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Untie   Listen
verb
Untie  v. t.  (past & past part. untied; pres. part. untying)  
1.
To loosen, as something interlaced or knotted; to disengage the parts of; as, to untie a knot. "Sacharissa's captive fain Would untie his iron chain." "Her snakes untied, sulphurous waters drink."
2.
To free from fastening or from restraint; to let loose; to unbind. "Though you untie the winds, and let them fight Against the churches." "All the evils of an untied tongue we put upon the accounts of drunkenness."
3.
To resolve; to unfold; to clear. "They quicken sloth, perplexities untie."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Untie" Quotes from Famous Books



... closed, do it in one's sleep &c (skillful) 698. render easy &c adj.; facilitate, smooth, ease; popularize; lighten, lighten the labor; free, clear; disencumber, disembarrass, disentangle, disengage; deobstruct^, unclog, extricate, unravel; untie the knot, cut the knot; disburden, unload, exonerate, emancipate, free from, deoppilate^; humor &c (aid) 707; lubricate &c 332; relieve &c 834. leave a hole to creep out of, leave a loophole, leave the matter open; give the reins to, give full ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... as he will bear this without alarm, untie the stirrup strap next to you, and put your left foot into the stirrup, and stand square over it, holding your knee against the horse, and your toe out, so as to touch him under the shoulder with the toe of your boot. Place your right hand on the front of the saddle and on the ...
— The Arabian Art of Taming and Training Wild and Vicious Horses • P. R. Kincaid

... fat butcher, who was sitting tilted back in a chair at the door of his shop, saw the carriage coming in a whirlwind of dust, and he knew what the matter was. There was a horse standing at the hitching rail, and the butcher just had time to untie him and jump into the saddle when the runaways flew by. He took after them as fast as his horse could go, and overhauled them at the end of the next bridge and ...
— The Flight of Pony Baker - A Boy's Town Story • W. D. Howells

... to untie the knots than to tie them, but at length it was done, and the unwinding process began. Alas! Farmer Green's nap was over, and with a hasty start he was roused to the full use of his faculties. When he discovered his condition he swore a round oath, and turned upon Teddy in ...
— Teddy's Button • Amy Le Feuvre

... about, around. desafiar challenge, defy. desafo m. duel, combat. desahogo m. relief, alleviation, comfort. desalentado, -a discouraged, abject. desasirse disengage one's self, break loose, extricate one's self. desatar untie, undo, loosen, let loose; —se break loose, break out. desatento, -a unmindful, heedless, rude. desatino m. folly, wildness, reeling. descansar rest, repose, sleep. descarnado, -a emaciated, fleshless, bare. ...
— El Estudiante de Salamanca and Other Selections • George Tyler Northup

... told him most untruthfully. "Looks like I'm a mighty cold-hearted somebody, Elder Drane. I jest can't fix it no way but to live here with my Uncle Jep and take care of him in his old days. Oh, would you wait a minute?" as they reached the horse-block and the Elder began to untie his mount with a discouraged countenance. "Jest let me run back to the house—I won't keep you a second. I got some little sugar ...
— Judith of the Cumberlands • Alice MacGowan

... conjure you by that which you profess, (Howe'er you come to know it,) answer me; Though you untie the winds, and let them fight Against the churches—though the yesty waves Confound and swallow navigation up— Though bladed corn be lodg'd, and trees blown down— Though castles topple on their warder's heads— Though palaces and pyramids do slope Their heads to their foundations—though ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 13, Issue 353, January 24, 1829 • Various

... excellency, Gregory," said Ivan, rolling the knout's lash round his hand, "for having spared you two strokes;" and he added, bending down to liberate Gregory's hand, "these two with the two I was able to miss out make a total of eight strokes instead of twelve. Come, now, you others, untie his other hand." ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - VANINKA • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE

... the knot, and the next moment a Mexican was burning the grass, calling on saints and others to come and help him turn the antelope loose. When the rope had burned its way through his gloved hands, he looked at them in astonishment, saying, "That was one bravo buck. How come thees rope untie?" But there was none to explain, and an antelope was dragging thirty-five feet of rope in a frantic endeavor to ...
— Cattle Brands - A Collection of Western Camp-fire Stories • Andy Adams

... at night, disgusted with himself and displeased with the whole world. People were unkind and unjust. Even inanimate objects were unusually aggravating. He wasted half an hour trying to untie a knot, hunted for a package of papers which were finally found in their proper place, had a vexing ten minutes with his office ...
— The Right Knock - A Story • Helen Van-Anderson

... elephants remained alongside the captive to console him for his misfortune, he was perfectly quiet; but no sooner were they withdrawn than he made the most violent efforts to set himself free. His first endeavour was to untie the knots of the ropes which bound him; but when he found that this was beyond his art, he tried to burst them asunder. Now he leaned backwards to free the fore-feet—now forwards to clear the hind ones, till, literally ...
— My First Voyage to Southern Seas • W.H.G. Kingston

... what time of day it was, the old man and woman ran out of doors in terror, and seeing the horse jumped on its back with the intention of riding to the next town before anyone could catch them. When they had mounted they began to whip the horse. In their haste, they had forgotten to untie the rope which was around the trunk of the caramay tree. As the horse pulled at the rope fruit fell from the tree upon the old man and woman. Believing they were shot, they were so ...
— Philippine Folk Tales • Mabel Cook Cole

... said to our men, "The others tied and starved us, you cut the ropes and tell us to eat; what sort of people are you?—Where did you come from?" Two of the women had been shot the day before for attempting to untie the thongs. This, the rest were told, was to prevent them from attempting to escape. One woman had her infant's brains knocked out, because she could not carry her load and it. And a man was dispatched with an axe, because he had broken down with fatigue. ...
— A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries • David Livingstone

... are not to fall in love with him," he continued, laughingly. "You are mine, and I shall come to claim you as soon as you write me you have found that fortune you are going after. Do your best, little Bess, and if you cannot untie the old ...
— Bessie's Fortune - A Novel • Mary J. Holmes

... colored passengers to the deck. In this instance it was exactly where this guardian and mother desired to be—as near the chest as possible. Once or twice, during the silent watches of the night, she was drawn irresistibly to the chest, and could not refrain from venturing to untie the rope and raise the lid a little, to see if the poor child still lived, and at the same time to give her a breath of fresh air. Without uttering a whisper, that frightful moment, this office was successfully performed. That the silent prayers of this oppressed young woman, together with ...
— The Underground Railroad • William Still

... mule ran away. It wasn't broke, that mule. Seem like it had run a gregus long way when Mary come along. She was just a walking and she reached up and grabbed the mule and she rode him back with me. And she made them untie me. And I loved her ever since. I came up here every year to see how John is treating ...
— Judith of the Godless Valley • Honore Willsie

