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Keep off   /kip ɔf/   Listen
Keep off

verb
1.
Refrain from certain foods or beverages.  Synonym: avoid.  "During Ramadan, Muslims avoid tobacco during the day"
2.
Refrain from entering or walking onto.  Synonym: stay off.  "Stay off the premises"






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Keep off" Quotes from Famous Books



... but they crowd in boats round the ship, and he very condescendingly stands looking at them through a spyglass. There are two frigates, one on each side of us, the Eurotas and Liffey, and their boats are constantly rowing about the ship to keep off the boats. We prisoners have no other amusement than to look at them contending for places. I hope we will soon be allowed to go ashore, as I want to see Captain Sandys. You must be tired reading this long epistle. We took some prizes, one ship laden with Buonaparte's soldiers, one chasse maree ...
— The Surrender of Napoleon • Sir Frederick Lewis Maitland

... skill, when he had safely bestowed Fleda among her cushions on deck, Mr. Carleton managed to keep off the crowd of busy inquirers after her well-doing, and even presently to turn his mother's attention another way, leaving Fleda to enjoy all the comfort of quiet and fresh air at once. He himself seeming occupied with other things, did no more but ...
— Queechy, Volume I • Elizabeth Wetherell

... to the loud clapping shears, While ever and anon to his shorn peers A ram goes bleating: Winder of the horn, When snouted wild-boars routing tender corn Anger our huntsmen: Breather round our farms, To keep off mildews, and all weather harms: Strange ministrant of undescribed sounds, That come a-swooning over hollow grounds, And wither drearily on barren moors: Dread opener of the mysterious doors Leading to universal knowledge—see, Great son of Dryope, ...
— Six Centuries of English Poetry - Tennyson to Chaucer • James Baldwin

... why he gave this advice, but he knew very well that if they were to remain quiet for an instant the cowardly sharks would make a dart at them, and that only by splashing vigorously could they keep off the monsters. He himself did so with his legs and one hand, while he placed the other under his friend's back. Archy felt his strength much restored after this rest, and declared himself ready to go on again. ...
— The Three Lieutenants • W.H.G. Kingston

... Daki[a]nos (Decianus, Decius). This Dakianos had risen from low degrees to kingly honors, and gave himself out to be a god. Jemlikha was led to doubt the divinity of his master, because he was unable to keep off a fly which persistently tormented him, and being roused to reflection, came to the conclusion that there must be a god to whom both Dakianos and the fly were subject. He communicated his thoughts to his companions, and they all fled from the Ephesian court till ...
— Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama - A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 • E. Cobham Brewer

... when mutilated. Big as an elephant's thigh, and with flesh like some black-blooded bullock of ocean breed, his unsavoury meat attracts a most repulsive assemblage, not only of customers, but of flies and wasps, which no flapping will keep off from his grumous liver. The sword-fish cuts up into large bloodless slices, which look on the stall like so many fillets of very white veal, and might pass for such, but that the head and shoulders are fixed upon a long lance, high above the stall, ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXII. - June, 1843.,Vol. LIII. • Various

... special exertion was not then to my taste. Yet I had earned as much as 12s. a day, and that is 180L a year, with which one can live as well here as with twice as much in America or England. Even if I continued to work in the same way, merely enough to keep off ennui, my income would very soon increase. In the worst case, I could live upon my earnings here as well as 400L or 500L would enable me to live elsewhere; and there was not the slightest prospect of being able to steal so much. The result was that I declined to go away. Firstly, ...
— Freeland - A Social Anticipation • Theodor Hertzka

... window, he had gritted his teeth until morning. As for the sailors, who were to return to the ship for her trunk; well, more little Mexicans had fired on them from the river bank. The small boat, riddled with shot, had sunk, and the sailors, splashing frantically to keep off the sharks, had gained the shore opposite. But they could neither get word to the ship, ...
— The Missourian • Eugene P. (Eugene Percy) Lyle

... because the eye of a man is so delicate in its contexture, hath therefore prepared eyelids like doors whereby to secure it, which extend of themselves whenever it is needful, and again close when sleep approaches? Are not these eyelids provided, as it were, with a fence on the edge of them to keep off the wind and guard the eye? Even the eyebrow itself is not without its office, but, as a penthouse, is prepared to turn off the sweat, which falling from the forehead might enter and annoy that no less tender than astonishing part of us. Is it not to be admired that the ears ...
— Christianity and Greek Philosophy • Benjamin Franklin Cocker

... saying I was sure he did not learn to be an extortioner from Horace. He answered, I was but a young man and did not know the world, or I would not tax him with extortion, whose only aim was to live contentus parvo, and keep off importuna pauperies. My fellow traveller could not so easily put up with this imposition; but swore he should either take one-third of the money or go without. While we were engaged in this dispute, ...
— The Adventures of Roderick Random • Tobias Smollett

... twist of his sword Lapo disarmed the old man, calling out: "Keep off, kinsman! I will not shed Grangioia blood unless you force me to it. Let Muti come forward. Or yonder gentleman dressed up in the white eagles of Este, which should hide their heads with their wings, so long and ...
— O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1920 • Various

... is unworthy of you. Without humbug, I think you might keep off it a bit before you dine with people. It doesn't matter about us, you know, but it's hardly the sort of thing Mrs. ...
— The Divine Fire • May Sinclair

... external, business nature or in a social way, with men of other faith. The least he had to fear was a prejudiced inimicality, as if the individual in question were on the point of calling out to him: You stay on that side, I'll stay on this. Keep off the bridge. ...
— The Goose Man • Jacob Wassermann

... from the vessel of about one-half mile, the number to be agreed upon for each night as the boat leaves the vessel. A countersign is also to be given; but if not understood by the look-out, he is to call out "Enemy," at the same time warning the boat to keep off, at which the vessel will be ...
— Ordnance Instructions for the United States Navy. - 1866. Fourth edition. • Bureau of Ordnance, USN

... But, to inspection nearer laid, Instead of giving, wanted aid. The structure, rare and curious, made By men most famous in their trade, A work of years, admired by all, Was suffer'd into dust to fall; Or, just to make it hang together, And keep off the effects of weather, 20 Was patch'd and patch'd from time to time By wretches, whom it were a crime, A crime, which Art would treason hold To mention with those names of old. Builders, who had the pile survey'd, And those not Flitcrofts[136] in ...
— Poetical Works • Charles Churchill

