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Silken   /sˈɪlkən/   Listen
Silken

adjective
1.
Having a smooth, gleaming surface reflecting light.  Synonyms: satiny, silklike, silky, sleek, slick.  "Satiny gardenia petals" , "Sleek black fur" , "Silken eyelashes" , "Silky skin" , "A silklike fabric" , "Slick seals and otters"






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Silken" Quotes from Famous Books



... she who would tire of him, and that another would appear two or three years hence who would appeal to her sensual imagination just as he did to-day. She would strive to resist it, she would argue with herself, but the enticing illusion would draw her as in a silken net. He was now engaged in the destruction of her moral scruples—in other words, making the way easy for ...
— Evelyn Innes • George Moore

... father will dub him knight on the morrow after Mass—but says that he will prove himself coward or hero in another land than his own. "If you will grant my boon in that matter in which I have asked you; then give me fur both grey and of divers colour and good steeds and silken attire; for before I am knight I will fain serve King Arthur. Not yet have I so great valour that I can bear arms. None by entreaty or by fair words could persuade me not to go into the foreign land to see the king and his barons, whose renown for courtesy and for prowess is so great. ...
— Cliges: A Romance • Chretien de Troyes

... masters that he would not suffer his "feet to be entangled" by their amateurish absurdities, was entangled for a time by a rapturous infatuation and allowed a giddy woman with seductive habits and a silken voice to cajole, dominate, ridicule, and ignore him. His imploring theatrical appeals to her to come to him are piteously pathetic. The rational parts of his letters are without example in neat concise phrase, and portray a man possessed of great human virtues. It is when the love-storm ...
— The Tragedy of St. Helena • Walter Runciman

... was given a place at the table of the king, and the two sat there and ate and stared at each other, but spoke not a word. And Cercyon, as he looked at the young man's sharp eyes and his fair face and silken hair, had half a mind to bid him go in peace and seek not to test his strength and skill. But when they had finished, Theseus arose and laid aside his sword and his sandals and his iron club, and stripped himself of his robes, ...
— Old Greek Stories • James Baldwin

... select one of the silken curtains, which I could divide longwise, and tie the ends together. They would be quite enough to enable me to reach the ground; and there was a ring on one side of the window strong enough to bear ...
— Gil the Gunner - The Youngest Officer in the East • George Manville Fenn

... and brought back by the blacksmith, uttered weak but joyful barks, and bounded, ran, and frolicked upon the turf. She was not much bigger than one's fist; her curled hair, of lustrous black, shone like ebony, under the broad, red satin ribbon which encircled her neck; her paws, fringed with long silken fur, were of a bright and fiery tan, as well as her muzzle, the nose of which was inconceivably pug; her large eyes were full of intelligence; and her curly ears so long that they trailed upon the ...
— The Wandering Jew, Complete • Eugene Sue

... where pleasures flow! See how the milk-white hills do gently rise, And beat the silken skies! Behold the valley spread with flowers below! The happy flowers, how they allure my sense! The fairer soil gives them the nobler hue Her breath perfumes them too: Rooted i' th' heart they seem to spring from thence, Tell, tell me why, thou fruitful virgin breast, Why should so good ...
— History of English Humour, Vol. 1 (of 2) - With an Introduction upon Ancient Humour • Alfred Guy Kingan L'Estrange

... the voice began again, silken-smooth and gentle, so gentle and kindly that Ronicky Doone started. "In the old days you used to keep nothing from me; we were companions, Ruth. That was when you were a child. Now that you are a woman, when you feel more, think more, see more, when our companionship should ...
— Ronicky Doone • Max Brand

... shall not prevent. Hark! I can hear the drums! And ladies fair from silken tent Peep forth, and every eye is bent On ...
— Poems • Victor Hugo

... feared, clothed in the violet robe of the cardinal-deacon. The keen face was drawn up on one side with a strange look of mingled pity and contempt. The delicate, thin hands were clasped together on the breast. The chilly light fell upon the dead features, the silken robe and the stone floor. A single servant in a shabby livery stood in a corner, smiling foolishly, while the tears stood in his eyes and wet his unshaven cheeks. Perhaps he cared, as servants will, when no one ...
— Don Orsino • F. Marion Crawford

... strict observers of moral rules, especially in commercial matters; insomuch that merchants of reputation put up sums of gold cupangs, always in decimal numbers, in silken bags, sealed with their seals; and these bags always pass current for the several sums indicated by the seals, without any one ever examining the contents of the bags for several generations. These cupangs are broad oblong pieces of gold, of about twenty shillings value in Japan; but gold is ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 11 • Robert Kerr

... into contact with the principles of His word, the heart must touch and beat against His heart, the will meekly lay its hand in His, the conscience draw at once its anodyne and its stimulus from His sacrifice, the passions know His finger on the reins, and follow, led in the silken leash of love. Then, if I may so say, Elisha's miracle will be repeated in nobler form, and from Himself, the Life thus touching all our being, life will flow into our deadness. 'He put his mouth upon his mouth, and his ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Isaiah and Jeremiah • Alexander Maclaren

... referred to, written, let us say, from thirty or forty years to a century or two ago, amuse us in a way their poor dead authors never intended. Most amusing are the dead ones who take themselves seriously, whose books are pulpits quaintly carved and decorated with precious stones and silken canopies in which they stand and preach to or ...
— A Crystal Age • W. H. Hudson

... let the young people in. He reached the door as they opened it, and in the momentary lightness of his soul at sight of his children, he gave them a gay welcome, and took his daughter, all a fluff of soft silken and furry wraps, ...
— The Quality of Mercy • W. D. Howells

... husband fill The silken foot and leg With bonbons, fruit, and toys until It almost broke its peg. "My!" whispered Santa, "here's a crop. This little boy is wise; He knows I fill 'em to the top, No matter what ...
— In The Yule-Log Glow, Vol. IV (of IV) • Harrison S. Morris

... far in his musing; and his face was troubled; his blue eyes had darkened, when, suddenly, without warning, his door was flung wide. The well-known, silken swish of skirts, a breath of the familiar perfume of gown and hair and person, and then Irina—an Irina unfamiliar—had entered, shut and bolted the door behind her, stared at him for a moment, and then began ...
— The Genius • Margaret Horton Potter

... interspersed with banners and pennants or emblazoned standards. In the great middle hall, or dining-room, there was a long massive oak table, with benches and stools of the same wood. At the end of this table, there was a large arm-chair, overhung with a canopy of golden or silken stuff, which was occupied by the owner of the castle, and only relinquished by him in favour of his superior or sovereign. Often the walls of the hall of state were hung with tapestry, representing groves with cattle, heroes of ancient history, or events ...
— Manners, Custom and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period • Paul Lacroix

... stayed her chastening hand, and bade the young girl walk awhile in the garden until her heat was abated; and as she went away, her little breast heaving, her little hands clenched, and the Terrible Look darting out on me through the silken tangles of her dear hair, I shuddered, and said, "Wife of mine, our Lilias's look is one she cannot help. It comes from Me, you may have seen it fiercer and fiercer in mine own eyes; and She, whom of ...
— The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 1 of 3 • George Augustus Sala

