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Commence   Listen
verb
Commence  v. i.  (past & past part. commenced; pres. part. commencing)  
1.
To have a beginning or origin; to originate; to start; to begin. "Here the anthem doth commence." "His heaven commences ere the world be past."
2.
To begin to be, or to act as. (Archaic) "We commence judges ourselves."
3.
To take a degree at a university. (Eng.) "I question whether the formality of commencing was used in that age."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Commence" Quotes from Famous Books



... present nothing can be said as to the time when the operations are likely to commence; nor whether the Institution will embrace children of both sexes, or be restricted either to boys or girls exclusively; nor of what age they will be received, and how long they may continue in it; for though we have thought about these things, yet we would rather be guided in these ...
— A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings with George Mueller - Written by Himself, First Part • George Mueller

... the appearance through bud-variation of new characters by the principle of reversion to long-lost characters. He who wishes to judge how far the conditions of life directly cause each particular variation ought to reflect well on the cases immediately to be given. I will commence with bud-variations, as exhibited in the fruit, and then pass on to ...
— The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication - Volume I • Charles Darwin

... source Of all things, the stupendous force On which all things depend; From whose right arm, beneath whose eyes, All period, power, and enterprise Commence and ...
— The Religion of Politics • Ezra S. Gannett

... ce qu'il a commence, pas une minute de continuation certaine n'est assuree a l'oeuvre ebauchee; la solution de continuite, helas! c'est tout l'homme; mais il est permis, meme au plus faible, d'avoir une bonne intention et de ...
— La Legende des Siecles • Victor Hugo

... reason he demanded back from the recipients; but he gave back to the road commissioners all that his predecessor had exacted in fines on account of Corbulo. Moreover, he gave notice to magistrates chosen by lot, since they were even now slow about leaving the City, that they must commence their journey before the middle of April came. He reduced to servitude the Lycians, who rising in revolt had slain some Romans, and merged them in the prefecture of Pamphylia. During the investigation, which was conducted ...
— Dio's Rome, Vol. 4 • Cassius Dio

... Lincoln's Inn, which record the calls to the bar and other proceedings of the Society, commence in the second year of the reign of Henry VI., 1423. Those of the Inner Temple, which contain the admittances in 1547, and the calls to the bar in 1590; of the Middle Temple, which contain a regular series of admissions and calls, about the ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 218, December 31, 1853 • Various

... in on the night of the twelfth and the attack was scheduled for the night of the thirteenth, or rather the morning of the fourteenth, as the preliminary bombardment was to commence at twelve-forty-five and "zero" ...
— The Emma Gees • Herbert Wes McBride

... Jeanne became quite anxious that the doctor should commence his visits once more. Yet her health had much improved. To humor her, Helene had been constrained to accept two or three invitations ...
— A Love Episode • Emile Zola

... while; a solid, elegant, yet frugal builder: and now the main body of the Mansion is complete, or nearly so, the wings and adjuncts going steadily forward; Mansion so far ready that the Royal Highnesses can take up their abode in it. Which they do, this Autumn, 1736; and fairly commence Joint Housekeeping, in a permanent manner. Hitherto it has been intermittent only: hitherto the Crown-Princess has resided in their Berlin Mansion, or in her own Country-house at Schonhausen; Husband not habitually with her, except when on leave of absence from ...
— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. X. (of XXI.) - Frederick The Great—At Reinsberg—1736-1740 • Thomas Carlyle

... meant this morning to search you out and beg you to come back. I would not lose you for France—for the world. Be not rash or retaliatory! become not the companion of this Frenchman who has divided us. We will commence again. I have tested your fidelity. You shall have all the liberty that you need, everything that I have; say to me, ...
— Bohemian Days - Three American Tales • Geo. Alfred Townsend

... of the salt." Others below them, ever following the same course as in collecting the taille, are likewise responsible. "After the former have been seized in their persons and property, the speculator fermier is authorized to commence action, under the principle of mutual responsibility, against the principal inhabitants of the parish." The effects of this system have just been described. Accordingly, "in Normandy," says the Rouen parliament,[5233] "unfortunates ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 1 (of 6) - The Ancient Regime • Hippolyte A. Taine

... with no more than the average amount of interruptions, I should hope to have it ready in about three weeks. I leave it to you to decide whether it would be better to delay the printing that space of time, or to commence it immediately. It would certainly be more satisfactory if you were to see the third volume before printing the first and the second; yet, if delay is likely to prove injurious, I do not think it is indispensable. I have read ...
— The Life of Charlotte Bronte • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

