"Flap" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... Forest. There lived there a very wonderful old fellow named Nicholaus Geibel. His business was the making of mechanical toys, at which work he had acquired an almost European reputation. He made rabbits that would emerge from the heart of a cabbage, flap their ears, smooth their whiskers, and disappear again; cats that would wash their faces, and mew so naturally that dogs would mistake them for real cats, and fly at them; dolls, with phonographs ...
— Novel Notes • Jerome K. Jerome
... hare, which we bring in in the pocket of our shooting-jacket. We wear jack-boots, and draw them off with boot-jacks; prop up our houses with jack-screws; wipe our hands on jack-towels; drink out of black-jacks, and wear them on our backs too, at least our ancestors did; while flap-jacks[3] gave a relish to their Lenten diet, jack-of-the-clock[4] told them the hour; Jack priests held rule over them; and gentle exercise at the jack, at bowls, helped them to digest their dinners. We ride upon jack-asses; jacks flourish in our fish-ponds; ...
— Notes and Queries, No. 179. Saturday, April 2, 1853. • Various
... the cover and places them on the left side of the haversack; unstraps and spreads out haversack so as to expose its contents; folds up the carrier to uncover the cartridge pockets; opens same; unrolls toilet articles and places them on the outer flap of the haversack; places underwear carried in pack on the left half of the open pack, with round fold parallel with front edge of pack; opens first-aid pouch and exposes contents to view. Special articles carried by individual ...
— Infantry Drill Regulations, United States Army, 1911 - Corrected to April 15, 1917 (Changes Nos. 1 to 19) • United States War Department
... I didn't take solid comfort sleepin' nights, 'n' I never was a fool—never was 'n' never will be. The havin' somebody to sleep in the house 's been hard, 'n' Mrs. Macy's fallin' through the cellar-flap giv' me a bad turn, but she's doin' nicely, 'n' the minister makes up f'r anythin'. I do wish 't you'd seen him that afternoon, Mrs. Lathrop; he did look so most awful sheepish, 'n' his clean collar ...
— Susan Clegg and Her Friend Mrs. Lathrop • Anne Warner
... other and went about the business of preparing for slumber. As he raised the glowing flap of his tent, Larkin saw Smith lounging in a chair before the electric heat unit. "Aren't you going to ...
— The Terrible Answer • Arthur G. Hill
... to know, though," said the hollow-cheeked young Major with the black flap over his eye, "whether you do really mean you are all right—that it is all right with you—or whether you only say so to ...
— Aaron's Rod • D. H. Lawrence
... I received a guinea and a newspaper cutting entitled "A Cadger for Copy," which may appeal to some people's sense of humour. It makes none to mine. In the flap of the envelope Biddick writes: "Halves, ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 156, May 7, 1919. • Various
... longer quite the trusty friend she had persuaded herself to think him. One night, since the sand-divining, she had had a fearful dream concerning Maieddine. Outside her tent she had heard a soft padding sound, and peeping from under the flap, she had seen a splendid, tawny tiger, who looked at her with brilliant topaz eyes which fascinated her so that she could not turn away. But she knew that the animal was Maieddine; that each night he changed himself into a tiger; and that as a ...
— The Golden Silence • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson
... due only to luck that, in his first disappointment, he hadn't destroyed her address with the letter. But she had duplicated it on the flap of the envelope, and the envelope was not thrown in ...
— The Real Adventure • Henry Kitchell Webster
... as happy as one who did not know that conquered lions may turn and rend. Sometimes the vessel rolled so much that the end of the boom skimmed the surface of the water, and sometimes the sail gave a little jerk and flap, but I saw no necessity for changing our course, and kept our bow pointed steadily up the river. I was delighted that the direction of the wind enabled me to sail with what might be called a horizontal deck. Of course, as the boatman afterward ...
