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Sway   Listen
verb
Sway  v. i.  
1.
To be drawn to one side by weight or influence; to lean; to incline. "The balance sways on our part."
2.
To move or swing from side to side; or backward and forward.
3.
To have weight or influence. "The example of sundry churches... doth sway much."
4.
To bear sway; to rule; to govern. "Hadst thou swayed as kings should do."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Sway" Quotes from Famous Books



... now and then occasioned his acting, or forbearing to act, in a manner very different from his general professions of zeal for Revolution principles. If this was in any respect true, it was certain, on the other hand, that Mrs. Crosbie, in all external points, seemed to acknowledge the 'lawful sway and right supremacy' of the head of the house, and if she did not in truth reverence her husband, she at least seemed to ...
— Redgauntlet • Sir Walter Scott

... clear-sighted men foresaw it more clearly. Mesmer divined him, and ten years ago physicians accurately discovered the nature of his power, even before he exercised it himself. They played with that weapon of their new Lord, the sway of a mysterious will over the human soul, which had become enslaved. They called it magnetism, hypnotism, suggestion ... what do I know? I have seen them amusing themselves like impudent children with this horrible power! Woe to us! Woe to man! He has come, the ... the ... ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 1 (of 8) - Boule de Suif and Other Stories • Guy de Maupassant

... may develop a worthy civilization, capable of maintaining and constantly improving itself, until the evolution of our globe shall have entered so far upon its downward course that the cosmic process resumes its sway; and, once more, the State of Nature prevails over ...
— The Approach to Philosophy • Ralph Barton Perry

... of old the Hunters bold Upon the muir held sway; The Hunters' line shall ne'er decline Till the muir ...
— Hunter's Marjory - A Story for Girls • Margaret Bruce Clarke

... their jugglers, whom they called pilotois, from the Basques, or autmoins, which means a magician. These jugglers exercised great sway over the Indians, who would not hesitate to kill a Frenchman if the jugglers decided ...
— The Makers of Canada: Champlain • N. E. Dionne

... me. The Duc de Noailles had, in fact, behaved towards me with such infamous treachery, and such unmasked impudence, that I took pleasure at all times and at all places in making him feel, and others see, the sovereign disdain I entertained for him. I did not allow my private feelings to sway my judgment when public interests were at stake, for when I thought the Duc de Noailles right, and this often occurred, I supported him; but when I knew him to be wrong, or when I caught him neglecting his duties, conniving at injustice, shirking ...
— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre

... means at his disposal and the freedom from any necessity for impetuous haste or hazardous adventures. Experience, counsel, and the sense of higher responsibilities have brought a calmer judgment and greater steadiness of action, but the boyish temperament has not lost its sway, and more than one crisis is brought to a happy issue by methods in which a love of fun mingles with sagacity and foresight and ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, September, 1885 • Various

... nature of Kean which so strongly appealed to Byron, and enabled the actor, to the last, in spite of his drunken habits, poor figure, and weak voice, to sway his audiences. The same qualities at first repelled more timid critics, and perhaps justified Hazlitt's saying that Kean was "not much relished in the upper circles." Miss Berry, for example, who saw him in all his principal parts in 1814—in "Richard III," "Hamlet," ...
— The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals, Volume 2. • Lord Byron

... declared enemies, and been subdued with arms in their hands, the excesses of war on the side of the conqueror ought to have ceased with the hostilities of the conquered, who, by submitting to his sway, would have become his subjects, and in that capacity had a claim to his protection. To retaliate upon the Saxons, who had espoused no quarrel, the barbarities committed by the Russians, with whom he was actually ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett

... simple and direct, and they are doubtless sincere. Much misunderstanding has arisen by judging such primitive people by the standards of our present day civilization. Sex worship, while it held sway was probably quite as seriously entertained as many other beliefs; it only became degraded during a decadent age, when civilization had advanced beyond such simple conceptions of a deity, but had not evolved a ...
— The Journal of Abnormal Psychology - Volume 10

... office here in 1822, and by dint of such labor as few men are capable of performing, placed himself at the head of American operators. His credit was good for any amount, and his integrity was unimpeachable. He could sway the market as he pleased, and his contracts were met with a punctuality and fidelity which made "his word as good as his bond." Efforts were made to ruin him, but his genius and far-sightedness enabled him ...
— Lights and Shadows of New York Life - or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great City • James D. McCabe

... wife presides in the little cottage home and rules her side of the dooryard with gentle sway. She has a curly-haired baby boy who creeps after her as she goes about her work. His inquiring mind is at this age investigating all the corners of the house, and before long he will be the young ...
— Jean Francois Millet • Estelle M. Hurll