... kerhewelty to the boys, everybody in the chimbley line know'd as vell as he did, that they liked the climbin' better nor nuffin as vos.' From this day, we date the total fall of the last lingering remnant of May-day dancing, among the elite of the profession: and from this period we commence a new era in that portion of our spring associations which relates to the ...
— Sketches by Boz - illustrative of everyday life and every-day people • Charles Dickens

... this new idea, Mr. Jerrold, Hannah and Grey entered heart and soul into Bessie's project, and within a week a plan for the cottage had been drawn, and a contract made with the builders who were to commence work at once. Neither Hannah nor Bessie were present when the walls of the main building went crashing down into the cellar they were to fill, but when it came to the bed-room and wood-shed, Hannah, Bessie, Grey and his ...
— Bessie's Fortune - A Novel • Mary J. Holmes

... I; "the traqueurs are on the move, the curtain is raised, the play is about to commence—and, dear friend, be silent as death, for the actor will soon make ...
— Le Morvan, [A District of France,] Its Wild Sports, Vineyards and Forests; with Legends, Antiquities, Rural and Local Sketches • Henri de Crignelle

... strengthening all the batteries which are under the fire of our guns, shows that they either have just received some news from Washington which has put them on the qui vive, or that they have received orders from Montgomery to commence operations here. I am preparing, by the side of my barbette guns, protection for our men from the shells which will be almost continually bursting over or in ...
— The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government • Jefferson Davis

... the first law inviolable chastity—and that with a view of conserving all the virile powers of the organism. No aged person, especially one who has not lived the life of strict chastity, can acquire the full sum of the powers above named. It is better to commence practice in early youth, for after the meridian of life, when the processes of waste prevail over repair, few of the powers above described can be attained; the ...
— Buchanan's Journal of Man, January 1888 - Volume 1, Number 12 • Various

... Mr. Crewe, "a very good suggestion. For if you want to get these Government people to do anything, by Jupiter, you need to commence early. We'll go along, if you are willing, gentlemen; we'll go in a body to the Red Tape Office, and see what can be done. But before we go, let us drink the health of Mr. Scarlett, here. He has done remarkably well ...
— The Tale of Timber Town • Alfred Grace

... minutes' survey, they turned to the party who were collected behind them, and gave notice that they were to commence immediately. The head men of the Caffres gave their orders, and the bands of natives moved silently away in every direction, checking any noise from the dogs, which they had brought with them in numerous packs. Our travelers were to leeward of the herd on the hill ...
— The Mission • Frederick Marryat

... trenches are finished, and the relief will commence at nightfall. Leisurely we get ready for leaving. We fill and put aside the knapsacks and bags. We give a rub to the rifles and wrap ...
— Under Fire - The Story of a Squad • Henri Barbusse

... shall conquer on the sea, and I am now going to give you my reasons. The first of these is the remarkable discipline that prevails on our warships; and the second, as soon as fire is opened, the crews of the American ships will commence to desert, since we all know that among them are people of all nationalities. Ship against ship, therefore, a failure is not to be feared. I believe that the squadron detained at Cape de Verde, and particularly the destroyers, ...
— Lessons of the war with Spain and other articles • Alfred T. Mahan

... life of a great character should commence with some early indication of his future excellence. This, being an apparent principle in nature, is probably just. That divine genius, of whatever description, which "nascetur, non fit;" is born with a man, and not possible to be made or acquired; must, necessarily, exist ...
— The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Vol. I (of 2) • James Harrison

... of the said several and respective sums before-mentioned to commence from the 1st ...
— The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 • David Masson

... see her again that day. The next day, when I had settled myself to commence painting at the end of that beautiful valley which you know and which extends as far as Etretat, I perceived, on lifting my eyes suddenly, something singular standing on the crest of the cliff, one might have said a pole decked out with flags. It was she. On seeing me, she ...
— Maupassant Original Short Stories (180), Complete • Guy de Maupassant

... "You commence soon the yachting, my oncle?" said she, and turning to Audrey: "Mistair Gilman is no oncle to me. But he is a great friend of my husband. I call always him oncle. Do not I, oncle? Mistair Gilman lives only for the yachting. Every year in May ...
— The Lion's Share • E. Arnold Bennett

... weeks southerly winds blew almost daily. South of 17 degrees, the northerly breeze does not commence to blow before the end of August. It was warm, extremely warm, under the burning tropical sun. The heat bore down like a load upon head and shoulders and enveloped us like a blast from a roaring furnace. ...
— Khartoum Campaign, 1898 - or the Re-Conquest of the Soudan • Bennet Burleigh

