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Fondling   Listen
noun
Fondling  n.  
1.
A person or thing fondled or caressed; one treated with foolish or doting affection. "Fondlings are in danger to be made fools."
2.
A fool; a simpleton; a ninny. (Obs.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Fondling" Quotes from Famous Books



... partly over it, and concealed it from view on the first day's search. The parents of the child, and all his friends, except Mother Fabens, were forced at last to the dreadful conclusion which assured them their little fondling was no more; and their grief was deep and lasting. And Mother Fabens grieved sadly with the others; but the impression of her dream still whispered hope to her soul; and the liberation of the fawn she had never forgotten. And ...
— Summerfield - or, Life on a Farm • Day Kellogg Lee

... cruder the toy, the greater is the pleasure in the game; for the imagination delights in the exercise of itself. A wax doll, sent from Paris, with flaxen hair and eyes that open and shut, is laid away, when the mere novelty of it is exhausted, in theatric chest, and the little girl is fondling again her first baby of rag and string. A real steel sword and tin helmet are soon cast aside, and the boy is back again among the toys of his own making. That impulse to creation which all men feel, the impulse which makes the artist, is especially active in a child; his games are his art. With ...
— The Gate of Appreciation - Studies in the Relation of Art to Life • Carleton Noyes

... suspects that Adam is not content, for we hear him soliloquizing: "It is not good that the man should be alone." The clay of which the first of men is formed is beginning to assert itself. He watches the panther fondling his playful cubs, the eagle's solicitude for his imperial brood perched on the beetling crag, and the paternal instinct awakes within him. He hears the mocking- bird trilling to his mate, the dove ...
— Volume 1 of Brann The Iconoclast • William Cowper Brann

... especially interested in herself, and when Farr departed was fondling into place the masses of her hair before a mirror in the vestibule. Through the space formed by the portieres he saw Dodd reaching eager hands to the girl, her presence having apparently charmed away his ...
— The Landloper - The Romance Of A Man On Foot • Holman Day

... Mandy caught at Johnnie's hand and drew it to her, fondling it. Her round eyes were still full ...
— The Power and the Glory • Grace MacGowan Cooke

... replied the hag, throwing some fresh ingredients into the chafing-dish; and, as the smoke arose, she vociferated, "Come hither, Fancy; I want thee, my fondling, my sweet. Come quickly! ...
— The Lancashire Witches - A Romance of Pendle Forest • William Harrison Ainsworth

... verra early bird,' he said, fondling his frill of white hair, and looking keenly at the tall, slim figure ...
— Madame Midas • Fergus Hume

... with any emotion like love. Her attitude towards social conventions was symbolized by her clothes. In the old days, when the houses of 'society' had still been open to her, she was accustomed to challenge criticism by fondling a pet monkey at tea-parties. Since she had lost caste by taking up the cause of 'Independent Ireland' the ape had been discarded, and the same result achieved by occasional bickerings with the police. She was an able public speaker, and could convince her audiences for ...
— Hyacinth - 1906 • George A. Birmingham

... Di! Make friends with your new mistress. Let us love each other, Di!'said Florence, fondling his shaggy head. And Di, the rough and gruff, as if his hairy hide were pervious to the tear that dropped upon it, and his dog's heart melted as it fell, put his nose up to her face, and ...
— Dombey and Son • Charles Dickens

... by a joyous bark and in rushed Charley's pup. "You blessed little fellow," said Charley, fondling the animal. "I suppose you lost our trail when we got into the motor-car and you probably hung around the battery all day and followed our trail back here. That's pretty good. You've got great stuff in you, pup. The next thing I teach you will be ...
— The Young Wireless Operator—As a Fire Patrol - The Story of a Young Wireless Amateur Who Made Good as a Fire Patrol • Lewis E. Theiss

... wish while sporting with my maids, And all alone no care have we for jades; And if with thee we can in truth confide, We here from all the world may cosey hide." She hurls a glance toward him, smiling naive, Then bounding from the rock, peeps from a wave; The waters fondling her surround, embrace Her charms; and now emerging with rare grace, ...
— Babylonian and Assyrian Literature • Anonymous

... Fondling all the drawings he had left behind, Glad to find them all still the same, And opening the cupboards to look at his belongings ... Every time ...
— Georgian Poetry 1916-17 • Various

... silent revolution has been working! how it has separated us from old times and manners! How it has changed men themselves! I can see old gentlemen now among us, of perfect good breeding, of quiet lives, with venerable grey heads, fondling their grandchildren; and look at them, and wonder at what they were once. That gentleman of the grand old school, when he was in the 10th Hussars, and dined at the prince's table, would fall under it night after night. Night after night, that gentleman ...
— Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges • William Makepeace Thackeray

... the same Carlotta. On the other hand again, she had of late abandoned her caressing habits. If she laid her hand on my arm, she did it timorously—whereat I would laugh and she would grow confused. Once she had driven me to frenzy with her fondling. Those days had passed. I told myself that I was as old as the sphinx we had ...
— The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne • William J. Locke

... such were my demonstrations of joy that my master ordered me to be untied, and left loose day and night. As soon as I was set free, I ran to him, and gambolled all round him, without venturing to lay my paws on him; for I bethought me of that ass in AEsop's Fables, who was ass enough to think of fondling his master in the same manner as his favourite lap-dog, and was well basted for his pains. I understood that fable to signify, that what is graceful and comely in some is not so in others. Let the ribald flout and jeer, the mountebank tumble,—let the common fellow, who has made it his business, ...
— The Exemplary Novels of Cervantes • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