... causes have ever produced the most remarkable events among mankind, and the most trifling quarrels have fired their minds with incredible inveteracy against each other. Revenge has always been a strong passion among barbarians, who are less subject to the sway of reason, than civilized people, and has stimulated them to a degree of madness, which is capable of all kinds of excesses. The people who first consumed the body of their enemies, seem to have been bent upon exterminating their very inanimate remains, ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 14 • Robert Kerr

... party. I have seen, since his retirement, that he has many great and noble friends, who have been able to protect him from farther violence. But, Sir, when no repulses can calm the clamour against him, no motives should sway his friends from openly undertaking his defence. When the King has conferred rewards on his services; when the Parliament has refused its assent to any inquiries of complaint against him; it is but maintaining ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1 • Horace Walpole

... glued his eyes to the wheel and "scorched" rapidly. We trotted forward and halted at each street crossing, looking to the right and left in the hope that some one might nod to us. From the opposite end of the town General Buller and his staff came toward us slowly—the house-tops did not seem to sway—it was not "roses, roses all the way." The German army marching into Paris received as hearty a welcome. "Why didn't you people cheer General Buller when he came in?" we asked later. "Oh, was that ...
— Notes of a War Correspondent • Richard Harding Davis

... the great panorama that burst upon the eye of Cortes when he first looked down upon the table-land; the king-loving, God-fearing conqueror, his loyalty and religion so blended after the fashion of ancient Spain, that it were hard to say which sentiment exercised over him the greater sway. The city of Tenochtitlan, standing in the midst of the five great lakes, upon verdant and flower-covered islands, a western Venice, with thousands of boats gliding swiftly along its streets, long lines of low houses, diversified by the multitudes of pyramidal temples, ...
— Life in Mexico • Frances Calderon De La Barca

... unfashionable, and the powers of this great officer have been much limited even at Bath, where Nash once ruled with undisputed supremacy. Committees of management, chosen from among the most steady guests, have been in general resorted to, as a more liberal mode of sway, and to such was confided the administration of the infant republic of St. Ronan's Well. This little senate, it must be observed, had the more difficult task in discharging their high duties, that, like those of other republics, their subjects were divided into two ...
— St. Ronan's Well • Sir Walter Scott

... been allowed to hold his undisputed sway in military operations for long. Desperate situations demand drastic remedies and already considerable and illuminating ingenuity is being displayed to baffle and mislead the scout ...
— Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War • Frederick A. Talbot

... I didn't know it; but that doesn't prove anything. When I went to school we didn't study the history of the Elizabethan period. She didn't have absolute sway ...
— A House-Boat on the Styx • John Kendrick Bangs

... unreal. There was a mistiness before his eyes which was not caused by the storm, a twisting of strange shadows that bothered his vision, and made him sway dizzily when he threw off his pack to stir the fire. He suspended his two small pails over the embers, which he coaxed into a blaze. Both he filled with snow; into one he emptied the handful of flour that he had carried in his pocket —into the other he put tea. Fifteen minutes later ...
— The Honor of the Big Snows • James Oliver Curwood

... This, and the other islands here named, were near the isle of Crete, and perhaps in those times were subject to the sway of Minos.] ...
— The Metamorphoses of Ovid - Vol. I, Books I-VII • Publius Ovidius Naso

... almost impossible to wait to tell Louis the good news; she wished she had arranged to meet him in the city; she wished all sorts of things as she wandered, solitary, round the streets, feeling very unsteady on her feet after so long on a buoyant floor, and expecting the pavement to rock and sway at every step. She went into the Post Office and despatched letters home. As she was going down the street again rather aimlessly she caught sight of Mrs. Hetherington and Mr. Peters coming out of a restaurant, and was reminded forcibly of Jimmy who would be alone ...
— Captivity • M. Leonora Eyles

... so kilos had been reeled off physical exhaustion invaded man after man, growling ceased, heads bent forward and the eyes watched unseeing the heels of the man ahead. Mechanical rigidity of monotonous, torturous march again held sway, the old dryness of tongue and aching of burning feet grew more and more acute at each ...
— Norman Ten Hundred - A Record of the 1st (Service) Bn. Royal Guernsey Light Infantry • A. Stanley Blicq

... punished for her lie. She had not promised that dance, and so she sat on the plank bench and saw Lance and Jennie Miller sway past her four times before a gawky youth who worked for her father caught sight of her and came over from the water-bucket corner to ask her for the dance. That was not the worst. On the fourth round of Lance and Jennie, and just as the gawky one was bowing stiffly before ...
— Rim o' the World • B. M. Bower

... and make no distinction between them and the blessings of a free and independent government. They have, but a little while ago, created scenes in which mob-law ruled the hour, riot held its sanguinary sway, and the earth of our streets tasted the blood of our citizens. When such scenes as these occur, we cannot wait for aid from the crews of vessels in the offing, we cannot look for succor to the army ...
— Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner Speeches P-Z • Various