... to commence, and which Rupert Holliday sailed for the Hague to take part in, was one of the grandest and most extensive struggles that ever devastated Europe, embracing as it did the whole of the central and western nations of the continent. In fact, with the exception of Russia, still in the depths of barbarism, ...
— The Cornet of Horse - A Tale of Marlborough's Wars • G. A. Henty

... will proceed with the progress of my voyage. We embarked on the evening of the 28th of June, and weighed anchor before daybreak of the 29th. The voyage did not commence in any very encouraging manner; we had very little, in fact almost no wind at all, and compared to us every pedestrian appeared to be running a race: we made the nine miles ...
— A Woman's Journey Round the World • Ida Pfeiffer

... body found, which could by any possibility be that of the young Englishman. The only alternative appeared to be that he had taken the first opportunity to break all the old ties, and had slipped away to the backwoods or to the States to commence life anew under an altered name. Why he should do this no one professed to know, but that he had done it appeared only too probable from the facts. Hence many a deep growl of righteous anger rose from the brawny smacksmen ...
— The Captain of the Pole-Star and Other Tales • Arthur Conan Doyle

... better than the Prussian tax-collector, but even he found no favour in Mrs. Tiralla's eyes. She finished the dance with him; but just as he, with laboured breath and beating pulse, was about to commence an intimate, low-toned conversation with her, she nodded an absent-minded "Thanks," without listening to what he was saying, and was immediately carried off by ...
— Absolution • Clara Viebig

... itself to political renown and glory. By the benignity of Providence, this experiment, so full of interest to us and to our posterity forever, so full of interest, indeed, to the world in its present generation and in all its generations to come, was suffered to commence under the guidance of Washington. Destined for this high career, he was fitted for it by wisdom, by virtue, by patriotism, by discretion, by whatever can inspire confidence in man toward man. In entering on the untried scenes, early disappointment and the premature extinction of all hope ...
— Washington's Birthday • Various

... of the country with an undefined sort of repugnance, a sort of squeamishness, which is incident to all such violations of moral prejudices, and invariably wears off on familiarity with the subject. The South will commence by enduring, and end by embracing the project."[6] The matter being now fully before the public through these motions, Governor Adams's message, and newspaper and pamphlet discussion, the radical party pushed the ...
— The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America - 1638-1870 • W. E. B. Du Bois

... Driscoll draw their tomahawks, and commence hacking at the ground; which, though hard, yields to the harder steel of hatchets manufactured for the cutting of skulls. As they make mould, it is removed by Chisholm with the broad blade of his ...
— The Death Shot - A Story Retold • Mayne Reid

... says he considers a fine manly English art, and a great defence against Popery—notwithstanding that only a month ago, when he considered me a down pin, he was in the habit of railing against it as a blackguard practice, and against me as a blackguard for following it: so I am going to commence with ...
— The Romany Rye - A Sequel to 'Lavengro' • George Borrow

... he said. "Gregory was quite unfit for such a journey when I left, and he must be ready to commence the season's campaign with the first of the spring. Our summer is short, you see, and with our one-crop farming it's indispensable to get the seed in early. In fact, he will be badly ...
— Masters of the Wheat-Lands • Harold Bindloss

... seldom rested on the book, but were generally wandering about the room, from one object to another. Sometimes he would fix them intently on the wall, and then suddenly starting, as if from a reverie, he would commence making certain mysterious movements with his thumbs and forefingers, as if he were ...
— Lavengro - The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest • George Borrow

... emancipation, and when it ends African slavery will have ended also. It would not, perhaps, be politic to say so, but if I had the army in my own hands, I would take a short cut to what I am sure will be the end—commence the work of emancipation at once, and leave every foot ...
— The Citizen-Soldier - or, Memoirs of a Volunteer • John Beatty

... terms, sir," he said. "Unless you are prepared to hand over the sum of five thousand pounds, my solicitor, Mr. Cheape here, will at once commence proceedings against you with reference to the affair in Mrs. Delaporte's flat. Remember, we have four witnesses to bring into court as to your having cheated—not including your son-in-law here, who heard your confession. For any countercharge you might be disposed to make," ...
— An Amiable Charlatan • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... whole, he seems to be quite as happy as the younger sons of most earls, to have as high feelings of honour; and when the reader loses sight of him, he has money in his pocket honestly acquired, to enable him to commence a journey quite as laudable as those which the younger sons of earls generally undertake. Surely all this is a manifestation of the kindness and providence of God: and yet he is not a religious person; up to the time when the reader loses sight of him, he is decidedly not a religious person; he ...
— George Borrow - The Man and His Books • Edward Thomas