... each other she promised to continue to be his guide; and during the fortnight which followed they roamed the hills in happy comradeship. In most of the village friendships between youths and maidens lack of conversation was made up for by tentative fondling; but Harney, except when he had tried to comfort her in her trouble on their way back from the Hyatts', had never put his arm about her, or sought to betray her into any sudden caress. It seemed to be enough for him to breathe her nearness like a flower's; and since his ...
— Summer • Edith Wharton

... is," said he, arousing to the fact; "I might be sure she would be there!" He disengaged the hand she had in hers, and wearily placed it for a moment on her hair with an awkward effort at fondling. "Are you tired, my dear?" he said, repeating it in the Gaelic. "It's a dreich dreich dying on a feather bed." He smiled once more feebly, and Gilian screamed, for the kitten had touched ...
— Gilian The Dreamer - His Fancy, His Love and Adventure • Neil Munro

... this time Brasfort has continued his caresses, fondling his master's head, affectionately as a mother ...
— The Death Shot - A Story Retold • Mayne Reid

... Nalasu crouched over Jerry, fondling and caressing him for what he had done. Then he went abroad, Jerry with him, and told of the battle. Bashti paid him a visit ere the day was done, ...
— Jerry of the Islands • Jack London

... looking through Mr. Clutterbuck's telescope at the edge of the terrace. The deaf old man stood beside her, fondling his beard, and reciting the names of the constellations: "Andromeda, Bootes, Sidonia, ...
— Jacob's Room • Virginia Woolf

... Hall on hall, and court on court; in my musings these I track. Suddenly a peal of laughter echoes through the cavern'd spaces; In I gaze, a boy is springing from the bosom of the woman To the man, from sire to mother: the caressing and the fondling, All love's foolish playfulnesses, mirthful cry and shout of rapture, Alternating, deafen me. Naked, without wings, a genius, like a faun, with nothing bestial, On the solid ground he springeth; but the ground, ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke

... hands, and fondling them, while a brighter smile came into his pleasant vacant face; "that's better—that's ...
— The Bag of Diamonds • George Manville Fenn

... would have known what was wanting to its completeness, though he had never heard of the words Little mother; though he had never seen the fondling of the small spare hand; though he had had no sight for the tears now standing in the colourless eyes; though he had had no hearing for the sob that checked the clumsy laugh. The dirty gateway with the wind and rain whistling through it, and the basket of muddy potatoes waiting to be spilt ...
— Little Dorrit • Charles Dickens

... began to go up the valley again; but while he rested in a little wood that came down to the stream, to his surprise and delight the cat sprang out of a bush, and seemed more than ever glad of his presence. While he sate fondling it, he heard the sound of footsteps coming up the path; but the cat heard the sound too, and as he rose to see who was coming, the cat sprang lightly into a tree beside him and was hidden from his sight. It was ...
— Paul the Minstrel and Other Stories - Reprinted from The Hill of Trouble and The Isles of Sunset • Arthur Christopher Benson

... was Our Mr. Wrenn of the Souvenir Company all this time. Indeed, at present he intended to keep on taking The Job seriously until that most mistily distant time, which we all await, "when something turns up." His fondling of the Southern merchants was showing such results that he had grown from an interest in whatever papers were on his desk to a belief in the divine necessity of The Job as a whole. Not now, as of old, did he keep the personal letters in his desk tied up, ready for a sudden ...
— Our Mr. Wrenn - The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man • Sinclair Lewis

... pity," said M'Iver in genuine distress, with just that accent of fondling in it that a Highlander in his own tongue can use like a ...
— John Splendid - The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn • Neil Munro

... Rajasthan and the Punjab Hills and unlike Mughal painting, its chief concern was with the varied phases of romance. Ladies would be shown brooding in their chambers as storm clouds mounted in the sky. A girl might be portrayed desperately fondling a plantain tree, gripping a pet falcon, the symbol of her lover, or hurrying through the rainy darkness intent only on reaching a longed-for tryst. A prince would appear lying on a terrace, his ...
— The Loves of Krishna in Indian Painting and Poetry • W. G. Archer

... Mrs. Saltillo, with a curve of her pretty red lip, "is the protest of the child against insanitary and artificial treatment. In its upright, unostentatious cradle it is protected against that injudicious fondling and dangerous promiscuous osculation to which, as an infant in human arms, it is so often subjected. Above all, it is kept from that shameless and mortifying publicity so unjust to the weak and unformed animal. The child repays this consideration by a gratifying silence. It cannot be expected to ...
— Stories in Light and Shadow • Bret Harte

... all your fault. You have been feeling and fondling, and you see the natural consequence. I ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

... South, my splendid jaguar, come expressly for me from the virgin forest of Brazil," said she, taking his hand and kissing and fondling it, "I have some consideration for the poor creature you mean to make your wife.—Shall ...
— Cousin Betty • Honore de Balzac

... you! so does mother: Glad thy Eastertide: Loving God and one another, You in Him abide. Ours through Him who gave you to us,— Gentle as the dove, Fondling e'en the lion furious, ...
— Poems • Mary Baker Eddy

... night; more often it was every second night. It depended entirely upon the size of her kill. And all the time not required in procuring food was spent within the cavity in the cottonwood fondling and guarding ...
— The Black Phantom • Leo Edward Miller

... well, that determined chin, that high forehead crowned by the bushy brown hair with its solitary white lock—all these were as dear to her as they had always been. To think that he might have fondled some other woman as he was now fondling ...
— The Mask - A Story of Love and Adventure • Arthur Hornblow

... the first time in his life) peevish with his men. He can talk of nothing but Don Guzman; he can find no better employment, at every spare moment, than taking his sword out of the sheath, and handling it, fondling it, talking to it even, bidding it not to fail him in the day of vengeance. At last, he has sent to Squire, the armorer, for a whetstone, and, half-ashamed of his own folly, whets and polishes it in bye-corners, muttering to himself. That one fixed thought ...
— Westward Ho! • Charles Kingsley