... the cliffs—sublime was the shout that echoed afar the moment she reached the eyrie—then had succeeded a silence deep as death—in a little while arose that hymning prayer, succeeded by mute supplication—the wildness of thankful and congratulatory joy had next its sway—and now that her salvation was sure, the great crowd rustled like a wind-swept wood. And for whose sake was all this alternation of agony? A poor humble creature, unknown to many even by name—one who had had but few friends, nor wished ...
— Recreations of Christopher North, Volume 2 • John Wilson

... were thus removed from their position as leaders, the customs connected with the old system of morals continued for centuries to sway the public mind, although the meaning of the surviving customs was gradually lost to the people. It is only in modern times that pains are being taken to inquire into the original meaning of these old customs. In Greece, for instance, it remained a religious practice that ...
— Woman under socialism • August Bebel

... canoes were securely lashed together side by side, and being of sufficient width to admit of the carriage standing within them, the passage was commenced. Again and again the tottering barks would sway from side to side, and a cry or a shout would arise from our party on shore, as the whole mass seemed about to plunge sideways into the water, but it would presently recover itself, and at length, ...
— Wau-bun - The Early Day in the Northwest • Juliette Augusta Magill Kinzie

... agreement on his part she drew tighter the reins on her mules. He sprang down over the wheel. The sun and the dust had their way again; the monotony of life, its drab discontent, its yearnings and its sense of failure once more resumed sway in part or all of the morose caravan. They all sought new fortunes, each of these. One day each must learn that, travel far as he likes, a man takes himself with him for better ...
— The Covered Wagon • Emerson Hough

... other French poet who can evoke so perfectly the spirit of the landscape of rural France. He delights to commune with the wild flowers, the crystal spring, and the friendly fire. Through his eyes we see the country of the singing harvest where the poplars sway beside the ditches and the fall of the looms of the weavers fills the silence. The poet apprehends in things a soul which others ...
— Romance of the Rabbit • Francis Jammes

... such minstrelsy retain, As sure your changeful gales seem oft to say, When sweeping wild and sinking soft again, Like trumpet-jubilee, or harp's wild sway; If ye can echo such triumphant lay, Then lend the note to him has loved you long! Who pious gathered each tradition grey That floats your solitary wastes along, And with affection vain gave them ...
— Some Poems by Sir Walter Scott • Sir Walter Scott

... early days of this quaint spot, where, cut off from the larger things of life, the simple folk continued to hold the same beliefs which had stirred their forefathers. In those remote times when the white brethren from the neighboring Abbey had held absolute sway in that country-side, the life history of one accused, as Dr. Damar Greefe was now accused, of possessing the evil eye, would very probably have terminated upon a pile of faggots, by order of Mother Church. ...
— The Green Eyes of Bast • Sax Rohmer

... Christendom for a woman to be emperor; it was not till late in the Middle Ages that Spain saw a queen regnant, and France has never yet allowed such rule. It was not till long after Saxo that the great queen of the North, Margaret, wielded a wider sway than that ...
— The Danish History, Books I-IX • Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Learned")

... had found such easy grades, dropping the straggling suburbs of the city behind us, we flew along the rails in the waning twilight of this grewsome day. On the windward windows and the roof rattled fierce flights of sleet and showers of cinders from the engine. Occasionally we felt the car sway in the howling gusts of wind, as we passed some opening in the hills and neared the more level prairie. Stories of cars blown from the rails flitted through my mind; and in contemplating such an accident my thoughts busied themselves with the details of plans ...
— Aladdin & Co. - A Romance of Yankee Magic • Herbert Quick

... generation, 1486-1522, the two little powers of the Iberian Peninsula had extended their sway over the seas until they embraced the globe. The way had been prepared for this unparalleled achievement by the courage and devotion of the Portuguese Prince Henry the Navigator, who gave his life to the advancement of geographical ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 • Emma Helen Blair

... some time in vigorous campaigns in Italy, Spain, Sicily, and Gaul, wherever there was manifested any opposition to his sway. When this work was accomplished, and all these countries were completely subjected to his dominion, he began to turn his thoughts to the plan of pursuing Pompey across the ...
— The Junior Classics • Various

... not be happy with this delicious woman who held such sway over him, and who loved him so ardently? For him a single danger henceforth—solitude. She would preserve him from it. With her gayety, good temper, courage, and love, she would not leave him to his thoughts; work would do ...
— Conscience, Complete • Hector Malot

... generally by girls. Two players face each other, clasping hands at full arm's length. The other two face each other in the same way, with their arms crossing those of the first couple at right angles. Bracing the feet, the couples sway backward and ...
— Games for the Playground, Home, School and Gymnasium • Jessie H. Bancroft