... that take the same case after as before them, except those which are passive, are the following: to be, to stand, to sit, to lie, to live, to grow, to become, to turn, to commence, to die, to expire, to come, to go, to range, to wander, to return, to seem, to appear, to remain, to continue, to reign. There are doubtless some others, which admit of such a construction; and of some of these, it is ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown

... be more uncomfortable than the bachelor's lonely breakfast?—with the black kettle in the dreary fire in midsummer; or, worse still, with the fire gone out at Christmas, half an hour after the laundress has quitted the sitting-room? Into this solitude the owner enters shivering, and has to commence his day by hunting for coals and wood; and before he begins the work of a student, has to discharge the duties of a housemaid, vice Mrs. Flanagan, who is absent without leave. Or, again, what can form a finer subject for the classical designer ...
— The History of Pendennis • William Makepeace Thackeray

... in the start." Sandy's grin became a laugh. "Seems like pore old Bill always gits in bad when you commence on your third pint. You wasn't through, though, seems like. You was going to start in at the beginning and en-core the whole performance, and you started out after Bill. Bill, he was lookin' for a hole big enough to crawl into by that ...
— The Uphill Climb • B. M. Bower

... the first fault, the server shall serve again from the same side. If the server makes two consecutive faults, he loses that point. The server has the option of electing the side from which he shall commence serving and thereafter, until he loses the service, he shall alternate between both sides of the court in serving. If the server serves from the wrong side of court, there shall be no penalty and if the receiver makes no attempt to return the ball the point shall be replayed from the proper ...
— Squash Tennis • Richard C. Squires

... a council of war, and decided to commence their retreat at half-past two o'clock in the morning, in order to be in advance of the army. The probabilities were in favor of the enemy's cavalry being at the junction of certain roads, five miles ...
— Camp-Fire and Cotton-Field • Thomas W. Knox

... residence to Liverpool, and made arrangements to commence the works. He began with the "impossible thing"—to do that which the most distinguished engineers of the day had declared that "no man in his senses would undertake to do"—namely, to make the road over Chat Moss! It was indeed a most formidable undertaking; and ...
— Lives of the Engineers - The Locomotive. George and Robert Stephenson • Samuel Smiles

... BEGIN—COMMENCE. These words have the same meaning; careful speakers, however, generally prefer to use the former. Indeed, there is rarely any good reason for giving the preference to the ...
— The Verbalist • Thomas Embly Osmun, (AKA Alfred Ayres)

... will generate an attenuated atmosphere somewhat similar to our own, and this will be automatically mixed in a cylinder with a little oxygen and nitrous oxide gas, so as to make it as near as possible like what we expect to find upon Mars. When we commence it will be only slightly different from our own air; then gradually we shall reduce its density and change its quality until it is as thin as we shall require. Each of us must spend about eight hours a day in that little compartment, though ...
— To Mars via The Moon - An Astronomical Story • Mark Wicks

... and Squire Floyd, engaged at a salary of two thousand dollars a year, is again at the mills, busy in superintending repairs, improvements, and additions. A few more weeks, and the rattle of industry will commence, and the old aspect of things show itself in S——. May the new mill owners be wiser than ...
— The Allen House - or Twenty Years Ago and Now • T. S. Arthur

... in time. No wrong hath been done, Frank," says Colonel Esmond, turning round to young Castlewood, who stood at the door as the talk was going on. "See! here is a paper whereon his Majesty hath deigned to commence some verses in honour, or dishonour, of Beatrix. Here is madame and flamme, cruelle and rebelle, and amour and jour, in the royal writing and spelling. Had the gracious lover been happy, he had not passed his time in sighing." ...
— Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges • William Makepeace Thackeray

... perhaps foreseen the coming of constitutional government has remarked, I forget in what part of his writings, that good sense in public assemblies is always found on the side of the minority), we discern in a woman a soul and a body, and we commence by investigating the means to gain control of her moral nature. The exercise of thought, whatever people may say, is more noble than the exercise of bodily organs, and we give precedence to science over cookery and ...
— Analytical Studies • Honore de Balzac

... add some further remarks on the subject of the Arabic numerals and cipher; as neither the querists nor respondents seem to have duly appreciated the immense importance of the step taken by introducing the use of a cipher. I would commence with observing, that we know of no people tolerably advanced in civilisation, whose system of notation had made such little progress, beyond that of the mere savage, as the Romans. The rudest savages could make upright scratches on the face of a rock, ...
— Notes & Queries, No. 27. Saturday, May 4, 1850 • Various