— The Rudder Grangers Abroad and Other Stories • Frank R. Stockton
... behind her and quite recognised by her. It was as though she said: "If I'm nice to my father and make friends with him, then you must promise that I shan't be frightened in the middle of the night, that the clock won't tick too loudly, that the blind won't flap, that it won't all be too dark and dreadful." She knew that she had ...
— The Golden Scarecrow • Hugh Walpole
... love on the rush of the storm to sail, And mingle my scream with the hoarser gale. When the sky is dark, and the billow high, When the tempest sweeps in its terror by, I love to ride on the maddening blast— To flap my wing o'er the fated mast, And sing to the crew a song of fear, Of the reef and the ...
— Poems • Sam G. Goodrich
... not want to be too markedly indifferent. Now she took it up and still read it through uncomprehendingly, her thoughts absent with the fate of Miss Cavell. "Well! what is all the fuss about? I still see nothing in it. It is just simply the ordinary sentimental flip-flap that a French versifier can turn ...
— Mrs. Warren's Daughter - A Story of the Woman's Movement • Sir Harry Johnston
... thou, then, exasperate, thou idle immaterial skein of sleave silk, thou green sarcenet flap for a sore eye, thou tassel of a prodigal's purse, thou? Ah, how the poor world is pestered with such water-flies, diminutives ...
— The History of Troilus and Cressida • William Shakespeare [Craig edition]
... stopped at his destination. With stiffened limbs he ascended the weary flights of stairs, paused on the fourth landing to blow into his hands and flap his arms. Then, after a glance round, he turned into the corridor on the left. The door of the Aasvogel Syndicate offices was still unlocked, by arrangement. He opened it quietly, stepped in, and as quietly closed it, turning the ...
— Till the Clock Stops • John Joy Bell
... cross-rod, using about a dozen six-ounce tacks. Stretch the cloth to its bearings and tack it at the back end in the same manner. Stretch it sidewise and tack the sides to the side poles, fore and aft. Tack front and back ends of sides to the front and back posts. Bring down the 2 foot flap of roof at back end of shanty; stretch and tack it snugly to the back posts—and your sylvan house is done. It is rain-proof, wind-proof, warm and comfortable. The foot and head logs define the limits of your forest dwelling; within which you may pile fragrant hemlock browse as thick ...
— Woodcraft • George W. Sears
... observed to exhibit some peculiar action of the limbs when standing at rest; some move the head monotonously in a circle, or from right to left; some swing their feet back and forward; others flap their ears or sway themselves from side to side, or rise and sink by alternately bending and straightening the fore knees. As the opportunities of observing this custom have been almost confined to elephants in captivity, it has been conjectured ...
— Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon • J. Emerson Tennent
... Remember him at the old school? Flap Sharper we called him. Not that they really did flap. His ears, I mean. They just crept up and bent over when he was thinking hard. People came to see it. Came from ...
— If Winter Don't - A B C D E F Notsomuchinson • Barry Pain
... cables which hold the long tent securely in position. The method of shifting from one row to another is very simple. Both trolleys are moved into their new positions at the two ends of a fresh row, the fastenings of the tent at the ground on the further side having been released, so that the flap of the tent on that side is dragged over the tops of the trees and may then be drawn over the top cable and down upon the other side. Seen from the end, the movements of the tent thus resemble those of a double-hinged trestle in the form ...
— Twentieth Century Inventions - A Forecast • George Sutherland
... business day waned and died; in the workrooms the whir of machines sank into the quiet maw of darkness; in the showrooms the shower lights, all but a single cluster, blinked out. Alphonse Michelson slid into a tan, rain-proof coat, turning up the collar and buttoning across the flap, then fell to ...
— Every Soul Hath Its Song • Fannie Hurst
... just and the intoxicated in a berth that ought, by all that was fair and right, to have been mine, and that if I were tied to a man who snored like that I should have him anesthetized and his soft palate put where it would never again flap like a ...
