gentleman on his left at last risked an observation, and they had some fragmentary talk. This personage played his part with difficulty: he uttered a remark as a lady fires ...
— A London Life; The Patagonia; The Liar; Mrs. Temperly • Henry James

... to offer our food in such plain dishes," smiled the host. "We have experimented with pottery but have had no success as yet." He bowed himself out of ...
— Panther Eye • Roy J. Snell

... that they were all signally, miserably, unsuccessful. You, my dear reader, would of course have managed infinitely better; I am well aware of that. But remember, if you please, that I was only a plain, unpolished sailor; a man who, maybe, could handle a ship fairly well, take care of her in a gale of wind, and navigate her successfully from port to port, but who had until now had no experience of women and their ways. Moreover, I would ...
— The Cruise of the "Esmeralda" • Harry Collingwood

... Elersley had had his chance and missed it. Now, why wouldn't some less fortunate dog take his rejected luck and put it to better account? There is no verdict so prompt as the one a man pronounces over a case of "my own good or another fellow's." And Vivian Standish made up his mind, in plain English, ...
— Honor Edgeworth • Vera

... Cinque-Port man; thou art not wit-free. The fineness was within, for without he was plain; But it was the merriest fellow, and had such jests in store That, if thou hadst seen him, thou would'st have laughed thy ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VI • Robert Dodsley

... ain't got no time fer dese school teachers dat tells de pupils to answer in no sech insulting ways as dat. I likes manners and widout manners folks ain't quality; don't make no diffuns 'bout what color dey is or how far dey is gone in de reading books. Young'uns saying 'yes' and 'no' is jest plain ugly. It suits me to meet nice folks, and when I finds dat dey ain't got mannerableness about dem, den I concludes dat dey jest ...
— Slave Narratives Vol. XIV. South Carolina, Part 1 • Various

... and Mrs Lovatt differed remarkably in character and appearance, though this did not prevent them from being passionately attached to one another. Mrs Lovatt was small, and rather plain; content to be her husband's wife, she had no activities beyond her own home. Mrs Peake was tall, and strikingly handsome in spite of her fifty years, with a brilliant complexion and hair still raven black; her energy was exhaustless, and her spirit indomitable; ...
— The Matador of the Five Towns and Other Stories • Arnold Bennett

... plain to see that the store-keeper who had thus thrust himself into the young auctioneer's business was not in high favor with the residents of the country town. To tell the truth, the man was not liked by any one, and was only patronized by ...
— Young Auctioneers - The Polishing of a Rolling Stone • Edward Stratemeyer

... you? Everybody else did. But you'd just as soon it had been Hannah Morrison, or any other pretty girl. You didn't care! But Marcia did, you see. She wasn't one of the kind that let any good-looking fellow make love to them. It was because it was you; and you knew it. We're plain men, Mr. Hubbard; and I guess you'll get over this, in time. I shouldn't wonder if you began to ...
— A Modern Instance • William Dean Howells

... Saraswati, the Drisadwati and the Yamuna, they went from one forest to another, travelling in an westernly direction. And at length they saw before them the woods, Kamyaka, the favourite haunt of Munis, situated by a level and wild plain on the banks of the Saraswati. And in those woods, O Bharata, abounding in birds and deer, those heroes began to dwell, entertained and comforted by the Munis. And Vidura always longing to see the Pandavas, went in a single car to the Kamyaka ...
— Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa Bk. 3 Pt. 1 • Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa

... were two great tables, covered with books and papers; there was a deal bookcase along one wall and an antiquated cabinet between the two windows, one of its legs propped up with a dingy faded paper. The coarse green carpet was threadbare, but still whole. There were half-a-dozen plain chairs with green and white rush seats in various parts of the room. On the narrow white marble mantel-shelf stood two china candlesticks, in one of which there was a piece of candle that had guttered when last burning. ...
— Casa Braccio, Volumes 1 and 2 (of 2) • F. Marion Crawford

... when I was stopped by a small crowd at a street corner. There were about thirty or forty men, women, and children standing loosely together, some others were lounging on the opposite side of the street round the door of a public-house. In the centre of the crowd was a plain-looking little woman in Salvation Army uniform, with her eyes closed, praying the "dear Lord that he would bless these dear people, and save them, save them now!" Moved by curiosity, I pressed through the outer fringe of the crowd, and in ...
— "In Darkest England and The Way Out" • General William Booth