... never touched a card, never entered a play-house. In no stud of racers has he indulged, preferring to the finest blood-horse ever bred a certain white and woolly lamb with a blue riband to its neck. This he is never tired of fondling. It is with him, like the roebuck of Henri ...
— The Works of Max Beerbohm • Max Beerbohm

... door immediately behind Robin, and sprang in headlong. Robin had ceased to bark, and was fawning at the feet of a man who had evidently just entered. He was bent down over the dog, fondling him with one hand. In the other something bright gleamed, and as he straightened himself the girl saw that it was a revolver; but she was too agitated to take much note ...
— The Odds - And Other Stories • Ethel M. Dell

... man stroke his head and pat his cheek, and love him! One moment he imagined himself his indignant defender, the next he would be climbing on his knee, as if he were still a little child, and laying his head on his shoulder. For he had had no fondling his life long, and his heart yearned for it. But all this was gone now. A dreary time lay before him, with nobody to please, nobody to serve; with nobody to praise him. Grannie never praised him. She must have thought praise something wicked. And his ...
— Robert Falconer • George MacDonald

... all to the good, fondling that bristly terror! I say, three Bones for cheers!" shouted Red Huggins, known among his mates also as "Sorreltop," and who, when greatly excited, often became twisted in ...
— The Boys of Columbia High on the Gridiron • Graham B. Forbes

... kisses. Before he could reproach himself for having turned that perfect hour into a shame to her who gave it by his later treachery, he began to reflect what a steady young fellow he had been to have known no other amorous incident in all his unmarried days than this innocent fondling on a summer's night. ...
— The Judge • Rebecca West

... Curly with her, as she could not bear to leave him for other people to look after. Silky was delighted with the puppy, and allowed the little fellow to take all sorts of liberties with him. It was a pretty picture—the big dog fondling the small one and ...
— Hunter's Marjory - A Story for Girls • Margaret Bruce Clarke

... tree, but was unable to mount before they were upon me. In this emergency I called out the name of one of the dogs, who was more familiar with me than the others, called Fly, and hit my knee to attract her attention and it had the desired effect. She came fondling towards me, accompanied by another called Jovial. I pulled out my knife and cut the throat of Fly, upon which Jovial made an attempt to lay hold of me and I caught him by the throat, which caused me to lose my knife, but I held him fast by ...
— Narrative of the Life of J.D. Green, a Runaway Slave, from Kentucky • Jacob D. Green

... hills of Habersham, All through the valleys of Hall, The rushes cried "Abide, abide," The wilful waterweeds held me thrall, The laving laurel turned my tide, The ferns and the fondling grass said "Stay," The dewberry dipped for to work delay, And the little reeds sighed "Abide, abide Here in the hills of Habersham, Here in ...
— Poems Teachers Ask For, Book Two • Various

... was Cayenguirago entertained with the pleasant stories she told him, and her wit, and good humour, and the kisses she gave him, that he entirely forgot the advice of her father. So, after they had spent some time in talk and fondling, the bride crept to her bed of ...
— Traditions of the North American Indians, Vol. 3 (of 3) • James Athearn Jones

... it was forced. He tried to resist her fondling, tired of those childish tricks which once were his delight. He remained indifferent to those hands, those lips, to the warmth of that body which rubbed against him without awakening the least desire. ...
— Woman Triumphant - (La Maja Desnuda) • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... bushy beard, and hooked nose; and yet she could hardly believe that this was the same man who once showed her such ruffianly manners on the wharf in Chicago. He was fondling and feeding the child, and talking to it, and drumming on the table with his knife to amuse it and ...
— The Young Surveyor; - or Jack on the Prairies • J. T. Trowbridge

... when one of the fairies appeared in her ivory car, accompanied by a beautiful woman past her early youth. At this moment the bird suddenly awakened, and, flying on to Saphir's shoulder (which it never afterwards left), began fondling him as well as a bird can do. The fairy told Serpentine that she was quite satisfied with her conduct, and made herself very agreeable to Saphir, whom she presented to the lady she had brought with her, explaining that the lady was no other than his Aunt ...
— The Yellow Fairy Book • Leonora Blanche Alleyne Lang

... could not be possible, surely! He could not believe it, could not doubt, even for a moment, that he was his own child. It was one of those low scandals which spring from servants' brains! And he repeated: "George ... my dear little George." The youngster was quiet again, now that his father was fondling him. ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume II (of 8) • Guy de Maupassant

... had won three francs ten sous in his rubber with Madame de Listomere, he bore the rain resignedly from the middle of the place de l'Archeveche, where it began to come down in earnest. Besides, he was fondling his chimera,—a desire already twelve years old, the desire of a priest, a desire formed anew every evening and now, apparently, very near accomplishment; in short, he had wrapped himself so completely in the fur cape ...
— The Celibates - Includes: Pierrette, The Vicar of Tours, and The Two Brothers • Honore de Balzac

... eating up your soul, that's all, my boy. Wait till you see me in action with that razor-edged tool. I'll have you all turning green with envy yet," he said, fondling the ivory-handled weapon ere he thrust ...
— The Outdoor Chums After Big Game - Or, Perilous Adventures in the Wilderness • Captain Quincy Allen

... constant astonishment at finding herself so kindly treated, and installed in such a comfortable home. For the maternal and paternal Slowboy were alike unknown to Fame, and Tilly had been bred by public charity, a foundling; which word, though only differing from fondling by one vowel's length, is very different in meaning, ...
— The Cricket on the Hearth • Charles Dickens

... Show that draws the town— Its pageantry delight affording— As per the details noted down Where posters flame on every hoarding; And then the sixpence I will pay, Which in my pocket now I'm fondling, And try upon the water-way The new experience ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Volume 102, January 16, 1892 • Various