— The Man in Lower Ten • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... reach the ford. The storm increases in strength, the stream flows more furiously; yet the columns of foot enter it and begin crossing. The lightning is continuous; the faint lantern in the ford-house is paled by the sheets of fire without, which flap round the bayonets of the crossing men and ...
— The Dynasts - An Epic-Drama Of The War With Napoleon, In Three Parts, - Nineteen Acts, And One Hundred And Thirty Scenes • Thomas Hardy
... flap very carefully, and pulled out the single sheet of paper, stepping nearer the window to read it in the late afternoon light. It read: "Dear Kid, shut your mouth and saw ...
— The City of Fire • Grace Livingston Hill
... Bun and Margy looked good to that old gander. He ran hissing after them and began to flap his wings. One stroke of one of those wings would knock down either ...
— Six Little Bunkers at Mammy June's • Laura Lee Hope
... overhead. He saw a projectile-like thing with a lizard's head and jaws go darting through an incredibly small opening. It seemed to have no wings at all. But then, in one instant, a vast wing-surface flashed out, made a single gigantic flap—and the thing was a projectile again, darting through a cheraux-de-frise of interlaced fronds without a sign of wings ...
— The Fifth-Dimension Tube • William Fitzgerald Jenkins
... burning temple against the window-frame with a feeling akin to physical sickness. He was tired—dead tired; but he knew that he could not sleep now. The world was waking. From the farmyard round the corner of the house there came the flap of wings and the old rooster's ...
— The Safety Curtain, and Other Stories • Ethel M. Dell
... the land. Sometimes there would be a cessation in the crimes; then a shepherd, going his rounds, would notice his sheep herding together, packing in unaccustomed squares; a raven, gorged to the crop, would rise before him and flap wearily away, and he would come upon the ...
— Bob, Son of Battle • Alfred Ollivant
... door at the back of the hutch, for ventilation in summer, and covered with a thin board in winter. B, a flap-door, four inches wide, which is raised for cleaning out the floor; under this door is a space of one inch, for passing out the urine of the rabbits. C, are buttons for fastening the doors. D, the backs of the bedrooms, without any ...
— Rural Architecture - Being a Complete Description of Farm Houses, Cottages, and Out Buildings • Lewis Falley Allen
... a loin of mutton with a small meat saw, cutting any thickness desired. In this case the actual bone will often have to be sawn through. The result will be more economical, and the servings more agreeable. The loin also can be boned entirely, stuffed or not, as preferred, the flap end folded and fastened over the fillet portion. Then the meat can be ...
— The Story of Crisco • Marion Harris Neil
... the daughter of these, the stable child of visible and invisible subtlety, made to live in both, and shape its steady course between their varying and conflicting forces—if her Ideal was modelled between the flap of airy pinions and the long ranging flow of the serpent water, how could the lines of her form ...
— Alec Forbes of Howglen • George MacDonald
... pack-horse. The Indians sidled after. Approaching the teepee she had marked, Colina heard sounds of a muffled struggle inside. Flinging herself off her horse and throwing up the flap, she saw a figure on the ground, held down ...
— The Fur Bringers - A Story of the Canadian Northwest • Hulbert Footner
... driven the muzzle so violently against me that the blow knocked me breathless and flat on my face, and his rifle, slipping along with the running swivel of my pouch buckle, was discharged, blowing the pouch-flap to fragments, and setting fire to my thrums ...
— The Hidden Children • Robert W. Chambers
... beef, must be carved in the same way, in horizontal slices, with a sharp knife to preserve the smooth surface. The first, or brown slice, is preferred by some persons, and it should be divided as required. For the forcemeat, which is covered with the flap, you must cut deep into it between 1 and 2, and help to each a thin slice, with a little of ...
— Routledge's Manual of Etiquette • George Routledge
... gave a flap. In a moment every one was in activity: the yards were braced sharp up, the royals filled, then the topgallantsails and topsails bulged out, and away we glided. Looking astern, we saw that the Spaniards still remained becalmed. The captain's ruddy ...