... triplets have tied a string from the corner of your fence to the locust-tree, and they're watching from Riley's porch to see Mr. Williams fall into the mud-hole. Bob is cutting the string at the tree, and I want you to go down along the fence and untie it and bring it in. They will not suspect you ...
— The Hoosier School-boy • Edward Eggleston

... we'd better go and untie him," suggested Benoix. "Thanks for the lift, Mr. Farwell. It saved me a long walk. My old horse was too done to take out this evening. ...
— Kildares of Storm • Eleanor Mercein Kelly

... dollars from an aged friend ninety-one years old! He has contributed to the A.M.A. every year for a generation. Who will step into the place of these grand veterans when they are called from the ranks? Such examples ought to thrill younger men and untie their purse strings. ...
— American Missionary, Volume 43, No. 3, March, 1889 • Various

... discussion as to the reason why the profession of teacher was not as much respected as that of the lawyer, minister, or doctor, without once, as she thought, touching the kernel of the question, she arose to untie for them the Gordian knot, and said, "Mr. President." If all the witches that had been drowned, burned, and hung in the Old World and the New had suddenly appeared on the platform, threatening vengeance for their wrongs, the officers of that convention could not ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... means he will untie your hands, but that if you attempt to escape an arrow will go faster than you can run, and he ...
— Jack at Sea - All Work and no Play made him a Dull Boy • George Manville Fenn

... his tools and the piece of oak he had laid aside for a pump staff so long ago. Janice tried to untie the pump handle, and, not succeeding, ran in for the carving knife and managed to saw the rope ...
— Janice Day at Poketown • Helen Beecher Long

... drawer, and for the first time since she had tied up her manuscript touched it without a sick pang at her heart. The very sight of the enveloping brown paper had been odious to her: but to-day she felt courage enough to untie it, and to select a few of what she considered her best ...
— Mr. Hogarth's Will • Catherine Helen Spence

... led thereto of necessity, and the whole took place without any diminution of his perfect and supreme wisdom. And I do not know if it would be easy, apart from the reflexions we have just entertained, to untie the Gordian ...
— Theodicy - Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil • G. W. Leibniz

... smile, and at most a laughing word of reprobation for your azure audacities. Ladies, who, whether they are married or unmarried, are in England presumed to be agnostics in sexual matters, will roar themselves hoarse over farces whose stories could only be told to the ultramarines. Ibsen may not untie a shoe-latchet in the interest of truth, while English burlesque managers may put an army of girls into tights. One dramatist may steal a horse-laugh by a tawdry vulgarity, while another may not look over ...
— Without Prejudice • Israel Zangwill

... to the savant! Untiring in his investigations, ardent in his researches, the men of the senses are scarcely worthy to untie the latchet of his shoe, but he is slow in acknowledging the science of art, and apt to look down upon the artist from his throne of power! Because the artist deals with a different order of truths, ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 5, November, 1863 • Various

... you'll be a good girl, I'll untie your hands," he said, glancing up into her face. He freed her hands, and Lorraine immediately slapped him in the face and reached for his gun. But Al was too quick for her. He stepped back, picked up Snake's reins and mounted his own horse. He looked back at her appraisingly, saw her glare ...
— The Quirt • B.M. Bower

... not teaching. This would lead to passivity and not to activity on the part of the pupils. And it may be said here that constant and too much telling is probably the greatest and most widespread mistake in teaching. Teachers are constantly cutting the knots for children who should be left to untie them for themselves. To untie a knot is to see through and through a subject, to see all around it, to see the various relations of its parts and, consequently, to understand it. This is solving a problem; it ...
— Rural Life and the Rural School • Joseph Kennedy

... something on which you may exercise your ingenuity." He began, with exasperating deliberation, to untie the string which bound his parcel; he is one of those persons who would not cut a knot to save their lives. The process occupied him the better part of a quarter of an hour. Then he held out the contents of ...
— The Lock And Key Library - Classic Mystery And Detective Stories, Modern English • Various

... old Anazeh ran the launch into a cove between high rocks. Ahmed let out a shriek of anguish at the violence done the hull. They pitched the sheep overboard to wade ashore without remembering to untie its legs; it was almost drowned before it occurred to any one to rescue it. Perhaps it was dead. I don't know. Anyhow, one fellow prayed in a hurry while his companion cut the sheep's throat to make ...
— Jimgrim and Allah's Peace • Talbot Mundy

... wood fire was burning in the pleasant, great breakfast room, and the party who had just arrived were soon surrounded by smiles of welcome, while busy little fingers were assisting them to untie their bonnets, and unfasten their cloaks. In a few moments the door opened, and a pale, but lovely looking girl, in deep mourning, entered the room. She was a niece of Mr. Wharton's, and, having lately been left an orphan, by the death of her mother, she had been brought ...
— Lewie - Or, The Bended Twig • Cousin Cicely

... visited their uncle, where many of their friends and acquaintances had gathered to congratulate them in the field of untainted bliss. The kind old gentleman met them in the yard: "Well," said he, "I wish I may die, Elfonzo, if you and Ambulinia haven't tied a knot with your tongue that you can't untie with your teeth. But come in, come in, never mind, all is right—the world still moves on, and no one has fallen ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... again, I'll gag you too," said Brandt. "I tell you both once more, and I won't repeat the caution, that your lives depend on obedience." Then he mounted, and added, "Bute, I'm going to untie your hands, and you must ride on ahead of me. ...
— Taken Alive • E. P. Roe

... receiving the worst of it. He then went to Mr. Hume's owner and asked for help but was told he would have to seek elsewhere for help. Finally some one was found to assist. Smith was tied to a tree and severely beaten, then they were afraid to untie him, when the overseer finally ventured up and loosened the ropes, Smith kicked him as hard as he could and ran to the Payne estate refusing to return. He was a good helper here where he received ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States - From Interviews with Former Slaves: Indiana Narratives • Works Projects Administration

... but his fingers were all thumbs, and he could not untie the halyard. I was obliged to do it myself, for the sail had filled aback, and it was retarding ...
— Down The River - Buck Bradford and His Tyrants • Oliver Optic

... know that I have given up the opinion which I formerly declared with regard to the bridge; and do ye keep this thong and do as I shall say:—so soon as ye shall have seen me go forward against the Scythians, from that time begin, and untie a knot on each day: and if within this time I am not here, and ye find that the days marked by the knots have passed by, then sail away to your own lands. Till then, since our resolve has thus been changed, guard the floating bridge, showing all diligence to keep it safe and to guard it. And ...
— The History Of Herodotus - Volume 1(of 2) • Herodotus