... of the bicycle, tending To foster a laxer array, And the motor, its influence lending, Both seriously threatened thy sway; But the War, most unfairly combining The motives of comfort and thrift, Thy glory, so sleek and ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, March 15, 1916 • Various

... her first wild canter, settled into a more jog-trot gait, and the dog-cart did not sway so violently from side to side. They were soon careering along a wide, well-made road, which ran for many miles along the top of some high cliffs. Below them, at their feet, the wild Atlantic waves curled and burst in innumerable fountains of spray; the roar of the waves came up to their ears, ...
— Light O' The Morning • L. T. Meade

... the Pandavas, when united together? All these, O monarch, will fight with the followers of the Pandavas and will slay them in battle. Karna alone, with myself, will slay the Pandavas. All the heroic kings will then live under my sway. He, who is their leader, the mighty Vasudeva, will not, he has told me, put on mail for them, O king." Even in this way, O Suta, did Duryodhana often use to speak to me. Hearing what he said, I believed that the Pandavas would be slain in battle. When, however, ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 - Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 • Unknown

... doctor, who was lazily reclining in a hammock on the shaded lawn, smoking a cheroot, while his daughter sat on a camp stool, with one hand resting on the edge of the hammock, so as to permit her gently to sway it back and forth. As she spoke the tall, muscular American walked forward and extended ...
— The Jungle Fugitives • Edward S. Ellis

... women might with the strictest propriety be included in the proclamation of the people's charter; for we are the majority of the nation, and it is our birth-right, equally with our brother, to vote for the man who is to sway our political destiny, to impose the taxes which we are compelled to pay, to make the laws which we with others must observe; and heartily should we rejoice to see the women of England uniting for the purpose of demanding this great ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III (of III) • Various

... Or crushed, or rising slowly from the dust, To which the march of armies trampled them. Stralenheim, although noble, is unheeded Here, save as such—without lands, influence, Save what hath perished with him. Few prolong A week beyond their funeral rites their sway 140 O'er men, unless by relatives, whose interest Is roused: such is not here the case; he died Alone, unknown,—a solitary grave, Obscure as his deserts, without a scutcheon, Is all he'll have, or wants. If I discover The assassin, 'twill be well—if not, believe me, ...
— The Works of Lord Byron - Poetry, Volume V. • Lord Byron

... was my desire to have been ashore among our merchants, that I might assist in arranging our business at Surat; and this the rather because of the turbulent, head-strong, and haughty spirit of——,[126] who was ever striving to sway every thing his own way, thwarting others who aimed at the common good, and whose better discretion led them to more humility. But such was the uncertain state of our business, partly owing to the nabob and his people, and partly ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume IX. • Robert Kerr

... night, in which Pelopidas not surprising any fort, or castle, or citadel, but coming, the twelfth man, to a private house, loosed and broke, if we may speak truth in metaphor, the chains of the Spartan sway, which before seemed of adamant ...
— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough

... being reopened; and that, too, under a new dispensation which will ensure prosperity to the enterprise. Spaniard and priest have long since abandoned their claim to the rich possessions, and their doubtful sway, ever upon the verge of revolution and offering no incentive to enterprise, has given place to one of a different character. Under the protection of beneficent and fostering laws this oldest portion of our Union may now be expected to reveal ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XXVI., December, 1880. • Various

... evil which I would not, that I do.... I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I perceive a different law in my members, warring against the will of my spirit, and bringing me into captivity to the sway of sin in my members." Paul here speaks of the inward man, and of the members or outward man. This takes my thought to the tabernacle in the wilderness. It had an outer court and an inner sanctuary. ...
— Life and Labors of Elder John Kline, the Martyr Missionary - Collated from his Diary by Benjamin Funk • John Kline

... him I dare not speak, nor yet to Lacon; No human ears may hear what must be told. I cannot keep it in, assuredly; I shall some night discuss it in my sleep. It will not keep! Oh! greenest reeds that sway And nod your feathered heads beneath the sun, Be you depositaries of my soul, Be you my friends in this extremity[:] I shall not risk my head when I tell you The fatal truth, the heart ...
— Proserpine and Midas • Mary Shelley

... it,' said the theologian indignantly. 'It comes of not having soul enough, or of allowing the sway the soul should exercise to fall upon the feeble sceptre of imagination. If our misguided young friend had been thoroughly grounded in Paley's Evidences and scientific primers—for these should never be separated—do you think we should have heard anything about his chaotic soul? Not a bit ...
— 'That Very Mab' • May Kendall and Andrew Lang

