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Sign   /saɪn/   Listen
Sign

noun
1.
A perceptible indication of something not immediately apparent (as a visible clue that something has happened).  Synonym: mark.  "They welcomed the signs of spring"
2.
A public display of a message.
3.
Any nonverbal action or gesture that encodes a message.  Synonyms: signal, signaling.
4.
Structure displaying a board on which advertisements can be posted.  Synonym: signboard.
5.
(astrology) one of 12 equal areas into which the zodiac is divided.  Synonyms: house, mansion, planetary house, sign of the zodiac, star sign.
6.
(medicine) any objective evidence of the presence of a disorder or disease.
7.
Having an indicated pole (as the distinction between positive and negative electric charges).  Synonym: polarity.  "Charges of opposite sign"
8.
An event that is experienced as indicating important things to come.  Synonyms: augury, foretoken, preindication.  "It was a sign from God"
9.
A gesture that is part of a sign language.
10.
A fundamental linguistic unit linking a signifier to that which is signified.
11.
A character indicating a relation between quantities.



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"Sign" Quotes from Famous Books



... to the professor that this was a sign-language, and that each word was represented by a distinct sign; further examination convinced him that it was a written language, and that every letter of its alphabet was represented by a character of its own; and finally he decided that it was a language which conveyed itself partly by letters, ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... man's face was dark and sullen. He spoke quickly but without any sign of eagerness or interest in ...
— The Vanished Messenger • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... brewer; and the amiable Mrs. Margaret Sweet, the Eton pastry-cook and confectioner, finds her name united in bands of brass with Mr. Benjamin Bittertart, the baker. The celebrated Christopher Caustic, Esq., surgeon, has the mortification to find his Esculapian dormitory decorated with the sign-board of Mr. Slaughtercalf, a German butcher; while his handsome brass pestle 57 and mortar, with the gilt Galen's head annexed, have been waggishly transferred to the house of some Eton Dickey ...
— The English Spy • Bernard Blackmantle

... candles out one by one without knowing it, and was horribly startled by the darkness. She fell on a bench and began to whimper. After a while she ceased, and sat listening to the breathing of her daughter, whom she could hardly see, still and upright, giving no other sign of life. She was becoming old rapidly at last, during those minutes. She spoke in tones unsteady, cut about by the rattle of teeth, like one shaken by a deadly cold ...
— Tales of Unrest • Joseph Conrad

... error and blindness of their ancestors. The Indians were very sorrowful because father Fray Rodrigo had decided to eat of the fruit, and they accordingly begged him earnestly and humbly not to do it. But the good religious, arming himself with prayer and with the sign of the cross, and repeating that antiphony, Ecce crucem Domini: fugite partes adversae. Vicit leo de tribu Juda, [37] began to break the branches and to climb the tree, where he gathered a great quantity ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XXI, 1624 • Various

... if the rains had been even fair, were nothing but bare red earth from which the rocks and the great roots of the pinion trees stood out like the bones of a starving animal. Here and there on the hillsides he could see a scrubby pine that had died, its needles turned rust-red—the sure sign of ...
— The Blood of the Conquerors • Harvey Fergusson

... to be Light of the free, Lashed to the palm tree or nailed to the pine, Shine! Shine! Liberty's sign, Lighting the human ...
— Soldier Songs and Love Songs • A.H. Laidlaw

... Berlin. There was no man more odious, no man more detested by the Continental press of those capitals than Mr. Canning, unless, possibly, it may have been Lord Palmerston. He did not seek honour in these quarters; and seeking honour there is not a very good sign. But the praises of the Liberal party, if they are to be sung, are sung elsewhere; they are sung in Italy, which had its hearty sympathy, and its efficient though, always its moral aid. They were sung in Spain, ...
— Selected Speeches on British Foreign Policy 1738-1914 • Edgar Jones

... control of the fire department was sweeping southward under a wind of thirty miles an hour. The afternoon extras, however, gave fuller—and graver—details. The central business section of the city was entirely in ruins, and the conflagration had as yet shown no sign ...
— White Ashes • Sidney R. Kennedy and Alden C. Noble

... twenty-eight years old he married Nancy Hanks, a niece of his employer, near Beechland, in Washington County. She was a good-looking young woman of twenty-three, also from Virginia, and so far superior to her husband in education that she could read and write, and taught him how to sign his name. Neither one of the young couple had any money or property; but in those days living was not expensive, and they doubtless considered his trade a sufficient provision for the future. He brought her to a little house in Elizabethtown, ...
— A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln - Condensed from Nicolay & Hay's Abraham Lincoln: A History • John G. Nicolay

... had gone on to the dread third week, where death crouches beside the patient's sick bed, and Desmond had made no sign. The doctor came and went frequently, having the brand of anxiety plainly printed on his face; the nurse had curtailed her hours of sleep to the minimum of possibility, and the message had not ...
— Grey Town - An Australian Story • Gerald Baldwin