... some moments, but not many, in wondering, disgusted expostulation, while fondling the head of poor Tara, who had stood erect with her fore-paws on his shoulders the instant he recognized her, her noble face all alight with gladness and love. Through ten acutely unhappy minutes she had nuzzled her friend's hand, and gained never a hint of recognition or response. Then the Master ...
— Finn The Wolfhound • A. J. Dawson

... nature. He would make beauty beautiful. He would make eternity over again with his voice and his song. And clasping the new-born infant close, she looked at all the sunlight she had given the world. Her arms quivered like wings. She dreamed in words of fondling. She fascinated all the passersby that looked at her. And the setting sun bathed her neck and head in a rosy reflection. She was like a great rose that opens its heart to ...
— The Inferno • Henri Barbusse

... her, for it told her that she had happened on the neighbourhood of his thoughts, and her mind was in a flurry to assert her innocence and engender his, but no words came to her, and her hand joined his in fondling ...
— Moor Fires • E. H. (Emily Hilda) Young

... in her character, which made her joyousness and spirits so delightful, was her strong affection, which was of a most clinging, fondling nature. When quite a baby this showed itself in never being easy without touching her mother when in bed with her; and quite lately she would, when poorly, fondle for any length of time one of her mother's ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 11 • Various

... last I saw the shape I wooed In coils of adipose embedded, Fondling its eldest offspring's brood (The image of the Thing you wedded), I placed my hand upon the seat Of those affections you had riven And gathered from its steady beat That your ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 156, Apr 2, 1919 • Various

... from Zeus; if he will not agree, if he refuses and does not at once confess himself beaten, you declare a sacred war against him and forbid the gods henceforward to pass through your country with lust, as hitherto, for the purpose of fondling their Alcmenas, their Alopes, or their Semeles!(1) if they try to pass through, you infibulate them with rings so that they can work no longer. You send another messenger to mankind, who will proclaim to them that the birds are kings, that for the future they must first ...
— The Birds • Aristophanes

... soins of the merest booby and idiot; whilst, on the other hand, I have seen Chloe,—at whom Strephon has flung his bootjack in the morning, or whom he has cursed before the servants at dinner,—come creeping and fondling to his knee at tea-time, when he is comfortable after his little nap and his good wine; and pat his head and play him his favourite tunes; and, when old John, the butler, or old Mary, the maid, comes in with the bed-candles, look round ...
— The Virginians • William Makepeace Thackeray

... husband, and putting her arm within his, began to say something in a fondling tone; and in a most conciliatory manner she went on talking to him for some moments. He looked absent, ...
— Tales & Novels, Vol. IX - [Contents: Harrington; Thoughts on Bores; Ormond] • Maria Edgeworth

... meantime, however, Mrs Clayton had taken the infant out of the mate's arms, while the little boy was snatched away by Ellen Barrow and the rest of the young ladies, who kept fondling him among them, and showing that they would do their best to spoil him before the ...
— Mark Seaworth • William H.G. Kingston

... the same manner, whilst I took Sue on my knee to soothe her and kiss the tears from her eyes, passing my hands under her smock to feel the beautifully firm flesh all over her palpitating and still quivering body. But although fondling the little chit, and taking every possible liberty fingers could indulge in, my eyes followed every slap that the mother almost savagely laid on to Minnie's pretty bottom. Lovely sight to watch the tearful, screaming girl, with her nut-brown face, which made ...
— Forbidden Fruit • Anonymous

... understand itself, or has been sacrificed to some other interest, we see the stifled fire bursting out in various directions. One is religious devotion, another is zealous philanthropy, a third is the fondling of pet animals, but not the least fortunate is the love of nature, and of art; for nature also is often a second mistress that consoles us for the loss of a first. Passion then overflows and visibly floods those neighbouring regions ...
— The Sense of Beauty - Being the Outlines of Aesthetic Theory • George Santayana

... was with the Chinaman trader at the railroad," she said and went placidly on fondling the key as she had fondled the knife, and pitching her voice in that curious ...
— The Treasure Trail - A Romance of the Land of Gold and Sunshine • Marah Ellis Ryan

... James,—an ever well-intending, well-resolving, but, alas! ill-performing monarch, a kind-hearted, affectionate, and fondling old man, really and extensively learned, yea, and as far as quick wit and a shrewd judgment go to the making up of wisdom, wise in his generation, and a pedant by the right of pedantry, conceded at that time to all men of learning (Bacon for example),—his error, I say, consisted in the ...
— The Literary Remains Of Samuel Taylor Coleridge • Edited By Henry Nelson Coleridge

... the dining-room, out of the Oasis of rose-shaded lights into the shadows, and through the open door. From there he turned his head before he disappeared, as though to watch his guest. Mrs. Fentolin was busy fondling one of her dogs, which she had raised to her lap, and Hamel was watching her with ...
— The Vanished Messenger • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... a fat black cigar with a red-white-and-blue band. He bit off the end and alternately thrust it between his lips or felt of its thickness with a fondling thumb and finger. Luke, watching, felt a sudden compassion for the cigar. It looked ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1917 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various

... no doubt,' said the attorney, fondling the vicar's arm in his large hand, 'that these claims will ultimately be reduced fully thirty per cent. I had once a good deal of professional experience in this sort of business; and, oh! my dear Sir, it is really melancholy!' and up went his ...
— Wylder's Hand • J. Sheridan Le Fanu

... Venice, by persuading the friend who has betrayed him, and whom he has consequently renounced, to stab him to the heart, in order "to preserve his memory." The weak, whining, vacillating, uxorious Jaffier, by turns a cut-throat and a King's evidence; now pawning, now fondling, and now menacing with his dagger an imaginary wife; first placing his comrade's life in jeopardy, then begging it against his will, and finally taking it with his own hand, is a yet more unhappy creation of wayward fancy; and it is only in the names of the conspirators, in ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 20, - Issue 559, July 28, 1832 • Various