... a vast extent of plain over Arles, the stagnant Rhone, the Camargue, and the salt pools of the lingering sea. In old days it was the eyrie of an eagle race called Seigneurs of Les Baux; and whether they took their title from the rock, or whether, as genealogists ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete - Series I, II, and III • John Symonds

... veiled vigilance. He had, however, been so far swayed by the distress of Aunt M'riar at the possibility that she might actually witness the capture of her criminal husband, that he never revealed to Simeon Rowe that she had an interest in defeating his enterprise. The consequence was that every plain-clothes emissary put himself into direct personal communication with her, thereby ensuring the absence of Daverill from Sapps Court. She was of course guilty of a certain amount of duplicity in all this, and it weighed heavily on her conscience. ...
— When Ghost Meets Ghost • William Frend De Morgan

... sensible to the agreeable and gay aspect of things; his eyes at once seize the pleasing and picturesque contour, and his mind divined a charming and effective scheme of colour. He saw character too; all the surface characteristics of his model were plain to him, and when he was so minded he painted with rare intelligence and insight. He did not see deeply, but he saw clearly. Gainsborough did not see so clearly, nor was his hand as prompt to express his vision as Sir Joshua's; but Gainsborough saw further, ...
— Modern Painting • George Moore

... accordin' to taste. That's how it come I never believed. Folks disagreed about the spooks. They all allowed as the place was haunted, but their notions wasn't just alike. Your poor father, child, was a man o' sense, an' he argued as plain as a tie-post. He said there was fabrications around that valley 'cause of the variating yarns, and I wouldn't gainsay him. But, as Sarah says, when the washing don't dry white there's mostly a prairie fire somewheres around. Your father was that set on his point ...
— The Hound From The North • Ridgwell Cullum

... and at the same time is magnificent in its sincerity, and of the noblest spirit. With sincere sympathy he speaks of the personality and of the difficult position of the Pope; but it is the sympathy of a stranger. He still laments with melancholy the condition of the Church, but it is plain that he himself has already outgrown it. It is a farewell letter. With the keenest severity there is still a firm attitude and silent sorrow. Such is the way a man parts from what he has once loved and found unworthy. ...
— The German Classics Of The Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries, Volume 12 • Various

... tribute, and cast away the sting. She was used to taking her compliments mixed. Public opinion never agreed on Anne's looks. People who had heard her called handsome met her and were disappointed. People who had heard her called plain saw her and wondered where other people's eyes were. Anne herself would never believe that she had any claim to beauty. When she looked in the glass all she saw was a little pale face with seven freckles on the ...
— Anne Of Avonlea • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... damp with perspiration when he reached the top and met an icy wind that swept across a tableland. The high plain was strewn with rocky fragments, the peaks above were lost in vapor, but he saw by a glance at the watery sun that it ran roughly west; and footprints led across it with an inclination toward the south. This was comforting, because the line of track ran to the south, and ...
— Prescott of Saskatchewan • Harold Bindloss

... young man whose poignant attention was very flattering. He remained after the lecture, and put a few questions to Roddy, which were answered rather confusedly upon promptings from Penrod. The young man went away without having stated the object of his interrogations, but it became quite plain, later in the day. This same object caused the spectacled young man to make several brief but stimulating calls directly after leaving the Schofield and Williams Big Show, and the consequences thereof ...
— Penrod • Booth Tarkington

... sins. This faith, encouraging and consoling in these fears, receives remission of sins, justifies and quickens. For this consolation is a new and spiritual life [a new birth and a new life]. These things are plain and clear, and can be understood by the pious, and have testimonies of the Church [as is to be seen in the conversion of Paul and Augustine]. The adversaries nowhere can say how the Holy Ghost is given. They imagine that the Sacraments confer the Holy Ghost ex opere operato, without a good ...
— The Apology of the Augsburg Confession • Philip Melanchthon

... assemblies, and outward callings of men, planting our faith one while in the old convocation house, and another while in the Chapel at Westminster, when all the faith and religion that shall be there canonized is not sufficient without plain convincement, and the charity of patient instruction, to supple the least bruise of conscience, to edify the meanest Christian who desires to walk in the spirit and not in the letter of human trust, for all ...
— Ralph Waldo Emerson • Oliver Wendell Holmes