... known it." The woman sighed, avoided his helpless stare, and tossed her head resentfully. "You never loved him as I do, and you put your own selfish and worldly aims first." She rose stiffly and stalked across the room to the silken bell-pull and gently drew it downward. "You'll want to go to your room before supper. Lucy will show you where it is. I hope everything will be in order up there. I have had so much to worry me that I couldn't see about it myself. I'll meet you at supper. I'm going down ...
— Dixie Hart • Will N. Harben

... House.[1100] Noblemen also claimed a right of conferring a scarf upon their chaplains. In this case, those who knew the galling yoke that a chaplaincy too often was, might well entitle it 'a badge of servitude,' and 'a silken livery.'[1101] ...
— The English Church in the Eighteenth Century • Charles J. Abbey and John H. Overton

... picture. She had, without exception, the most beautiful face I ever saw. Even the alkali had not been able to mar the golden glory of the curls which clustered around that splendid little head. She had soft brown eyes, which shone from beneath their silken lashes like "a tremulous evening star"; a mouth which made you think of a string of pearls threaded on scarlet; and a complexion of the waxen purity of the japonica, with the exception of a band of brownest freckles, which, extending from the tip of each cheek straight across the prettiest possible ...
— The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52 • Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe

... a marvel: 'Tis a king, for sure! 'Twould take the taxes of a world to dress A man in that silken gold, and all those gems. What a flash the light makes of him; nay, he burns; And he's here on the quay all by himself, Not even a slave to fan him!—Man, you're ailing! You look like death; is it the falling sickness? Or has the ...
— Georgian Poetry 1911-12 • Various

... the varied fretfulness of caprice; and so she had none of the fears and meannesses and acted untruths which so usually pollute and debase the innocence of childhood. But the promise of her ingenuous brow (over which the silken hair flowed, parted into two streams of gold), and of the fearless but tender eyes, and of the quiet smile which sat forever upon the rosy mouth, like Joy watching Love, was kept in its fullest extent by the mind, from which all thoughts, pure, kind, and guileless, flowed like waters ...
— The Disowned, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... cruelly as he lost her mother before her. He scarcely ever permits her to stir abroad and then only when she is followed by one of his faithful black slaves." He arose with his characteristic abruptness, and walking to the chest of drawers across from the fire-place, changed his black silken skull cap to the broad-brimmed hat of his Dutch neighbors. "Forget what I have said," he told his son, briefly. "We live here only on sufferance and must guard our tongues. But you are a good lad and I know I need never regret having confided in you. And now study your ...
— The New Land - Stories of Jews Who Had a Part in the Making of Our Country • Elma Ehrlich Levinger

... ever is; the one thing that knits men to God is that the silken cord of love let down from Heaven should by our own hand be wrapped round our own hearts, and then we are united to Him. We are His and He is ours by the double action of His love manifested by Him, and His love ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... had dropped it when he was first attacked. The box was the same which now lies open upon your table. A key was hung by a silken cord to that carved handle upon the top. We opened it, and the light of the lantern gleamed upon a collection of gems such as I have read of and thought about when I was a little lad at Pershore. It was blinding to look upon them. When we had feasted our eyes we took them all out and ...
— The Sign of the Four • Arthur Conan Doyle

... months of each other, and were six years younger than I. Strikingly different in their complexion, appearance and disposition, the two little girls formed a beautiful contrast to each other. Alice was exquisitely fair, with large, brilliant, blue eyes, like my poor mother's, and long silken ringlets of sunny hair which curled naturally upon her snow-white shoulders. She was tall and stately for her age, and might have been a princess, for the noble dignity of her carriage would ...
— The Monctons: A Novel, Volume I • Susanna Moodie

... I were a man, and wished a wife, as many do, merely as an ornament, or silken toy, I would take —— as soon as any I know. Her fantastic, impassioned, and mutable nature would yield an inexhaustible amusement. She is capable of the most romantic actions;—wild as the falcon, and voluptuous as the tuberose,—yet she has ...
— Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, Vol. I • Margaret Fuller Ossoli

... its bosom, sweeping the silken blades. They are in motion; and the verdure is dappled into lighter and darker shades, as the shadows of summer clouds ...
— The Scalp Hunters • Mayne Reid

... my 'Hero and Leander'! You! you big-eyed fool! You lisping idiot! you wriggling, cuddling worm! you silken bag of guts! had not even you the wit to perceive it was immortal beauty which would have lived long after you and I were stinking dirt? And you, a half-witted animal, a shining, chattering parrot, lay claws ...
— O Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1919 • Various

... in a chair full of these thoughts a slight rustle, soft and silken, like the rustle of a woman's dress, caught his ear. He turned his head quickly. The corridor with its splendid pillars, which stood at long intervals, was steeped in the clear electric light, and from where he sat ...
— A Modern Mercenary • Kate Prichard and Hesketh Vernon Hesketh-Prichard

... without more ado, and I set off for the castle, troubled for my unreadiness in woman nature, the most puzzling, calling, captivating skein in all the universe, because it holds, behind the silken veil of its treasure-house, the eternal mystery of creation, that something divine which is nearest ...
— The Black Colonel • James Milne

... really frightened, but as they did nothing but look, he told himself that they could not really be gazing at him, and grew braver with the thought. Then slowly bringing up his hat, as a boy does to catch a butterfly, he was just going to bring it down on the silken platform and capture prince and princess, table, gold dishes and all, when hark! A shrill whistle sounded, the old man's hand, with the hat in it, was paralysed in the air, so that he could not move it backwards or forwards, and in an instant every light went ...
— Cornwall's Wonderland • Mabel Quiller-Couch

... being rich. Moreover, he means his friends to enjoy it, too. Lastly, "If you don't find everything you want," he said, "you've only to ring," and he pointed to a, row of pear-shaped appendages hanging by silken cords from ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, April 29, 1914 • Various

... golden pay-streak had held him in the mountains. No one could find him when it happened, and now all they could tell him was the story of an upturned canoe found drifting on the lake, of a woman's light summer shawl caught in the thwarts, of a child's little silken bonnet washed ashore. [Fact.] The great-hearted men of the West had done their utmost in the search that followed. Miners, missionaries, prospectors, Indians, settlers, gamblers, outlaws, had one and all turned out, for they liked young Wingate, and they adored ...
— The Moccasin Maker • E. Pauline Johnson

... head in such a manner as to afford complete protection from the ardent rays of the sun while leaving the borla, or tasselled fringe of scarlet, which was really the royal diadem, fully exposed to view. A woollen mantle of almost silken texture, azure blue in colour, with a very broad border of gold embroidery, and with more gold embroidery on the shoulders and halfway down the back, was next laid upon his shoulders and secured at the throat by a pair of massive gold clasps and chain, and Escombe was fully equipped for ...
— Harry Escombe - A Tale of Adventure in Peru • Harry Collingwood