... and looked: and saw every passing sign of mental agony on his face: the look of recognition of her guilt, the bewilderment at the appalling crash, and now that hideous deathlike emptiness of his ...
— I Will Repay • Baroness Emmuska Orczy

... for der mudder. All der time he vork at Hansen's and fight before der clubs to pay for der house. He buy der piano for der sisters, der carpets, der pictures on der vall. An' he iss all der time straight. He bet on himself—dat iss der good sign. Ven der man bets on himself dat is der ...
— The Game • Jack London

... people are married that goes ter the Registry Office!" cried Mrs Yabsley. "They only git a licence to 'ave a family. I know all about them. Yer sign a piece of paper, an' then the bloke tells yer ye're married. 'Ow does 'e know ye're married? 'E ain't a parson. I was married in a church, an' my marriage is as good now as ever it was. Just yous leave it to me, an' ...
— Jonah • Louis Stone

... name I may not tell thee, for thy tongue has no word for it, but now and when we meet again thou mayst call me Steelhead: and thou shalt know that when we next meet I shall be arrayed all otherwise than now. In that array I deem thou wilt know me, but look to it that thou show no sign thereof before other men; and as to the bow, thou wilt not be eager belike to say of whom thou hadst it. Lo now! we have opened up Wethermel; fare thou well, bold bairn, and forget ...
— The Sundering Flood • William Morris

... that stout familiar body before him was a sensitive, trembling soul that clutched at him ecstatically as the one reality in the universe. He did not know that that evening meal, partaken of without hurry after school had released him to her, was to be the ceremonial sign of their intimate unity and their interdependence, a tender and delicious proof that they were 'all in all to each other': he saw only his tea, for which he was hungry—just as hungry as though his father were not scarcely ...
— The Old Wives' Tale • Arnold Bennett

... of them are disfigured by gold teeth, which are so common in Japan as to be almost the rule. An English resident assured me that I must not assume that the Japanese teeth are therefore unusually defective: often the gold is merely ostentation, a visible sign that the owner of the auriferous mouth is both alive to American ...
— Roving East and Roving West • E.V. Lucas

... with a singular expression. That was his way. He never laughed aloud: he considered it a sign of weakness. David's words and his quiet smile pained me much. "He is blaming me in his heart," I thought. "In his eyes I am contemptible. He would never have lowered himself in that way: he would never accept a present from Nastasa. But what ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XVII. No. 101. May, 1876. • Various

... O pregnant sign, profound simplicity! All passionate pain and fierce remonstrating Being wholly purged, leave this mere memory, Deep but not harsh, a ...
— Oxford • Andrew Lang

... was a physician, a scholarly man who directed his son's reading. His mother was a Puritan, one of those quiet, inspiring women who do their work cheerfully, as by God's grace, and who invariably add some sign or patent of nobility to their sons and daughters. There was also in the home a Puritan grandfather who led the family devotions every evening, and whose prayers with their rich phraseology of psalm or prophecy were "poems from beginning ...
— Outlines of English and American Literature • William J. Long

... lent you my bowl, you could pretend it's hers and she'll never know the difference, for they are as like as two peas. I can tell the difference, of course, but then I'm a collector. If I lend you the bowl, will you promise and vow in writing, and sign it with your name, to sell all that china to me directly it comes into your possession? Good gracious, girl, it will be hundreds of pounds ...
— In Homespun • Edith Nesbit

... family adopts some animal or vegetable, as their crest or sign, or KOBONG as they call it, I imagine it more likely, that these have been named after the families, than that the families have been ...
— Journals Of Expeditions Of Discovery Into Central • Edward John Eyre

... are stiff, and with the tails tightly pressed against the body. With the former, weight is a great guide, as the heavier they are the better; but if there be the least sign of wateriness, they should ...
— The Story of Crisco • Marion Harris Neil

... who was very well affected toward me. One day while he was talking with me, he noticed something going forward in a drinking-place outside the Porta di Castello, which bore the name of Baccanello. This tavern had for sign a sun painted between two windows, of a bright red colour. The windows being closed, Signor Orazio concluded that a band of soldiers were carousing at table just between them and behind the sun. So he said to me "Benvenuto, if you think that you could hit that wall an ell's breadth from the ...
— The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini • Benvenuto Cellini

... table etiquette cannot be over-emphasized. Nothing is more vulgar, than clumsy, awkward movements at the table, and it is certainly a sign of ill-breeding deliberately to fail to act in accordance with the rules of table etiquette. The rules of dinner etiquette should be studied carefully and just as carefully followed, if one wishes to be—and everyone does—a ...
— Book of Etiquette • Lillian Eichler