... his master by as much as the black of his nail; to escape doing what he wanted was, however, also impossible; so what he did for peace's sake was to remove his right hand, which held the back of the saddle, and with it to untie gently and silently the running string which alone held up his breeches, so that on loosening it they at once fell down round his feet like fetters; he then raised his shirt as well as he could and ...
— Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

... as I lay; and two more he had fair wrapt up in parchment, and bound with a whip cord." Edit. 1784, p. 36-7-8. Ritson, in his Historical Essay on Scottish Song, speaks of some of these, with a zest, as if he longed to untie the "whip-cord" packet.] ...
— Bibliomania; or Book-Madness - A Bibliographical Romance • Thomas Frognall Dibdin

... futile attempt to untie his glove with his teeth). Much obliged, Master, but I've 'ad about enough spree a'ready to do me ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 103, December 3, 1892 • Various

... and sunshine their lives passed on, until the appointed day arrived that was to see them bound, not by the graceful true-lovers' knot, which either might untie, but by a chain light as downy fetters if borne in mutual love, and galling as ponderous iron links, if heart answered not heart and the chafing ...
— After the Storm • T. S. Arthur

... whole Sex is made of nothing else: Thou mayst sooner untie the Gordian Knot, expound the Problems of the monstrous Sphynx, and read what is decreed in the mysterious Book of Fate, than unfold a Woman's sly ...
— The City Bride (1696) - Or The Merry Cuckold • Joseph Harris

... providing against such contingencies. In the meantime, these, and other differences and discontents between the English and Dutch, daily continued and increased, till at length this knot, which all the tedious controversies at Amboina and Jacatra were unable to untie, was cut asunder by the ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume IX. • Robert Kerr

... lessening, only increased through difficulties, and led her, when she found she could not conquer them, to sweep them aside. To her mind this complicated tangle of the affairs of life was a Gordian knot impossible to untie and which genius ought to cut. Far from accepting the pettiness of middle-class existence, she was angry at the delay which kept the great things of life from her grasp,—blaming fate as deceptive. Celestine sincerely believed herself a superior woman. Perhaps she was right; perhaps she would have ...
— Bureaucracy • Honore de Balzac

... the same danger, by pulling out the kris and sticking it into the wood again farther ahead. Then, with that strange lightness that divers feel, he leaped forward, clutching at his spare line. Swiftly drawing his knife across it, for he had no time now to untie knots, he caught the end under Jerry's shoulders and knotted it. Looking down into the glass of Jerry's helmet, he could make out that the old man's eyes were closed, while his mouth was open and was feebly gasping ...
— The Pirate Shark • Elliott Whitney

... that direction, and hid by the road side until we came up that night. That night after all had got fast to sleep, I thought I would try to get out, and I should have succeeded, if I could have moved the bed from the door. I managed to untie myself and crawled under the bed which was placed at the door, and strove to remove it, but in so doing I awakened the men and they got up and confined me again, and watched me until day light, each with a gun ...
— Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave, Written by Himself • Henry Bibb

... the white steeds behind his chariot bound. The welcome sight Ulysses first descries, And points to Diomed the tempting prize. "The man, the coursers, and the car behold! Described by Dolon, with the arms of gold. Now, brave Tydides! now thy courage try, Approach the chariot, and the steeds untie; Or if thy soul aspire to fiercer deeds, Urge thou the slaughter, while I seize ...
— The Iliad of Homer • Homer

... you talk! What business man is to be compared with Alexander Marmarow! Is there any business man worthy to untie his shoe-strings? His politeness alone is worth more than ten business men. Lately he honored us with a visit, and I was so fascinated with his manners! and beside he is still young; is handsome; is educated; has a good position and a good salary and will ...
— Armenian Literature • Anonymous

... spectacle piteous to gods and hateful to men! Yet think of the many knots of monitory truisms in which activity is likely to be caught and entangled at the outset,—knots which a brave purpose will not waste time to untie, but instantly cuts. First, there is the nonsense of students killing themselves by over-study,—some few instances of which, not traceable to over-eating, have shielded the short-comings of a million ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 7, May, 1858 • Various

... guarded?" he asked, pausing to untie a second candle from the bunch he had suspended from ...
— The White Wolf and Other Fireside Tales • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... Lady of Bethany when they arrived at Jerusalem and found their son in the kiosk under her palm-tree. But this is curiosity of a class which Disraeli is not unwilling to awaken, but which he never cares to satisfy. He places the problems in a heap before us, and he leaves us to untie the knots. It is a highly characteristic trait of his mind as a writer that he is for ever preoccupied with the beginnings of things, and as little as ...
— Some Diversions of a Man of Letters • Edmund William Gosse

... an absurdity? Is it an inconceivable fact, or is it a conceived impossibility? It seems to us that it is the latter; and that if we will only take the pains to view the phenomena of mind as they exist in consciousness, and not through the medium of material analogies, we shall be able to untie the knot which Sir William Hamilton has found it ...
— A Theodicy, or, Vindication of the Divine Glory • Albert Taylor Bledsoe

... he was looking for a "moonshine" still, and the wild little thing in the bushes smiled cunningly—there was no still up that creek—and as he had left his horse below and his gun, she waited for him to come back, which he did, by and by, dripping and soaked to his knees. Then she saw him untie the queer "gun" on his saddle, pull it out of a case and—her eyes got big with wonder—take it to pieces and make it into a long limber rod. In a moment he had cast a minnow into the pool and waded out into the water up to his hips. She had never seen ...
— The Trail of the Lonesome Pine • John Fox, Jr.

... mouth and went into such convulsions of silent laughter, all the time writhing and twisting his lean body into such contortions that in watching his extraordinary gymnastics over the head of my unconscious vis-a-vis, and wondering if the boy ever could untie himself, I forgot my suffering. I even relaxed my mental strain and ...
— From a Girl's Point of View • Lilian Bell

... Now were Lawrence and Cobbett in their true glory—Lawrence was in his fine purple robe, the Sunday silk one. He stood at the far end of the nave, just under the choir-screen, waiting for the aristocracy, for whom the front seats were guarded with cords which only he might untie. How deeply pleased he was when some unfortunate stranger, ignorant in the ways of the Cathedral, walked, with startling clatter, up the whole length of the shining nave and endeavoured to penetrate one of these sacred defences! Majestically—staff in hand, he came forward, ...
— The Cathedral • Hugh Walpole

... conversation naturally turned Philip's thoughts to the relic, and he went into his mother's room to take possession of it. He opened the curtains—the corpse was laid out—he put forth his hand to untie the black ribbon. It was not there. "Gone!" exclaimed Philip. "They hardly would have removed it—never would. It must be that villain Poots—wretch! but I will have it, even if he has swallowed it, though I ...
— The Phantom Ship • Frederick Marryat

... trump, sonny!" exclaimed Uncle Cash, as he helped Moses untie Buttercup's head and ...
— New Chronicles of Rebecca • Kate Douglas Wiggin