... more, ascertaining where he is and, above all, where he will be on the night of the division. It is at these crises that the personal characteristics of the Whip are tested. A successful Whip should be almost loved, and not a little feared. He should ever wear the silken glove, but there should be borne in upon the consciousness of those with whom he has to deal that it covers ...
— The Strand Magazine, Volume V, Issue 30, June 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various

... clear enough to himself before many years had passed, and cost him great chagrin. No one will see again on the shore of England what I saw in my early childhood, the submarine vision of dark rocks, speckled and starred with an infinite variety of colour, and streamed over by silken flags ...
— Father and Son • Edmund Gosse

... bear the thought, that a woman whom once I had bound to me in the silken cords of love, should slip through my fingers, and be able, while my heart flames out with a violent passion for her, to despise me, and to set both love and me at defiance. Thou canst not imagine how much ...
— Clarissa, Volume 7 • Samuel Richardson

... The silken sail, which caught the summer breeze, Drove the light vessel through the azure seas; Upon the lofty deck, Dame Sigrid lay, And watch'd the setting of the orb of day: Then, all at once, the smiling sky grew dark, The breakers rav'd, and sinking seem'd the bark; The wild Death-raven, ...
— Romantic Ballads - translated from the Danish; and Miscellaneous Pieces • George Borrow

... say, the bottom one, was the first to finish her supply of honey and to spin her cocoon. Taking precedence of all her sisters in the whole series of her actions, she was the first to burst her silken bag and to destroy the ceiling that closes her room: at least, that is what the logic of the situation takes for granted. In her anxiety to get out, how will she set about her release? The way is blocked by ...
— Bramble-bees and Others • J. Henri Fabre

... his shiny hat upon her, enveloped his equally shiny skull with the silken cap and assured her that his mission was to serve. Bean had not risen. He still ...
— Bunker Bean • Harry Leon Wilson

... day and all night. The Prince, enchanted, wandered seven miles this way, and seven miles that, until he was so tired that he lay down to rest in a marble summer-house, where he found a golden bed, all spread with silken shawls. Now while he slept, the Fairy Princess Shâhpasand, who was taking the air, fairy-fashion, in the shape of a pigeon, happened to fly over the garden, and catching sight of the beautiful, splendid, handsome young Prince, she ...
— Tales Of The Punjab • Flora Annie Steel

... seeing them there, in stupid Hanover, the great lady forgot for a while to read, but kept her eyes upon them all, especially upon the fifth and last mentioned member of the party, the graceful little blonde, whose eyes might have caught their hue from the deep blue of the summer sky, and whose long, silken curls fell in a golden shower beneath the fanciful French hat. She was a beautiful young creature, and even Anna Ruthven leaned forward to look at her as she shook out her airy muslin and dropped ...
— The Rector of St. Mark's • Mary J. Holmes

... heard of his arrival, she cried out that his horse was to be led into the stable and tended with the utmost care. The horse must have the best provender, and must be given fine linen to rest on and be covered with silken cloths; his head was to rest on satin, and his hoofs on soft hay. After this she declared ...
— The Hero of Esthonia and Other Studies in the Romantic Literature of That Country • William Forsell Kirby

... Strangulation is reserved for lesser degrees of guilt, it being considered a privilege to pass out of life with a whole body. When it has been granted to a criminal of rank thus to meet his end, a silken cord is sent to him at his own home. No explanatory message is considered necessary, and he is left to consummate his own doom. Popular sentiment regards decapitation as a peculiarly disgraceful mode of death. Constant practice makes the executioners wonderfully expert in the performance ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 2 - "Chicago, University of" to "Chiton" • Various

... princess ate little and cried very much, and asked her why it was so. She told him that it was hard for her to live with a snake. "Very well," said the snake, and went into a house near by; after a little there came out a handsome man with silken clothes, and rings on his fingers, who told her that he was her husband, that he was known among men as Don Juan del Mundo de Austria, and that he was king of all the beasts, being able to take the form of ...
— Philippine Folk-Tales • Clara Kern Bayliss, Berton L. Maxfield, W. H. Millington,

... fast to the forestay, and the "chair" has to be 6 feet from the deck. There are perhaps thirty stokers in this game, and each one has twisted his black silk neckerchief into rope shape, and a volunteer sits on the chair, holding on to one of the chair-ropes with one hand and in the other his silken rope. During these preliminary tactics the passengers are crowding round to see what may happen. At last the man on the chair gives the word "Ready Boys," and then commences a real slogging match, hitting the chairman on legs, arms, face, neck, anywhere ...
— The Stoker's Catechism • W. J. Connor

... beautiful silken bond, is sometimes apt to snap. The new arrangement was violently opposed. What right, asked grumblers, had the Synod to saddle individual congregations with the debts of the whole Church? The local managers of diaconies proved incompetent. At Neuwied one Brother lost 6,000 of Church ...
— History of the Moravian Church • J. E. Hutton

... my satin shoe," she cried. And so it was. The little shoe, whose silken laces had become loose in walking, lay in the road covered-with dust. Then as she looked back and saw the towers of the castle of Clarides fade into the distant twilight her heart sank and the ...
— Honey-Bee - 1911 • Anatole France

... than real living guests, would not permit me to offer you more comfortable accommodations. If I had been able to follow my inclinations, I should have lodged you in a luxurious chamber, where you could have reposed between fine linen sheets, under silken curtains, instead of resting uneasily ...
— Captain Fracasse • Theophile Gautier

... the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before; So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating "'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door— Some late visitor ...
— Edgar Allan Poe's Complete Poetical Works • Edgar Allan Poe

... sported their swift horses; and on the same day they went from the City to Westminster, that they might discharge the service of butler to the king in his coronation, which is acknowledged to belong to them of ancient right. They went in well-marshalled array, adorned in silken vestments, wrapped in gold-woven mantles, with fancifully-devised garments, sitting on valuable horses refulgent with new bits and saddles: and they bore three hundred and sixty gold and silver cups, the king's trumpeters going before and sounding their trumpets; ...
— Christmas: Its Origin and Associations - Together with Its Historical Events and Festive Celebrations During Nineteen Centuries • William Francis Dawson

... of Graham's expected return, Dick was alone in his workroom at eleven. Bending over his desk, signing letters, he heard Paula tiptoe into the room. He did not look up, but while he continued writing his signature he listened with all his soul to the faint, silken swish of her kimono. He knew when she was bending over him, and all but held his breath. But when she had softly kissed his hair and called her "Good morning, merry gentleman," she evaded the hungry sweep of his arm and laughed her way out. What affected him as strongly as the disappointment ...
— The Little Lady of the Big House • Jack London

... lay in his hand, a silken thing, slightly frayed, as if convulsive fingers had torn it. He sat for a while and looked at it. Then, with that strange smile of his, he laid ...
— The Odds - And Other Stories • Ethel M. Dell