... "descent into hell"; and to the glad celebration of the renewal of life in spring succeeds a feast in honour of the dead. The ghosts, it is supposed, come forth to the upper air; every door-post is smeared with pitch to keep off the wandering shades; and every family sacrifices to its own departed. Nor are the arts forgotten; a musical festival is held, and competing choirs sing and dance ...
— The Greek View of Life • Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson

... ask you to keep off while I do what I please about the library and the billiard room. I'll try to get along without much money in doing what I desire there, but I must have some new clothes. I want money to buy me a pair of new shoes for school. I want a pair of pumps suitable ...
— Her Father's Daughter • Gene Stratton-Porter

... had way," wrote Revere to Bobby at the end of two months. "Since you left, the Regiment has taken to fever and is fairly rotten with it—two hundred in hospital, about a hundred in cells—drinking to keep off fever—and the Companies on parade fifteen file strong at the outside. There's rather more sickness in the out-villages than I care for, hut then I'm so blistered with prickly-heat that I'm ready to hang myself. ...
— The Works of Rudyard Kipling One Volume Edition • Rudyard Kipling

... is relieved from time to time, but the watch is maintained continuously day and night from the time that the corn is about two feet above the ground until it is all gathered in. In this way they strive with partial success to keep off the wild pigs, monkeys, deer, and, as the corn ripens, ...
— The Pagan Tribes of Borneo • Charles Hose and William McDougall

... get is when you take yourself away from the business marts of trade, and go to a place where you can get your feet on good old mother earth. Go where fences are unknown, where there are no "keep off the grass" signs, climb the hills, walk through the forests, fill your lungs with good ozone, say to yourself "all these ...
— Dollars and Sense • Col. Wm. C. Hunter

... plant-lice. They seldom attack healthy growing plants in the field, but are hard to keep off under glass. If once established it will take several applications to get rid of them. Use kerosene or soap emulsion, or tobacco dust. There are also several trade-marked preparations that are good. Aphine, which may be had of any seed house, has proved very effective in my own work, and it is ...
— Home Vegetable Gardening • F. F. Rockwell

... and glamour of fairyland. Bright faces and gay songs manifest that physical joie de vivre of which Northern nations know so little. The grass screens hanging before the open houses are drawn to keep off the burning sun, but the twang of lutes (a relic of the Portuguese occupation), and the sound of laughter echo from the dusky interiors. A forest of mangos, mangosteens, bread-fruit, and cocoa-palms, ...
— Through the Malay Archipelago • Emily Richings

... grasping the other's outstretched hand, "I'm heavy at the heart at leaving you. I cannot tell why, but there's a weight like lead upon me. Oh, dear Mayster Frank, for my sake, for your own sake, for the sake of all them as loves you, will you promise me to keep off the drink, leastways till I come back? Will you pray the Lord to help you, Mayster Frank? He will help ...
— Frank Oldfield - Lost and Found • T.P. Wilson

... keep off dangerous ground was disastrous, for Hugh instantly misunderstood it, and the gloom which settled over him increased the difficulties with which Elizabeth had to contend. Doctor Morgan saw that his ...
— The Wind Before the Dawn • Dell H. Munger

... hand, almost timidly, on her son's shoulder, and looked into his face. "I know you could take care of me and keep off of the county, even if Isom did put us out like he said he'd do, but I went and done it, anyhow. Isom led me into it, Joe; he ...
— The Bondboy • George W. (George Washington) Ogden

... one who had been thoughtful enough to have his animals ready for exhibition, and the cage in which the long-eared pets were confined bore the inscription, done in a very fanciful way with blue and red crayons, "Wolves. Keep off!" ...
— Mr. Stubbs's Brother - A Sequel to 'Toby Tyler' • James Otis

... roof very heavy," said Russ, "'cause then if it falls in on us, as our snow house roof did once, it won't hurt us. All we want is something to keep off the sun." ...
— Six Little Bunkers at Cousin Tom's • Laura Lee Hope

... trumpeted valor of the warrior. I am pleased to learn that Thales was up and stirring by night not unfrequently, as his astronomical discoveries prove. Linnaeus, setting out for Lapland, surveys his "comb" and "spare shirt," "leathern breeches" and "gauze cap to keep off gnats," with as much complacency as Bonaparte a park of artillery for the Russian campaign. The quiet bravery of the man is admirable. His eye is to take in fish, flower, and bird, quadruped and biped. Science is always brave, for to know, is to know good; doubt and danger ...
— Excursions • Henry D. Thoreau

... knowledge obtained of the shore, by having frequently passed up and down it in the boats. It was known that the water was deep close to the visible rocks, and that there was no danger as long as a vessel could keep off them. ...
— The Sea Lions - The Lost Sealers • James Fenimore Cooper

... granddaddy found, and there was some more. Grandfather, he kept it for me until I was a big girl and now I am keeping it for a rainy day, like the copy book says, although I don't think money would be much use to keep off the rain. ...
— 'Smiles' - A Rose of the Cumberlands • Eliot H. Robinson

... tracing my initials on the snow which during the night had collected upon my coverlet in the large barn-like upper room, now subdivided into four or five smaller ones, each of which is comfortably ceiled. The tiling of an unceiled Chinese house may keep off the rain—if it happens to be sound—but it does not afford so good a protection against snow, which will beat up through crannies and crevices, and find its way within. But however unfinished may have been its fittings, ...
— A Retrospect • James Hudson Taylor

... here, we found, were in the habit of making regular expeditions among their crops at night, to keep off the bears who prowl about in search of food. Armed with torches, they keep up a tremendous shouting all through the dark hours, during the time their grain is ripening; and thinking to get a daylight view of the robbers, I started up the mountain with a native guide and a rifle. My ...
— Diary of a Pedestrian in Cashmere and Thibet • by William Henry Knight

... among the Fortunate, flew straight to Venice, where a happy-eyed princess welcomed him. She was living in a Palazzo on the Grand Canal, lent to her—that is the graceful Italian way of putting it—by some Venetian friends; and there, with Mademoiselle de Cressy to keep off the importunate, she received such acquaintance as floated from the ends of the earth through ...
— The Fortunate Youth • William J. Locke

... who was pretty cranky by this time; 'you go home again and put that horse where you got him. We don't want old Driver tracking and swearing after us because you ride his horses; and keep off the road as you ...
— Robbery Under Arms • Thomas Alexander Browne, AKA Rolf Boldrewood

... should be a gentleman of honour; Keep off the rabble, that I may have room To entertain my fate, and die with decency. ...
— Venice Preserved - A Tragedy in Five Acts • Thomas Otway

... were built to keep off rain and snow and nothing else. They were neither big nor beautiful to look at. The idea was to put up some sort of a dwelling, Swiss fashion—a place to keep a wife and children in, and that was all. ...
— Wanderers • Knut Hamsun