... door unbarr'd, Her weary man to greet, The generous dog, with kind regard, Rush'd fondling ...
— The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 6, June 1810 • Various

... short, to express that you are not ashamed to be seen in the street with me? That if Mrs. Cholmondeley should be fondling her lapdog at some window, or Colonel de Hamal picking his teeth in a balcony, and should catch a glimpse of us, you would not quite blush for ...
— Villette • Charlotte Bronte

... and fondling her well-kept hands, she awaits the moment of arrival. Very soon the door opens, and the over-expected Mrs. James—a luxuriant garden of widow's weeds, enters. She is a lady more strongly and sharply featured than her sister, ...
— Angels & Ministers • Laurence Housman

... in everything but the privilege of fondling you; that feature of babyhood I never shall outgrow," exclaimed the youth, kissing her again with all the ardor of his true and affectionate heart, and starting up to help her set ...
— Hidden Hand • Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth

... apartment, and guessed what passed through his friend's mind, acquainted as he was with every point of his history, replied—"When God caused Elijah to be fed by ravens, while hiding at the brook Cherith, we hear not of his fondling the unclean birds, whom, contrary to their ravening nature, a miracle ...
— Peveril of the Peak • Sir Walter Scott

... pretty plain and clear. And yet," said the Colonel, fondling the turquoises, "nobody can say there's any harm in such things, especially if ...
— Hilda - A Story of Calcutta • Sara Jeannette Duncan

... him!" exclaimed she, starting back: she then dropped down on her knees to thank God. Then calling me by every fondling name that nurses use to their children, she begged my forgiveness, and alternately cursed ...
— Tales and Novels, Vol. IV • Maria Edgeworth

... conclude that this poor cat must have known man before, and we conjectured that it had been left either accidentally or by design on the island many years ago, and was now evincing its extreme joy at meeting once more with human beings. While we were fondling the cat and talking about it, Jack glanced round the open space in the midst of which ...
— The Coral Island • R.M. Ballantyne

... in repairing the disorder of her dress, and her hands in those of her father and little brother, she was led to the outer room where in the twilight there was a rapturous rush, an embrace, a fondling of the hand in the manner more familiar to her than the figure from before whom it proceeded. She only said in her gentle plaintive tone, "Oh, sir, it was not my fault. They took ...
— Love and Life • Charlotte M. Yonge

... adoring it in an awful rapture, because she sees the eternal God in its baby face and figure. The Englishman was highly delighted with this picture, and began to gesticulate, as if dandling a baby, and to make a chirruping sound. It was to him merely a representation of a mother fondling her infant. He then said, "If I could have my choice of the pictures and statues in the Tribune, I would take this picture, and that one yonder" (it was a good enough Enthronement of the Virgin by Andrea del Sarto) "and the Dancing ...
— Passages From the French and Italian Notebooks, Complete • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... is more tender than a mother's love To the sweet infant fondling in her arms? What arguments need her compassion move To hear its cries, and help it in its harms? Now, if the tenderest mother were possessed Of all the love within her single breast Of all the mothers since ...
— England's Antiphon • George MacDonald

... such, was the change which passed on the Mogul empire during the forty years which followed the death of Aurungzebe. A series of nominal sovereigns, sunk in indolence and debauchery, sauntered away life in secluded palaces, chewing bang, fondling dancing girls, and listening to buffoons. A series of ferocious invaders had descended through the western passes to prey on the defenceless wealth of Hindostan. A Persian conqueror crossed the Indus, marched through the gates of Delhi, ...
— The Principles of Success in Literature • George Henry Lewes

... fiddle and the song are heard from the taproom morning, noon, and night; and at each window may be seen some group of boon companions, with half-shut eyes, hats on one side, pipe in mouth and tankard in hand, fondling and prosing, and singing maudlin songs over their liquor. Even the sober decorum of private families, which I must say is rigidly kept up at other times among my neighbors, is no proof against this saturnalia. There is no such thing as keeping maid-servants within doors. ...
— The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. • Washington Irving

... Martha, and the other Mary also, whom Jesus loved, must have been highly unbecoming and improper, to say the best of it. I will venture to say that, if Jesus Christ was now to pass through the most pious countries in Christendom, with a train of women such as used to follow him, fondling about him, combing his hair, anointing him with precious ointments, washing his feet with tears and wiping them with the hair of their heads, and unmarried, or even married, he would be mobbed, tarred and feathered, and rode, not on an ...
— The Story of the Mormons: • William Alexander Linn

... poor girl that had been starved at nurse. Anybody would have guessed Miss to have been bred up under the influence of a cruel stepdame, and John to be the fondling of a tender mother. John looked ruddy and plump, with a pair of cheeks like a trumpeter; Miss looked pale and wan, as if she had the green sickness; and no wonder, for John was the darling: he had all ...
— The History of John Bull • John Arbuthnot

... a very pleasant host. He was a reserved man with a really cold nature. He disliked fuss and what he called "ebullitions of affection;" he hated kissing and fondling. He liked to treat even his nearest and dearest with ceremony, but he was a perfect host—the little attentions, the small politenesses which the role of host requires, suited his character exactly. Hester and Nan, his only children, were his opposites in every respect. It is true that Hester ...
— Red Rose and Tiger Lily - or, In a Wider World • L. T. Meade

... I found Miss Somers as she had been the day before, crouched listlessly in her long chair fondling her idol. I drew up a ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1920 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various