... night. Thy sister Kriemhild is dearer to me than mine own body. This day must Brunhild be thy wife. I will come to-night to thy room secretly in my Tarnkappe, that none may guess the trick. Send the chamberlains to their beds. I will put out the lights in the hands of the pages, and by this sign thou shalt know that I am night. I will win thy wife for thee ...
— The Fall of the Niebelungs • Unknown

... footman cut the leaves; and the master, with his forefinger to help him, ran his eye up and down the pages; apparently in search of some announcement that he never found—and, still more extraordinary, without showing the faintest sign of disappointment when he had done. Every week, he briskly shoved his unread periodicals into a huge basket, and sent them downstairs as ...
— Heart and Science - A Story of the Present Time • Wilkie Collins

... is flogged, and thorn-crowned, and crucified, and pierced afresh, by this other man of sorrows, who has brought greater bitterness and woe on earth than any other of all time. And in his soul—for soul he must have, though small sign of it is evidenced—he knows it. Deceive his dupes as he may—for a time—his own soul must be a very hell of broken hopes, disappointed ambitions, shattered pride, and the hideous knowledge of the ...
— Raemaekers' Cartoons - With Accompanying Notes by Well-known English Writers • Louis Raemaekers

... servant had been much closer to the conflagration, but, having seen no sign of any person there, nothing but a number of startled horses, and the fire having taken possession of the sides of the masked road, he had retired to the nearest house. He at once enquired after the safety of Mr. Terry and the lawyer, and, finding that they and all the ...
— Two Knapsacks - A Novel of Canadian Summer Life • John Campbell

... king improved in health than another danger threatened the nation. A great and remarkable comet appeared, which filled the people's minds with terror. All the Persian astrologers declared that the alarming sign signified wars, murders, seditions, conflagrations, dangerous diseases, overturning of kingdoms and states, and all kinds of calamities; but, by means unknown to us, they transferred all these evils on the Turks, Kafirs, and Christians, and so ...
— The Mysteries of All Nations • James Grant

... explosion and he staggered toward the window. There was no sign of one. A minute later, the second and lighter tremblor hit and he grabbed ...
— The Thirst Quenchers • Rick Raphael

... modern Rome; beyond it the Campagna, the Alban Hills, and the Apennines, which appeared of a deep purple, with pale clouds floating over their summits. The city lay at our feet, silent, and clothed with the daylight as with a garment—no smoke, no vapour, no sound, no motion, no sign of life: it looked like a city whose inhabitants had been suddenly petrified, or smitten by a destroying angel; and such was the effect of its strange and solemn beauty, that, before I was aware, I felt my eyes fill with tears ...
— The Diary of an Ennuyee • Anna Brownell Jameson

... sign of negation was found by Preyer, as by other observers, to be instinctive, and he adopts Darwin's explanation of the fact—viz., that the satisfied suckling in refusing the breast must needs move its head from side to side. In the seventeenth month the child exhibited a definite ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 358, November 11, 1882 • Various

... provinces, not more than fifty thousand are paid up voluntarily. The other four hundred and fifty thousand are got in by the activity of our agents, who go about among those who are in arrears and worry them with stories of horrible incendiaries until they are driven to sign the new policies. Thus you see that eloquence, the labial flux, is nine tenths of the ways and means of ...
— Parisians in the Country - The Illustrious Gaudissart, and The Muse of the Department • Honore de Balzac

... which Arnold had entered the room was now wide open. They hurried towards it. Outside, all was darkness. There was no sound of footsteps, no sign of any person about. Mr. Weatherley was ...
— The Lighted Way • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... little Mother Eve! You are surely going to get well. There is no sign of longevity in a woman so certain as curiosity. I've not yet reached the point of breaking my heart about her, whatever she does. Wouldn't you like so beautiful a creature ...
— A Young Girl's Wooing • E. P. Roe

... ask you, young man, could I have foreseen that, after drinking coffee every night regularly for two months, you would pass it up tonight of all nights? You certainly are my jinx, sonny. You have hung the Indian sign on ...
— The Little Nugget • P.G. Wodehouse

... the scorched Indian desert lies. And though the winged son of Jove[150] From these bewitched cups' delightful taste To keep the famous captain strove, Yet them the greedy mariners embraced With much desire, till turned to swine Instead of bread they fed on oaken mast. Ruined in voice and form, no sign Remains to them of any human grace; Only their minds unchanged repine To see their bodies in such ugly case. O feeble hand and idle art Which, though it could the outward limbs deface, Yet had no force ...
— The Theological Tractates and The Consolation of Philosophy • Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius

... required to sign his examination he refused. He said it was unnecessary; that, knowing all the secret machinery of the police, he suspected that by some chemical process they would erase all the writing except the signature, ...
— The Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte • Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton

... at his wife and lifted his brows, a sign that it was time the meal should close, and she rose instantly. It was her habit never to rise until the Elder gave the sign. Peter Junior walked down the length of the hall ...
— The Eye of Dread • Payne Erskine