... the priests and bigots, who execrated his name and were bent upon his destruction. At last, at Plessis les Tours, the Bearnese, in his shabby old chamois jacket and his well-dinted cuirass took the silken Henry in his arms, and the two—the hero and the fribble—swearing eternal friendship, proceeded to besiege Paris. A few weeks later, the dagger of Jacques Clement put an end for ever to, the line of Valois. Luckless Henry III. slept with his ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... of that chamber put the soul deliciously at ease, cast out sad thoughts, and left a sense of pure and equable happiness. The silken coverings, brought from China, gave forth a soothing perfume that penetrated the system without fatiguing it. The curtains, carefully drawn, betrayed a desire for solitude, a jealous intention of guarding the sound of every word, of hiding ...
— The Alkahest • Honore de Balzac

... There was a faint silken rustle, and Lady Newhaven, pale, breathless, came swiftly in and closed the door. The instant afterwards she saw her husband, and shrank back with a little cry. Lord Newhaven did not look at her. His eyes were ...
— Red Pottage • Mary Cholmondeley

... to have become different and she seemed to have become different in her attitude towards Leonora. It was as if she, in her frail, white, silken kimono, sat beside her fire, but upon a throne. It was as if Leonora, in her close dress of black lace, with the gleaming white shoulders and the coiled yellow hair that the girl had always considered the most beautiful ...
— The Good Soldier • Ford Madox Ford

... scarcely any beauty but that of the devil. For the rest he was lithe as a greyhound, broad shouldered and strongly built as King Pepin, who was a terrible antagonist. On the other hand, the Sieur de Lavalliere was a dainty fellow, for whom seemed to have been invented rich laces, silken hose, and cancellated shoes. His long dark locks were pretty as a lady's ringlets, and he was, to be brief, a child with whom all the women would be glad to play. One day the Dauphine, niece of the Pope, said laughingly to the Queen of Navarre, who did not dislike these little jokes, "that this ...
— Droll Stories, Complete - Collected From The Abbeys Of Touraine • Honore de Balzac

... white, but carefully arranged, and lay low upon her placid, but slightly wrinkled, brow in soft, silken waves that were very becoming to her. Her complexion was unusually clear and fair for one of her years, although it might have been enhanced somewhat by the fine vail of white tulle which she wore over ...
— Mona • Mrs. Georgie Sheldon

... retrousse, and that she was underhung, which ought to have spoiled the expression of her mouth,—but it did not; you saw all this at once, but you never thought about it after the first five minutes. Her complexion was clear, her hair dark and silken, and the lashes that sheltered her gray eyes long and slightly upturned. Her voice was inexpressibly sweet and modulated, but there was a melancholy cadence in it,—a fall so full of sorrow that I often looked to see if tears were coming: no, the smile and eyes were ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 89, March, 1865 • Various

... pardon, I mean young ladies!—how shall I describe them in all their loveliness and witchery! I never saw any like them before, with their long golden, or black, or silken curls, their white dresses and blue sashes, their bright faces and rosy lips! and their eyes! how can I describe them? I have seen a few diamonds in my time, but never any that sparkled so brightly as the eyes that flashed on me on this memorable ...
— Leslie Ross: - or, Fond of a Lark • Charles Bruce

... your years attain Life's meridian brightness, Hourly seek and gain Genuine politeness: This lives not in forms, As too many teach us,— Not in open arms, Not in silken speeches, ...
— Sanders' Union Fourth Reader • Charles W. Sanders

... passions are enemies of peace and quiet, I acknowledge; but without them there would be no arts or industries in the world. Everybody would sleep naked on a dung-heap; and you would not be able, Hamilcar, to repose all day on a silken cushion, in the City ...
— The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard • Anatole France

... still incredulous both as to the doctor's identity and as to the reality of the mysterious touch. That same summer of our honeymoon, too, George Hillard and his wife were sitting with us in our parlor, when a rustling as of a silken robe passed from corner to corner of the room, right among my wife and the two guests, and was heard, I think, by all three. Mrs. Hillard, I remember, was greatly startled. As for myself, I was reclining on ...
— Hawthorne and His Circle • Julian Hawthorne

... not seen Martial! Tell me, then, who gave you this costly furniture, these silken hangings, all the luxury that ...
— The Honor of the Name • Emile Gaboriau

... on a rock in mid-stream, the angler had just thrown eighteen yards of line lightly as a silken thread to an inch, when his foot slipped, and a loud splash, bringing the painter, like Icarus, out of the clouds with a run, startled his attention to the place where his companion was not. In another second Simon had his grip on Dick's collar, and both men were struggling for ...
— M. or N. "Similia similibus curantur." • G.J. Whyte-Melville

... philosophised, but my reflections were sombre. I saw my resources all but exhausted, and I began to meditate a journey to Lisbon. If my fortune had been inexhaustible, the Hanoverians might have held me in their silken fetters to the end of my days. It seemed to me as if I loved them more like a father than a lover, and the fact that I slept with them only added to the tenderness of the tie. I looked into Gabrielle's eyes, and there I saw but love. How could such a love exist in her ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

... a nobleman who Was known as the Prince Choo-Choo. (It was long before the Chinaman wore his beautiful silken queue.) A learned prince was he, As rich as a prince could be, And his house so gay had a grand gateway, and a ...
— Boys and Girls Bookshelf (Vol 2 of 17) - Folk-Lore, Fables, And Fairy Tales • Various

... same path with you, you will seem to see a vast plain strewn with garlands where a happy throng of dancers trip the gladsome furandole standing in a circle, each a link in an endless chain; it is but a mirage; those who look down know that they are dancing on a silken thread stretched over an abyss that swallows up all who fall and shows not even a ripple on its surface. What foot is sure? Nature herself seems to deny you her divine consolation; trees and flowers are yours no more; ...
— The Confession of a Child of The Century • Alfred de Musset

... touch the dead body with my bare hand: it felt cold, but methought it was a very unpleasant sight. It seems one Dillon, of a great family, was, after much endeavours to have saved him, hanged with a silken halter this Sessions (of his own preparing), not for honour only, but it seems, it being soft and sleek, it do slip close and kills, that is, strangles presently: whereas, a stiff one do not come so close together, and so the party may live the longer ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys

... thee,' replied Har, 'that the fetter was as smooth and soft as a silken string, and yet, as thou wilt presently hear, of very great strength. When it was brought to the gods they were profuse in their thanks to the messenger for the trouble he had given himself; and taking the wolf with them to the island called Lyngvi, in the ...
— Ten Great Religions - An Essay in Comparative Theology • James Freeman Clarke

... the gloves, was a bunch, a very small bunch of Russian violets. Evidently they had been worn to the reception, and while I was wondering if she would wear them to the ball I heard a light step, the rustle of silken skirts, and I knew that ...
— A Few Short Sketches • Douglass Sherley

... inferior to that which, by rank, he was entitled to. De Guiche, on the other hand, paler still perhaps from happiness, than his rival was from anger, seated himself tremblingly next the princess, whose silken robe, as it lightly touched him, caused a tremor of mingled regret and happiness to pass through his whole frame. The repast finished, Buckingham darted forward to hand Madame Henrietta from the table; but ...
— Ten Years Later - Chapters 1-104 • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... of one that near us stood, The rustle of a silken fold, A scent of eastern sandal ...
— Poems by Jean Ingelow, In Two Volumes, Volume I. • Jean Ingelow