... afterwards the grey light of day began to tip the domes and minarets of the pirate city, and with it began the soft hum of a general awakening—for Mohammedans are early risers, and even pirates deemed it consistent with their calling to commence the day with formal—not to say ostentatious—prayers. Any one traversing the streets at that early hour might have seen men at the fountains busy with their prescribed ablutions, while elsewhere others were standing, kneeling, ...
— The Pirate City - An Algerine Tale • R.M. Ballantyne

... many boys will probably read this story who are not altogether superior to temptation, and who do not yet know how easy it is for even a good-hearted, honest, and generous lad sometimes to forget his mother's lessons and his own promises, and commence that slow, gradual, downward course, which nearly always begins before we are aware, and from which it is then so hard to turn back; and as many may learn from his experience, and so save themselves much shame and their friends much anguish, it is better that Frank's history should ...
— The Drummer Boy • John Trowbridge

... his attention became drawn toward the struggle which was about to commence between Great Britain and America, and at a public meeting he made a short speech which attracted general attention. He was now but seventeen years of age, yet his pen was keenly felt in the interest of America, through the columns of Holts Journal, to which he had become a ...
— Hidden Treasures - Why Some Succeed While Others Fail • Harry A. Lewis

... Eliezer is silent—you, his pupil, commence to talk," said her, whose lazy words were ...
— An Obscure Apostle - A Dramatic Story • Eliza Orzeszko

... with a politeness that flattered me extremely, that the series of portraits should commence with mine. I quote word for word that which the Warden said ...
— The Crushed Flower and Other Stories • Leonid Andreyev

... The Imperial Governments of Japan and Russia mutually engage to commence the withdrawal of their military forces from the territory of Manchuria simultaneously and immediately after the Treaty of Peace comes into operation, and within a period of eighteen months from that date, the Armies of the two countries shall be completely withdrawn from ...
— A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era • Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi

... who had till then made his approaches solely against the star, to commence operations against the works on the left also. The direction of the advances to be made in that quarter was entrusted to Lieutenant Colonel Lee. While the besiegers urged their approaches in the confidence that the place must soon capitulate, Lord Rawdon received a ...
— The Life of George Washington, Vol. 4 (of 5) • John Marshall

... the left of the road, where it crossed the rebel fortification, leading up the hill toward Bragg's headquarters. We took a right oblique direction through a peach orchard until arriving at the woods and logs on the side of the ridge, when I ordered the men to commence firing, which they did with good effect, and continued it all the way up until the heights were gained. At this point the left of the regiment was near the right of the house, and I claim that my officers and men captured ...
— The Memoirs of General P. H. Sheridan, Complete • General Philip Henry Sheridan

... with me," Ameres said when the ceremonial observances and salutations were concluded. "He is going to commence his studies in irrigation, but I shall not have time at present to instruct him. I wish him to become proficient in outdoor exercises, and beg you to procure men skilled in fishing, fowling, and hunting, so that he can amuse his unoccupied hours ...
— The Cat of Bubastes - A Tale of Ancient Egypt • G. A. Henty

... has made some experiments to test the extent to which draining affects the temperature of the soil. The results of his observations are thus stated by Gisborne: "Mr. Parkes gives the temperature on a Lancashire flat moss, but they only commence 7 inches below the surface, and do not extend to mid-summer. At that period of the year the temperature, at 7 inches, never exceeded 66 deg., and was generally from 10 deg. to 15 deg. below the temperature of the air in the shade, at 4 feet above the earth. Mr. Parkes' ...
— Draining for Profit, and Draining for Health • George E. Waring

... the paper, and soon returned, eager to commence; and after a little instruction as to how he was to place his hands upon the top glass, Uncle Richard placed himself exactly opposite to his nephew, with ...
— The Vast Abyss - The Story of Tom Blount, his Uncles and his Cousin Sam • George Manville Fenn

... strong mind. His life was a striking illustration of the truth of the proposition that "there is no romance like the romance of real life." He proposed to me to take minutes of his adventures, which were extremely interesting, but before I could commence operations I was myself made a petty officer, and removed to a station in a part of the ship where I but seldom saw him, and the ship was ...
— An Old Sailor's Yarns • Nathaniel Ames

... of remark that the new and full moon are the periods at which the Kookies in general commence their operations of catching the wild Gyalls, from having observed that at these changes the two sexes are most inclined to associate. The same observation has been ...
— Delineations of the Ox Tribe • George Vasey

... about to commence in good earnest for forming Victoria Park. Great progress is being made by the Commissioners of the Metropolis Improvements in the formation of the new street at the West-end. The new street leading from Oxford ...
— The Economist - Volume 1, No. 3 • Various