— Charley Laurel - A Story of Adventure by Sea and Land • W. H. G. Kingston
... have brought in that sack.' And the jackal, who loved dates, ran instantly back, and tore open the mouth of the sack. But just as he was about to plunge his nose in he saw two brown eyes calmly looking at him. In an instant he had let fall the flap of the sack and bounded back to where the ...
— The Orange Fairy Book • Andrew Lang
... mean flap up and smash up; I mean real, safe, steady, controlled flying, against ...
— The War in the Air • Herbert George Wells
... of rush). Sprush, spruce. Spunk, a match; a spark; fire, spirit. Spunkie, full of spirit. Spunkie, liquor, spirits. Spunkies, jack-o'-lanterns, will-o'-wisps. Spurtle-blade, the pot-stick. Squatter, to flap. Squattle, to squat; to settle. Stacher, to totter. Staggie, dim. of staig. Staig, a young horse. Stan', stand. Stane, stone. Stan't, stood. Stang, sting. Stank, a moat; a pond. Stap, to stop. Stapple, a stopper. Stark, strong. Starnies, dim. of starn, star. Starns, ...
— Poems And Songs Of Robert Burns • Robert Burns
... down their houses to get roast pig with "crackling." Early experimenters in aviation observed that birds flapped their wings and flew. Accordingly they believed that man to fly must have wings and flap them likewise. Not for hundreds of years did they observe that most birds flapped their wings only to get headway, or altitude, thereafter soaring to great heights and distances merely by adjusting the angle of their wings to the various currents ...
— Aircraft and Submarines - The Story of the Invention, Development, and Present-Day - Uses of War's Newest Weapons • Willis J. Abbot
... the young man, as he strode along, "as if I could fly to the top of that steeple, and flap and crow until all the ...
— The Magic Egg and Other Stories • Frank Stockton
... reach it toward me!—sort of woodenlike. I stuck my finger under the flap, gave it a rip across and emptied what was inside into her lap. Bet there were six or seven letters in queer yellow envelopes I never before had seen any like, and on them was the name, Robert Paget, while in one corner it said, "Returned Dead Letter"; also ...
— Laddie • Gene Stratton Porter
... when they went to bed, Rosamund was full of the delight of a new experience. She insisted that the flap of the tent should not be kept shut down. She had never slept in a tent before, and was resolved to look out and see ...
— In the Wilderness • Robert Hichens
... performed the ceremony, a nugget of gold from the Long Light River; and outside the door, a horse, Hilton's own present to his wife, on which was put Pierre's saddle, with its silver mounting and Ida's name branded deep on pommel and flap. When Macavoy arrived, a cheer went up, which was carried on waves of laughter into the house to Hilton and Ida, who even then were listening to the first words of the brief service which begins, "I charge you both if you ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker
... outer having a large hood that is drawn over the head in stormy weather, and a pair of large mits, complete the dress. The women also "wear the breeks," their dress being similar to that of the men in every respect, with this difference, that the female has a long flap attached to the hind part of her coat, and falling down to her heels; a most extraordinary ornament, giving her the appearance of an enormous tadpole. This tail, however, has its use; when she has occasion to sit ...
— Notes of a Twenty-Five Years' Service in the Hudson's Bay Territory - Volume II. (of 2) • John M'lean
... situated near the spine of the ilium; the other will terminate a little above the inner margin of the abdominal ring. The aponeurosis of the external oblique muscles will be exposed, and is to be divided throughout the extent, and in the direction of the external wound. The flap which is thus formed being raised, the spermatic cord will be seen passing under the margin of the internal oblique and transverse muscles. The opening in the fascia which lines the transverse muscle through which the spermatic cord ...
— A Manual of the Operations of Surgery - For the Use of Senior Students, House Surgeons, and Junior Practitioners • Joseph Bell
... flap his wings And let the cannon roar, For while the conquering bullet sings We pledge the commodore. First battle of a righteous war Right royally he won, But here's a health to the jolly tar— To the man behind ...