... freely at this sign, for he knew that he had been nearer death than ever before in all his adventurous life, and the sway of his passion had weakened his nervous control. Courage came back to him rapidly, for with all his faults he was, physically ...
— Hidden Gold • Wilder Anthony

... life, and became the beacon of my days. Say one more such word, and save me from utter ruin. Only tell me, 'break off the whole thing!' and I will do so this very day. Oh! what can it cost you to say just this one word? In doing so you will but be giving me a sign of your sympathy for me, and of your pity; only this, only this; nothing more, NOTHING. I dare not indulge in any hope, because I am unworthy of it. But if you say but this word, I will take up my cross again with joy, and return once more to my battle with poverty. I shall meet ...
— The Idiot • (AKA Feodor Dostoevsky) Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... while the boys found now how much more severe the storm was than they had supposed when below. The men were all in their oilskins, very little canvas was spread, and they were right out in a heavy, chopping sea, with no sign of land ...
— Cormorant Crag - A Tale of the Smuggling Days • George Manville Fenn

... exploded; and, second, that it could make such a neat saucer of a hole when it did explode. But there was a still more amazing thing to be pondered. Of the earth which had been dispossessed from the crevasse, amounting to a great many wagonloads, no sign remained. It was not heaped up about the lips of the funnel; it was not visibly scattered over the nearermost furrows of that truck field. So far as we might tell it was utterly gone; and from that we deduced that the force ...
— Paths of Glory - Impressions of War Written At and Near the Front • Irvin S. Cobb

... in the garden even as they had done when he had made that other and awful announcement on the day of the memorial service to Sir David. Rose flushed a little, and her breathing came quickly, but she made no sign ...
— Great Possessions • Mrs. Wilfrid Ward

... the Koraks, and lived altogether like a perfect savage or barbarian—-no one who has not experienced this can possibly understand with what joyful hearts we welcomed that red church steeple, and the civilisation of which it was the sign. For almost a month we had slept every night on the ground or the snow; had never seen a chair, a table, a bed, or a mirror; had never been undressed night or day; and had washed our faces only three or four times ...
— Tent Life in Siberia • George Kennan

... ahead. The chief went on in front. Sometimes they proceeded up valleys, sometimes crossed shoulders and spurs running down from the hills. They moved in Indian file, and at times proceeded at a brisk pace, at other times more slowly; but there was no halt or sign of hesitation on the part of their leader. At last, just as morning was breaking, the chief led them into a clump of trees. He moved a little distance in, and then reined ...
— In The Heart Of The Rockies • G. A. Henty

... halflin[807:A], a long, empty chap, who had taken it into his head that he would have some little learning. Said the father, 'Mr. Linton, ye see, my laddie's fond o' lear'[807:B], and I'm thinking o' makin' a scholar o' him.' 'But,' said Mr. Linton, looking at the youth, and not seeing any sign that there was much in him, 'What are you to make of him?' 'You see, Mr. Linton,' rejoined the father—and it showed how sound the old Scotchman was—'if he gets grace, we'll make a minister o' him!' 'Oh, but,' says Mr. Linton, 'if he does ...
— Life and Literature - Over two thousand extracts from ancient and modern writers, - and classified in alphabetical order • J. Purver Richardson

... visible world is like a book written by the finger of God. It is created by divine power, and all human beings are figures placed in it, not to shew the free-will of man, but as a revelation and visible sign, by divine will, of God's invisible wisdom. But as one who only glances at an open book sees marks on it, but does not read the letters, so the wicked and sensual man, in whom the spirit of God is not, sees only the outer surface of ...
— The Development of the Feeling for Nature in the Middle Ages and - Modern Times • Alfred Biese

... the slightest sign of it,' said Aylmer. 'I think it's your imagination. But even if it's not, it isn't ...
— Love at Second Sight • Ada Leverson

... expenditure of strength may be seen in the attempt of an illiterate laborer to sign his name. He grips the pen as though it were a crowbar, and puts forth enough strength to handle a twenty-pound weight. Learning to dance, or to skate, or to row a boat, is usually accompanied in the beginning by ...
— The Psychology of Singing - A Rational Method of Voice Culture Based on a Scientific Analysis of All Systems, Ancient and Modern • David C. Taylor

... say an educated Pagan, enter one of our public schools; will he discover sign, symbol or token of any kind to indicate that either the teacher or children are Christians? Or suppose this Pagan, or a Turk, or Atheist sends children there to be educated, they can do so with perfect safety to their ...
— Public School Education • Michael Mueller

... edged tools, The brewery, brewing, the malt, the vats, every thing that is done by brewers, wine-makers, vinegar-makers, Leather-dressing, coach-making, boiler-making, rope-twisting, distilling, sign-painting, lime-burning, cotton-picking, electroplating, electrotyping, stereotyping, Stave-machines, planing-machines, reaping-machines, ploughing-machines, thrashing-machines, steam wagons, The cart of the carman, the omnibus, the ponderous dray, Pyrotechny, letting off ...
— Leaves of Grass • Walt Whitman