... mind of Confucius, who declared that evil should be met by justice. Among the more picturesque of his utterances are such paradoxes as, "He who knows how to shut, uses no bolts; yet you cannot open. He who knows how to bind uses no ropes; yet you cannot untie"; "The weak overcomes the strong; the soft overcomes ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 2 - "Chicago, University of" to "Chiton" • Various

... lit his pipe, stared at the fisherman through the smoke for some time in silence; then he began to untie the purse, and said slowly, "Spink, I said you were an honest man, an' I see no cause to ...
— The Lighthouse • Robert Ballantyne

... steal a raft and destroy a thousand dollars' worth of wheat would not be likely to hesitate at anything. At this last thought Winn seemed to feel the deadly sting of a bullet, and in his nervousness only made more intricate the knot he was trying to untie. At length he whipped out his jack-knife and ...
— Raftmates - A Story of the Great River • Kirk Munroe

... and hearken to my prayer. Feed not in silence on a grief so sore, Nor spoil those sweet lips with unlovely care. The end is come; 'twas thine on sea and shore Troy's sons to vex, to wake the war's uproar, To cloud a home, a marriage-league untie, And mar with grief a bridal. Cease, and more Attempt not." Thus the ruler of the sky, And thus, with down-cast ...
— The Aeneid of Virgil - Translated into English Verse by E. Fairfax Taylor • Virgil

... a slice of ham on the coals and putting a skillet of water over the fire; and then coming to her side he began, without speaking, and with a pleasant face, to untie the strings of her bonnet and to take off that and her other coverings, with a gentle sort of kindness that made itself felt and not heard. Winnie bore it with difficulty; ...
— Hills of the Shatemuc • Susan Warner

... CREAM SAUCE.—Thoroughly wash, tie in small bunches, and put into boiling water; boil till perfectly tender. Drain thoroughly, untie the bunches, place the stalks all the same way upon a hot plate, with a dressing prepared as follows: Let a pint of sweet cream (about six hours old is best) come to the boiling point, and stir into it salt ...
— Science in the Kitchen. • Mrs. E. E. Kellogg

... permission was given, and thus defrauding the royal exchequer of many pretty things, which were brought for majesty alone. At night the rascally boys returned again to plunder, but Kahala, more wakeful than myself, heard them trying to untie the door-handle, and frightened them away in endeavouring ...
— The Discovery of the Source of the Nile • John Hanning Speke

... to untie the cable, they noticed that just below where the balza lay, a horizontal limb stretched far out over the river. It was the lowermost limb of a large zamang-tree, that stood on the bank close to the edge of the water. It was not near the surface, but a good many feet ...
— Popular Adventure Tales • Mayne Reid

... sisters. Very soon you'll experience that, as a fact, they push politeness to the point I mentioned, and not a year, nay not six months, will pass before your room will be the trysting place of five or six daughters of the light, who will untie before you their sparkling girdles. Do not be afraid, my son, to answer their caresses. Your own fairy love will not take umbrage. How could she be offended, wise as she is? And on your side, do not get irritated if your Salamander leaves you for a moment to visit another philosopher. ...
— The Queen Pedauque • Anatole France

... in the corner. Those brutes threw me down the ladder, and it stunned me. Come here. Perhaps you can untie my hands. Then we will see what chance ...
— Ted Strong in Montana - With Lariat and Spur • Edward C. Taylor

... Of course I was besieged daily by the maimed, the halt, and the blind, and the poor people, with much gratitude, would insist upon bringing fowls and milk in return for our attention to their wants. These I would never accept, but on many occasions, upon my refusal, the women would untie the legs of a bundle of chickens, and allow them to escape in our camp, rather than be compelled to return with their offering. Even the fakeers (priests) were our great friends, although we were Christians, and in my broken Arabic, with the assistance ...
— The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia • Samuel W. Baker

... got up, and, without saying a word, walked to the stables, and went up close to the doors. I ordered the teamsters to drive to the stables, unharness from the heavy ox-wagons, place their teams inside, and if they could not find vacant stalls enough, to untie and turn loose mules to empty the required number for my teams. The teamsters obeyed by driving up, and when they had dismounted and were about to unhitch from the wagons, one of the wood-haulers at the stable door said: "You can ...
— The Great Salt Lake Trail • Colonel Henry Inman

... Harmachis!—Harmachis, fly—but I fly not! To this end only I have lingered on the earth. Now I untie the knot of life and let my spirit free! Fare thee well, Prince, the pilgrimage is done! Harmachis, from a babe have I loved thee, and love thee yet!—but no more in this world may I share thy griefs—I am spent. Osiris, take thou my Spirit!" and ...
— Cleopatra • H. Rider Haggard

... over free flame. Cut off head just below bill. Untie feet, break bone and loosen sinews just below joint; pull out sinews and cut off feet. Cut out oil sac. Lay breast down, slit skin down backbone toward head; loosen windpipe and crop and pull out. Push back skin from neck and cut off neck close to ...
— The New Dr. Price Cookbook • Anonymous

... horse. Snow was falling fast, and he was ten miles from camp, when discovered by four Indians, outlying members of a large party of Shawnees under Munseka and Black Fish, who had taken the war-path to avenge the murder of Cornstalk (see p. 172, note. 2). Benumbed by cold, and unable easily to untie or cut the frozen thongs which bound on the pack, Boone could not unload and mount the horse, and after a sharp skirmish was captured, and led to the main Indian encampment, a few miles away. Boone induced his fellow salt-makers to surrender peaceably the following ...
— Chronicles of Border Warfare • Alexander Scott Withers

... proceeded to take off my shoes before entering the house, but the prince, having been informed some time or other that such was not the custom in England, insisted on my abstaining from doing so. I had already taken off one shoe and was proceeding to untie the other when, catching me by one arm and his followers by the other, he dragged me in. You can imagine how comical and undignified I looked, with one shoe on and the other off! Still, I managed to be equal to the occasion, and held a long pourparler ...
— Corea or Cho-sen • A (Arnold) Henry Savage-Landor

... afterwards employed his emissaries in circulating a printed declaration, importing that the king of France had enabled him to make another effort to retrieve his crown; and that although he was furnished with a number of troops sufficient to untie the hands of his subjects, he did not intend to deprive them of their share in the glory of restoring their lawful king and their ancient government. He exhorted the people to join his standard. He ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett

... refused to follow the directions of the girl's fingers—very white fingers they were too, and a very pretty girl—and, with untiring assiduity, the teacher renewed his lesson. We ventured a prophecy that they would soon be engaged in the twisting of a knot that would not be quite so easy to untie as the sailor's slip ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol 58, No. 357, July 1845 • Various