... whom we see about is a simple cotton tobe, covering them from neck to heels. The colour of these tobes is generally blue-black, dyed with indigo; some are glazed with gum. Many, however, are white, and ornamented in front about the neck with silken embroidery,—a costume which gives them a very chaste and elegant appearance. Sometimes the tobes are variegated in colour, as are the trousers; but the sombre, or pure white, are ...
— Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51, Volume 1 • James Richardson

... been assiduously cultivating ever since he had known that he was to have the command of the schooner—as he stepped out on deck at eight bells on the following morning, attired in white drill jacket and long flowing trousers of the same, girt about the waist with a gaudy silken sash glowing in all the colours of the rain bow, the costume being topped off with a broad-brimmed Panama hat swathed round with a white puggaree. He was indeed the beau-ideal of a dandy pirate skipper, and I was not a very bad imitation of him—barring the whiskers. The only ...
— The Pirate Slaver - A Story of the West African Coast • Harry Collingwood

... her with a great company, bringing with him an hundred she-camels laden with musk and aloes-wood and ambergris and as many laden with camphor and jewels and other hundred laden with silver money and yet other hundred laden with raiment of silken and other stuffs and brocade, besides an hundred slave-girls and an hundred magnificent horses of swift and generous breeds, completely housed and accoutred, as they were brides; and all this he laid before her father, demanding her of him in marriage. ...
— Tales from the Arabic Volumes 1-3 • John Payne

... Or find inviolate peace to bring you to, Pluck frenzy from the amazed soul of man, Or curb the horses of raging poverty That trample you until—escape who can,— Or spill the honey from rich revelry And strip the silken days?—Alas! alas! I am so dream-locked that I cannot know Why it is not much easier to pass To death than let love's haughty cloister show A common hostel for such taverners.— Ye know, who ...
— The Hours of Fiammetta - A Sonnet Sequence • Rachel Annand Taylor

... to satisfy him. He dilated upon the power of King James, though in his mind that sovereign could not be compared for regal dignity to this savage; the bravery of the colonists, the wonder of silken garments and jewels worn by the men and women of his land. And remembering his duty as a Christian, he tried to explain the mysteries of the Christian faith to this heathen, but he found his vocabulary unequal to this demand. He could see that he was ...
— The Princess Pocahontas • Virginia Watson

... do you ever Dream of the loved and lost one, she who fell And faded, in love's turbid, crimson river— The sacred secret tell? Calmly the purple heavens reposed around her, And, chanting harmonies, she danced along; Ere Eros in his silken meshes bound her, ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol. XXXII No. 2. February 1848 • Various

... stood on guard at every stall, slant-eyed and yellow, clothed in the cheap slops of Sydney, their impassive features carved in fantastic ugliness, surveying the scene with inscrutable eyes that had opened first on rice-fields, sampans, junks, pagodas, and the barbaric trappings of the silken East. ...
— Jonah • Louis Stone

... ceased caressing the dog, listening with her cheek pillowed on his silken forehead, lifted her face and returned Idina's look. As she raised her head, Mary's heart gave a bound which took her breath away. But it was she whose eyes were dilated, whose face was feverishly flushed, whose breast rose and fell as if ...
— The Guests Of Hercules • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

... Slide the heavy barges trail'd By slow horses; and unhail'd The shallop flitteth silken-sail'd Skimming down to Camelot. But who hath seen her wave her hand? Or at the casement seen her stand? Or is she known in all the land, ...
— Standard Selections • Various

... weather. The dancing goes on in the parlor of the establishment and under the verandah which surrounds the courtyard. At the first glance, the parlor in its adornments presents the appearance of a salon of the Faubourg St. Germain, with silken hangings vivid in color on the walls, gilded stucco-work on the ceiling, and a brilliant carpet under foot. But on closer inspection all these splendors are seen to be merely a stage-decoration, for the effects—with the exception of the carpet—have ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 15, No. 89, May, 1875 • Various

... usefull be, And to her lips thus aptly plac't, With smell and hue presents her tast. So all their due obedience pay, Each thronging to be in her way: Faire Amarantha with her eye Thanks those that live, which else would dye: The rest, in silken fetters bound, By crowning her are crown and crown'd. And now the sun doth higher rise, Our Flora to the meadow hies: The poore distressed heifers low, And as sh' approacheth gently bow, Begging her charitable leasure To strip them of their milkie treasure. ...
— Lucasta • Richard Lovelace

... Now all the youth of England are on fire, And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies: Now thrive the armourers, and honour's thought Reigns solely in the breast of every man: They sell the pasture now to buy the horse; Following the mirror of all Christian kings, With winged heels, as English ...
— King Henry the Fifth - Arranged for Representation at the Princess's Theatre • William Shakespeare

... sighs, O snatch that circling bandage from thine eyes! O look, and smile! No common prayer Solicits, Fortune! thy propitious care! For, not a silken son of dress, 5 I clink the gilded chains of politesse, Nor ask thy boon what time I scheme Unholy Pleasure's frail and feverish dream; Nor yet my view life's dazzle blinds— Pomp!—Grandeur! Power!—I give you to the winds! 10 Let the little bosom cold Melt only at the sunbeam ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Vol I and II • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... high forehead. A boddice of white linen was attached from her waist to a dark blue petticoat, hemmed with scarlet cloth, which descended to her ankle, but not to such undue length as to conceal her little naked feet, peeping out, like white mice, from beneath. Her silken, fair hair flowed uncontrolled over her right shoulder, off which her boddice, though fitting almost close to the throat, had fallen slightly and left bare; and silver bracelets clasped her wrists, while the image of the Saviour, carved ...
— A Yacht Voyage to Norway, Denmark, and Sweden - 2nd edition • W. A. Ross

... was gone, Its gracile frame was sorely hurt, Its silken pinions drooped forlorn, Disfigured ...
— Poems • John L. Stoddard

... lance in fist of might, Many a buckler beaming bright, Many a green marlote is spied, Many a ren aljube beside, Many a plume of gallant air, Many a rich-grain'd cappellare, Many a boot a-borzegui, Many a silken string and tie, Many a spur of gold there clung, Many a silver stirrup swung. All the men that rode that day Were expert at battle-fray: Midst of all that pomp and pow'r Chyquo Monarch of the Moor. Moorish dames and maidens ...
— Targum • George Borrow

... now the banner of the prophet false, Unfolds its silken folds to taunt the Jew; The moslem minarets lift high their heads. And raise their summits in the placid sky— As tho' to rouse from his deep lethargy The hardened Jew; to wrest from Paynim hordes The Holy City, once ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 365 • Various

... pathetic figure in black, waving a farewell to me as I stood on the wharf. She wore, I remember, a low collar, and well do I mind the way it showed off the slim whiteness of her throat; well do I mind the high poise of her head, and the silken gloss of her hair. The grey eyes were clear and steady as she bade good-bye to me, and from where we stood apart, her face had all the ...
— The Trail of '98 - A Northland Romance • Robert W. Service