— Threads of Grey and Gold • Myrtle Reed
... that minute Keith fancied he was getting a round cursing. Then the stranger headed for him, and this time there was no escape, for the moment he struck the shelving slope of the valley, he prodded his horse into a canter, swiftly diminishing the distance between them. Keith unbuttoned the flap of his pistol holster and maneuvered so that he would be partly concealed by his pack when the horseman rode up. The persistence of the stranger suggested to him that Mary Josephine had lost no time in telling McDowell where the law would be ...
— The River's End • James Oliver Curwood
... will break. It waits the hour to rise in power, like an up-rolling storm, With lifted arms and streaming hair—a wild and mighty form! It grasps the rusted gun once more, and swings the battered blade, While the red banners flap the air from every barricade! Those banners lead the German Guards—the armies of the Free— Till Princes fly their blazing thrones and hasten towards the sea! The boding eagles leave the land—the lion's claws are shorn— The sovereign People, roused and bold, await the ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VII. • Various
... the line holding the fluttering garments and then went back to his work. As the wind increased, the strain on the line became too great, and soon he had the satisfaction of seeing the whole thing fall in one wild flap to the ground. With an exclamation calculated to draw the attention of the men about him to what had happened, he rushed to the rescue, lifted the line and rearranged the clothes. Then refastening—this time securely—the end of the line which ...
— The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow • Anna Katharine Green
... steep slopes; and hippopotami, crocodiles, and fish swarm in the water. Gnus are here unknown, and these animals may live to old age if not beguiled into pitfalls. The elephants sometimes eat the crops of the natives, and flap their big ears just outside the village stockades. One got out of our way on to a comparatively level spot, and then stood and roared at us. Elsewhere they make clear off at ...
— The Last Journals of David Livingstone, in Central Africa, from 1865 to His Death, Volume I (of 2), 1866-1868 • David Livingstone
... business size and was stamped with the Boston postmark, and a date a week old. Captain Dan looked at the postmark, studied the address, which was in an unfamiliar handwriting, and then turned the envelope over. On the flap was printed "Shepley and Farwell, Attorneys, ——- Devonshire Street." The captain drew a long breath; he leaned back in his chair and sat staring ...
— Cap'n Dan's Daughter • Joseph C. Lincoln
... Dale's hands rolled the rounded end of one of his collection of the legal instruments under the flap of the envelope, turned the sheets over and drew out the folded document inside. There were eight sheets of legal foolscap, neatly fastened together at the top left-hand corner with green tape. He opened ...
— The Adventures of Jimmie Dale • Frank L. Packard
... moon with a shriek on to the white marble floor, and it would splitter into perdition. And the palace would rock, and heave, and tumble; and the waters would rise, rise, rise; and the gables sink, sink, sink; and the barges would rise up to the chimneys; and the water-souchee fishes would flap over the Boompjes, where the pigeons and storks used to perch; and the Amster, and the Rotter, and the Saar, and the Op, and all the dams of Holland would burst, and the Zuyder Zee roll over the dykes; ...
— Roundabout Papers • William Makepeace Thackeray
... mum," said Hal; and the stranger opened a flap inside his shirt, and drew out a letter which certified him to be Thomas Olson, an organiser for the United Mine-Workers, the great national union ...
— King Coal - A Novel • Upton Sinclair
... lost no time in extending his arms from inside the sedan-chair, and embracing him. At a glance, he saw that Pao-yue had on his head a silver cap, to which the hair was attached, that he had, round his forehead, a flap on which were embroidered a couple of dragons issuing from the sea, that he wore a white archery-sleeved robe, ornamented with dragons, and that his waist was encircled by a silver belt, inlaid with pearls; that his face resembled vernal ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin
... although so young a lad, went to Mindanao with Don Sebastian; and, while near his Lordship, it happened that a musket-ball struck the governor's page (who was at his side) in the flap of his helmet. The ball went in his cheek and came out through his mouth, and struck Don Francisco in the breast, knocking him down immediately. However, he received no hurt; for on examining him, it was found that the ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 (Vol 27 of 55) • Various
... to the other side of the marsh, flap, flap, with his legs hanging out behind, just as we saw him to-night. He came to the other side of the marsh, and flew down to the hut of Miss Heron. He tapped on the door with his ...