... of a pacific issue from the position in which he had been placed, or rather in which he had placed himself, and at his right hand stood Madame de Longueville and the Prince de Conti, who held no opinions contrary to those of his sister, urging him to cut the knot which he knew not how to untie. La Rochefoucauld stopped him for a moment on the threshold of war, entreating Conde to allow him to undertake fresh negotiations. The Prince consented willingly thereto. Madame de Longueville was opposed to it. La Rochefoucauld, speaking ...
— Political Women (Vol. 1 of 2) • Sutherland Menzies

... leave them here," Jack said. "If they managed to untie each other they would give the alarm, and if we had to come back we should be caught. If they could not manage to untie each other they might lie here and die. I think we had better take ...
— A Chapter of Adventures • G. A. Henty

... however, in his view, one point that bristled with difficulties. How to remove them Melanchthon confessed himself unable to suggest. The question of the popish mass was the Gordian knot which must be reserved for the future council of the church to untie or cut.[329] ...
— The Rise of the Hugenots, Vol. 1 (of 2) • Henry Martyn Baird

... should advise you, in the morning, to manage to untie each other. We shall fasten the door up as we go out, but you will have no difficulty in bursting that open, ...
— With Frederick the Great - A Story of the Seven Years' War • G. A. Henty

... powers more akin to those of man than are to be found in the most intelligent of the quadrupeds. We may cite some instances of these higher powers. Vosmaern had a tame female orang-outang that was able to untie the most intricate knot with fingers or teeth, and took such pleasure in doing it that she regularly untied the shoes of those who came near her. The female chimpanzee called Sally, that lived for many years in the Zooelogical Society's ...
— Thomas Henry Huxley; A Sketch Of His Life And Work • P. Chalmers Mitchell

... art left as his guard and we are wrapt in slumber. Play thy part well, and show thy remorse at cheating thy master—even for a lakh[35] of rupees—yea, and show fear of what will happen to thee, and pretend distrust of him. At length succumb again, and as the moon just shows above the mountains untie his bonds and do thus and thus—' and he whispered instructions while a light shone in the eyes of Moussa Isa, the Somali, and a ...
— Driftwood Spars - The Stories of a Man, a Boy, a Woman, and Certain Other People Who - Strangely Met Upon the Sea of Life • Percival Christopher Wren

... wire carrying a copper tag with the names of the trees which are crossed is best. If I mark the limb with string or with strong cord I find there are many ways for its disappearance. Early in the spring the birds like it so well that they will untie square knots in order to put it into their nests. Later in the season the squirrels will bite off these marks made with cords for no other purpose, so far as I know, except satisfying a love of mischief. Now I am not psychologist enough to state that this is the reason for the action of ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association, Report of the Proceedings at the Third Annual Meeting • Northern Nut Growers Association

... crestfallen at their stupidity, they proceeded to untie the bundles again, when it became apparent to the eyes of Charley that his friend had put on his capote inside out; which had a peculiarly ragged and grotesque effect. These mistakes were soon rectified, and shouldering their beds, they carried them down ...
— The Young Fur Traders • R.M. Ballantyne

... knocked him a sprawlin', an' Meshach hisself finished him. To-day he starts in to lead off yon poor imbecile, Levin Dennis, and, as I expresses my opinion of it, he draws his knife on me; so I takes my foot, Judge, that you have seen me untie a knot with, and I spiles his wrist with it. Take care of his knife, Levin,—he's ...
— The Entailed Hat - Or, Patty Cannon's Times • George Alfred Townsend

... No.—Twenty-third street; but he spends most of his time at the office. No matter what time of night he comes home, he never goes to his own room till he has looked at Lila, and kissed her good-night. Master Felix, please don't untie her hat, the wind will blow her hair all out ...
— St. Elmo • Augusta J. Evans

... woods. 2. To be able to tell the correct time by the sun at least twice a day. 3. To be able to swim 200 yards. 4. To be able to row a boat one mile in ten minutes. 5. To measure the correct height of a tree without climbing it. 6. To be able to tie and untie eight different standard knots. 7. To catch a two-pound fish. 8. To be able to know and name fifteen different trees in the woods. 9. To be able to perform on a stunt night acceptably. 10. To be able to know and name 25 different ...
— Camping For Boys • H.W. Gibson

... is better than to study the ways of dying. Death will find some ways to untie or cut the most gordian knots of life, and make men's miseries as mortal as themselves: whereas evil spirits, as undying substances, are unseparable from their calamities; and, therefore, they everlastingly struggle under their angustias, and, bound up with ...
— Wilfrid Cumbermede • George MacDonald

... until he came to a place where beaver signs were abundant. There he would push his little bark among the willows, where he remained concealed, excepting when he was setting his traps or visiting them in the morning. When he had taken all the beaver in one neighbourhood, he would untie his little conveyance, and glide onward and downward to try his luck in ...
— The Old Santa Fe Trail - The Story of a Great Highway • Henry Inman

... been a very ingenious person who tied this knot," said Pandora to herself. "But I think I could untie it, nevertheless. I am resolved, at least, to find the two ends of ...
— The Paradise of Children - (From: "A Wonder-Book For Girls and Boys") • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... with the old ladies when the dog wound the chain into a knot around their legs, and upset them, and my uncle had to sit down in the road beside them, and untie them before ...
— Evergreens - From a volume entitled "Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow" • Jerome K. Jerome

... if that were so, the kingdom would be depopulated. Husbands running off from wives, and wives from husbands, to pass the required seven years abroad. By Jove! You see, too, there's another thing, my boy. Marriage is a sacrament, and you've not only got to untie the civil knot, but the clerical one, my boy. No, no; there's no help for it. You gave your word, old chap, 'till death do us part,' ...
— The American Baron • James De Mille

... remarkable feature of the piece is its close resemblance to the new type of drama which Euripides had popularised. The miserable life of Philoctetes, his rags, destitution and sickness are a parallel to the Euripidean Telephus; most of all, the appearance of a god at the end to untie the knot is genuine Euripides. But there is a great difference; of the disjointed actions which disfigure later tragedy and are not absent from Sophocles' own earlier work there is not a trace. The ...
— Authors of Greece • T. W. Lumb

... to persuade her," murmured the distracted young man at the 'phone, as he struggled with one hand to untie his necktie and unfasten his collar, and mentally calculated how long it would take him to get into ...
— The Mystery of Mary • Grace Livingston Hill

... dark all the rest of the year, like as anyway," observed Mrs. Pepper, stopping to untie a knot. "Folks who do so never have any candles," she ...
— Five Little Peppers And How They Grew • Margaret Sidney

... I expect," Kentish said, "for some time. You can't shout and you can't walk, and I know you can't untie yourself. You'll get a bit hungry, too, perhaps, but that'll give you an appetite. I don't suppose you'll be disturbed till some time to-morrow, unless our friend Danby turns up in the meantime. But you can come along to jail instead, if ...
— Martin Hewitt, Investigator • Arthur Morrison