... of the brigantine's spars showing up black and indistinct against the dark sky. She was not above fifty yards away from us, and I had just given the word to paddle quietly ahead when a voice hailed us in Spanish, ordering us to keep off or they would fire. Before we could reply, crash came a volley of musketry at us, tearing up the water all round the boat, and one poor fellow dropped his oar and ...
— Under the Meteor Flag - Log of a Midshipman during the French Revolutionary War • Harry Collingwood

... tell you," said Shanty, sullenly, "that it must be a cast shoe that must keep off a witch; every fool ...
— Shanty the Blacksmith; A Tale of Other Times • Mrs. Sherwood [AKA: Mrs. Mary Martha Sherwood]

... second daughter came in, and thought to pluck a golden feather for herself too; but hardly had she touched her sister than she stuck fast as well. At last the third sister came with the same intentions, but the other two cried out: 'Keep off! for Heaven's ...
— The Red Fairy Book • Various

... which the stakes were not continuous, but set at intervals, so that those who approached could see and hold converse with him. And they had constructed for him a small roof over his head, sufficient to keep off the rain and snow. There this man had been sitting for a long time, never yielding either to heat or cold, and sustaining his life with certain seeds, which he was accustomed to eat, not indeed every day, but only at long intervals. Now some of the Ephthalitae who were overrunning ...
— History of the Wars, Books I and II (of 8) - The Persian War • Procopius

... won't introduce you to society," Benjulia announced, "and won't worry your brains with medical talk. Keep off one subject on your side. A mad bull is nothing to my friend if you speak ...
— Heart and Science - A Story of the Present Time • Wilkie Collins

... the flaying and the burning of the carcasses of the animals along with "prayer to Pluto and Proserpine" king and queen of the Underworld. Yet this choice requires activity from the hero, who has to draw his sword and keep off the crowd of spirits, till the right one ...
— Homer's Odyssey - A Commentary • Denton J. Snider

... Fig. IV., is the great root and primal type of all cornices whatsoever. In order to see what forms may be developed from it, let us take its profile a little larger—a, Fig. V., with X and Y duly marked. Now this form, being the root of all cornices, may either have to finish the wall and so keep off rain; or, as so often stated, to carry weight. If the former, it is evident that, in its present profile, the rain will run back down the slope of X; and if the latter, that the sharp angle or edge of X, at k, may be a little too weak for ...
— The Stones of Venice, Volume I (of 3) • John Ruskin

... coils of thick sea weed, like serpents, on, on through the Dorus to the open sea, noticing the dark passages, the gloomy caves, the recesses among the cliffs, the narrow passes, where one could turn to bay and keep off many, it was natural to think of rebels skulking here, with a price on their heads, after the '98, or of lawless people stilling illicit poteen to hide it from the gaugers. Sheltered by the rocks of Port-a-dorus, I could enjoy the sea air flavored with essence of ...
— The Letters of "Norah" on her Tour Through Ireland • Margaret Dixon McDougall

... Seminary, which was the precinct of the temple of Fortuna. From the fact that this pavement is laid with blocks such as are always used in roads, from the cippus at the corner of the basilica to keep off wagon wheels, from the fact that this piece of pavement is in direct line from the central gate of the town, and last from the inscription and its provenience, I conclude that we have in this pavement a road leading directly from the Porta Triumphalis ...
— A Study Of The Topography And Municipal History Of Praeneste • Ralph Van Deman Magoffin

... to be so wasteful with your leaves, old friend," said the bear, licking his paws. "They are the only thing you have to keep off the sun with." ...
— The Old Willow Tree and Other Stories • Carl Ewald

... "Keep off, McNeil! don't come any nearer at your own peril! I will trust myself among a shipload of drunken sailors before I will put myself in your ...
— Miss Dexie - A Romance of the Provinces • Stanford Eveleth

... particularly after you. We all laugh, and say she is more fond of soldiers than ever, since General Don has shewn her how he would keep off the French! ...
— The Letters of Lord Nelson to Lady Hamilton, Vol. I. - With A Supplement Of Interesting Letters By Distinguished Characters • Horatio Nelson

... signed with His Cross on your foreheads, unless you give him power? Not he. Men's sins open the door to the devil, and when he is in, he will soon trample down the good seed that is springing up, and stamp the mellow soil as hard as iron, so that nothing but his own seeds can grow there, and so keep off the dews of God's spirit, and the working of God's own gospel from making any impression on ...
— True Words for Brave Men • Charles Kingsley

... looked on them very kindly, and said: "Little ones, I love your brave spirit. You shall not die. Neither shall you lose your beauty. I will give you a defence that will keep off all your enemies but one, that is the Long-stinger Wasp, for you must in some way pay for your loveliness." She waved her wand, and all over each of the Beauty-crawlers, there came out bunches of sharp stickers like porcupine quills, only they were worse than porcupine quills for each of the stickers ...
— Woodland Tales • Ernest Seton-Thompson

... in going along. One of these harbours, in the latitude of 30 degrees south, they described to be of superior excellence and capacity. Here they hauled their bark ashore, paid her seams with tallow, and repaired her. But it was with difficulty they could keep off the attacks of the Indians. These people continued to harras them so much that they quitted the mainland and retreated to a small island in the harbour, where they completed their design. Between the latitude of 26 degrees and 27 degrees, they were driven by a current 30 leagues from ...
— A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson • Watkin Tench

... thought the top of some high tree would be a good place to keep me out of harm's way; and that there I might sit and think of death, for, as yet, I had no hopes of life. Well, I went to my tree, and made a kind of nest to sleep in. Then I cut a stick to keep off the beasts of prey, in case they should come, and fell to sleep just as if the branch I lay on had been a bed ...
— Robinson Crusoe - In Words of One Syllable • Mary Godolphin

... it before it strikes another and bends!" cried Vane. "She's far enough to windward to keep off the ...
— Vane of the Timberlands • Harold Bindloss

... were not permitted except on strictly limited occasions to work after nine o'clock in the evening, and extra assistants had to be engaged; the men upstairs who made the leather foundations were watched and encouraged; Madame begged Gertie to recommend them to keep off the drink, adding that they would take more notice of this advice if it came from Miss Higham and not from Madame herself. All the looms were at their noisy spider work; reels of gold thread were ordered in twenties; the bobbins began to dance around the ...
— Love at Paddington • W. Pett Ridge