... this way, large tracts of land to men of means, the country was opened and made accessible to settlers who had no pecuniary ability to incur large outlays in the way of general improvements, but had the requisite energy and industry to commence the work of subduing the forest and making farms for themselves. To them, smaller grants ...
— Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II • Charles Upham

... pledge yourself never to commence, or allow to commence, or break off anything of the sort, without first informing your Divisional Officer, or Headquarters, of your ...
— Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays • Thomas H. Huxley

... less true that it did so. The circumstance which prepared the way for it was the employment of two choirs singing alternately the same air. Afterwards it became the practice—very possibly first suggested by a mistake—for the second choir to commence before the first had ceased; thus producing a fugue. With the simple airs then in use, a partially-harmonious fugue might not improbably thus result: and a very partially-harmonious fugue satisfied the ears of that age, as we know from still preserved examples. ...
— Essays: Scientific, Political, & Speculative, Vol. I • Herbert Spencer

... the English Presbyterian Mission was reinforced by one member with a family, and it seemed a proper time for them to commence more direct work at Amoy. A very populous suburb (E-mng-kang) was selected as a suitable and promising station. They assumed the immediate care, and all the expense of it, employing, as at all the other stations, indiscriminately, members ...
— History and Ecclesiastical Relations of the Churches of the Presbyterial Order at Amoy, China • J. V. N. Talmage

... endowed him with good spirit. If, therefore, it is permitted even to me to be a good man, please recount to me your works from first to last, I promise, I will listen, all I can, and try to understand, and so far as in me lies to imitate you from to-morrow. To-morrow is a good day to commence a course of virtue, is ...
— The Economist • Xenophon

... sleep would not come to my eyes and I wondered what would come to my boy in that far-off land, a strange land with strange, unloving people, who would not care to put him on the pathway when he strayed. Thou rememberest how I battled with his father in regard to sending him to England to commence his foreign education. I said, "Is not four years of college in America enough? Why four years' separation to prepare to go to that college? He will go from me a boy and return a man. I will lose ...
— My Lady of the Chinese Courtyard • Elizabeth Cooper

... once commence to use intoxicating drinks, is also true. But that such persons, or any others, have the slightest inherent or constitutional taste or any longing for intoxicants, until they have acquired such taste or longing by actual ...
— Grappling with the Monster • T. S. Arthur

... impossible for a gunner to pick it up. The machine moves at a higher relative speed than that at which the gun can be trained. It is the rapid and devious variation which so baffles the gunner, who unless he be highly skilled and patient, is apt to commence to fire wildly after striving for a few moments, and in vain, to pick up the range; he trusts to luck or depends upon blind-shooting, which invariably results ...
— Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War • Frederick A. Talbot

... gave orders for the ball to commence. Orangine and Roussette, who had taken lessons for ten years, danced well but without any peculiar grace. They believed that Rosette had never had any opportunity to dance and with a mocking, malicious air, they now announced to her that ...
— Old French Fairy Tales • Comtesse de Segur

... was even more strikingly developed—the Taylors of Ongar. In February 1824 his father, the gallant Captain Thomas Borrow, died, and his articles in the firm of a Norwich solicitor having determined, George went to London to commence literary man, in the old sense of the servitude, under the well-known bookseller-publisher, Sir Richard Phillipps. In Grub Street he translated and compiled galore, but when the trees began to shoot in 1825 he broke his chain and escaped to the country, to the ...
— Isopel Berners - The History of certain doings in a Staffordshire Dingle, July, 1825 • George Borrow

... to state the exact point at which an opening ends, so is it equally difficult to say where the end- game may be said to commence. One of the main characteristics of end-games is the active part taken by the King. Clearly the King cannot venture out into the field of operations until there has been an exchange of the majority of the pieces, so that there can be no ...
— Chess Strategy • Edward Lasker

... St. Petersburg, will be realized. St. Petersburg will be no longer an inland port. It will, with its ample harbor and numerous canals among its streets, become the Venice of the North. Its era of commercial greatness is now about to commence. The ceremony of letting the waters of the canal into the new docks was performed by the Emperor in October, 1883. The Empress and heir apparent, with a large number of the Court, were present on the occasion. The works on the ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 497, July 11, 1885 • Various

... continues: "And so ordered every man to tune up his artillery a half-hour before the performance, and carry his instrument in and lay it on his chair. Then when it came time to commence, every musician would walk in, take up his instrument, and begin. The order was given, and all tuned up. Then the players all ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 14 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Musicians • Elbert Hubbard