... mentions himself, and we are ignorant when he quitted the service and retired to Rome, in which city he composed his History. We know not when he was born, or when he died, except that from one or two incidental passages in his work it is plain that he lived nearly to the end of the fourth century: and it is even uncertain whether he was a Christian or a Pagan; though the general belief is, that he adhered to the religion of the ancient Romans, without, ...
— The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus • Ammianus Marcellinus

... said, that Malcolm must be the master, and he the servant; so he took the bag, in which his linen was put up, and carried it on his shoulder; and observing that his waistcoat, which was of scarlet tartan, with a gold twist button, was finer than Malcolm's, which was of a plain ordinary tartan, he put on Malcolm's waistcoat, and gave him his; remarking at the same time, that it did not look well that the servant should be better dressed than ...
— The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. • James Boswell

... way to his doom in the Soudan, disembarked at Alexandria. It was early in January. There was no parade, no reception of any kind. Gordon was dressed in plain clothes with a cane in his hand. Gladstone had sent him thus to bring order out of chaos in the Land of the Mad Mullah. Officers with a penchant for religious propaganda are scarce either in the army or navy, ...
— From the Bottom Up - The Life Story of Alexander Irvine • Alexander Irvine

... examined the surface, which, for about four feet square, bore plain traces of having ...
— Hushed Up - A Mystery of London • William Le Queux

... been. So why not be cheerful? For my part, I mind back in 'seventy-nine, when the fleets o' France an' Spain assembled an' come up agen' us—sixty-six sail o' the line, my sonnies, besides frigates an' corvettes to the amount o' twenty-five or thirty, all as plain as the nose on your face: an' the alarm guns goin', up to Plymouth, an' the signals hoisted at Maker Tower—a bloody flag at the pole an' two blue 'uns at the outriggers. Four days they laid to, an' I mind the first time I seed mun, from this very place as ...
— Wandering Heath • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... also told by Suetonius (Caesar, 54). Instead of using plain oil, Leo thought he should please his guests by mixing it with a fragrant oil (conditum oleum pro viridi). He was an ill-bred fellow for his pains; but a well-bred man would affect not to ...
— Plutarch's Lives Volume III. • Plutarch

... three or four, and again (according to the accidents of ground) three or four blending into one; flight and pursuit, rescue and total overthrow, going on simultaneously, under all varieties of form, in all quarters of the plain. The Bashkirs had found themselves obliged, by the scattered state of the Kalmucks, to split up into innumerable sections; and thus, for some hours, it had been impossible for the most practised eye to collect the general tendency of the day's fortune. ...
— Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers • Thomas De Quincey

... plain declarations to that effect, that her spirited sister-in-law totally disapproved of Dr. Bayard after a conversation held with him the night McLean was returned to the post, Mrs. Forrest was fain to flatter herself that ...
— 'Laramie;' - or, The Queen of Bedlam. • Charles King

... dark colored stub, on top of which he appears as a part of the tree itself, and is seldom noticed; while the snowy owl, whose general color is soft gray, will search out a birch or a lightning-blasted stump, and sitting up still and straight, so hide himself in plain sight that it takes a good ...
— Ways of Wood Folk • William J. Long

... is going to be a policeman he must have no father, or mother, or wife, or child—no, nor bowels neither,' I say. And Tommaso says, 'Francesca,' he says, 'the whole tribe of gentry they call statesmen are just policemen in plain clothes, and I do believe they've only liberated Mr. Rossi as a trap to catch him again when he has ...
— The Eternal City • Hall Caine

... Dallas, but in a low tone, as if she wished no one to overhear; "in cities, do—do the women dress like me?" She raised herself a little, though without disturbing Marylyn, so that he might see her plain, collarless waist and straight, ...
— The Plow-Woman • Eleanor Gates

... were at variance with all the humanitarian impulses of the nineteenth century. Sometimes prisoners were worked in remote parts of a state altogether away from the oversight of responsible officials; if they stayed in a prison the department for women was frequently in plain view and hearing of the male convicts, and the number of cubic feet in a cell was only one-fourth of what a scientific test would have required. Sometimes there was no place for the dressing of the dead except in the presence of the living. ...
— A Social History of the American Negro • Benjamin Brawley

... friend and saviour of men. We have here the explanation of the [Greek: exepatesen] in ver. 3.—In Rom. xvi. 20, the words, [Greek: hO de Theos tes eirenes suntripsei ton Satanan hupo tous podas humon], contain an allusion to Gen. iii. 15, too plain to be mistaken. The Apostle recognises, in the promise of the victory over the serpent given there, a pledge of the victory over Satan. The words of Paul to Elymas in Acts xiii. 10, "O thou child of the devil," likewise contain a distinct reference to ...
— Christology of the Old Testament: And a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions, v. 1 • Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg

... stretched out after her. She might still wear her hair as she did when the old General raved over her, although the frost of many winters had touched it; but she would never hold on to the sleeves of those days or the skirts or the mantles: Out or in they must go, be puffed, cut bias, or made plain, just as the fashion of the day insisted. Oh! a most level-headed, common-sense, ...
— Peter - A Novel of Which He is Not the Hero • F. Hopkinson Smith

... though last not least; were I to adopt that enigmatical style which made the fortune of the oracle of Apollo, I might add—and though least, greatest. But this, the oracular sublime, has now gone to the gipsies and the conjurors, and I must write plain ...
— Tales & Novels, Vol. IX - [Contents: Harrington; Thoughts on Bores; Ormond] • Maria Edgeworth

... it should become the fashion among our merchant princes to seek health and relaxation by applying capital and commercial principles to land, good farming will spread, by force of vaccination, over the country, and plain tenant-farmers will apply, cheaply and economically, the fruits of experience, purchased dearly, although not too dearly, by merchant farmers. A successful man may as well—nay, much better—sink money for a small return in such a wholesome ...
— Rides on Railways • Samuel Sidney

... plain that Fred was surprised that there should be any intercourse between the Kirkwoods and ...
— Otherwise Phyllis • Meredith Nicholson

... wrong; For I kind o' thought that sometime Some one might be coming here Worn out with a long, long journey, And would crave that kind o' cheer. Now, then, Billy, draw your stool up; What we've got is scant and plain— I ain't ...
— Nancy MacIntyre • Lester Shepard Parker

... in his memoranda, after having read Campbell; "we do care about 'the authenticity of the tale of Troy.' I have stood upon that plain daily, for more than a month, in 1810; and if any thing diminished my pleasure, it was that the blackguard Bryant had impugned its veracity. It is true that I read 'Homer Travestied' (the first twelve books), ...
— My Recollections of Lord Byron • Teresa Guiccioli

... instance, the little king did not choose to receive the gallant soldier, whom, in days of difficulty, he had been rejoiced to find at his side; and the ground assigned was, that the monarch received none but in uniform; the Marquis having mentioned, that he must appear in plain clothes, in consequence of dispatching his uniform to Munich, doubtless under the idea of attending the court there in his proper rank of ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327 - Vol. 53, January, 1843 • Various

... lies an hour's ride from Boston, upon the Great Northern Railway. It is one of those quiet New England towns, whose few white houses, grouped upon the plain, make but a slight impression upon the mind of the busy traveller hurrying to or from the city. As the conductor shouts "Concord!" the busy traveller has scarcely time to recall "Concord, Lexington, and Bunker ...
— Literary and Social Essays • George William Curtis

... Then I told Ada how I had seen her hand concealed under her pillow and had little thought why, my dear. Then they began telling me how it was all over again, and I began to be sorry and glad again, and foolish again, and to hide my plain old face as much as I could lest I should put them ...
— Bleak House • Charles Dickens

... summit of Mount Hale in company with Pierre, and after an hour's hard work reached it. It was very rough and difficult to ascend. The rocks were very magnetic; the view was extensive; indeed, the whole country was an extended plain. To the east, plains for at least thirty miles, when broken ranges were visible. Mount Gould to the North-North-East showed very remarkably. Mount Narryer range was visible. To the south, only one hill or range could be seen, while to the South-East broken ranges of granite were ...
— Explorations in Australia • John Forrest

... storms, pouring from two echoing hills, towards each other approached the heroes. Like two deep streams from high rocks meeting, mixing, roaring on the plain; loud, rough and dark in battle meet Lochlin and Innis-fail. chief mixes his strokes with chief, and man with man; steel clanging sounds on steel. Helmets are cleft on high. Blood bursts and smokes around. Strings murmur on the polished yews. Darts rush along the ...
— English Literature For Boys And Girls • H.E. Marshall

... one object is meant, or more than one."—Butler's Gram., p. 19. (25.) "Number is that modification of the Noun which distinguishes one from more than one."—Spencer's Gram., p. 26. Now, it is plain, that not one of these twenty-five definitions comports with the idea that the singular is one number and the plural an other! Not one of them exhibits any tolerable approach to accuracy, either of thought or of expression! Many of the ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown

... opening it for him] Come in, Mr Praed. [He comes in]. Glad to see you. [She proffers her hand and takes his with a resolute and hearty grip. She is an attractive specimen of the sensible, able, highly-educated young middle-class Englishwoman. Age 22. Prompt, strong, confident, self-possessed. Plain business-like dress, but not dowdy. She wears a chatelaine at her belt, with a fountain pen and a ...
— Mrs. Warren's Profession • George Bernard Shaw

... six miles, Nimrod spied two white specks moving along the rocky ridge to the east of us, which rose abruptly from the plain where we were. I was soon able to make out that they were antelope. But the antelope had also seen us, and there was as much chance of getting near to them, by direct pursuit, as of a snail catching a hare. So we rode on calmly northward for half a mile, making believe we ...
— A Woman Tenderfoot • Grace Gallatin Seton-Thompson

... funeral by any means and I think it would have broken Helen's heart to see the plain unvarnished coffin which her poor father's remains ...
— Daisy Ashford: Her Book • Daisy Ashford

... officer, McDowell," Steve cried, raising a pair of eyes which blazed with a frigid passion of hate. "Just figure we're two plain men, no better and no worse than most. You've a wife and two kiddies, both growing as you'd have them. A schoolgirl and a boy, and round whom you've built up all your notions of life. I had a wife and one kiddie, and round them I'd built up all my notions of life. ...
— The Heart of Unaga • Ridgwell Cullum

... been overcome and taken prisoner. The news was confirmed by other messengers who arrived the next day and was received by the king and his barons with great rejoicing. The victory was unmistakably the answer of St. Thomas to the penance of Henry, and a plain declaration of reconciliation and forgiveness, for it soon became known that it was on the very day when the penance at Canterbury was finished, perhaps at the very hour, that this great success was granted to the arms ...
— The History of England From the Norman Conquest - to the Death of John (1066-1216) • George Burton Adams

... of the Wallachian plain are few and far between, and though it is no uncommon thing for a peasant to walk a dozen miles from his home to the fields in which he works, the whole region seemed a-hum with industry. The Rumanian peasant, like his fellows below the Danube, is, as a rule, a good-natured, ...
— The New Frontiers of Freedom from the Alps to the AEgean • Edward Alexander Powell

... think so! Well, ef that ain't a queer question, Tom Flannery. Would you a' had that bank book now, with your name, Thomas Flannery, in plain writin' writ across it, I'd like to know, ef it hadn't been ...
— The Boy Broker - Among the Kings of Wall Street • Frank A. Munsey

... her and all disturbance for the time being. Then Reo was sent to build up the fires,he was a rare hand at that; and Dingee was despatched for something else; and Hazel demanded little bits of help from the other two near her; talking softly to them, it was plain, though still with the same grave young face. But the whole picture was ...
— The Gold of Chickaree • Susan Warner

... they construct for his daughter Al-Hayfa a palace unsurpassed by any edifice and perfectly builded and decorated, hard by the river Al-Kawa'ib; moreover that it should be situate in a wady, a hill-girt plain through which meandered the stream. So they obeyed his bidding and laid its foundations and marked with large stones the lines thereof which measured a parasang of length by a parasang of breadth. Then they showed their design to the King, who gathering together ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton

... wouldn't I know? If I could see you why couldn't I see Clint Thayer and Tim Otis and Tom Hall? You were all as plain as daylight. Of course, Tom's out of it, anyway, but I guess losing a left tackle and a right half-back a week before the game would put rather a dent in our chances, what? And that's just what will happen if you make me go to ...
— Left Guard Gilbert • Ralph Henry Barbour

... your lies," said Mrs. Bathurst, with a heavy hand on her shoulder. "They've taught you how to juggle with the truth, that's plain. Oh yes, Lady Studley that is to be, you've learnt a lot since you've been away, I can see—learnt to despise your mother, I'll lay a wager. But I'll show you she's not to be despised by a prinking minx like you. What did I send you in ...
— Greatheart • Ethel M. Dell

... no means pellucid, pond, with cisterns, are all the sources they can rely upon from one end of the year to the other; not a fountain issues from the limestone for miles round, not a stream waters the entire Causse, a region extensive as Dartmoor or Salisbury Plain. When we consider that this plateau has a height above the sea- level equal to that of Skiddaw, we can easily imagine what the long eight months' winter here is like. For the greater part of the time the country is under ...
— The Roof of France • Matilda Betham-Edwards