... his voyage, and gave him his portrait cut in an emerald. Mithridates was soon afterwards conquered by the Romans; and it was only by skilful embassies and well-timed bribes that Lathyrus was able to keep off the punishment which seemed to await him for having thus disobeyed the orders of Sulla. Egypt was then the only kingdom, to the west of Persia, that had not yet bowed its ...
— History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The Present Time, Volume 10 (of 12) • S. Rappoport

... said "Mother." The soldier who was now standing astride of him, the better to keep off the crowding men, thought he ...
— Love Stories • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... said, 'there is my old mother. She is a widow, and it is as much as she can do to keep off the parish. She is reckoned a tidy cook and a good cleaner, and she could keep herself well enough if it wasn't that she is so hard of hearing that many people don't care ...
— Colonel Thorndyke's Secret • G. A. Henty

... fall in with any of them. Old Eustace and the coachman have both got arquebuses. I shall tell them that, should they be attacked, they are to fire at once, and then the coachman is to whip up his horses and drive at full speed, while we endeavour to keep off ...
— In the Irish Brigade - A Tale of War in Flanders and Spain • G. A. Henty

... cane-brake, to screen us from the wind. One side of our lodge was open toward the fire. Our horses were hoppled and turned loose in the cane-brakes, with bells round their necks. One of the party stayed at home to watch the camp, prepare the meals and keep off the wolves; the others hunted. When a hunter killed a deer at a distance from the camp, he would open it and take out the entrails; then climbing a sapling he would bend it down, tie the deer to the top, and let it spring ...
— The Crayon Papers • Washington Irving

... smart man. I am quite content with this fifty to keep off your course and give you a wide berth to starboard. I'm sensible enough to know when I'm licked, an' a fight without profit ain't in my line. I didn't make my money that way, Blumenthal. I'll cast off my lines and haul away ...
— Captain Scraggs - or, The Green-Pea Pirates • Peter B. Kyne

... its life-giving and refreshing powers, often with medicinal properties seemingly miraculous—what better symbol could be found for that which would keep off death? Perhaps there was some reality which answered the symbol, some actual Cup of Immortality, some actual Fount of Youth. But who could attain to them? Surely the gods hid their own special treasure from the grasp of man. Surely that Water of Life was to be sought for far away, amid trackless ...
— The Water of Life and Other Sermons • Charles Kingsley

... forest an old cowherd, who happened that morning to have work to do not far from the pit where William lived with the wolf. He took with him a big dog, which helped him to collect the cows when they wandered, and to keep off any strange beasts that threatened to attack them. On this particular morning there were no cows, so the dog ran hither and thither as he would, enjoying himself mightily, when suddenly he set up a loud barking, ...
— The Red Romance Book • Various

... [protects from poverty], Sebastian keeps off pestilence, Valentine heals epilepsy, George protects horsemen. These opinions have clearly sprung from heathen examples. For thus, among the Romans Juno was thought to enrich, Febris to keep off fever, Castor and Pollux to protect horsemen, etc. Even though we should imagine that the invocation of saints were taught with the greatest prudence, yet since the example is most dangerous, why is it necessary ...
— The Apology of the Augsburg Confession • Philip Melanchthon

... on the table, when there is no waiter. Some take a fork, and lay a piece on the napkin or tumbler by each plate. Others keep it in a tray, covered with a white napkin to keep off flies. Bread for dinner is often cut in small junks, ...
— A Treatise on Domestic Economy - For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School • Catherine Esther Beecher

... return she gives him her horse and her shield, not that he will need it much against his enemies, with that magic sword, and besides she knows how to cast a spell upon him so that he cannot be wounded in battle; but the shield may keep off the rain, if he has to sleep out of doors. So he goes away down the mountain and she waits for ...
— The Wagner Story Book • Henry Frost

... was hard to keep off the Britt affair, but the notary tactfully kept away from the sore ...
— When Egypt Went Broke • Holman Day

... away and doggedly kept on towards the stone wall and the road. "Keep off," he snarled. ...
— The Littlest Rebel • Edward Peple

... water-spouts, and destroyed a few vessels. The coruscating gas creates a vacuum into which the air rushes with incredible velocity. So promise me that while we are flying you will stay with the police at the gas machines and keep off the ...
— Visionaries • James Huneker

... instructed to guard this passage. Those who had done wrong to mankind were immediately bound by them and given over to be devoured by tigers. When Huang Ti heard of this he had the portraits of the two spirits painted on peach-wood tablets and hung above the doors to keep off evil spirits. This led to the suspension of the small figures or plaques on the doors of the people generally. Gradually they were supplanted by paintings on paper pasted on the doors, showing the two spirits armed with bows, arrows, spears, etc., Shen ...
— Myths and Legends of China • E. T. C. Werner

... backs or sidles away on its posterior legs, gibbering noiselessly at you with the horny mandibles of its impish mouth, and waving its arms distractedly in the air like a frightened and hysterical woman trying to keep off some ...
— Campaigning in Cuba • George Kennan

... of fly dope, warranted to keep off pestiferous flies and mosquitoes. All these may be kept in one-half of a linen case of pockets, your toilet articles in the other half, and the case can be opened out and hung to the side ...
— On the Trail - An Outdoor Book for Girls • Lina Beard and Adelia Belle Beard

... burning, such as the one he had left, and around it were gathered a number of women and children, cold, hungry and wet. A rough, lean-to tent, made of a sheet of tarpaulin, had been stretched in order to try to keep off the worst of the downpour, but no ...
— The Boy with the U. S. Weather Men • Francis William Rolt-Wheeler

... admirably. Then the carpenters carry away the scenery, and the stage is "set" roughly for the Bower scene in the second act. Mr. Terriss fetches a screen from the left, and places it behind Miss Terry's chair; Mr. Irving sits facing Miss Terry, backed by another screen to keep off draughts; Mr. Terriss sits a little way back, and the dog goes to sleep in the centre of the group. In the background appear three or four costumed specimen monks and retainers waiting to be inspected, ...
— The Idler Magazine, Volume III, March 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various

... "Dear Grandfather, I am sorry so many boys have been killed playing football, but I read recently that last summer two hundred and fifty men were drowned while out fishing; would it not be well for you to keep off Lake Ellerslie? You say football is a brutal game; I submit to you, Grandpa, that the man who takes an innocent worm or a minnow, strings it on a steel hook, and sinking it into the water, jerks the gills out of an innocent fish, is more cruel than the boy who kicks another around ...
— Wit, Humor, Reason, Rhetoric, Prose, Poetry and Story Woven into Eight Popular Lectures • George W. Bain