... "they have made you second lieutenant on a line-of-battle ship! Well, that is one of the few times I have known promotion go by merit. I am glad, sir. Well, I will go and sign articles at once, and so, of course, will Tom; and what is more, I will guarantee to find you a score of ...
— By Conduct and Courage • G. A. Henty

... by the eyes of scores curious to know the meaning of his haste—on, and at last he halts in front of a large board shanty, over whose doorway is the illuminated canvas sign: "Metropolitan Saloon, by ...
— Deadwood Dick, The Prince of the Road - or, The Black Rider of the Black Hills • Edward L. Wheeler

... make them understand how glad I was that I had done so. I was now able more particularly to remark the appearance of the damsel. She was young, and for a negress remarkably pretty. As she recovered she took my hand and placed it, on her head as a sign, I supposed, that she was much obliged to me for saving her. I tried to make out whether the girls belonged to King Sanga Tanga's village. When I mentioned his name they all clapped their hands and ...
— The Two Supercargoes - Adventures in Savage Africa • W.H.G. Kingston

... See that Italian over there with the statues? I am going to buy him out; and if I don't make a sale in half an hour, I'll sign the dinner checks." ...
— A Splendid Hazard • Harold MacGrath

... our special preferences among the main colours, which we shall do quite right to indulge, it is a sign of disease in an artist to have a prejudice against any particular colour, though such prejudices are common and violent enough among people imperfectly educated in art, or with naturally dull perceptions of it. Still, ...
— Hopes and Fears for Art • William Morris

... wrapped about his rugged limbs; a red nightcap overshadowed his frowning brow; an iron-grey beard of three days' growth gave additional grimness to his visage. Thrice did he seize a worn-out stump of a pen, and essay to sign the loathsome paper; thrice did he clinch his teeth, and make a horrible countenance, as though a dose of rhubarb-senna, and ipecacuanha, had been offered to his lips. At length, dashing it from him, he seized his brass-hilted sword, and jerking it from ...
— Knickerbocker's History of New York, Complete • Washington Irving

... of liquor when he was visiting Wordsworth, who had no wine nor other inspiriting fluid in his house. It stands directly on the wayside, a small, whitewashed house, with an addition in the rear that seems to have been built since Scott's time. On the door is the painted sign of a swan,—and the name "Scott's Swan Hotel." I walked a considerable distance beyond it; but a shower coming up, I turned back, entered the inn, and, following the mistress into a snug little room, was served with a glass ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 117, July, 1867. • Various

... chief promoter, the former rival of Cleon, and now the leading politician at Athens. It was really a private agreement between Athens and Sparta, for the most important of the Spartan allies, who thought that their interests were neglected, refused to sign the treaty. Alarmed by this, the Spartans immediately concluded a second treaty with Athens, binding both sides to mutual aid and defence, in case their territories were attacked. The prisoners taken at Sphacteria were now restored, but owing to the bungling ...
— Stories From Thucydides • H. L. Havell

... but all they could see were stripy shadows and blotched shadows in the forest, but never a sign of Zebra and Giraffe. They had just walked off and hidden themselves in ...
— Just So Stories • Rudyard Kipling

... dried pease—everything, almost, of which she keeps a stock. It is now nearly eight weeks since the cannon of a New York steamer aroused the echoes the harbor. Every morning Manm-Robert has been sending out her little servant Louis to see if there is any sign of the American packet:—"All ou Batterie d' Esnotz si bom-mang- pas vini." But Louis always returns ...
— Two Years in the French West Indies • Lafcadio Hearn

... a case of help yourself if you would; no one would interfere. In some places such a sign was posted,—"Help yourself." Hundreds of wagons were left and hundreds of tons of goods. People seemed to vie with each other in giving away their property. There was no chance to sell, and they ...
— Ox-Team Days on the Oregon Trail • Ezra Meeker

... Oro accepted the homage by a little motion of the head. After this, at a sign from him she drank the water. Then the glass was refilled and handed to Oro who also held it towards the sky. He, however, made no libation but drank at once, two tumblers of ...
— When the World Shook - Being an Account of the Great Adventure of Bastin, Bickley and Arbuthnot • H. Rider Haggard

... far more brightly than they had done before. There was only one change, but it was a singular one. The black had passed from his hair and beard as the shadow passes from a landscape. They were both as white as snow. And yet there was no other sign of decay. His skin was smooth and plump and lustrous as ...
— Round the Red Lamp - Being Facts and Fancies of Medical Life • Arthur Conan Doyle

... stopped before a tall, thin, stuccoed house, ballustraded and friezed, very much lighted both within and without, and, from the sounds that issued from it, and the persons who retired and entered, evidently a locality of great resort and bustle. A sign, bearing the title of the Cat and Fiddle, indicated that it was a place of public entertainment, and kept by one who owned the legal name of John Trottman, though that was but a vulgar appellation, lost in his well-earned and far-famed title ...
— Sybil - or the Two Nations • Benjamin Disraeli