... of three kingdoms. Man lives at once in the present, the past and the future. Memory presides over yesterday; to-day is ruled by reason; to-morrow is under the sway of hope. The ancient seer who stood by the historic vine reflecting how the rain of yesterday had disappeared to give its sweet liquors to the roots only to reappear to-morrow in purple clusters, gave us a beautiful image of himself. Each ...
— The Investment of Influence - A Study of Social Sympathy and Service • Newell Dwight Hillis

... scoundrels spied us, With one eye reading our passport, With the other ogling our purse. Gold, which was always a resource, Which brought, Jove to the enjoyment Of Danae whom he caressed; Gold, by which Caesar governed The world happy under his sway; Gold, more a divinity than Mars or Love; Wonder-working Gold introduced us That evening, within the walls ...
— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XI. (of XXI.) • Thomas Carlyle

... that they are decaying in the dust and fever of their great cities. Tell them that they must cease from seeking in their vain philosophies for the solution of their social problems. Their, longing for the brotherhood of mankind can only be satisfied when they acknowledge the sway of a common father. Tell them that they are the children of God. Announce the sublime and solacing doctrine of theocratic equality. Fear not, falter not. Obey the impulse of thine own spirit, and find a ready instrument ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol III • Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton, Eds.

... advanced views now received respecting the Earth's history, have been evolved out of the crude views which preceded them; but we shall find it extremely instructive to observe this. We shall see how greatly the old ideas still sway both the general mind and the minds of geologists themselves. We shall see how the kind of evidence that has in part abolished these old ideas, is still daily accumulating, and threatens to make other like revolutions. In brief, we shall see whereabouts we are in the elaboration ...
— Essays: Scientific, Political, & Speculative, Vol. I • Herbert Spencer

... very well to look at, but you couldn't sit in the chair nohow. 'Twas all a-twist wi' the chair, like the letter Z, directly you sat down upon the chair. "Get up, Worm," says you, when you seed the chair go all a-sway wi' me. Up you took the chair, and flung en like fire and brimstone to t'other end of your shop—all in a passion. "Damn the chair!" says I. "Just what I was thinking," says you, sir. "I could see it in your face, sir," says ...
— A Pair of Blue Eyes • Thomas Hardy

... in October 1897, and it was somewhere about January 1898 that all the letters from Caddagat were full to overflowing with the wonderful news of Harold Beecham's reinstatement at Five-Bob Downs, under the same conditions as he had held sway there in ...
— My Brilliant Career • Miles Franklin

... has each successive season sway'd The fruitful sceptre of our milder clime Since My Loved ****** died! but why, ah! why Should melancholy cloud my early years? Religion spurns earth's visionary scene, Philosophy revolts at misery's chain: Just Heaven recall'd it's own, the pilgrim ...
— Poetic Sketches • Thomas Gent

... that the community was Anglicized. Under the sway of centrifugal impulses, the wealthier members began to form new colonies, moulting their old feathers and replacing them by finer, and flying ever further from the centre. Men of organizing ability founded unrivalled ...
— Children of the Ghetto • I. Zangwill

... saw a negro hanging in gibbets at the foot of a ledge. The wind made the body sway to and fro, and the grating of the chains caused the noise. The sight made cold shivers go up my back, and I hurried on till I reached Cheever's store near the Boston ferry and bought the gloves ...
— Ben Comee - A Tale of Rogers's Rangers, 1758-59 • M. J. (Michael Joseph) Canavan

... hostile an aspect upon each other? To judge from the history of mankind, we shall be compelled to conclude that the fiery and destructive passions of war reign in the human breast with much more powerful sway than the mild and beneficent sentiments of peace; and that to model our political systems upon speculations of lasting tranquillity, is to calculate on the weaker ...
— The Federalist Papers • Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison

... the Pretorians accused Papianus (sic) and Patruinus [Footnote: This is Valerius Patruinus.] for certain actions, Antoninus allowed the complainants to kill them, and added the following remark: "I hold sway for your advantage and not for my own; therefore, I defer to you both as accusers and ...
— Dio's Rome, Vol VI. • Cassius Dio

... wandering comet into the harmonies of heaven! Better task than that of astrologers, and astronomers to boot! Who among them can "loosen the band of Orion"? But who amongst us may not be permitted by God to have sway over the action and orbit of the human soul? Your ...
— The Caxtons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... Roubaud, received and carried away in their arms, Denise Tascheron, unconscious. That sight seemed for an instant to quench the fire in Veronique's eyes; she was evidently uneasy; but soon her self-control and serenity of martyrdom resumed their sway. ...
— The Village Rector • Honore de Balzac

... tumbled over each other in their eagerness to get a view of her face and gown, and no wonder, too, that the proud, old colonel who ruled his house with a rod of iron, determined for the first time in his life to lay down the sceptre and give Kate and Harry full sway to do whatever popped into their two ...
— Kennedy Square • F. Hopkinson Smith