... of Thaddeus followed his eloquence with all the fervor of youth, forgetting his late domestic regrets in the warm aspirations of patriotic hopes; and at noon on the third day, with smiling eyes he saw his grandfather put himself at the head of his battalions and commence a rapid march. ...
— Thaddeus of Warsaw • Jane Porter

... connected with Duvno by a pass. The hills on the left of this pass are called Liep, those on the right Cesarussa. Here, too, report speaks of the existence of a city in former days, and the discovery of a large hag of gold coins, like Venetian sequins, has induced some speculative spirit to commence excavations on a large scale. But these, I regret to say, have not as yet been attended with any success. A very fair road has been recently made through this pass, and the traffic which has resulted from it ought ...
— Herzegovina - Or, Omer Pacha and the Christian Rebels • George Arbuthnot

... works of charity and justice, with the zeal of zealous fathers of their country, not only entitled them to the most holy title of catholics, but the most merciful and almighty God, whom they served with all their hearts, saw fit to commence repayment with temporal goods, in the present age. It is certain that "He who grants celestial rewards does not take away temporal blessings[16]," so that they earned more than the mercies they received. ...
— History of the Incas • Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa

... unfamiliar repetitive cycles of work to train the memory of whole gangs of men at once, and to cut down the elapsed time from the time when one man's operation is sufficiently completed to permit the next man to commence his. It has been found, in the case of setting timbers in mill construction for example, that to have one man call out the next act in the sequence as fast as the preceding one is finished, until all have committed the sequence to memory, will materially decrease ...
— The Psychology of Management - The Function of the Mind in Determining, Teaching and - Installing Methods of Least Waste • L. M. Gilbreth

... I in this, Authorizing thy trespass with compare, Myself corrupting, salving thy amiss, Excusing thy sins more than thy sins are; For to thy sensual fault I bring in sense,— Thy adverse party is thy advocate,— And 'gainst myself a lawful plea commence: Such civil war is in my love and hate, That I an accessary needs must be, To that sweet thief which sourly robs ...
— Shakespeare's Sonnets • William Shakespeare

... ardent souls had already turned in another direction. What they believed to have heard from the lips of the dear risen One was the order to go forth and preach, and to convert the world. But where should they commence? Naturally, at Jerusalem. The return to Jerusalem was then resolved upon by those who at that time had the direction of the sect. As these journeys were ordinarily made by caravan at the time of the feasts, we now suppose, with all manner of likelihood, ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 03 • Various

... swing, I hope he will persevere. It is of course understood that my advice, my views, and my opinions are always at his disposal, and in very special cases I may go to work myself; but I must first see that others commence and initiate the work. ...
— Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 1 • Francis Hueffer (translator)

... left behind? This is the opinion, I believe, of several great ethnologists. Is it not true? If philological objections are raised to this, I ask (but in all humility), Did not these southward migrations commence long before the time of Tacitus? If so, may they not have commenced before the different Teutonic dialects were as distinct as they were in the historic period? And are we to suppose that the dialects did not alter ...
— The Roman and the Teuton - A Series of Lectures delivered before the University of Cambridge • Charles Kingsley

... that I should reach Algiers by the next 27th of September, the day on which the great fetes annually offered by the capital of Algeria to the Arabs would commence. ...
— The Lock and Key Library/Real Life #2 • Julian Hawthorne

... thy wit and power of verse, That is at will diffuse and terse: Lest thou commence to lie—be dumb! I am content: the time ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... also addressing Arthur: 'for to commence, hear me! I received your instructions to find him, ...
— Little Dorrit • Charles Dickens

... And when do you commence into the cuckold's order—the preferment you speak of? when shall we have ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. IX • Various

... to commence on the morrow; therefore Albert had not an instant to lose in setting forth the programme of his hopes, expectations, and claims to notice. With this design he had engaged a box in the most conspicuous part of the theatre, and exerted himself to set off his personal ...
— The Count of Monte Cristo • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... much from ignorance undergo, Ah, let not learning too commence its foe! Of old, those met rewards who could excel, 510 And such were praised who but endeavour'd well: Though triumphs were to generals only due, Crowns were reserved to grace the soldiers too. Now, they who reach Parnassus' lofty crown, Employ their pains to spurn ...
— The Poetical Works Of Alexander Pope, Vol. 1 • Alexander Pope et al

... adventurous life. I am an adventurous character. I have known many adventurers; interesting spirits—amiable society! To one of them I owe my knowledge and my proofs—I repeat it, estimable lady—proofs—of the ravishing little family history I go to commence. You will be charmed with it. But, bah! I forget. One should name a history. Shall I name it the history of a house? But, bah, again. There are so many houses. Shall I name it the ...
— Little Dorrit • Charles Dickens