... applied to Ellinor for her consent. She saw that the fact of the intended sale must be all that Mr. Corbet was aware of, and that he could not know to whom the books belonged. She chose out the book, and wrapped and tied it up with trembling hands. He might be the person to untie the knot. It was strangely familiar to her love, after so many years, to be brought into thus much contact with him. She wrote a short note to Mr. Brown, in which she requested him to say, as though from himself; and without any mention of her name, that he, as executor, requested Mr. ...
— A Dark Night's Work • Elizabeth Gaskell

... sorrel nag, one of his servants, to untie the largest of these animals, and take him into the yard. The beast and I were brought close together, and by our countenances diligently compared both by master and servant, who thereupon repeated several ...
— Gulliver's Travels - into several remote nations of the world • Jonathan Swift

... did you turn your back? Oh, too accomplished Sancho! why did you neatly untie that knot and trot away to confer with the disreputable bull-dog who stood in the entrance beckoning with friendly wavings of an abbreviated tail? Oh, much afflicted Ben! why did you delay till it was too late to save your pet from the rough man who set his foot upon the trailing strap and led ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, Nov 1877-Nov 1878 - Scribner's Illustrated • Various

... or untie; to remove the sails from their yards and stays; to cast loose the cables from their anchors, or to untie ...
— The Sailor's Word-Book • William Henry Smyth

... you bear a care-dulled eye, And brow perplexed with things of weight, And fain would bid some charm untie The bonds that hold you all too strait, Behold a solace to your fate, Wrapped in this cover's china blue; These ballades fresh and delicate, This dainty ...
— Ballads in Blue China and Verses and Translations • Andrew Lang

... chariot or waggon in which the celebrated Midas, the son of Gordius, together with his parents, had entered the town, and in conformity with an oracle had been elevated to the monarchy. An ancient prophecy promised the sovereignty of Asia to him who should untie the knot of bark which fastened the yoke of the waggon to the pole. Alexander repaired to the Acropolis, where the waggon was preserved, to attempt this adventure. Whether he undid the knot by drawing out a peg, or cut it through with his sword, is a matter ...
— A Smaller History of Greece • William Smith

... for one of the servants to untie Jinks in the morning, so that he could go at once to his master. Occasionally his master would come and set him loose himself, and take him for a morning walk before it got too hot, so that whoever found ...
— Rataplan • Ellen Velvin

... in they bear her to the chimney seat, And busily, though yet with fear, untie Her garments, and, to warm her icy feet 570 And chafe her temples, careful hands apply. Nature reviving, with a deep-drawn sigh She strove, and not in vain, her head to rear; Then said—"I thank you all; if I must die, The God in heaven my prayers for you will hear; 575 Till now I did ...
— The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth - Volume 1 of 8 • Edited by William Knight

... was pronounced—death by hanging—Yanson suddenly became agitated. He reddened deeply and began to tie and untie the shawl about his neck as though it were choking him. Then he waved his arms stupidly and said, turning to the judge who had not read the sentence, and pointing with his finger at the judge ...
— The Seven who were Hanged • Leonid Andreyev

... played in the wood. For some time she had not the courage to do the deed, but at last an irresistible force, as she said, urged her to do it. With her hands and shoes she dug a grave, then strangled the child with string, with such force that it was difficult to untie the knot on the dead body afterwards. She knelt for some time by the child till it ceased to give any signs of life, then buried it, and returned home restraining her tears ...
— The Sexual Question - A Scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study • August Forel

... And he proceeded to untie and run over the contents of the papers, with a serious face and what seemed an ostentation of delay. Me and my impatience it would appear he had forgotten; for when he was quite done, he sat a while thinking, whistled a bar or two, refolded the papers, ...
— The Wrecker • Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne

... known as "Red." And it was a favorite trick of his to tie hard knots in other boys' garments while the owners of them were in the pond. Usually he wet the knots, because wetting them made them harder to untie. ...
— The Tale of Old Dog Spot • Arthur Scott Bailey

... stammered, and began to untie and retie his shoe lace very carefully. "I—I was going ...
— Captivity • M. Leonora Eyles

... Americans got back on the ketch, they could not untie the rope that held the ketch to the ship. The big ship was bursting into flames. The ketch ...
— Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans • Edward Eggleston

... knowing as the stars, and as secret as the night. And I'm going to be married just now, yet did not know of it half an hour ago; and the lady stays for me, and does not know of it yet. There's a mystery for you: I know you love to untie difficulties. Or, if you can't solve this, stay here a quarter of an hour, and I'll come ...
— Love for Love • William Congreve

... laid his burden on the floor, kneels to untie the ropes. The secretary explains that he need not trouble, pray bear thanks and again thanks to his ...
— The Mintage • Elbert Hubbard

... us blessings which it is in your power to give, and offer us those which are not yours to bestow. But it is a mockery which will return, and at no distant day, in sevenfold vengeance upon, we say not Pio Nono, but the papal system. Untie the fetters of these men; make them free for but a few hours; and with what terrible emphasis will they demand back the friends whom the Papacy has buried in dungeons or murdered on the open scaffold! They will seek their lost sons and brothers with an ...
— Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber - Or The Influence of Romanism on Trade, Justice, and Knowledge • James Aitken Wylie

... now, Susie. The first thing is to slip off your wet clothes and get dry, and then help me with the others. Give me the big towel, and untie Amy's frock." ...
— Troublesome Comforts - A Story for Children • Geraldine Glasgow

... of prelates from all parts of Christendom, or even from all departments of the English Church, would not present an edifying spectacle. Parliament may no longer meddle with opinions unless it be to untie the chains which it forged three centuries ago. But better than Councils, better than sermons, better than Parliament, is that free discussion through a free press which is the best instrument for the discovery of truth, and the most effectual means ...
— Froude's Essays in Literature and History - With Introduction by Hilaire Belloc • James Froude

... "Can't you untie him to-day, Michael?" she asked, a question she had propounded each morning since the boys went ...
— Five Little Peppers at School • Margaret Sidney

... if there's a place about this lake we didn't visit, I should like to have somebody tell me where it is. You may think it made my hair stand out some, to find myself flyin' about like a streak of chain lightnin', and to see the trees and rocks flyin' like mad the other way. I tried to untie the line, but it was drawn into a knot so hard, that the old Nick himself couldn't move it. I looked for my knife to cut it, but it had, somehow, got overboard in our flight, besides flyin' about at the rate of sixty mile an hour, kept a fellow pretty busy holdin' on, keepin' ...
— Wild Northern Scenes - Sporting Adventures with the Rifle and the Rod • S. H. Hammond