... handful of warriors. He chose Shinar as his capital. Thence he extended his dominion farther and farther, until he rose by cunning and force to be the sole ruler of the whole world, the first mortal to hold universal sway, as the ninth ruler to possess the same power will be ...
— The Legends of the Jews Volume 1 • Louis Ginzberg

... set free the city of Athens, to render Sparta well-policied and governed by wholesome laws, that young men might do nothing licentiously, nor get children upon common courtesans and whores, and that riches, delights, intemperance, and dissolution might no longer bear sway and have command in cities, but law and justice? For these were the desires of Solon. To this Metrodorus, by way of scorn and contumely, adds this conclusion: "It is then very well beseeming a native born gentleman to laugh heartily, ...
— Essays and Miscellanies - The Complete Works Volume 3 • Plutarch

... bewitched by a High German doctor, during the early days of the settlement; others, that an old Indian chief, the prophet or wizard of his tribe, held his powwows there before the country was discovered by Master Hendrick Hudson. Certain it is, the place still continues under the sway of some witching power, that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, causing them to walk in a continual reverie. They are given to all kinds of marvellous beliefs; are subject to trances and visions, and frequently see strange sights, and ...
— Legends That Every Child Should Know • Hamilton Wright Mabie

... in pagan night, And take my chance with Socrates for bliss, Than be the Christian of a faith like this, Which builds on heavenly cant its earthly sway, And in a convert mourns to lose a prey. Intolerance. ...
— The World's Best Poetry — Volume 10 • Various

... more are now under drill. Will you not, in this hour of national peril, gratefully welcome the aid which they so eagerly proffer, to overthrow that slave power which has so long ruled the North, and now, that you spurn its sway, is bent on crushing YOU? Will you not abjure that vulgar hate which has conspired with slavery against liberty in our land, and thus roll from the sepulcher, where they have buried it alive, the stone which has so long imprisoned their victim? ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... had taken place in the length of time that it takes a heavy body to totter on the brink of a precipice or a cat to regain its feet after a fall. After the voice of Diaz there was a sway through the room, a pulse of silence, and then three hands shot for their hips—Pierre, Diaz, ...
— Riders of the Silences • John Frederick

... his face had given way to a slight flush that gave colour and animation to his cheeks, and though his eyes were bright their expression was more natural than it had been for many days. He was in one of the strangest humours which can have sway over that unconsciously humorous animal, man. In the midst of the deepest self-abasement his heart was overflowing with joy. The combination of sorrow and happiness is a rare one, not found every day, but the condition of experiencing both at the same time and in ...
— Sant' Ilario • F. Marion Crawford

... so called as born at Samosata, on the Euphrates, a heresiarch who denied the doctrine of three persons in one God, was bishop of Antioch, under the sway of Zenobia, but deposed on her defeat by Aurelian ...
— The Nuttall Encyclopaedia - Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge • Edited by Rev. James Wood

... smoke the deed conceals, Bertram his ready charger wheels; But flounder'd on the pavement-floor The steed, and down the rider bore, And, bursting in the headlong sway. The faithless saddle-girths gave way. 'Twas while he toil'd him to be freed. And with the rein to raise the steed. That from amazement's iron trance All ...
— From John O'Groats to Land's End • Robert Naylor and John Naylor

... don't hardly think so. A dogie is always under size and poor, and he's layin' around water holes, and he always has a big, sway belly onto him. No, this is no dogie; and, if it's an honest calf, there sure ought to be a ...
— Arizona Nights • Stewart Edward White

... and Frau Schroder- Devrient should appear without any other assistance, would certainly be very welcome to the public, and I should look upon this as in any case a practical introduction to the performance as guest. This matter lies outside my present sway, but it goes without saying that I will not fail to let my slight influence towards a favorable solution of the matter ...
— Letters of Franz Liszt, Volume 1, "From Paris to Rome: - Years of Travel as a Virtuoso" • Franz Liszt; Letters assembled by La Mara and translated

... put an end to these disorders. It was also agreed that they should unite their influence with mine to induce the Mormons to leave the State. The twelve apostles had now become satisfied that the Mormons could not remain, or, if they did, that the leaders would be compelled to abandon the sway they exercised over them. Through the intervention of General Hardin, acting on instructions from me, an agreement was made between the hostile parties for the voluntary removal of the greater part of the Mormons across the Mississippi in the spring ...
— Something of Men I Have Known - With Some Papers of a General Nature, Political, Historical, and Retrospective • Adlai E. Stevenson