... traveller, shaped with rustic art from a dry poplar, guard this little field which thou seest on the left, and the cottage and small garden of its indigent owner, and keep off the greedy hands of the robber. In spring a many-tinted wreath is placed upon me; in summer's heat ruddy grain; [in autumn] a luscious grape cluster with vine-shoots, and in the bitter cold the pale-green olive. ...
— The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus • Caius Valerius Catullus

... seen Mrs. or Miss Greyle since the inquest?" asked Copplestone, who was anxious to keep off subjects on which he might be supposed to possess information. "Have ...
— Scarhaven Keep • J. S. Fletcher

... more, he no doubt thought they might plunder her with ease, especially as she lay at some distance from us. It was unquestionably with this view, that they all repaired to her. Several of them, without any ceremony, went on board; drew their knives; made signs to the officer and people on deck to keep off; and began to look about them for plunder. The first thing they met with was the rudder of one of the boats, which they threw over-board to those of their party who had remained in the canoes. Before they had ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 16 • Robert Kerr

... it be if we were to lay him in that little hollow and cover him with big stones?" suggested Holden. "There are plenty of boulders about, and we could easily cover him with branches first, with stones on the top, to keep off ...
— The Fiery Totem - A Tale of Adventure in the Canadian North-West • Argyll Saxby

... Ages when the makers of tiles for roofing were also of migratory habits (History of Prices in England, Rogers), and accompanied the Free-masons to perform their share of the work of covering buildings. Some tiler was appointed to act as sentinel to keep off intruders, and hence, in course of time, the name of Tiler came to be applied to any Mason ...
— The Builders - A Story and Study of Masonry • Joseph Fort Newton

... of being forestalled by any such furtive marauder, the bear hurled himself forward with such force that the spray flew high into the branches, and the noise of his splashing was a clear notification that trespassers and meddlers had better keep off. That salmon was his, by right of discovery; and he ...
— The Backwoodsmen • Charles G. D. Roberts

... at one end of the bridge, frightened, but apathetic. With awnings he made himself a little canvas house, airy, but sufficient to keep off the dews of night. When he spoke, it was usually to picture the desolation of one or other of the Mrs. Nilssens on finding herself a widow. As he said himself, he was a man of very domesticated notions. He had no sympathy with Kettle's constantly repeated theory that ...
— A Master of Fortune • Cutcliffe Hyne

... it was a long story that Peter told him about two men who wanted to buy the bullocks early in the morning. They had offered him eleven pounds ten, and when he would not sell them at that price they had stood laughing at the bullocks and doing all they could to keep off other buyers. Peter was quite certain it was not his fault, and he began to argue. But Pat Phelan was too disappointed to argue with him, and he let him go on talking. At last Peter ceased talking, and this seemed to ...
— The Untilled Field • George Moore

... distressing life-size statue of the owner's father. When we took to our kuruma again we passed through a village at the approaches to which thick straw ropes such as are seen at shrines had been stretched across the road. Charms were attached. The object was to keep off an epidemic. ...
— The Foundations of Japan • J.W. Robertson Scott

... bitter cold that the chill ate even through their furs and air-proofed clothing. The canvas curtains were hoisted for a short distance to keep off the freezing gale. They dared not set them fully for fear they might act as sails and drive the ship before the gale so fast that all control ...
— The Boy Aviators' Polar Dash - Or - Facing Death in the Antarctic • Captain Wilbur Lawton

... opposition side who had been best able to maintain their equanimity, came around to the mover of the resolution and said: 'This question has degenerated into a trial of nerves and muscles. It has become a question of physical endurance, and we see no use in wearing ourselves out to keep off for a few hours longer what has to come before we separate. We see that you are able and determined to carry your measure—so call the vote as soon as you please. We shall ...
— Hidden Treasures - Why Some Succeed While Others Fail • Harry A. Lewis

... "I will keep off till nightfall, Mr. Hethcote. We will then run in as close as we dare, showing no lights, and I will then ask you to take a boat with muffled oars to row to the village. Make your way among the houses ...
— Jack Archer • G. A. Henty

... behind them. The weed which had blackened the shore of the island at the end of winter was now gone from the silver sands. Some of it was buried in the minister's garden as manure. The minister began to have hopes of his garden. He had done his best to keep off the salt spray by building the wall ten feet high; and it was thought that just under the wall a few cabbages might grow; and in one corner there was an experiment going forward to raise onions. Kate and Adam told the widow, from day to day, the ...
— The Billow and the Rock • Harriet Martineau

... was 'new ground,' and praised it. I hear that he gets a hundred pounds for each monthly number. Oh, how glad I was to have your letter, written in such pain, read in such pleasure! It was only fair to tell me in the last lines that the face-ache was better, to keep off a fit of remorse. I do hope that Mr. May is not right about neuralgia, because that is more difficult to cure than pain which arises from the teeth. Tell me how you are in all ways. I look into your letters eagerly for news of your health, then of your spirits, which are a part of health. The ...
— The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1 of 2) • Frederic G. Kenyon

... them attack the slumbering soldiery, killing as many as possible before they were fully awake and could seize their rifles. Should they be discovered before the work was complete, those who were free were to keep off the Peruvians while the ...
— Under the Chilian Flag - A Tale of War between Chili and Peru • Harry Collingwood

... away the roof of the chamber, and leaving the bed in flames. In three days' time the girl gave birth to a monstrous child, more hideous than anything heretofore seen in Scotland, wherefore the nurses, to keep off disgrace from the family, caused it to be burnt on a pile of wood. There is another story of a youth living about fourteen miles from Aberdeen, who was visited every night by a demon lady of wonderful loveliness, though he bolted ...
— Jerome Cardan - A Biographical Study • William George Waters

... number of men came riding up, and asked Smith his name. On his telling them who he was, they immediately presented their pistols, and commanded him to surrender or he was a dead man. Smith stepped back and asking if they were highwaymen, charged them to keep off; when immediately Robert George (one of the assailants) snapped a pistol at Smith's head; and that (as George acknowledged under oath) before Smith had offered to [87] shoot. Smith then presented his gun at another of the assailants, who was holding Johnson with one hand, while with the other ...
— Chronicles of Border Warfare • Alexander Scott Withers

... and hand in hand. The play got going strong again. But there were still those edge-of-control undercurrents and I began to be more uneasy than caught up, and I had to stare consciously at the actors to keep off a wavery-fit. ...
— No Great Magic • Fritz Reuter Leiber

... of you quite feelingly—that is, bade me take the utmost care of the poor lady in the secret chamber. I was to give you everything you wished, and keep off all visitors, if such were your ...
— The Golden Dog - Le Chien d'Or • William Kirby