— Old Peter's Russian Tales • Arthur Ransome
... either in a soup-plate, or in two small tin patty-pans, which, for cheesecakes, should be of a square shape. If baked in square patty-pans, leave at each side a flap of paste in the shape of a half-circle. Cut long slits in these flaps and turn them over, so that they will rest on the ...
— Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry Cakes, and Sweetmeats • Miss Leslie
... this Crimean night were drinking his father's health. He turned over in his bed and lay shivering. He saw in his mind a broken officer slinking at night in the shadows of the London streets. He pushed back the flap of a tent and stooped over a man lying stone-dead in his blood, with an open lancet clinched in his right hand. And he saw that the face of the broken officer and the face of the dead surgeon were one—and that one face, the ...
— The Four Feathers • A. E. W. Mason
... she laughed, and then grew thoughtful for a moment, glancing out into the dark and listening to the flap of a bat's ...
— Tristram of Blent - An Episode in the Story of an Ancient House • Anthony Hope
... and surrounding country are wild and primitive, even a trifle beyond Pornic perhaps. Close by is Batz, a village where the men dress in white from head to foot, with baggy breeches, and great black flap hats;—opposite is Guerande, the old capital of Bretagne: you have read about it in Balzac's 'Beatrix',—and other interesting places are near. The sea is all round our peninsula, and on the whole I expect we shall like it very much. . ...
— Life and Letters of Robert Browning • Mrs. Sutherland Orr
... the flap of the tent left open, so the warmth might enter, as the nights were rather cool, ...
— Frank Merriwell's Bravery • Burt L. Standish
... a shallow stream to drink. I can hardly speak, my jaws are so heavy. I feel like getting down on all fours. What a noise comes through the woods. I have an impulse to answer it. My ears are very large and leathery, and I can almost fancy they flap in my face as I move my head. There are some older ones than I. It seems so out of keeping to be talking with these heavy jaws. They are dark brown, as if they had been completely tanned. There is one old fellow, with large tusks, that looks very tough. I see several younger ones. In fact, ...
— Clairvoyance and Occult Powers • Swami Panchadasi
... the insolent familiarity of her poor little friend's groom, but Florimel saw none, and kneeled, as if she had been in church, on the head of the mare, with the fierce crater of her fiery brain blazing at her knee. Then Malcolm lifted the flap of the saddle, undid the buckles of the girths, and drawing them a little from under her, laid the saddle on the sand, talking all the time to Florimel, lest a sudden word might seem a direction, and she should rise before the right ...
— The Marquis of Lossie • George MacDonald
... gun under yore coat flap," said Sandy. "I don't know how quick you can draw but I aim to ...
— Rimrock Trail • J. Allan Dunn
... little ferns and flowers clinging to it. In this rocky solitude lived a falcon who became a very dear friend of St. Francis, and for whom he had a great love. It knew the time he liked to rise and pray in the night, and it would come and flap against his hut and wake him at the right time, and then stay ...
— Stories of the Saints by Candle-Light • Vera C. Barclay
... combustion does not pass through glass so readily as the heat of the sun; but the difference is not important. The glass of such a window must, of course, be divided into small panes, and supported by a metallic frame work; and there must be a flap or door in the frame work, for the purpose of admitting the fuel and stirring the fire. Air must be supplied to the fire as described above, by a tube leading directly from the external atmosphere. The ventilation of the room may be effected by an opening into the chimney near the ceiling; ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 10, No. 272, Saturday, September 8, 1827 • Various
... death when they entered. Not so much as the flap of a wing or the stir of a leaf roused suspicion, yet they had barely advanced a short hundred paces when those apparently bare rocks in front flamed red, the narrow defile echoed to wild screeches and became instantly crowded with weird, leaping figures. It was like a ...