... But yet she is a copy of the other woman. Look at the train which she drags behind her over the dirty pavement, where dogs have been, and chewers of tobacco, and everything concerned with filth except a scavenger. At every hundred yards some unhappy man treads upon the silken swab which she trails behind her—loosening it dreadfully at the girth one would say; and then see the style of face and the expression of features with which she accepts the sinner's half muttered apology. ...
— Volume 1 • Anthony Trollope

... efficient weapon than a dagger. "But," said he, "I do not place much confidence in the knife." I then inquired in what rested his hope of protection. "In this," said he: and unbuttoning his waistcoat, he showed me a small bag, attached to his neck by a silken string. "In this bag is an oracam, or prayer, written by a person of power, and as long as I carry it about with me, no ill can befall me." Curiosity is the leading feature of my character, and I instantly ...
— The Bible in Spain • George Borrow

... died when the child was six months old. The mother, scarcely turned thirty, had a brood of seven, no money and many debts. There is trouble for you—ye silken, perfumed throng, who nibble cheese-straws, test the hyson when it is red, and discuss the heartrending aspects of the servant-girl problem to the ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 14 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Musicians • Elbert Hubbard

... the bark toward the Southeast, maintaining a heavenly serenity in sky and sea. Before the prow hissed the silken wings of flying fish, spreading out in swarms, like little squadrons ...
— Mare Nostrum (Our Sea) - A Novel • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... and covering for the rest of the body. Then the bag is laced up tight, making its small tenant as warm and cozy as possible; only the little face appears—the bonnie, saucy Indian baby face, singularly fair for the first few months of life, with the black bead-like eyes, and soft silken ...
— Owindia • Charlotte Selina Bompas

... in a silken crown on her shapely head, shaded a face that made those who saw it for the first time, catch their breath in instant admiration. Her radiance was of a glorious, compelling, and wholly distinct type, as refreshing as some view of green mountains from out a gloomy ...
— Hidden Gold • Wilder Anthony

... of modified salivary glands in certain larva, mostly of Lepidoptera that secrete a viscid fluid which, on contact with the air, hardens into a silken fibre. ...
— Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology • John. B. Smith

... a bank, a judicious tariff, and internal improvements by the general government, but has crushed beneath its iron heel the whole American system. It promised a gold and silver currency, and told the farmers that they and their wives should have 'long silken purses, through the interstices of which the yellow gold would shine and glitter,' but has given us instead more than thirteen hundred State bonds, with a capital of more than three hundred millions. It has united the ...
— Americanism Contrasted with Foreignism, Romanism, and Bogus Democracy in the Light of Reason, History, and Scripture; • William Gannaway Brownlow

... side of the pool, near the center. Directly opposite us, seated on the bottom of the pool, was a human figure, nude save for a great mass of tawny hair that fell about her like a silken mantle. The strangely graceful figure of a girl, one leg stretched out straight before her, the other drawn up and clasped by the interlocked fingers of her hands. Even in the soft light I could see her perfectly, through the clear water, ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science, March 1930 • Various

... And he made up his mind instantly that he would carry it out, so on he started, though more slowly than before. His new plan was this: He would walk, and walk, and walk, enjoying the buds all the while, their delicate fragrance, the silken touch of their petals against his chin. As he walked, he would not look at any one—just at the scenery; so that when he returned home he could truthfully say that he had seen no one even so much as look at the roses. ...
— The Rich Little Poor Boy • Eleanor Gates

... leaned upon tall peeled rods, forked at the top, and ornamented with ribbons of all colours; each carried on the left side of his vest a bouquet similar to that of Stephano. The young girls in their silken bodices, short skirts, red stockings and mantillas, rattled their castanets as they entered with their partners. The joyous crowd surrounded Don Pedro, whilst cries of "Rosita! Rosita!" resounded from ...
— The Strand Magazine, Volume V, Issue 27, March 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various

... ragged and faded pareus that spoke of poverty, they sat in the shade of a banian-tree, beating the fibrous inner bark of the breadfruit-tree. Over the hollow log that resounded with the blows of their wooden mallets the cloth moved slowly, doubling on the ground into a heap of silken texture, firm, thin, ...
— White Shadows in the South Seas • Frederick O'Brien

... hear as fairy tales," said Wee. "This is Mrs. Epeira Diadema; and she is a respectable, industrious little neighbor. She spreads her tent, but sits under a leaf near by, waiting for her breakfast. She wraps her eggs in a soft silken bag, and hides them in some safe chink, where they lie till spring. The eggs are prettily carved and ornamented, and so hard that the baby spiders have to force their way out by biting the shell open and poking their little heads through. The mother ...
— Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag VI - An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving, Etc. • Louisa M. Alcott

... left, on the steps, stood carved stools with silken cushions—those on the right for the chief ministers and nobles of the kingdom, those on the left for the great ladies of the court. These would all enter in the King's train and take their places. For the throng of courtiers who filled the floor and the entries there were no seats, for only ...
— In The Palace Of The King - A Love Story Of Old Madrid • F. Marion Crawford

... the occupants of the drawing-room looked up in amaze as a rustle of silken garments struck their ears, and a stately young lady came forward with a fan waving in one hand, and masses of ruddy hair piled high upon her head. Rhoda, of course; and yet, could it be Rhoda? for with the ...
— Tom and Some Other Girls - A Public School Story • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... o'er earth; he yearned for all it woke— From the volcano's vapour-flag, winds hoist Black o'er the spread of sea,—down to the moist Dale's silken barley-spikes sullied with rain, Swayed earthwards, heavily ...
— The Poetry Of Robert Browning • Stopford A. Brooke

... entertained by Cardinal Ferrari; and, truth to tell, a soft couch and silken quilts were welcome, after many nights of rough lodging, in the wayside inns of Normandy and Italy. Moreover, having galloped ahead of time, I felt free to take ...
— The White Ladies of Worcester - A Romance of the Twelfth Century • Florence L. Barclay

... which was first introduced into commerce in 1725, from the Aleutian and Kurile Islands, is an exceedingly fine, soft, close fur, jet black in winter, with a silken gloss. The fur of the young animal is of a beautiful brown color. It is met with in great abundance in Behring's Island, Kamtschatka, Aleutian and Fox Islands, and is also taken on the opposite coasts ...
— Astoria - Or, Anecdotes Of An Enterprise Beyond The Rocky Mountains • Washington Irving

... preserved in one of the paintings of the unfortunate parent of that monarch and his family. The ears deeply fringed and sweeping the ground, the rounder form of the forehead, the larger and moister eye, the longer and silken coat, and the clearness of the tan, and white and black colour, sufficiently distinguish this variety. His beauty and diminutive size have consigned him to the ...
— The Dog - A nineteenth-century dog-lovers' manual, - a combination of the essential and the esoteric. • William Youatt

... gathered their silken trains into an aristocratic grasp of the left hand, and sailed down town on either side of "Jim" to continue the conversation. And those coral lips ...
— Divers Women • Pansy and Mrs. C.M. Livingston

... come, notwithstanding love and an impulse to weep, she threw herself roughly in her bed, hiding her face in the silken masses floating round her ...
— An Iceland Fisherman • Pierre Loti