... monkeys, Nigel went forward to fondle him, and Spinkie being equally fond of fondling, resigned himself placidly—after one interrogative gaze of wide-eyed suspicion—into the stranger's hands. A lifelong friendship was cemented then ...
— Blown to Bits - or, The Lonely Man of Rakata • Robert Michael Ballantyne

... lover, that had so wrung my heart at our last parting—but the radiant happiness of perfect contentment and fulfilled desire. I had thrown myself on the couch, and, as a miser jealously counts over his gold, fondling each precious bit with eager fingers, so I pondered on the happy hours spent with Zarlah, carefully reviewing each golden moment with its precious burden ...
— Zarlah the Martian • R. Norman Grisewood

... so the fondling, ever coaxing Nina Loves this soft fool, and wishes I were dead. I did think better of her. We men deceive, 'tis true; but still no longer Keep on the mask, when we've our purpose gain'd. With us 'tis ...
— Olla Podrida • Frederick Marryat

... do it because I'm bored. I am bored, you know. Desperately!" He stretched out his hand to her with such haggard, hunted eyes that Laura, reckless, threw herself down by him and kissed the heavy eyelids. Clowes put his arm round her neck, fondling her hair, and for a little while peace, the peace of perfect mutual tenderness, fell on this hard-driven pair. But soon, a great sigh bursting from his breast, Clowes pushed her away, his features settling back into their old harsh lines of savage ...
— Nightfall • Anthony Pryde

... married January, a Lombard baron 60 years old. She loved Damyan, a young squire; and one day the baron caught Damyan and May fondling each other, but the young wife told her husband his eyes were so defective that they could not be trusted. The old man accepted the solution—for what is better than "a fruitful wife and a confiding spouse?"—Chaucer, Canterbury Tales ("The ...
— Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama - A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 • E. Cobham Brewer

... must have the house lighted!" thought Darvid, and he hurried into the study, where, with movements a little too vivacious, with a fondling smile, and with repeated declarations that he felt happy, he greeted the prince, a man of middle age, of agreeable exterior, affable and pleasant in speech. When they had sat down in armchairs, the ...
— The Argonauts • Eliza Orzeszko (AKA Orzeszkowa)

... beautiful, that strike The heart, and captive fancy, like Those of a tame, young bird at play, That carols near, then flits away, Will on a sudden upward soar, Then give its little wanderings o'er, For fondling, gentle, sweet repose, When tapering pinions softly close, Slight, warmth—pervaded quills are prest, And head shrunk closely to the breast: All sleeping but that lovely eye, Which speaks delight, and asks reply: Oh! with such graces never one ...
— Vignettes in Verse • Matilda Betham

... or perplex herself about what was to come; it seemed, indeed, as if nothing would ever trouble her any more. She rested in a deep dream of tranquility, so perfect that it beautified and glorified her whole appearance. Arthur more than once stopped in his lessons to say, in his fondling way, in which to the clinging love of the child was added a little of the chivalrous admiration of ...
— Christian's Mistake • Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

... if one or two quick tears Dropp'd upon his glossy ears, Or a sigh came double, Up he sprang in eager haste, Fawning, fondling, breathing fast In ...
— Heads and Tales • Various

... deep-drawn sigh, and exclaimed, that no woman of any country, including those of the moon, knew better than the ladies of France the secrets of this alchemy and at the remembrance of the savoury, gracious, and vigorous fondling of one alone, he felt himself the man, were she then within his reach, to clasp her to his heart, even on a rotten plank a ...
— Droll Stories, Complete - Collected From The Abbeys Of Touraine • Honore de Balzac

... like Leam too," he said, fondling her, "I want you to love me, but you should love her ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, April, 1876. • Various

... her good side," he said, fondling her, with a relieved countenance. "Tell her you will come and that she is an angel, and that you are sure a visit to the Manor will ...
— Emily Fox-Seton - Being The Making of a Marchioness and The Methods of Lady Walderhurst • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... will come, and after to-morrow I shall gather the scattered ones. I repeat to thee be not occupied with trifles. One moment of fondling is worth more than a year ...
— The Pharaoh and the Priest - An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt • Boleslaw Prus

... plants are antidotal, got its name from scrofa, "a burrowing pig," signifying the radical destruction of important glands in the body by this undermining constitutional disease. Possibly the quaint lines which nurses have long been given to repeat for the amusement of babies while fondling their infantine fingers bear a hidden meaning which pointedly imports the scrofulous taint. This nursery distich, as we remember, personates the fingers one by one as five little fabulous pigs:—the first small piggy doesn't feel well; and the second one threatens ...
— Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure • William Thomas Fernie

... through the arches of all space, "A wonder and an ecstasy; but still "Thy path is with the glorious and pure, "Spanning the empyrean with a jewelled zone, "Making heaven beautiful, and with thy grace "Charming to goodness, though thou act it not. "Arise, O lovely fondling of the skies! "Wake from the silence of thy fallen doom, "Breathe forth thy sweetness to the longing air; "The angels are about thee evermore, "Like watchers o'er a stricken one, that hold "A glass to catch the life-mist from ...
— Eidolon - The Course of a Soul and Other Poems • Walter R. Cassels

... Maggie and Tom were still very much like young animals, and so she could rub her cheek against his, and kiss his ear in a random sobbing way; and there were tender fibres in the lad that had been used to answer to Maggie's fondling, so that he behaved with a weakness quite inconsistent with his resolution to punish her as much as she deserved. He actually began to kiss her in ...
— The Mill on the Floss • George Eliot

... The Devil's delicate fondling, the lesser Witch, begotten of the Black Mass after the greater one's disappearance, came and bloomed in all her malignant cat-like grace. This woman is quite the reverse of the other: refined and sidelong in manner, sly and purring demurely, quick also ...
— La Sorciere: The Witch of the Middle Ages • Jules Michelet