... night grieving. I got so down-hearted and scared I did wish I had some company. Pretty soon a spider went crawling up my shoulder, and I flipped it off and it lit in the candle; and before I could budge it was all shriveled up. I didn't need anybody to tell me that that was an awful bad sign and would fetch me some bad luck, so I was scared and most shook the clothes off of me. I got up and turned around in my tracks three times and crossed my breast every time; and then I tied up a little lock of my hair with a thread to keep witches away. But I hadn't no confidence. ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... the girl, it seemed that she was not quite sure in her judgment. For now she turned to her father with a faint frown of wonder. And again it seemed to Terry that Joe Pollard made an imperceptible sign, such as he had made to the four ...
— Black Jack • Max Brand

... in search of some sign of his son; and his eager eye fell on the well-known tunic that Henrich was accustomed to wear. He snatched it up hastily; and then, with a deep groan, let it fall again upon the ground. The breast of the tunic was pierced through ...
— The Pilgrims of New England - A Tale Of The Early American Settlers • Mrs. J. B. Webb

... "It's the sign," said Brother Bart gratefully, as he caught sight of the fluttering pennant. "He was to wave the flag to us so we would know the boat. Keep together now, boys," continued their anxious guardian, who was a little bewildered by a rush and struggle to which he was not accustomed. "Ah, God help ...
— Killykinick • Mary T. Waggaman

... been opened like this for years and the "best people in the county" took advantage of the opportunity to look for signs of failing fortunes, to see the "girl" who had come to the Manor, and to find out just where Madame was travelling. Thanks to Budge's heroic work no one discovered any sign of change in the old house; their questioning only met with disappointment, and Budge's food was of much more interest than the young heiress who, they decided, was a pretty little thing but much too small for ...
— Red-Robin • Jane Abbott

... to frighten me only strengthened my desire for adventure and my determination to seek it. When all else failed I was told that I was too young to strike out for myself. At last father put his foot down firmly, a sign that his patience was at an ...
— A Mountain Boyhood • Joe Mills

... gleam of momentary light dispersed the shadows of her insane horror—never one smile crossed her lip, one pleasant thought relieved her life-long sorrow. Thus lived she; and when death at length came to restore her spirit's light, she died, and made no sign. ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol. XXXII No. 2. February 1848 • Various

... us all about it,' said the girl. 'You know I stopped directly when you made me a sign not to go on asking questions before the little ones. And you said you should have to make us your friends while papa and the grown-ups ...
— The Two Sides of the Shield • Charlotte M. Yonge

... where, in the last verse, the bitterness of wrath and love together (a very different bitterness from that of St. Martin's Summer), breaks out, and is attributed to the garden gate. The night-watch and the singing is over; she must have heard him, but she gave no sign. He wonders what she thought, and then, because he was only half ...
— The Poetry Of Robert Browning • Stopford A. Brooke

... the note, and orders a soldier to accept the gift and carry it within—presents were constantly arriving. A sign from the dumb giant makes the soldier stand back—the present is for Caesar and can be delivered only in person. "Lead and I will follow," were the words done in stern pantomime. The officer laughs, sends in the note, and the messenger ...
— The Mintage • Elbert Hubbard

... Richardson and we are keeping a watch for them. Snow still drifting and the wind howling like old times. Have had our evening meal of travel-rations; pemmican, biscuits, and tea and condensed milk, which was eaten with a relish. Two meals a day now, and big work between meals. No sign of Professor MacMillan and his crew, so we are going to turn in. The other igloo is waiting for him and the storm ...
— A Negro Explorer at the North Pole • Matthew A. Henson

... showing himself at the entrance of the gallery. He discreetly stood there without entering, carrying his good fortune with the ease of a man who knows what he is about. Besides, he was looking for somebody; he made a sign to a young man, and gave him an answer, a favourable one, no doubt, for the other brimmed over with gratitude. Then two other persons sprang forward to congratulate him; a woman detained him, showing him, with a martyr's gesture, a bit ...
— His Masterpiece • Emile Zola

... shapes, pedigrees, and breeds, was well known to old Bannister; hence, the Heavy-weights now jeered him unmercifully. Old "Bildad," as the taciturn recluse was called, who lived like a hermit and owned a rich farm, did own a massive bulldog, and a sight of his cruel jaws was a "No Trespass" sign. With great forethought, when cherries began to ripen, the farmer had brought Caesar Napoleon to the campus, exhibited him to the awed youths, and said, "My cherries be for sale, not to be stole!" which object lesson, brief as it was, to date, had seemed ...
— T. Haviland Hicks Senior • J. Raymond Elderdice