... pushed her pail aside, and continued to stare as Miss Bart swept by with a murmur of silken linings. Lily felt herself flushing under the look. What did the creature suppose? Could one never do the simplest, the most harmless thing, without subjecting one's self to some odious conjecture? Half way down the next flight, she smiled to think that a char-woman's ...
— House of Mirth • Edith Wharton

... Lifting her silken head and blanched face To him whose senses reel at such rare grace And piercing sweetness, she prefers her lips; But stooping close, his ardent eyes behold In those deep eyes, sewn thick with points of gold, A hazardous sea bestrewn ...
— Miscellany of Poetry - 1919 • Various

... and looked about her she could hardly keep from crying out again at what she saw. The room and everything in it looked different. Instead of being poor and mean, it was like a chamber in a castle. Where there had been cobwebs were now shimmering silken hangings. The bed and all the furniture was of gold, magnificently carved. The sheets and pillow cases were of silk, and instead of a coarse, snub-nosed little woman, there among the pillows lay the most exquisite little lady the old dame ...
— Tales of Folk and Fairies • Katharine Pyle

... better move my cot, Nancy," he would say, plucking at the silken coverlid. "They are scrubbing the floor up in the Lavinski flat. The water always comes through." And again he would say: "It is nice and warm in here, but I am afraid you are burning too much coal, dear. I cannot get ...
— Calvary Alley • Alice Hegan Rice

... young Charlottie cried, as she laughed like a gipsy queen, "To ride in blankets muffled up, I never would be seen. My silken coat is quite enough, you know it is lined throughout, And there is my silken scarf to wrap my head ...
— Cowboy Songs - and Other Frontier Ballads • Various

... distance stretched long avenues of these gaseous forests, dimly transparent, and painted with prismatic hues of unimaginable brilliancy. The pendent branches waved along the fluid glades until every vista seemed to break through half-lucent ranks of many-coloured drooping silken pennons. What seemed to be either fruits or flowers, pied with a thousand hues lustrous and ever varying, bubbled from the crowns of this fairy foliage. No hills, no lakes, no rivers, no forms animate or inanimate, were to be seen, save those vast auroral ...
— Masterpieces of Mystery In Four Volumes - Mystic-Humorous Stories • Various

... Chettam, and Celia were sometimes seated on garden-chairs, sometimes walking to meet little Arthur, who was being drawn in his chariot, and, as became the infantine Bouddha, was sheltered by his sacred umbrella with handsome silken fringe. ...
— Middlemarch • George Eliot

... for the first few days of the New Year, dressed in their best crepe, made up in three silken-wadded layers. Their crest was embroidered on the centre of the back and on the sleeves of the quaintly flowered long upper skirt. Beneath its wadded hem peeped the scarlet rolls of the hems of their ...
— Child-Life in Japan and Japanese Child Stories • Mrs. M. Chaplin Ayrton

... scarlet cloth: and the silver oars beat time to the music of flutes and harps. The queen, dressed like Venus, lay under an awning embroidered with gold, while pretty dimpled boys, like Cupids, stood on each side of the sofa fanning her. Her maidens, dressed like sea-nymphs and graces, handled the silken tackle and steered the vessel. As she approached the town of Tarsus the winds wafted the perfumes and the scent of the burning incense to the shores, which were lined with crowds who had come out to see her land; and Antony, who was seated on the tribunal waiting to receive her, found ...
— History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The Present Time, Volume 10 (of 12) • S. Rappoport

... Sporting in youthful gayety, impressed The light mark of her ivory tooth upon The rude foot of a menial; he, with bold And sacrilegious toe, flung her away. Over and over thrice she rolled, and thrice Rumpled her silken coat, and thrice inhaled With tender nostril the thick, choking dust, Then raised imploring cries, and "Help, help, help!" She seemed to call, while from the gilded vaults Compassionate Echo answered her again, And from their cloistral basements in dismay The servants rushed, and from the upper ...
— Modern Italian Poets • W. D. Howells

... ye sons of Sorrow come Only wishing to be numb: Our eyes are sad as bluebell posies, Our breasts are soft as silken roses, And our hands are tenderer Than the breaths that scarce can stir The sunlit eglantine that is Murmurous with hidden bees. Come, ye sorrowful, and steep Your tired brows in a ...
— Georgian Poetry 1916-17 - Edited by Sir Edward Howard Marsh • Various

... I lost a brother, a mistress, a castle, a king, and a fatherland. I was a ruined, desperate man. And yet I lived to see old Blucher with his dirty boots on the silken sofas at the Tuileries, and to become as stout and merry a middle-aged man as any Prussian subject in her ...
— The Recollections of Geoffrey Hamlyn • Henry Kingsley

... and bed-hangings and chair-covers, and with a bright fire in the grate throwing its warm, cozy glow over everything. He looked at the pictures on the walls, at the photographs and little ornaments on the writing desk, and the high posts and silken coverlet of the big bed, and, secure in the averted face of the ...
— The Market-Place • Harold Frederic

... the mood, to bestow on her, recognizing how invaluable she was to him, and never once recking what it meant to her to be so closely associated with him. She answered in her usual quiet way, wishing him a safe journey and bidding him be very careful of the arm, no longer protected except by the silken sign that ...
— Red Pepper Burns • Grace S. Richmond

... him waiting long. First the quick flutter of her footsteps; then the door gently opened—and she flew to him, her sari blowing out in beautiful curves. Then he was in her arms, gathered into her silken softness and the faint scent of sandalwood; while her lips, light as butterfly wings, caressed the bruise ...
— Far to Seek - A Romance of England and India • Maud Diver

... till evening's purple tinge, In winsome helplessness she lies; Two rose leaves, with a silken fringe, Shut ...
— Lives of the Three Mrs. Judsons • Arabella W. Stuart

... elves manufactured a slender silken rope from such impalpable materials as the sound of a cat's footsteps, a woman's beard, the roots of a mountain, the longings of the bear, the voice of fishes, and the spittle of birds, and when it was finished they gave ...
— Myths of the Norsemen - From the Eddas and Sagas • H. A. Guerber

... again,—in whom one part of our national genius finds its perfect flower. We shall hear the thunder of his chariot, at the Battle of the Headland of the Kings, when Meave the winsome and crafty queen of Connacht comes against him, holding in silken chains of her tresses the valiant spirit of Fergus. The whole life of that heroic epoch, still writ large upon the face of the land, shall come forth clear and definite; we shall stand by the threshold of Cuculain's dwelling, and move among the banquet-halls of Emain of Maca. We shall look upon ...
— Ireland, Historic and Picturesque • Charles Johnston

... they went to the fryaries; and when they travelled they had entertainment at the religious houses for three days, if occasion so long required. The meeting of the gentry was not then at tipling- houses, but in the fields or forest, with their hawks and hounds, with their bugle horns in silken bordries. This part very much abounded with forests and parks. Thus were good spirits kept up, and good horses and hides made; whereas now the gentry of the nation are so effeminated by coaches, they are so far from managing great horses, ...
— Miscellanies upon Various Subjects • John Aubrey