... servant, and anxious for Joseph's safety, asked if he might speak a word of counsel, and reading on Joseph's face that he was permitted to speak, he said: I would have you make an end of these rumours, Sir, and this can be done if you will attend the next meeting of the Sanhedrin and make plain your reason for having gone to Pilate to ask him for the body. As it seemed to Joseph that his clerk had spoken well, he attended the next meeting of the Council, but the business that the councillors had come together for did not admit ...
— The Brook Kerith - A Syrian story • George Moore

... vision: evening sat in gold Upon the bosom of a boundless plain, Covered with beauty; garden, field and fold, Studding the billowy sweep of ripening grain, Like islands in the purple summer main, The temples of pure marble met the sun, That tinged their white shafts with a golden stain And sounds of rustic joy and labor done, Hallowed ...
— The Witch of Salem - or Credulity Run Mad • John R. Musick

... come, and Leo was the first to see it. In another week, or, at most, in two weeks, every dollar the barber had would have been spent. It was plain enough to him that he could not continue to attend school till exhibition day came, and he would lose the medal he coveted, and for which he had worked most diligently. Maggie poured out his cup of tea, and handed it to ...
— Make or Break - or, The Rich Man's Daughter • Oliver Optic

... ambiguities and self-contradictions lurking beneath their scientific splendor. Individuality is stated to be "that bundle of ideas, thoughts, and day-dreams which constitute our separate identity." This seems plain and straightforward, but is it really so? Consciousness is stated to be not only "the necessary attribute of mental action" (to which exception might be taken on the ground of abundant proof of unconscious mental action), but it is also considered to be the very cause of mind itself. Not only by ...
— Evolution Of The Japanese, Social And Psychic • Sidney L. Gulick

... is he who, having by fair and plain principles of sense, honesty, and ingenuity, brought any contrivance to a suitable perfection, makes out what he pretends to, picks nobody's pocket, puts his project in execution, and contents himself with the real produce as the ...
— Men of Invention and Industry • Samuel Smiles

... grace of movement, but prodigious strength of wrist and shoulders. For walking he was not much, but he rode like a knight. He was of strictest neatness and method concerning his clothes; not so much, let me explain, as to their original texture, for they were always plain, ordinary garments, but regarding their cleanliness and order. He had a swift and ready temper, and could not brook to be disputed by his equals, much less by his inferiors, yet had a most perfect and winning ...
— In the Valley • Harold Frederic

... awhile from the felicity of colour. Besides, all her joy in clothes had gone. How gladly would she now have donned her own shabby garments, if with them could have returned the old peace of mind! But even the plain little demi-toilette of black chiffon was peerlessly cut, and her whiteness glowed like a pearl through its filmy darkness. There was no way of dressing her hair that would hide the white feather on her forehead, and after trying once or twice she left it. It looked very remarkable, ...
— Blue Aloes - Stories of South Africa • Cynthia Stockley

... care too much for amusement, but try to learn to take pleasure in other things," continued Mrs. Morrison. "We do not love persons or things because we ought to, but because they seem to us lovely; and yet when we think for how long people have gone on building churches—plain little chapels, grand cathedrals—and have worshipped God in them, and found help and blessing, surely we ought not to be willing to say, 'I don't like church,' but should try to find out its beautiful ...
— The Spectacle Man - A Story of the Missing Bridge • Mary F. Leonard

... for it by mentioning that my father was the clergyman of a country parish in the north of Scotland—a humble position, involving plain living and plain ways altogether. There was a glebe or church-farm attached to the manse or clergyman's house, and my father rented a small farm besides, for he needed all he could make by farming ...
— Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood • George MacDonald

... surprised to see Mark flush, and his gaze widen to a piercing fixity. She thought her plain speaking had offended him ...
— Treasure and Trouble Therewith - A Tale of California • Geraldine Bonner

... put her ear to the chink of the door, she heard the words repeated, no doubt of it, only couldn't be quite sure, as they wern't very plain; but as far as she could make any sense out of them, she thought that it ...
— The Ned M'Keown Stories - Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of - William Carleton, Volume Three • William Carleton