... curiously watching to see what she would do next. She was evidently much perplexed. She knew perfectly well that her duty would not be fulfilled until she had rubbed the figures out, and the sponge was not to be found. Mr. Bartholomew said nothing, gave her no look or hint or sign to help her out of her predicament, but sat in his chair and waited. At last she deliberately stepped on the platform again, stretched her head up and wiped the figures out with her mouth, at which the audience applauded as if they would bring the roof down. That ...
— Our Boys - Entertaining Stories by Popular Authors • Various

... replied the King, 'unless you inspire me, the virgin page must remain pure as thyself. I can scarcely sign a decree.' ...
— Ixion In Heaven • Benjamin Disraeli

... pewterer, 300 merks' (L16, 13s. 4d. sterling), 1698. George joined the Hammerman Craft in 1656, when he would have been about 25 years of age. His signature is still in existence appended to the burgess oath. Very few craftsmen could sign their names at that period—not one in twenty—so that George must have been fairly well educated. Mr. Gladstone replied that it was the first time that he had heard of the name so far north, and that the pewterer was probably one planted out. At Dundee ...
— The Life of William Ewart Gladstone, Vol. 1 (of 3) - 1809-1859 • John Morley

... era of the Judges extends from about 1300 B.C. over at least two centuries. Powerful tribes—as Moabites, Midianites, Ammonites, Philistines—were unsubdued. The land was desolated by constant war. It was one sure sign of the prevailing disorder and anarchy, that "the highways were unoccupied, and the travelers walked through byways" (Judg. v. 6). Not unfrequently the people forgot Jehovah, and fell into idolatrous practices. ...
— Outline of Universal History • George Park Fisher

... least two, in some slates three, attending witnesses, in whose presence the testator must subscribe the will, or acknowledge that he subscribed it, and declare it to be his last will and testament. If the testator is unable to sign his will, another person may write the testator's name by his direction; but he should sign his own name as witness to ...
— The Government Class Book • Andrew W. Young

... temptation of confiding in the Principal. It would have been a feeble end to his first denial of self. He was sure that he had done right in surrendering his place to Emmett, for was not the unexpected opportunity to spend these few more hours in Oxford a sign of God's approval? Bright as the glimpses of eternity to saints accorded in their mortal hour. Such ...
— The Altar Steps • Compton MacKenzie

... demonstration of his state of feeling. He secretly longed to shock people with blasphemous or imprudent expressions; to outrage all honor by stealing his host's spoons when he dined out; his fancy rioted in whimsical evil of which, of course, he gave no outward sign. ...
— The Philistines • Arlo Bates

... perceived that she had looked back, he readily interpreted it as a sign that in her heart her thoughts had been of him, and he was ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin

... that he hathe hurte her, tha{n} he departeth frome her co{m}pani in all the haste possible / and she pursueth after for to reuenge it / but {the} anger is sone past, & she wassheth her with her bylle in the water / and clenseth herselfe agayne." —L. Andrewe, Noble Lyfe. Pt. II. sign. m.1. ...
— Early English Meals and Manners • Various

... time comes," tranquilly. "Of the two I like your friend the better. To be resigned to the inevitable is a sign of ...
— The Puppet Crown • Harold MacGrath

... could not be restrained; and together they signed and published in the New York "Tribune" of August 5 the most vigorous attack ever directed against the President from his own party; insinuating that only the lowest motives dictated his action, since by refusing to sign the bill he held the electoral votes of the rebel States at his personal dictation; calling his approval of the bill of Congress as a very proper plan for any State choosing to adopt it, a "studied outrage"; and admonishing the people to ...
— A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln - Condensed from Nicolay & Hay's Abraham Lincoln: A History • John G. Nicolay

... the only pictorial decoration of the walls, which were plain, and seemed not to have been distempered for many years. Three doors led out of the hall, one at each side, and one in front, and two corridors opened into it, but there was no sign of staircase, nor had it any light except such as was borrowed from the fanlight that looked into the porch. These facts I noted in the few minutes I stood waiting in the hall, but during the many months in which subsequently ...
— Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti - 1883 • T. Hall Caine

... a trifle surprised to see that Sim Gage without a word had passed to the other side of his wife, also giving her an arm. He walked along slowly and gravely, limping, silent as he had been all the afternoon, but made no sign of his own discomfort, indeed did not ...
— The Sagebrusher - A Story of the West • Emerson Hough

... a series of tears and headaches, she gave him up, comforting herself with the belief that he would never marry anybody. After this, she smiled more graciously upon Stephen Grey, who, pretending to be a lawyer, had, greatly to her annoyance, hung out his sign in Dunwood, where his office proper seemed to be in the bar-room, or drinking-saloon, as in one of these he was always to be found, when not ...
— Dora Deane • Mary J. Holmes