... moment at the tent-flap, which, being of silken fabric lined with heavier material, hung straight and ...
— The Black Douglas • S. R. Crockett

... Polly swept up and down the room once more, watching her train, over her shoulder, and listening with a rapturous countenance to the silken swish of her skirts. ...
— Half a Dozen Girls • Anna Chapin Ray

... filled with men smoking. This antesala, as they call it, gave on the sala, or drawing-room proper, which was a large apartment lighted by a hanging chandelier of cut glass, holding about a dozen petroleum lamps. Two rows of chairs, facing each other, were occupied by ladies in silken skirts of brilliant hues, and in camisas and panuelos of delicate embroidered or hand-painted pina. We made a solemn entry, and passed up the aisle doing a sort of Roger de Coverley figure in turning first to one side and then to the other to shake hands. No names ...
— A Woman's Impression of the Philippines • Mary Helen Fee

... back to the fire, a sabre dangling to the floor from beneath a captured Federal overcoat. A larger man was telling him a good story. He listened smilingly, dropped the remnant of an exhausted cigarette to the floor, put his small, neatly booted foot upon it, drew from his bosom one of those silken tobacco-bags that our sisters in war-time used to make for all the soldier boys, made a new cigarette, lighted it with the flint and tinder for which the Creole smokers have such a predilection, and put away his appliances, still hearkening to the story. He nodded his head in hearty approval as ...
— Bonaventure - A Prose Pastoral of Acadian Louisiana • George Washington Cable

... doubt by the ever-present spectacle of the wretched case into which his beloved son had fallen. He records how the young wife, unknown to her husband, handed over to her father the wedding-ring which he (Cardan) had given to his son, along with a piece of silken stuff, in order to pledge them for money. This outrage, joined to the certain conviction that his wife was false to him, proved a provocation beyond the limits of Gian Battista's patience, and finally incited him to make a criminal attempt upon Brandonia's life. ...
— Jerome Cardan - A Biographical Study • William George Waters

... that Martin admired but could not understand. When the fresh irons proved too hot, they hooked them on iron rods and dipped them into cold water. This again required a precise and subtle judgment. A fraction of a second too long in the water and the fine and silken edge of the proper heat was lost, and Martin found time to marvel at the accuracy he developed—an automatic accuracy, founded upon criteria that were ...
— Martin Eden • Jack London

... imbued with the spirit of love. Oh, that it could have remained so forever! There was not a painted cheek in Eden, nor a bald head, nor a false tooth, nor a bachelor. There was not a flounce, nor a frill, nor a silken gown, nor a flashy waist with aurora borealis sleeves. There was not a curl paper, nor even a threat of crinoline. Raiment was an after thought, the mask of a tainted soul, born of original sin. Beauty was unmarred by gaudy rags; Eve was dressed ...
— Gov. Bob. Taylor's Tales • Robert L. Taylor

... that unforgettable night in Nienne, the beauty which had whispered in his ear and drawn him close, the hair which had fallen like a silken tent about his cheeks ... ah, that had been the summit of his life, he would go down into darkness with her name on his lips ... But hell! What had her name ...
— The Valor of Cappen Varra • Poul William Anderson

... herself with royal apparel. Away, for to-day at least, with sober robes and simple coiffure. The king was fastened to his arm-chair, and Sophia dared once more to make a glittering and queenly toilet. With a smile of proud satisfaction, she arrayed herself in a silken robe, embroidered in silver, which she had secretly ordered for the ball from her native Hanover. Her eyes beamed with joy, as she at last opened the silver-bound casket, and released from their imprisonment for a few hours these costly ...
— Frederick the Great and His Court • L. Muhlbach

... bell glass, from the inside of which is suspended a copper needle by a fine silken thread. The glass stands on a wooden support, below which is a coil of copper wire, which, however, is not connected with any battery or other apparatus, and merely serves to condense the current. Below the needle, ...
— The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science • Thomas Troward

... can," said Tinker, and he measured with thoughtful eye the silken mass, tangled and matted by ...
— The Admirable Tinker - Child of the World • Edgar Jepson

... took this charge on hand, A tender piece, for beauty, sex and age, The sun was sunken underneath the land, When she began her wanton pilgrimage, In silken weeds she trusteth to withstand, And conquer knights in warlike equipage, Of their night ambling dame the Syrians prated, Some good, some bad, as they ...
— Jerusalem Delivered • Torquato Tasso

... sorrowing For one so young, so gentle, and fair, Their only child, lying ailing there, Waning and waning slowly away, Yet waxing more beautiful every day, As if she were drawing from spheres above, Before she got there, the spirit of love, Which shone as a light through the silken lire, Pure as was that of the vestal fire; And ever she kissed in hysterical mood The bit of the cross all red with blood. "Oh mother dear! I wish—I fear The time of my going is drawing near: Last night, ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume XXIV. • Revised by Alexander Leighton

... free, All crimes are safe, but hated poverty. This, only this, the rigid law pursues, 160 This, only this, provokes the snarling Muse; The sober trader, at a tatter'd cloak, Wakes from his dream, and labours for a joke; With brisker air the silken courtiers gaze, And turn the various taunt a thousand ways. Of all the griefs that harass the distress'd, Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest; Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart, Than when a ...
— Poetical Works of Johnson, Parnell, Gray, and Smollett - With Memoirs, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes • Samuel Johnson, Thomas Parnell, Thomas Gray, and Tobias Smollett

... from their long progress through France, came to La Rochelle, and spent three days there (Sept., 1565). A noteworthy incident occurred at his entry. The jealous citizens had not forgotten an immemorial custom which was not without significance. A silken cord had been stretched across the road by which the monarch was to enter, that he might stop and promise to respect the liberties and franchises of La Rochelle. Constable Montmorency was the first to notice the ...
— History of the Rise of the Huguenots - Volume 2 • Henry Baird

... as soft and healthy-looking as a baby's, and glowed in the lights of the lanterns like tinted ivory, and underneath this silken covering the great biceps and muscles moved in and out and looked like the coils of a snake around the branch ...
— The Boy Scout and Other Stories for Boys • Richard Harding Davis

... much time, so the station agent at Zero began by offering the man a cigar, which was accepted. In the midst of his sorrowful story the man paused to observe a handsome woman, who was at that moment lifting her dainty, silken skirts to step into the sleeper. The Philosopher had his eyes fastened to the face of the man, and he thought he saw the man's mustache quiver as though it had been agitated by the passing of ...
— Snow on the Headlight - A Story of the Great Burlington Strike • Cy Warman

... faith. Peace is the first step to Union. Peace is Union. Peace unbroken would have preserved it; peace restored will, I hope, in some time reconstruct it. The only bonds which can hold these States in confederation, the only ties which can make us one people, are the soft and silken cords of affection and interest. These are woven in peace, not war; in conciliation, not coercion; in deeds of kindness and acts of friendly sympathy, not in deeds of violence and blood. The people of the Northwest ...
— The Life, Public Services and Select Speeches of Rutherford B. Hayes • James Quay Howard



Words linked to "Silken" :   bright, sleek, silklike, satiny, slick, silky



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