... different parts of their bodies, some of which had a very virulent appearance; yet they seemed not much to be regarded by those who were afflicted with them, for they were left entirely without application even to keep off ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 13 • Robert Kerr

... Holroyd, with a brown hand at his throat. "Keep off those contact rings." In another moment he was tripped and reeling back upon the Lord of the Dynamos. He instinctively loosened his grip upon his antagonist to ...
— The Door in the Wall And Other Stories • H. G. Wells

... notes I have been compelled to hold my book, pencil and umbrella, the latter being indispensable to keep off the almost tropical fervor of the sun's rays. As the umbrella and book must be held in one hand, you may judge that I have managed with some difficulty; and this will account to you for many uncouth letters and much disjointed ...
— Personal Memoirs Of A Residence Of Thirty Years With The Indian Tribes On The American Frontiers • Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

... where they could rest with anything like comfort was round the fires, the thick clouds of smoke rising from which helped to keep off the myriads of mosquitoes which forthwith commenced an onslaught on them. The officers assembled in the neighbourhood of one of the fires, while the soldiers and sailors gathered ...
— The Three Lieutenants • W.H.G. Kingston

... to be made to help it," the smoker went on, as if very indignant. "People who don't know how to ride on cars ought to keep off. I shall write a letter to the papers about it. Allow me to dust the ashes off ...
— Jack Ranger's Western Trip - From Boarding School to Ranch and Range • Clarence Young

... sooner; but it was too late to complain, and I knew what he had done was out of Good-will. Sir ROGER told me further, that he looked upon it to be very good for a Man whilst he staid in Town, to keep off Infection, and that he got together a Quantity of it upon the first News of the Sickness being at Dautzick: When of a sudden turning short to one of his Servants, who stood behind him, he bid him call [a [1]] Hackney Coach, and take ...
— The Spectator, Volume 2. • Addison and Steele

... three carts passed, jingling out to the suburbs; a coughing policeman and a hurrying foot-passenger or two who sang to keep off evil spirits. Then rapped the shod ...
— Kim • Rudyard Kipling

... them and backed away, swinging his strapped books in a dangerous circle. "You keep off!" he warned them. "I got as much right to my pers'nal ...
— Ramsey Milholland • Booth Tarkington

... flit about and give you good dreams, and keep off all that could hurt or frighten you," ...
— A Reputed Changeling • Charlotte M. Yonge

... the King's being unfayre to them in the business of the Bill for examining Accounts, Irish Bill, and the business of the Papists, that they will not pass the business for money till they see themselves secure that those Bills will pass; which they do observe the Court to keep off till all the Bills come together, that the King may accept what he pleases, and what he pleases to reject, which will undo all our business and the kingdom too. He tells me how Mr. Henry Howard, of Norfolke, hath given our Royal Society all his grandfather's library: which noble gift they value ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys

... all of my devices, all of my objections, effected an entrance and over-ran the place like a swarm of ants. The feat that could not have been accomplished by an armed force was successfully managed by a group of pedagogues from Ohio, to whom "Keep off the Grass" and "No Trespass" are signs of utter impotence on the part of him who puts them up, and ever shall be, world without end. They came, they saw, they conquered, and they tried to ...
— A Fool and His Money • George Barr McCutcheon

... Subsequently, and among the northern nations, the practice "was to form a circle of large stones, commonly twelve in number, in the middle of which one was set up, much larger than the rest: this was the royal seat; and the nobles occupied those surrounding it, which served also as a barrier to keep off the people who stood without. Here the leading men of the kingdom delivered their suffrages, and placed the elected king on his seat of dignity[8]." From such places, afterwards, justice ...
— Coronation Anecdotes • Giles Gossip

... pity for all those folks who were born in a big city, and thus got cheated out of their childhood. Zealous ash-box inspectors in gilt braid, prying policemen with clubs, and signs reading, "Keep Off the Grass," are woeful things to greet the gaze of little souls fresh ...
— Little Journeys To the Homes of the Great, Volume 3 (of 14) • Elbert Hubbard

... Schomberg and all the other fools will have to keep off," I said tearing open the pack. "Have you heard that we are universally supposed to be quarrelling about a girl? You know who—of course. I am really ashamed to ask, but is it possible that you do me the honour ...
— Falk • Joseph Conrad

... want no moral. Let me do the moralising. The tale's the thing. See, fill a glass of this Irish cordial. Twill keep off the chill from the night air. When and where did ...
— The Path of the King • John Buchan

... street; but I must confess the direction still seemed somewhat cryptic. Puzzled, I stood under the lamp, shielding the face of the note under my cloak to keep off the rain, as I ...
— 54-40 or Fight • Emerson Hough

... said, 'nor of my lady's neither. When I married Susan Ellery I did not wed her brother, nor any beggar's brat'—those were his words, sir—'any beggar's brat he was fool enough to keep off the parish. If you had the will I'd dispute it against ...
— Humphrey Bold - A Story of the Times of Benbow • Herbert Strang

... acted as ring keeper, and "belted" back, remorselessly, any of the spectators who crowded over the line. Did he see a foot obtruding itself so much as an inch over the mark in the sand—and the pressure from the crowd behind was so great that it was difficult for the front fellows to keep off the line—his heavy club and a blasting curse would fall ...
— Andersonville, complete • John McElroy

... of the Guard began to retreat, firing from all sides in order to keep off the wretches who sought safety within it. Only the officers and ...
— Waterloo - A sequel to The Conscript of 1813 • Emile Erckmann

... and Pelekunu, where Kauhuhu, the shark god, dwelt, and to him he must apply. Upon this away went Kamalo and his pig. Arriving at the cave, he found there Waka and Moo, two kahus of the shark god. "Keep off! Keep off!" they shouted. "This place is kapu. No man can enter ...
— Hawaiian Folk Tales - A Collection of Native Legends • Various

... ripe and green fruit and blossoms October 1st this year. Most, if not all, know the fruit must be kept off the everbearers the season of planting till the plants get established, usually two or three months, then let them bear. If you want all fruit, keep off the runners; if all plants, keep off the fruit. Beds kept over that have exhausted themselves will need rest till July to give big crops. Beds kept over will fruit a week earlier than the June varieties, ...
— Trees, Fruits and Flowers of Minnesota, 1916 • Various

... wall"; and, at the same time I began to back myself, with her still behind me, to the wall that was opposite to the steps we had just come down. My cloak was sadly in my way; but, as I reached the wall, still going backwards, I had my sword out just in time to keep off, by a flourish of it, the fellow who had recovered himself, and ...
— Oddsfish! • Robert Hugh Benson