... Caesar's? That, where his reports to Atticus read the signs of the time into the mere panic of a Pompey, some more impartial report would see nothing to wonder at but the overcharged expectations of a Cicero? Sometimes undoubtedly this is the plain truth. Pompey's disadvantages were considerable; he had no troops upon which he could rely; that part which had seen service happened to be a detachment from Caesar's army, sent home as a pledge for his civic intentions at an earlier period, and their affection was still lively ...
— The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. II (2 vols) • Thomas De Quincey

... seem to have anticipated this—and she thinks with me, that it is what I ought to do. William, how could I reconcile it to my conscience not to help?" she continued. "Think of papa! think of his strait! It appears to be a plain ...
— The Channings • Mrs. Henry Wood

... bright, though no longer lighted up by the rays of the setting sun, when I at last decided to turn back homewards. With swift steps I passed through the long 'square' of underwoods, clambered up a hill, and instead of the familiar plain I expected to see, with the oakwood on the right and the little white church in the distance, I saw before me a scene completely different, and quite new to me. A narrow valley lay at my feet, ...
— A Sportsman's Sketches - Works of Ivan Turgenev, Vol. I • Ivan Turgenev

... by the law, while I sit in this place, To say in plain terms what I think of this case. My opinion is this, and you're bound to pursue it, The defendants are guilty, and I'll make them ...
— William Pitt and the Great War • John Holland Rose

... the yard to which the head of the gaff-topsail is laced; and secondly, the great size of the headsail. She has obviously stowed her working jib and foresail and set her balloon jib. When running before a breeze such a craft could set not merely all plain sail, but her squaresail, square-topsail and even stun'sls. Therefore, the smuggling vessel that was being chased must needs be pretty fleet of ...
— King's Cutters and Smugglers 1700-1855 • E. Keble Chatterton

... part of the clergy it appeared that the plain letter of Scripture required them to submit to the Sovereign who was in possession, without troubling themselves about his title. The powers which the Apostle, in the text most familiar to the Anglican divines of that age, pronounces to be ordained of God, are not the powers that ...
— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 3 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... far distance, we caught sight of groups of tall palm-trees rearing their heads above the plain. At first, so accustomed were we to low bushes, I expected to see them only a little higher than usual, and was surprised at the length of time which elapsed before we reached them. We were delighted to find ourselves ...
— Saved from the Sea - The Loss of the Viper, and her Crew's Saharan Adventures • W.H.G. Kingston

... bodies, stray limbs—and, scattered through this funereal medley, red kepis and Oriental caps, helmets with tufts of horse hair, twisted swords, broken bayonets, guns and great mounds of cannon cartridges. Dead horses were strewing the plain with their swollen carcasses. Artillery wagons with their charred wood and bent iron frames revealed the tragic moment of the explosion. Rectangles of overturned earth marked the situation of the enemy's batteries ...
— The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... woman, far more intellectual than passionate, and growing more indifferent, more easy-going, more half-optimistically, half-cynically charitable towards the world with every year that saw her grow fat, and plain, and dowdy,—I cannot help fancying that the Countess of Albany must have got to listen to Alfieri's misogallic furies much as she might have listened to his groans had he been afflicted with gout or the toothache, sympathising with the pain, ...
— The Countess of Albany • Violet Paget (AKA Vernon Lee)

... Bishop of Durham and justiciary, Richard took his departure from England on December 11th of this same year, 1189, and proceeding to Normandy, united his forces with those of Philip Augustus in the plain of Vezelay on July 1, 1190. The two friends proceeded together at the head of an army of more than 100,000 men as far as Lyons, where they separated on the 31st; Philip taking the road to Genoa, Richard that to Marseilles, where he was to meet his fleet. The fleet, however, not arriving so soon ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 of 8 • Various

... upon these ghastly survivals of the hours of darkness, quickly reconstructed the crime which it was evident had been committed. The boatswain was known to have had money on him; but the youth, it was recalled, had begged his bed. It was therefore plain to the meanest understanding that the youth had murdered the boatswain for his money and thrown ...
— The Press-Gang Afloat and Ashore • John R. Hutchinson

... outside. The coachman, or driver, sits inside with the company. In length they are nearly equal to two English stages. Few of them go on springs. The sides are open; the roof being supported by six small posts. The luggage is carried behind, and in the inside. The seats are pieces of plain board; and there are leathers which can be let down from the top, and which, though useful as a protection against wet, are of ...
— Travels in North America, From Modern Writers • William Bingley