... from his round neck hung; A silver boss, by slender reins control'd Mov'd o'er his brow; a brazen pair the same, Shone o'er his temples hanging from his ears: Devoid of fear, his nature's timid dread Relinquish'd, oft the houses would he seek; And oft would gently fondling stoop his neck, Heedless who strok'd him. Cyparissus, thou Beyond all others priz'd the sacred beast: Thou, fairest far amongst the Caean youths. Thou to fresh pastures led'st the stag; to streams ...
— The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & II • Ovid

... tramping the streets, he wandered into one of the parks and sat down on a bench, where he finally fell asleep. He was awakened by some one feeling in his pocket. He had just been dreaming that Phrony had found him and hail sat down beside him and was fondling him, and when he first came back to consciousness her name was on his lips. He still thought it was she who sat beside him, and he called her by name, "Phrony." The girl, a poor, painted, bedizened creature, was quick enough ...
— Gordon Keith • Thomas Nelson Page

... know," nodded the King. "It is grievous and strange, however, that you should speak as though my brother were not." He smiled very maliciously at the young Duke, who flushed red. The King suddenly laughed, and fell to fondling ...
— Simon Dale • Anthony Hope

... would be awakened in the morning by a single rifle shot, and on peering out would see a dead Indian lying almost across his doorstep, while beyond, in the dim, gray mist, a tall figure stealing away. Often in the twilight on a summer evening, while fondling his children and enjoying his smoke after a hard day's labor in the fields, this same settler would see the tall, dark figure of Jonathan Zane step noiselessly out of a thicket, and learn that he must take his family and flee at once to the fort for safety. When a settler was murdered, ...
— The Last Trail • Zane Grey

... babes have been prattling of conscience and prayers together—I make no doubt, and thinking yourselves Cecilies and Laurences and all the holy martyrs—and all this without a by-your-leave, I dare wager, from parent or father, and thinking yourselves man and wife; and you fondling her, and she too ...
— Come Rack! Come Rope! • Robert Hugh Benson

... around his neck and placed her cheek lovingly against his. In one fond, pure caress she showed him all the affection of which a woman is capable. Fondling up against him she seemed like a dainty little kitten purring close to its master. Her every thought and desire seemed to be centered on this man, who had taught her for the first time the meaning of the word "love." Tenderly ...
— The Easiest Way - A Story of Metropolitan Life • Eugene Walter and Arthur Hornblow

... have been enacted in an English Court, as were not infrequent during the era embracing the celebrated "State Trials." While one of these was in progress, and Curran in the midst of his argument, the judge contemptuously turned his back upon the advocate, and began fondling a favorite dog at his side. The argument was at once suspended. "Proceed, sir," were the words which at length broke the stillness that had fallen upon the vast assemblage. "Ah!" exclaimed Curran, "I was only waiting for Your Lordship to ...
— Something of Men I Have Known - With Some Papers of a General Nature, Political, Historical, and Retrospective • Adlai E. Stevenson

... the colonel; "my two wards embracing and fondling a vagrant, vagabond peddler, before my eyes! Is this treason, Mr. Griffith? Or what means the extraordinary ...
— The Pilot • J. Fenimore Cooper

... the men proclaimed this a miracle, always excepting Alcides, who, with a fierce expression on his face, stood now on one side, fondling his rifle. The other men chaffed him, and even insulted him, saying that he had made them struggle for nothing, as he did not know what he was about. When the rails and the rollers were placed right the canoe slid along the ...
— Across Unknown South America • Arnold Henry Savage Landor

... Quite foreign-looking—dark, and rather like an Italian. There is no resemblance to Mr. Philip," he said, glancing at the painting of a flaxen-haired child fondling a greyhound under ...
— Tales of Trail and Town • Bret Harte

... agitation of spirits upon so melancholy an occasion were evidenced by streaming tears from a pair of lovely dark eyes; and the Butcher, as evidently forgetful of his usual calling, was sympathising with, and endeavouring to soothe her into composure, and fondling the child. In another, a person who had the appearance of an Half-pay Officer, with Hessian boots, blue pantaloons, and a black silk handkerchief, sat with his arms folded almost without taking notice of what was passing around him, though a rough Sailor with ...
— Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II. • Pierce Egan

... on her lap as he lies, Should kiss little Pompey, excites no surprise; But the lapdog whom thus she keeps fondling and praising, Licks her face in return—that I own ...
— The Humourous Poetry of the English Language • James Parton

... firmly, as the young girl took her cold hand in her own, and gently fondling it, covered it with grateful kisses, "but if... if anything happens... anon... you will believe firmly that you were in no way responsible?... that you were innocent.. and merely ...
— The Elusive Pimpernel • Baroness Emmuska Orczy

... nose tumbled it over, to all appearance lifeless. I then hastened to gain the other side of the rock, where I had left the young seal, and found that it had crept to its mother's body, and was fondling it. I took it in my arms, and retreated to where I had left my duck frock, and throwing everything else out, I put the animal in, and tied up the end, so that it could not escape. I then sat down to recover myself from the excitement occasioned by this first engagement ...
— The Little Savage • Captain Frederick Marryat

... bird!" murmured the master, lighting his candle with one hand and fondling the pups with the other. "There, there, puppies, run away!" he added, rolling the ecstatic pups into a sort of dog divan, where they curled themselves down at last and subsided with ...
— In the Quarter • Robert W. Chambers

... from all Calabasas and all Morgan's Gap," explained Lefever, still fondling the rifle. "The Morgans are celebrating our defeat. They put it all over us. We were challenged yesterday," he continued in response to the abrupt questions of Jeffries. "The Morgans offered to shoot us ...
— Nan of Music Mountain • Frank H. Spearman