... I found it gone! Still another savage faced me, and I struck blindly at him with my fist, dealing a stunning blow which sent him spinning and laid my knuckles bare. With all my might I struggled to keep off the rope or thong which I felt was being bound about me, but the odds were too great, and with my arms lashed tightly to my sides I was dragged forward, wondering what fate was in store and why the savages did not kill us outright with their knives. Evidently that was ...
— The Strand Magazine, Volume V, Issue 29, May 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various

... Anne, Mrs. Jemima's maid, off quite, and so she went away and another came to her. To White Hall with Mr. Moore, where I met with a letter from Mr. Turner, offering me L150 to be joined with me in my patent, and to advise me how to improve the advantage of my place, and to keep off Barlow. To my Lord's till late at ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys

... stockholders, not to regulate the currency of the country. Nor has it, as far as we are advised, been found to be greatly otherwise elsewhere. The national character given to the Bank of England has not prevented excessive fluctuations in their currency, and it proved unable to keep off a suspension of specie payments, which lasted for nearly a quarter of a century. And why should we expect it to be otherwise? A national institution, though deriving its charter from a different source than the State banks, is yet constituted upon the same principles, ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... principles. We landed yesterday at noon. The day was fine, and the procession of boats imposing. An immense crowd of good-natured, curious people lined both sides of the streets along which we passed. The streets are wide and handsome. We were preceded and accompanied by officers to keep off the crowd, but a blow with a fan was the heaviest penalty that I saw inflicted on anyone breaking the line. At every fifty yards, or so, the street was crossed by large gates, which were closed as soon as our procession passed through, which prevented a rush after us. On arriving, ...
— Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin • James, Eighth Earl of Elgin

... notice-boards. Your duty? Curse your impudence, sir. Your duty was to keep off my grounds. Talk of duty to me! Why—why—why, ye misbegotten poacher, ye'll be teaching me my A B C next! Roarin' like a bull in the bushes down there! Boys? Boys? Boys? Keep your boys at home, then! I'm not responsible for your boys! But ...
— Stalky & Co. • Rudyard Kipling

... of eloquence or of popularity to command attention, he referred the tumultuous crowd to the prince, around whom all Antwerp now furiously thronged. The gate, he endeavored to explain to them, was shut simply to keep off the victor, whoever he might be, from the city, which would otherwise become the prey of an infuriated soldiery. In vain! the frantic people would not listen, and one more daring than the rest presented his musket at him, ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller

... awaits me!) But I specialise In baths. I will not "like it in my soup," Nor "take five drops before I loop the loop"; Nor will I "find it helps to keep off flies." ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, May 20, 1914 • Various

... about to make heated reply, but instead sank back with an amused smile. "Katie, your learning sounds very suspiciously as though it were put on last night. I feel like putting up a sign—'Fresh Paint—Keep Off.'" ...
— The Visioning • Susan Glaspell

... got a couple too many fer to go monkeyin' around on their groun' agin," the sheriff informed him bluntly. "They ain't forgot the trip you made over there after Jose Martinez. Best fer you to keep off'n that reservation, Applehead—and I'm ...
— The Heritage of the Sioux • B.M. Bower

... 90 And gated grandly, built last year; The four-mile walk to keep off gout; Or big seat sold by bankrupt peer— But then he takes ...
— Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning • Robert Browning

... Billy, as he grows up, I should not think the worse of the youth, who, not having had the opportunities of knowing men, or seeing the world, had this defect. On the contrary, I should be apt to look upon it as an outward fence or inclosure to his virtue, which might keep off the lighter attacks of immorality, the Hussars of vice, as I may say, who are not able to carry on a formal siege against his morals; and I should expect such a one to be docile, humane, good-humoured, diffident of himself, and therefore most likely ...
— Pamela (Vol. II.) • Samuel Richardson

... Dick led the way and set the intervals of the carrying. When he swung the canoe from his shoulders the others slipped their tump-lines. Then all rubbed their faces with the broad caribou-leaf to keep off the early flies, and lay back, arms extended, breathing deep, resting like boxers between the rounds. Once at the top of the ridge Dick climbed a tree. He did this, not so much in expectation of seeing the water-courses themselves, as to judge by the ...
— The Silent Places • Stewart Edward White

... of crying, and did a little worse than before. Silence was of opinion that Susan was getting to be "weakly and naarvy," and actually concocted an unmerciful pitcher of wormwood and boneset, which she said was to keep off the "shaking weakness" that was coming over her. In vain poor Susan protested that she was well enough; Miss Silence knew better; and one evening she entertained Mr. Joseph Adams with a long statement of the case in all its bearings, ...
— The May Flower, and Miscellaneous Writings • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... out with it. I'd ask this young man over to my hotel, but I think he'd better keep off the streets as much ...
— King Coal - A Novel • Upton Sinclair

... than when gold was discovered at the south pole. Again a mad rush was made for the Tetons. The heights around Jackson's Hole and the shores of Jackson's and Jenny's lakes were quickly dotted with camps, and the military force had to be doubled to keep off the curious, and occasionally menacing, crowds which gathered in the vicinity and seemed bent on unearthing the great secret locked behind the windowless walls of the mill, where the column of black smoke and the roar of ...
— The Moon Metal • Garrett P. Serviss

... to stay there. The stockade will be good to keep off any, or every enemy who may take it into their heads to come against us. You have known me defend a worse position ...
— Wyandotte • James Fenimore Cooper

... bring back Sally Oates's breath, if he didn't know a fine sight more than that? The Wise Woman had words that she muttered to herself, so that you couldn't hear what they were, and if she tied a bit of red thread round the child's toe the while, it would keep off the water in the head. There were women in Raveloe, at that present time, who had worn one of the Wise Woman's little bags round their necks, and, in consequence, had never had an idiot child, as Ann ...
— Silas Marner - The Weaver of Raveloe • George Eliot

... with a vigor that shortly reduced her gloves to shreds and filled her fingers with scratches from the rough twigs. Lombard next chose an unusually high and thick clump of brush, and cleared a small space three feet across in the centre of it, scattering twigs on the uncovered earth to keep off its chill. ...
— Deserted - 1898 • Edward Bellamy

... those Afflicted Children! They know well Where the pins come from. I can tell you that. And there's old Corey, he has got a horseshoe Nailed on his doorstep to keep off the Witches, And all the same his wife has gone ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