... of the rhinoceros. That bumptious animal retained its unamiable spirit to the last. Fortunately it did not possess the powers or sagacity of the elephant. It could not untie knots or pick its cage to pieces, so that it was effectually restrained during the greater part of the voyage; but there came a tempest at last, which assisted him in becoming free—free, not only from durance vile, but from the restraints ...
— The Floating Light of the Goodwin Sands • R.M. Ballantyne

... experience, all is limited, temporary, imperfect; and reason seeks the perfect, the eternal, the infinite. The doctrine of creation alone explains how the universe subsists in presence of its first cause. In ignorance of this doctrine, some bold thinkers have cut the knot which they could not untie. They have declared that reason alone is right, and that experience is wrong: the world does not exist, it is but an illusion of the mind. Whence proceeds this illusion? If perfection alone exists, ...
— The Heavenly Father - Lectures on Modern Atheism • Ernest Naville

... husband's desk. She had often thought of doing so, but, as his death was not supposed to be so near, she had not thought that there was any immediate cause of doing so. Besides, it had almost been her belief that he had made no will. Now she began to open drawers and untie parcels of papers, but it was some time before she came to what she sought. At length, however, her diligence was rewarded. In the middle of a pile of papers, she found ...
— Only An Irish Boy - Andy Burke's Fortunes • Horatio Alger, Jr.

... de Gatinais said. "Oh no, messire, I reply to you with Arnaud de Marveil, that marvellous singer of eld, 'They may bear her from my presence, but they can never untie the knot which unites my heart to her; for that heart, so tender and so constant, God alone divides with my lady, and the portion which God possesses He holds but as a part of her domain, and as her vassal.'" "This is blasphemy," Prince Edward now retorted, "and for such ...
— Chivalry • James Branch Cabell

... he said in a changed tone. "Could you manage to untie it and fix it up more firmly till ...
— Captain Desmond, V.C. • Maud Diver

... out, Mme la Duchesse," he said, coolly taking the cigar out of his mouth; "I have a headache. Besides, I will untie you. But listen attentively to what I have the honour ...
— The Thirteen • Honore de Balzac

... wondering whether, were they transposed this way and that way, the effect would not be better. And then I know that most of those windows are so arranged that they can't be opened, to let in the fresh air, and that gives me a stifled feeling, and I involuntarily untie my bonnet strings, and draw a long breath, to see if my ...
— Little Ferns For Fanny's Little Friends • Fanny Fern

... "Come and untie me first," said Virginia, "and I'll go, too." Keith gave several quick tugs at the many knotted string which bound her, but could not loosen it. Again the call came, impatient and sharp, "Keith! ...
— Two Little Knights of Kentucky • Annie Fellows Johnston

... but to their surprise and chagrin only a small rear-guard was found, who fled on their mules after a few shots. Streight, with the captured guns, was well on the road again, and Forrest's men were obliged to go back, untie their horses, and get in marching order, losing nearly ...
— Historical Tales, Vol. 2 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris

... the shop window, alongside some shivering street arabs [Footnote: Street Arabs. What is meant by this term?] who stood there, absorbed in the contemplation of the unattainable delicacies within, and I watched the old man carefully untie his pocket-handkerchief and lay the little girl's gift upon the counter. I had hardly time to draw back before he came out with a red paper bag of sweets in his hand, and with rapid steps he started off in the direction of ...
— Short Stories and Selections for Use in the Secondary Schools • Emilie Kip Baker

... covers were further adorned with a sort of embossed seal and with antique looking tapes so that you could tie it all up with two bows when you had finished with Mr Lucas's "Flotsam" for the time being, and turned to untie the "Jetsam." ...
— Queen Lucia • E. F. Benson

... and breadth of the specimen, lay it upon the top of the skin and tie it to the board on which the fish is resting; by this means you will be enabled to reverse the fish without cracking the skin or destroying the "set" of it. Untie your boards and the object is before you right side uppermost. It will now be seen if your modelling is true or not; in the latter case, note where all imperfections occur, reverse the fish once more, and ram ...
— Practical Taxidermy • Montagu Browne

... some things to remember in connection with Christ's baptism: First, Jesus was well acquainted with the relation of John and his ministry to the Old Testament prophecy, as well as of John's own announcement that he was the Messiah's fore-runner, and that he (John) was not worthy to untie the latchet of Christ's shoes. Second, to come then to John, and to submit to baptism at his hands, would indicate that Jesus conceded the truth of all that John had said. This is emphasized when we ...
— The Great Doctrines of the Bible • Rev. William Evans

... know how to do it!" cried Bawly at length, when he had jumped forty-sixteen times. "I'll tie a string to my baseball, and I'll throw the ball up to you. Then you catch it, untie the string, which I'll keep hold of on this end, and I'll tie the rope to the cord. Then you can haul up the rope, fasten it to the ...
— Bully and Bawly No-Tail • Howard R. Garis

... good clergyman of the town, interested in her situation, sought a confidence she did not care to bestow, and so, doling out a, b, c to a wild group of boys and girls, she found that she could not untie the Gordian knot of her life, and felt with terror that it must ...
— Early Letters of George Wm. Curtis • G. W. Curtis, ed. George Willis Cooke

... classic monotony, the Gothic school of fiction was soon noted for its lavish use of the unusual, the mysterious, and the terrible. Improbability, or the necessity for calling in the supernatural to untie some knot, did not seriously disturb this school. The standard definition of "Gothic" in fiction soon came to include an element of strangeness added to terror. When the taste for the extreme Gothic declined, there ...
— History of American Literature • Reuben Post Halleck

... your shoe too tightly, and, after half an hour, experienced that excruciating pain across the instep of the obstructed circulation? And do you remember that after a few minutes of such pain you simply could not walk another step and had to untie the shoe-lace and ease the pressure? Very well. Then try to imagine your whole body so laced, only much more tightly, and that the squeeze, instead of being merely on the instep of one foot, is on your entire trunk, compressing to the seeming of death your ...
— The Jacket (The Star-Rover) • Jack London

... state is desperate for my master's love; As I am woman— now, alas the day!— What thriftless sighs shall poor Olivia breathe! O time, thou must untangle this, not I; It is too hard a knot for me to untie! [Exit.] ...
— Twelfth Night; or, What You Will • William Shakespeare [Hudson edition]

... for that!" he breathed fervently. "Can you untie these infernal knots? They're almost cutting my ...
— Darkness and Dawn • George Allan England

... lurking-places, from which when you have escaped, you will have gained nothing except that you will have freed yourself from difficulties with which you need never have hampered yourself. What is the use of laboriously untying knots which you yourself have tied, in order that you might untie them? Yet, just as some knots are tied in fun and for amusement, so that a tyro may find difficulty in untying them, which knots he who tied them can loose without any trouble, because he knows ...
— L. Annaeus Seneca On Benefits • Seneca