... bells rang! My breath within my breast Was held like a diver's breath— The leaves were tangled locks of gray— The boughs of the tree were white and gray, Shaped like scythes of Death. The boughs of the tree would sweep and sway— Sway like scythes of Death. But it was beautiful! I knew that all was well. A thousand bells from a thousand boughs Each moment bloomed and fell. On the hill of the wind-swept tree There were no bells asleep; They sang beneath my trailing wings Like rivers sweet ...
— General William Booth enters into Heaven and other Poems • Vachel Lindsay

... was a purely Christian community; the First Crusade raised a great enthusiasm for building Christian Churches, and brought in large gifts of money for that purpose. Up to 1140 Norman Architecture held sway, having the "Square" for its unit, its greatest symbol being the Gnomon, representing knowledge; but about that time, as we have seen, arose from the study of Geometry, the head of all learning, a Mystical form having the mysterious figure of the Vesica ...
— Science and the Infinite - or Through a Window in the Blank Wall • Sydney T. Klein

... prose picture of the hopeless Jewish resistance to Roman sway adds another leaf to his record of the famous wars of the world. The book is one ...
— Slow and Sure - The Story of Paul Hoffman the Young Street-Merchant • Horatio Alger

... chase, at such a distance from the trunnions as will allow them to go into the trunnion-holes without bringing too great a pressure of the slings against the upper port-sill. Then toggle or hook the gun-purchase to the outer bight of the slings, and sway away. When the breech of the gun is above the port-sill, hook the garnet and the thwart-ship-tackle to the cascabel, and bowse on both. When the slings bear hard on the upper port-sill, lower the gun-purchase, and bowse on the garnet until the breech is high enough for the trunnions to clear ...
— Ordnance Instructions for the United States Navy. - 1866. Fourth edition. • Bureau of Ordnance, USN

... showed the advantages of the proposed measure. But public speaking was absolutely out of the question for women, and though I was the most ambitious of girls, my desire was to write a great book—not at all to sway an audience. When I returned from my first visit to England in 1866, I was asked by the committee of the South Australian Institute to write a lecture on my impressions of England, different from the article ...
— An Autobiography • Catherine Helen Spence

... can be pointed at by the finger. Know also that you are a god, if he indeed is a god who lives, who perceives, who remembers, who foresees, who governs and restrains and moves the body over which he is made ruler even as the Supreme God holds the universe under his sway; and in truth as the eternal God himself moves the universe which is mortal in every part, so does the everlasting ...
— De Amicitia, Scipio's Dream • Marcus Tullius Ciceronis

... respects their upbringing was what one would naturally expect in a Yorkshire country-house, where politics were judiciously blended with fox-hunting. From the enjoyments of a bright home, and the benign sway of the governess, and the companionship of a favourite sister, the transition to a private school is always depressing. In April, 1849, Charles Wood was sent to the Rev. Charles Arnold's, at Tinwell, near Stamford. "What I chiefly remember about the ...
— Prime Ministers and Some Others - A Book of Reminiscences • George W. E. Russell

... natal day, Who o'er Judea's land held sway. He married his own brother's wife, Wicked Herodias. She the life Of John the Baptist long had sought, Because he openly had taught That she a life unlawful led, Having ...
— The Works of Charles Lamb in Four Volumes, Volume 4 • Charles Lamb

... and listened with breathless interest. Occasionally, during his sermon, he would pause and kneel in silent prayer, and often by his pauses—his very silences—he would reach a degree of eloquence that would sway ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Vol. 13 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Lovers • Elbert Hubbard

... the Turk banished to beyond the Sea of Marmora, the old order, or disorder if you like, will have received its death-blow. Something of its spirit will linger perhaps for a while in the old charmed regions where it bore sway; the Greek villagers will doubtless be restless and turbulent and unhappy where the Bulgars rule, and the Bulgars will certainly be restless and turbulent and unhappy under Greek administration, and the rival ...
— The Toys of Peace • Saki

... whom the power's given To sway or to compel, Among themselves apportion Heaven And give ...
— The Devil's Dictionary • Ambrose Bierce

... her chains, 'tis true, Let rite be paid when rites are due. Yet is it ill to disobey The powers who hold by might the sway. Thou hast withstood authority, A ...
— The Oedipus Trilogy • Sophocles

... the joking propensities of officials and gallants. With her wealth she reared a splendid mansion to infamy and shame, where she, and such as she, whose steps the wise man tells us "lead down to hell," could sway their victory over the industrious poor. So public was it, that she openly boasted its purpose and its adaptation to the ensnaring vices of passion. Yes, this create in female form had spread ruin and death through the community, and brought the head of many a brilliant ...
— Manuel Pereira • F. C. Adams

... all-powerful, but with nine hundred and ninety-nine out of a thousand of us, Second Nature, Use, is the true mistress; and what will doubtless strike some people as almost paradoxical, but is nevertheless a fact, Literature is the calling in which she has the greatest sway. ...
— Some Private Views • James Payn