... stand on a sufficiently intimate footing with the object of her interest to justify her, as a proper young lady, to commence the active search for him that youthful impulsiveness prompted, and as, nevertheless, for a nascent reason connected with those divinely cut lips of his, she did not like him to be absent from her side, she wandered desultorily ...
— A Pair of Blue Eyes • Thomas Hardy

... the gentleman who is now about to commence his journal, to avoid making many remarks on the state of the country, or the manners of the inhabitants, until he should have remained fixed for a few months in France. In no country is it so difficult as there, to obtain information ...
— Travels in France during the years 1814-1815 • Archibald Alison

... pedagogues of Shrewsbury, nor the professoriate of Edinburgh, nor the tutors of Cambridge had managed to give him." ("Proc. Roy. Soc." Vol. XLIV. (1888), page IX.) Darwin himself wrote, referring to the date at which the voyage was expected to begin: "My second life will then commence, and it shall be as a birthday for the rest of my life." ("L.L." I. page 214.); and looking back on the voyage after forty years, he wrote; "The voyage of the 'Beagle' has been by far the most important ...
— Darwin and Modern Science • A.C. Seward and Others

... on the occasion, were to approach the town at different points, after midnight, and at a signal from the latter, to commence the attack. Unfortunately, the cavalry did not get up in time, owing to some fault of their guide. The infantry arrived at the appointed moment, and dreading the dangers of delay, charged at once into the town, which they found utterly unprepared ...
— The Life of General Francis Marion • Mason Locke Weems

... said of Lincoln: "He is a very able, acute, uncouth, honest, upright man, and a tremendous wag, withal.... Mr. Lincoln's manner was so good-natured, and his style so peculiar, that he kept the House in a continuous roar of merriment for the last half hour of his speech. He would commence a point in his speech far up one of the aisles, and keep on talking, gesticulating, and walking until he would find himself, at the end of a paragraph, down in the centre of the area in front of the clerk's desk. He would then go back and take another head, and work down ...
— McClure's Magazine, Vol. VI., No. 6, May, 1896 • Various

... we have endeavoured to sketch the lives and the work of the great philosophers, by whose labours the science of astronomy has been created. We shall commence with Ptolemy, who, after the foundations of the science had been laid by Hipparchus, gave to astronomy the form in which it was taught throughout the Middle Ages. We shall next see the mighty revolution in our conceptions of the universe which are ...
— Great Astronomers • R. S. Ball

... nearly everything connected with the different planets are calculated for every day in the year, and can be found, if required, for any minute in any day you please, for 10,000 years to come. Also the eclipses of the sun or moon, with the exact moment at which they will commence or end, at any spot on the earth; the exact portion eclipsed, or, in fact, anything about it you like to mention for any given number of years in advance. Not only this, but you can find the eclipses of Jupiter's ...
— Successful Exploration Through the Interior of Australia • William John Wills

... use of Peruvian guano on Long Island, I would say, forming my opinion from experience and observation that the mode of tillage—the rotation of crops, and the way of applying guano—are about as follows: Commence with corn, which is usually on green sward, after being mowed and pastured from four to six years. First, plow in the spring as soon as the frost is out of the ground, which is generally about the 20th of March. Prepare the ground for planting the 1st of May, by harrowing well ...
— Guano - A Treatise of Practical Information for Farmers • Solon Robinson

... done, at the moment when the boat was inclining towards us—and consequently being unable to descend the whole distance before it again receded,—I calculated that while the boat was retiring I ought to commence my descent, which would probably be completed by the time the returning wave brought it underneath; by which means I was, I believe, almost the only officer or soldier who reached the boat without being either severely bruised or ...
— The Loss of the Kent, East Indiaman, in the Bay of Biscay - Narrated in a Letter to a Friend • Duncan McGregor

... preference to all the world, even to the lovely Duchess of San Severino, a delicious Italian, whom, for my special happiness, I met last summer at the Waters of Aix. I have also a most important negotiation to conclude with one of our Princes of Finance: but n'importe, I commence with thee: friendship before love or money—friendship before everything. My despatches concluded, I am engaged to ride with the Marquis de Grigneure, the Comte de Castijars, and Lord Cobham, in order that ...
— The Paris Sketch Book Of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh • William Makepeace Thackeray



Words linked to "Commence" :   lead off, jump off, inaugurate, break in, embark, attack, fall, get started, get cracking, get, set about, kick off, jumpstart, get down, auspicate, end, come on, start up, open, plunge, recommence, set off, commencement, launch, begin, get moving, get to, start out, set out, introduce



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