... think you'd make so much of a little matter like that," he said. "It was a mistake. I didn't mean you to stay all night. Congreve promised to go back and untie you. Didn't ...
— The Tin Box - and What it Contained • Horatio Alger

... then the communion between the singer and the hearer is complete. The infinite joy is manifesting itself in manifold forms, taking upon itself the bondage of law, and we fulfil our destiny when we go back from forms to joy, from law to the love, when we untie the knot of the finite and ...
— Sadhana - The Realisation of Life • Rabindranath Tagore

... cowards, for torturing that poor little kid! You're a nice pack of heroes, you are! Only twenty to one! But I'll pay you back for this some day, and don't you forget it! And if you'll untie my hands I'll take you one at a time now. I guess I could just about do up two of you at a time, ...
— The Dozen from Lakerim • Rupert Hughes

... you!" said Kernel Cob. "Come stand up on your hind legs, like a good fellow, and untie me ...
— Kernel Cob And Little Miss Sweetclover • George Mitchel

... Caledonia! stern and wild, Meet nurse for a poetic child! Land of brown heath and shaggy wood, Land of the mountain and the flood, Land of my sires! what mortal hand Can e'er untie the filial band, That knits me to ...
— Eighth Reader • James Baldwin

... food.' Surely that is an inimitable note of truth. No legend-manufacturer would have dared to drop down to such a homely word as that, after such a word as 'Maiden, arise!' An economy of miraculous power is shown here, such as was shown when, after Lazarus came forth, other hands had to untie the grave-clothes which tripped him as he stumbled along. Christ will do by miracle what is needful and not one hairs-breadth more. In His calm majesty He bethinks Himself of the hungry child, and entrusts to others the task ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... humanity a thousand years hence, while despotism will swallow the savoury morsels which would almost fly into your mouths of themselves if you'd take a little trouble; or do you, whatever it may imply, prefer a quicker way which will at last untie your hands, and will let humanity make its own social organisation in freedom and in action, not on paper? They shout 'a hundred million heads'; that may be only a metaphor; but why be afraid of it if, with the slow day-dream on paper, despotism in the course of some hundred years ...
— The Possessed - or, The Devils • Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... called out the Squire. "Come! Untie this man! Who is he?" A dozen willing fingers quickly unknotted the rope and the bag was slipped ...
— Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates • Howard I. Pyle

... my father, "I thought that would fetch you. So you have come to your senses then, and we can go on together? Untie your horse, Henry, while I charge ...
— The Unspeakable Gentleman • John P. Marquand

... in a business-like way to untie the woman, who seemed now to be as much stunned by circumstances as if she had been ...
— The Mermaid - A Love Tale • Lily Dougall

... were exactly alike, both of them well tied up with good whipcord. Ben took his parcel to a table, and, after breaking off the sealing-wax, began carefully to examine the knot, and then to untie it. Hal stood still, exactly in the spot where the parcel was put into his hands, and tried, first at one corner and then at another, to pull the string ...
— Forgotten Tales of Long Ago • E. V. Lucas

... to the Christ and looking at us, as though their lips were framed to say: 'Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto his sorrow.' Even the soldiers who have done their cruel work, seem softened. They untie the cords tenderly, and support the fainting form, too weak to stand alone. What sadness in the lovely faces of S. Catherine and Lawrence! What divine anguish in the loosened limbs and bending ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete - Series I, II, and III • John Symonds

... familiar scenes of a plot to hang the girl's lover, swiftly alternating with scenes of her progress on horseback through the primeval forest, and concluding with her arrival just in time to shoot the villain and untie the noose that encircles her ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Volume 152, Feb. 7, 1917 • Various

... shirts, feed a few foggy servingmen, and prefer dunces to livings—this old Sir Raderic, Furor, it shall be thy task to cudgel with thy thick, thwart terms; marry, at the first, give him some sugarcandy terms,[103] and then, if he will not untie purse-strings of his liberality, sting him with terms laid ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. IX • Various

... furious conflict in his own mind, finally succumbs to his guilty passion. He is rescued from {133} the consequences of his weakness by the discovery that Panthea is not, in fact, his sister. But this is to cut the knot and not to untie it. It leaves the denouement to chance, and not to those moral forces through which Shakspere always wrought his conclusions. Arbaces has failed, and the piece of luck which keeps his failure innocent is rejected by ...
— Brief History of English and American Literature • Henry A. Beers

... as a mouse, and no one shall know that I am here; but if you give me the honeycake you will untie me for a little, and let ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... easily loosen that string and get away if I wanted to," Mappo thought as he played with the knot in his odd little fingers. Monkeys can untie most knots, and a chain is about the only ...
— Mappo, the Merry Monkey • Richard Barnum

... exploded from the mass with sufficient vehemence to reach the strained ears above, and the watchers were able to perceive the fellows lift the fallen man to his feet, and untie his hands, which were apparently secured behind his back. He must have been wounded also, for one sleeve was hastily rolled up, and water brought from the stream, in which it was bathed. Not until this had been attended to did the crowd fall away, ...
— The Strange Case of Cavendish • Randall Parrish

... in mother's lap, That she may untie your cap, For the little strings have got Twisted into such a knot; Ah! for shame,—you've been at play With the bobbin, as ...
— Aunt Kitty's Stories • Various

... thought that the blood would flow quietly—how it spurted and spouted and ran! Before she could untie his hands and lay them beneath the blanket at his sides the white, lean arms were crimson with blood. At this rate, it would not take him long to die! She rinsed the blood from the little penknife in a basin of water, and turning ...
— A Sheaf of Corn • Mary E. Mann

... were in, they went out on deck and began to untie the houseboat. While they were doing so they heard the ...
— The Rover Boys on the River - The Search for the Missing Houseboat • Arthur Winfield

... I'll resolve you, Which to you shall seem probable, of every These happen'd accidents; till when, be cheerful, 250 And think of each thing well. [Aside to Ari.] Come hither, spirit: Set Caliban and his companions free; Untie the spell. [Exit Ariel.] How fares my gracious sir? There are yet missing of your company Some few odd lads ...
— The Tempest - The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.] • William Shakespeare

... hands are tied, they cannot aid you. How strangely things repeat themselves, after long years; for MY hands were tied, that night, you remember? Yes, tied much as yours are now—how odd that is. I could not pull free. It did not occur to you to untie me; it does not occur to me to untie you. Sh—! there's a late footstep. It is coming this way. Hark, how near it is! One can count the footfalls—one—two—three. There—it is just outside. Now is the time! ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain



Words linked to "Untie" :   untying, change, unloosen, modify, unloose, unbrace, undo, untier, tie, alter, loosen, unlace



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