... determined manner of the lad to influence him in reaching a decision. That boy would keep his word; he was ready to shoot if crossed; and the way in which he had killed the brute of a dog proved his skill with the gun he was fondling now. ...
— The House Boat Boys • St. George Rathborne

... a smile and a caress and a tender word for the little one, that toddled to meet him and overwhelm him with her innocent prattle. Every afternoon found the sweet-looking old lady in front of our house, fondling our child, and feeding her starving maternal instinct upon the little one's caresses. Each one—the old gentleman and the old lady—each one confessed by action and by word to an overwhelming love for children, yet between them stood that pitiless lie, conceived ...
— Second Book of Tales • Eugene Field

... thumb, which he solicitously examined every little while. He had, somehow, managed to catch a frisky little squirrel, which, wishing to take home, he had imprisoned in one of his side pockets that had a flap; but, desirous of fondling the furry little object, he had incautiously inserted his bare hand once too often; for its long teeth, so useful for nut-cracking, went almost through his thumb, and gave his such an electric shock that in the confusion the frightened animal managed ...
— The Chums of Scranton High on the Cinder Path • Donald Ferguson

... embrace, and we must weep That there is no old power left to steep A quill immortal in their joyous tears. Long time in silence did their anxious fears Question that thus it was; long time they lay Fondling and kissing every doubt away; Long time ere soft caressing sobs began To mellow into words, and then there ran Two bubbling springs of talk from their sweet lips. 740 "O known Unknown! from whom my being ...
— Endymion - A Poetic Romance • John Keats

... pet, cosset, minion, idol, jewel, spoiled child, enfant gate [Fr.]; led captain; crony; fondling; apple of one's eye, man after one's own heart; persona grata. love, [person who is a favorite (terms of address)], dear, darling, duck, duckey, honey, sugar, jewel; mopsey^, moppet, princess; sweetheart, sweetie &c (love) 897. teacher's pet. general favorite, universal ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... laughing, too," said Amaryllis, fondling the soft ears. "And he wants to tell me all ...
— Ambrotox and Limping Dick • Oliver Fleming

... you; the joy of nursing and helping to restore to health and happiness the woman dearest to your heart; the joy of a Love budding in beauty and profusion; and—this, the rarest and sublimest for Khalid—the joy of worshipping at the cradle—of fondling, caressing, and bringing up one of the ...
— The Book of Khalid • Ameen Rihani

... with those of others, readily acquiesces in his first thoughts, and very seldom discovers the objections which may be raised against his opinions; he, therefore, often thinks himself in possession of truth, when he is only fondling an errour long since exploded. He that has neither companions nor rivals in his studies, will always applaud his own progress, and think highly of his performances, because he knows not that others have equalled or excelled him. And I am afraid it ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson in Nine Volumes - Volume IV: The Adventurer; The Idler • Samuel Johnson

... that a load was lifted from me. Then at last my thoughts came back from myself, and I turned to the sisters and told them that the queen was safe, if a prisoner. They need not grieve for her. The two nuns wept, but the thane's daughter smiled a little, and said, fondling the cat ...
— King Olaf's Kinsman - A Story of the Last Saxon Struggle against the Danes in - the Days of Ironside and Cnut • Charles Whistler

... and two volumes of Plautus' comedies for the Lady Mary. But what among his day's purchases pleased him most was a medallion in silver he had bought in Cheapside. It showed on the one side Cupid in his sleep and on the other Venus fondling a peacock. It was a heart-compelling gift to any wench or ...
— The Fifth Queen • Ford Madox Ford

... water standing in thine eyes, and thy voice quavers. Is it so, thou lovely kind damsel, that thou hast been grieved by love of a man? Who then may prevail in love if thou prevail not? And she fell to fondling Birdalone's hand; but Birdalone said: It is over-long to tell of all my life, mother, though I be so young; but now I will do as thou badest me, and tell thee somewhat of my ...
— The Water of the Wondrous Isles • William Morris

... far away the Winter dreams alone, Rustling among his snow-drifts, and resigns Cold fondling ears to hear the cedars moan In dusky-skirted lines Strange answers of an ancient runic call; Or somewhere watches with his antique eyes, Gray-chill with frosty-lidded reveries, The silvery moonshine fall In misty wedges ...
— Among the Millet and Other Poems • Archibald Lampman

... into type in the printing office where The Overland Monthly was prepared for publication. A young lady who served as proof-reader in the establishment had been somewhat shocked by the scant morals of the mother of Luck, and when she came to the scene where Kentuck, after reverently fondling the infant, said, "he wrastled with my finger, the d——d little cuss," the indignant proof-reader was ready to throw up her engagement rather than go any further with a story so wicked and immoral. There was consternation throughout the establishment, and the head ...
— The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52 • Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe

... cry like the cry of a beast that is slaughtered, and fled out of the hut. Oh, fool of fools, why had he been dallying with dreams—billing and cooing with his own fancies—fondling and nuzzling and coddling them? Let all dreams henceforth be dead and damned for ever; for only devils out of hell had made them that poor men's souls might be staked and lost! Oh, why had he not remembered the pale face of Naomi when he left her, and the silence of her ...
— The Scapegoat • Hall Caine

... gazing on the vast show, luminous shadowy clouds seemed to increase in glory of color and motion, now fondling the highest peaks with infinite tenderness of touch, now hovering above them like ...
— Travels in Alaska • John Muir

... a certain kind is apt to claim to-day, by the way, some such fondling as a heroine of the dock receives from common opinion. The vain artist had all the opportunities of the situation. He was master of his own purpose, such as it was; it was his secret, and the public was not privy to his artistic ...
— Essays • Alice Meynell



Words linked to "Fondling" :   snogging, petting, foreplay, fondle, arousal, stimulation, snuggling, kissing, smooching, hugging, necking, caressing



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