... him sleepy. Outside it was stiflingly hot. Over on the grade the horses were choking and snorting in the dust, while the shambling-gaited men cursed steadily and heaved at the heavy scrapers. The little patch of blue in the doorway was twinkling with heat. Far out on the yellow plain, a grotesque-armed joshua lurched ...
— McClure's Magazine, Vol. 31, No. 1, May 1908 • Various

... not very good, the oblations are made in order to obtain full remission; and for those who were not very bad, that their punishment may be rendered more tolerable." Here, then, is enunciated in plain terms, the doctrine of the eucharistic oblation being a propitiatory sacrifice. When offered for the first class of happy souls, it is an offering of thanksgiving. When offered for those whose lives were ...
— Purgatory • Mary Anne Madden Sadlier

... in just as we entered the hutch, and quietly seated themselves together by the corner of the fire-place, after modestly shaking hands with all the guests. They were dressed in plain home-spun clothes, with something of a sailor rig, especially the neat check shirts, and old-fashioned, little, low-quartered, round-toed shoes, such as are always a feature in the melo-drama where Jack plays a part. It is not usual, too, to see such stocky, robust frames as these fisher-boys presented; ...
— Acadia - or, A Month with the Blue Noses • Frederic S. Cozzens

... put on speed, and as the ground was icy smooth and entirely unobstructed, we were soon traveling at the rate of sixty miles an hour. The plan of the sleds worked like magic, and after their first terror had passed away it was plain to be seen that the natives enjoyed the new sensation immensely. And, indeed, ...
— A Columbus of Space • Garrett P. Serviss

... concerned, declared, in presence of the whole society, that, with regard to sense, he would not undertake to vindicate the production; but, in point of language, no fault could be justly laid to its charge. "The case, however, is very plain," said he; "the manager never gave himself the trouble to peruse the play, but formed a judgment of it from the conversation of the author, never dreaming that it had undergone the revisal of an English writer; be that as it will, you are infinitely obliged to him for ...
— The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Volume I • Tobias Smollett

... workers, poisoned by the example of the upper spheres—all practising the doctrines of egotism as vanity and the passion for money grew more and more intense.. .. No more children! Paris was bent on dying. And Mathieu recalled how Napoleon I., one evening after battle, on beholding a plain strewn with the corpses of his soldiers, had put his trust in Paris to repair the carnage of that day. But times had changed. Paris would no longer supply life, whether it were for slaughter or ...
— Fruitfulness - Fecondite • Emile Zola

... the level of the sea at A, it is in the plane of the horizon CD, and the angles EAC and EAD are right angles or 90 deg. each. If the eye is elevated above A, say to B, it is plain that the angles EBC and EBD are greater than right angles, or in other words, that the observer sees more than a semi-circle of sky. Hence all measurements made by the sextant are too large. In other words, the elevation ...
— Lectures in Navigation • Ernest Gallaudet Draper

... "is more plain to my mind than that the word of God recognizes the relation between master and slave as one of the established institutions of the age; and, that while it addresses slaves as Christian men, and Christian men as slaveholders, ...
— Autographs for Freedom, Volume 2 (of 2) (1854) • Various

... these. Bodies were free from one or other of these Tendencies, or would ever lye still, unless hinder'd by some other Body, and interrupted in their course; as when, for instance, a Stone in its fall is stopp'd by the solidity and hardness of the Earth, when 'tis plain it would otherwise continue still descending; so Smoak still continues going upwards, and if it should be intercepted by a solid Arch, it would divide both to the right and left, and so soon as it was freed from the ...
— The Improvement of Human Reason - Exhibited in the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan • Ibn Tufail

... groom but I must say I wasn't looking for a lone woman. And yet if I'd had my wits about me I might have known. Only last night Dolores and me were running the Ouija and it says—look out for trouble—just as plain as that!" ...
— Across the Mesa • Jarvis Hall

... waiting for him at unsuspected bookstalls; the numismatist has but to stretch forth his palm to have priceless coins drop into it. My own weakness is odd people, and I am constantly encountering them. It was plain that I had unearthed a couple of very queer specimens at Bayley's Four-Corners. I saw that a fortnight afforded me too brief an opportunity to develop the richness of both, and I resolved to devote my spare time to Mr. Jaffrey alone, instinctively recognizing in him an unfamiliar ...
— Miss Mehetabel's Son • Thomas Bailey Aldrich



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