... Tarzan, with his slow-moving caravan, approached the spot where the elephants lay. Long before they reached it they had been guided by the huge fire the natives had built in the center of a hastily improvised BOMA, partially for warmth and partially to keep off ...
— The Return of Tarzan • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... of his duel with the cobra. (Mostly, a man only thinks he knows.) Carlin had stood on the threshold, not more than fifteen feet away, while he was engaged. No one had told him at that time, that the man does not live who can continue to keep off a fighting cobra from striking home; but Skag learned in that short interval. He faced not only the fastest thing he had ever seen move, but it was also the stillest. It would come to a dead stop before him—stillness compared to which a post or a wall is mere squat inertia. This ...
— Son of Power • Will Levington Comfort and Zamin Ki Dost

... afraid to ride behind any horses in this part of the country,' said Abby; 'and I think all cowards had better keep off ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No 3, September 1863 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... its kind, she began to relax in her grimness from the moment when she made this allusion to the surgery; and we turned to speculate on the way in which Mrs Jamieson would receive the news. The person whom she had left in charge of her house to keep off followers from her maids to set up a follower of her own! And that follower a man whom Mrs Jamieson had tabooed as vulgar, and inadmissible to Cranford society, not merely on account of his name, but because ...
— Cranford • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

... perhaps you'll never deserve punishment and then you will never know what it would have been. Indeed, I'm not sure myself, but if you don't keep off those Front Stairs we'll both of us find out ...
— Marjorie's Vacation • Carolyn Wells

... "Stay!" said I. "Keep off! If you are grateful to me for what I did when I was a little child, I hope you have shown your gratitude by mending your way of life. If you have come here to thank me, it was not necessary. Still, however you have found ...
— Great Expectations • Charles Dickens

... and there one, and his lead no one will follow. The fact of his having done a fine thing, or of his doing fine things habitually, acts not as an attraction to others, but as a warning to them to keep off. Every artist strives to do, not as his neighbor has done, and better, but as his neighbor has not done. The potteries work no better, because of one pottery which turns out beautiful work. The wall-paper makers still copy, slavishly from Europe and Japan, ...
— The American Architect and Building News, Vol. 27, Jan-Mar, 1890 • Various

... be the worst fight you ever saw. We shall have to begin by shooting these two, or pitching them overboard, if they don't happen to get their work in ahead of us, and then we shall have more than twenty savage islanders to keep off—if ...
— Adrift on the Pacific • Edward S. Ellis

... a babe. For she ever encompassed the child's mortal flesh in the night with the flame of fire; and day by day she anointed with ambrosia his tender frame, so that he might become immortal and that she might keep off from his body loathsome old age. But Peleus leapt up from his bed and saw his dear son gasping in the flame; and at the sight he uttered a terrible cry, fool that he was; and she heard it, and catching up the child threw him screaming to the ground, and herself ...
— The Argonautica • Apollonius Rhodius

... surround with a fleet of bidarkas, much as they hunt the whale; but this, of course, was impossible now. None the less, Jimmy, who assumed the position of master of the hunt, motioned to the Aleut boy in the dory to keep off to the left, while he and Rob circled far to the ...
— The Young Alaskans • Emerson Hough

... same page, our author, luxuriating in his contempt for exactitude when the character of other folk only is at stake, continues:—"The town has between thirty and forty thousand people living in it, and the [55] rain and Johnny crows between them keep off pestilence." On page 65 we have the following astounding statement with respect to one of the trees in the garden in front of the house in which Mr. Froude was sojourning:—"At the gate stood as sentinel a cabbage palm ...
— West Indian Fables by James Anthony Froude Explained by J. J. Thomas • J. J. (John Jacob) Thomas

... underneath his coat, struck the Ensign two blows over the head with it. They both drew, and fought with such fury that the Master's sword was broken, and that of the Ensign bent; upon which Sinclair retired behind a sentinel, desiring him "to keep off the Ensign, as his sword was broken." Schaw then said, "You know I am more of a gentleman than to pursue you when your sword is broken." But the young soldier Schaw had at this time received a mortal ...
— Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745. - Volume I. • Mrs. Thomson

... road, it is nothing but what beautifies us and does to talk of. . . . I have certainly gained strength through the winter and am not far from being well; and I think I understand my own case now so much better than I did, as to be able by care to keep off any serious return of illness. I am more and more convinced that bile is at the bottom of all I have suffered, which makes it easy to know how to treat myself. You . . . will be glad to hear thus much of me, ...
— Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters - A Family Record • William Austen-Leigh and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh

... shame of him, and Deb, she will have he did right, for his sister was delicate, and flesh and blood come first, she says. We argued it up and down, and she cried him up, and I cried him down, and we gets hotter and hotter. We couldn't keep off it after we left the wash-tubs and was a-havin' a bit of dinner; but I sticks to it that a promised wife comes first, and then, with a shove, I found myself out of doors, and the key locked ...
— The Carved Cupboard • Amy Le Feuvre

... at my Bible, there, 'pon the table! Look at my clean bandanna!"—this was his handkerchief, that he had been wearing over his face while he dozed, to keep off ...
— The Mayor of Troy • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... ease,—for some reason; they seized on every trifle to keep off the subject which had brought ...
— Margret Howth, A Story of To-day • Rebecca Harding Davis

... of the roads," said the little old woman, peering suddenly out of her corner; "the longer you walk them, the longer they'll grow on you, till you begin to think there's no ind to them. And after that, the best conthrivance is to keep off of them clivir and clane, the way I do. Then they're no len'th ...
— Strangers at Lisconnel • Barlow Jane

... which gave them a good view of the balcony and the big evergreen shrub, which they knew had the hollow in the middle, though its circumference was so imposing. "If there should be a big storm, the evergreen will not save you much, though it may keep off the worst," The Rat said. "I wish there was room ...
— The Lost Prince • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... to take care of me," she murmured in a tone of mingled regret and gratitude. "Do lie down now and take a nap. This couch is soft and pleasant, and I will close the blinds and sit by your side to keep off the flies." ...
— Elsie's Girlhood • Martha Finley

... and are made to shut at the apprehension of any accident, or to open at pleasure; and these movements nature has ordained to be made in an instant: they are fortified with a sort of palisade of hairs, to keep off what may be noxious to them when open, and to be a fence to their repose when sleep closes them, and allows them to rest as if they were wrapped up in a case. Besides, they are commodiously hidden and defended by eminences on every side; for on the upper part ...
— Cicero's Tusculan Disputations - Also, Treatises On The Nature Of The Gods, And On The Commonwealth • Marcus Tullius Cicero



Words linked to "Keep off" :   desist, refrain, abstain, stay off, avoid



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