... old, the sun plays on you; and your bosom breathes, as sublimely as of old, eternal life; but that life is not of this world. You seem to me to-day a mournful waste; not a boat, not a sail, not a sign of man's existence. All ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXII. - June, 1843.,Vol. LIII. • Various

... line of the heart be found sufficiently long and reasonably deep, and not crossed by other accidental lines, it is an infallible sign of the health of the heart and the great virtue of the heart, and the abundance of spirits and good blood in the heart, and accordingly denotes boldness and liberal ...
— The Zincali - An Account of the Gypsies of Spain • George Borrow

... see! Those which do come are commonplace; their owners are commonplace—just ordinary mortals. I'm sure that princes, knights, and heroes must have the eyes that beam on me as I sleep. I'm sure, indeed, that such eyes will come in time, and that by such a sign I shall know my ...
— The Ape, the Idiot & Other People • W. C. Morrow

... "She bangs the doors." "She breaks the fine china." "She wears heavy shoes," or "She talks too much," or "She is pretty and spends too much time over her front hair"—but why go on? You have all heard such tales—ad nauseam, and if you are wise, you will set up a sign-post against every one of these snares into which your sister nurses have fallen, and on this you will print in large, clear letters: "Danger! Walking on this place forbidden." So much by way of apology for treating you once more to ...
— Making Good On Private Duty • Harriet Camp Lounsbery

... Indies. The American ship "Friendship" had put in there during the previous year to load with pepper. The captain, whose men were on shore, permitted the crew of a Malay boat to come on board. There was not a sign of danger, when suddenly the Malays attacked the Americans, killing the first officer and two sailors and plundering the vessel. They then tried to beach the vessel, but two other American ships compelled the Malays to flee. The Rajah of Quallah Buteau appropriated the plunder ...
— A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year - Volume Two (of Three) • Edwin Emerson

... inflection which said all things against that luckless wight. "I aint sayin' nothing' agin Lige, an' I aint sayin' thet he wants ter git hole uv Sabriny fer ter git her proppity; but he hev drawed up a paper, an' she hev sign hit, fer ter live with him an' his ole 'oman the res' er her days fer, an' in consideration, uv the hull uv thet back pension down, en half—er as near half as $2.11 kin be halft,—every month whilse she live; an' he bines hisself fer ter feed, an' cloth, an pervide fer her so long ...
— The Arena - Volume 4, No. 19, June, 1891 • Various

... "Then I sign out with some other outfit. I refuse to travel with a bunch that carries a hoodoo like you with it. I feel it in my bones that something is going to happen tonight, and just as soon as I can get through my act I'm going to run—run, mind you, not walk—back to the train as fast ...
— The Circus Boys In Dixie Land • Edgar B. P. Darlington

... Francis Walsingham, and afterwards kept a writing school at the upper end of the Old Bailey. In 1595, when nearly fifty years old, he had a trial of skill with one Daniel Johnson, by which he was the winner of a golden pen, of a value of L20, which, in the pride of his victory, he set up as his sign. Upon this occasion John Davis made the following epigram in his "Scourge ...
— Forty Centuries of Ink • David N. Carvalho

... the competition they encounter in their business, these by the necessities of their situation in life, to submit to all the hardships and disquietudes which it is possible for fashionable caprice to impose, without showing any sign of disturbance or discontent; and because there is no outcry made, nor any pantomime exhibited, the fashionable customer may possibly conceive that he dispenses nothing but satisfaction among all ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 20, No. 577 - Volume 20, Number 577, Saturday, November 24, 1832 • Various

... because I can't bear my own thoughts." And he folded his arms, and leant back in his chair; so we let him be. But I left the glass by him; and, after awhile, Grimsby directed my attention towards it, by a significant wink; and, on turning my head, I saw it was drained to the bottom. He made me a sign to replenish, and quietly pushed up the bottle. I willingly complied; but Lowborough detected the pantomime, and, nettled at the intelligent grins that were passing between us, snatched the glass from my hand, dashed the contents of it in Grimsby's ...
— The Tenant of Wildfell Hall • Anne Bronte

... wretchedness of the criminal. Yet he knew it was useless to hold out any hope of a reprieve, even if that had been to be desired. All he could do was to let the poor fellow know at least that he was not friendless; and this sign ...
— The Willoughby Captains • Talbot Baines Reed

... of all fear, observed that it was a sign that things went well with him; then, turning to Simier, who stood trembling with fear, he jeered him upon his pusillanimity. L'Archant removed them both, and set a guard over them; and, in the next ...
— Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, Complete • Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre

... through the borders of civilized life and midway between two flourishing summer resorts,—a brook without a single house or a cultivated field on its banks, as free and beautiful and secluded as if it flowed through miles of trackless forest,—why not take this brook as a sign that the ordering of the universe had a "good intention" even for inveterate idlers, and that the great Arranger of the world felt some kindness for such gipsy-hearts as ours? What law, human or divine, ...
— Fisherman's Luck • Henry van Dyke



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