... the evil memory he bore those hungry wolves. At last he ceased to sway his body backward and forward, but sat still and ...
— Old Indian Legends • Zitkala-Sa

... and wide are my borders, stern as death is my sway; From my ruthless throne I have ruled alone for a million years and a day; Hugging my mighty treasure, waiting for man to come, Till he swept like a turbid torrent, and after him swept — the scum. The pallid pimp of the dead-line, the enervate of ...
— The Spell of the Yukon • Robert Service

... for thee. Well-wishing Brahmanas duly worshipped and gratified the gods and the Pitris for your long life, wealth, and children, by adding Swaha and Swadha. The mother and the father, as also the gods always desire for their children liberality and gift and study and sacrifice and sway over subjects. Whether all this be righteous or unrighteous, you are to practise it, in consequence of your very birth. (Behold, O Krishna, so far from doing all this), though born in a high race, they are yet destitute of ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 2 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... condescended. The signal was given and Skippy, standing aloof and humble in the shadows of the veranda, perceived through the window Miss Dolly Travers, as the stags swarmed down, resume her sway as the ...
— Skippy Bedelle - His Sentimental Progress From the Urchin to the Complete - Man of the World • Owen Johnson

... of his influence, for he says and does whatever suits his purpose for the moment, secure that no detection or subsequent exposure will have the slightest effect with those over whose minds and passions he rules with such despotic sway. He cares not whom he insults, because, having covered his cowardice with the cloak of religious scruples, he is invulnerable, and will resent no retaliation that can be offered him. He has chalked out ...
— The Greville Memoirs - A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV and King William IV, Vol. II • Charles C. F. Greville

... like those plum-trees which sprout along the highways at the pleasure of the rain and sun. They bore their natural fruits like wild stock which has never known grafting or pruning. Never was nature allowed such complete sway, never did such mischievous creatures grow up more freely under the sole influence of instinct. They rolled among the vegetables, passed their days in the open air playing and fighting like good-for-nothing urchins. They stole provisions from the house and pillaged the few fruit-trees in ...
— The Fortune of the Rougons • Emile Zola

... house of king and nobleman he held full sway for twelve days. His badge was a fool's bauble and he was always attended by a page, both of them being masked. So many pranks were played, and so much mischief perpetrated which was far from being amusing, that an edict was eventually issued ...
— Threads of Grey and Gold • Myrtle Reed

... is supplied by Spain; a country of which it must be confessed, that in no other have religiuos feelings exercised such sway over the affairs of men. No other European nation has produced so many ardent and disinterested missionaries, zealous self-denying martyrs, who have cheerfully sacrificed their lives in order to propagate ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 6 • Various

... to her room and sat down by the open window, looking out over the lawn that sloped down to the road. Harvey would think her weak, and would feel that he could sway her from ...
— The Short Line War • Merwin-Webster

... Elphberg, and the old story seemed a preposterously insufficient reason for debarring myself from acquaintance with a highly interesting and important kingdom, one which had played no small part in European history, and might do the like again under the sway of a young and vigorous ruler, such as the new King was rumoured to be. My determination was clinched by reading in The Times that Rudolf the Fifth was to be crowned at Strelsau in the course of the next three weeks, and that great magnificence was to mark the occasion. At once I made ...
— The Prisoner of Zenda • Anthony Hope

... to do so with impunity. When this conclusion was arrived at, one potent factor had not been considered—"the Church"—and for once in a way we were thankful to the Church. The archbishop of Manilla and his subordinates hold more real sway over the minds and bodies of the natives—Indians, as they are called—than all the temporal power of the governor, backed by his guards, or ...
— In Eastern Seas - The Commission of H.M.S. 'Iron Duke,' flag-ship in China, 1878-83 • J. J. Smith

... in 1860 had it been united. But it was now desperately at feud with itself, the cause of this, beautifully enough, lying back in that very device of Repeal which was intended to make Kansas a slave State and so to perpetuate the democratic sway. Judge Douglas, and most of the northern Democrats with him, had insisted so long and earnestly upon the doctrine of squatter sovereignty that they could not now possibly recede from it even had they desired to do so. The great majority of ...
— History of the United States, Volume 3 (of 6) • E. Benjamin Andrews

... time he'd looked down from Vale's survey post and before the terror beam captured him. He catalogued them mentally, but the sight before him was intolerable. Everything he saw, here where space monsters were believed to hold sway, was in reality the work of men. Rage filled him ...
— Operation Terror • William Fitzgerald Jenkins



Words linked to "Sway" :   waver, nutate, displace, vibrate, hold sway, swag, pitch, brachiate, influence, shake, move, carry, tilt, roll, persuade, move back and forth, totter, swing, weave, powerfulness, oscillate, lurch, work, careen



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