— Bob Hampton of Placer • Randall Parrish
... lodge is made fast to the ground with wooden pins. The apex is left open, with a triangular wing or flap on each side, and the windward flap constantly stretched out by means of a pole inserted into a pocket in the end of it, which causes it to draw like a sail, and thus occasions a draught from the fire built upon the ground in the centre of the lodge, and makes it warm and comfortable in the ...
— The Prairie Traveler - A Hand-book for Overland Expeditions • Randolph Marcy
... Sometimes these flat-fish flap upwards to the surface, poke their noses into the other world, and then, like larks, having gone up with effort, let themselves easily down again ...
— Brothers of Pity and Other Tales of Beasts and Men • Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing
... should contrive To keep its pinions on the flap, And by a tour de force survive This devastating handicap, Yet are there perils in the skies Whereon we blandly shut our eyes, But which are bound to be ...
— Punch, Volume 156, 26 March 1919 • Various
... Dictionary and Sibrandus Schnafnaburgensis, his Delectable Treatise; and if some day, when the master of the house has been coaxed by his womenfolk to take a holiday, and they descend upon the books, which he (the humbug) never reads, belabour and bang the dust out of them and flap them with dusters, and all with that vindictiveness which is the good ...
— From a Cornish Window - A New Edition • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... under the name of M. Cisseis; but it is clearly only a local variety of it, the range of the two being limited by the barrier of the broad Amazons. It is a grand sight to see these colossal butterflies by twos and threes floating at a great height in the still air of a tropical morning. They flap their wings only at long intervals, for I have noticed them to sail a very considerable distance without a stroke. Their wing-muscles and the thorax to which they are attached are very feeble in comparison with ...
— The Naturalist on the River Amazons • Henry Walter Bates
... get out, you man!" He dropped the flap, fled aghast before the appalling vision of Aunt Janet in night attire, with a ring of curl-papers round her head, driven back into the corner of the tent, and crouched upon a box, her gown drawn tight about her, while she gazed in unspeakable horror at the whirling, fighting ...
— The Foreigner • Ralph Connor
... dimly lighted rooms. It consists of four rods pivoted together at the corners and swinging on two centers, so that in the first position it is truly square, and in other positions of rhomboid form, the two outer bars approaching each other like those of a parallel ruler. The hinge flap comes down on the exact center of the plate, minus the thickness of the block holding the diamond. By this appliance plates can be cut in either direction. Fig. 3 represents a similar arrangement for cutting a number of very small plates out of one large ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 647, May 26, 1888 • Various
... back, saw that their shadows had not followed. Ned's stood before Will, brandishing his pole; and Polly's was flapping a shadowy sun-bonnet with all its might. As soon as they saw that, back they went,—Ned to threaten till he broke his pole, and Polly to flap till the strings came off. As if anxious to do its part, the bonnet flew up in the air, and coming down lit on the cross cow's head; which so astonished her that she ran away as ...
— Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag VI - An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving, Etc. • Louisa M. Alcott
... rigging was in considerable tangle; occasionally the boom moved a little with a tortured skirling cadence; and the sail, rotten, I presume, from exposure—for she had certainly encountered no bad weather—gave out anon a heavy languid flap at a rent down the middle. Besides Sallitt, looking out there where he had jammed himself, I ...
— The Purple Cloud • M.P. Shiel
... the large ears noticed Neville for the first time. He frowned darkly, and his big ears seemed to flap with annoyance. ...
— A Book for Kids • C. J. (Clarence Michael James) Dennis
... quickly and fired. The huge bird sank as though hit, curved downward, and with one flap of his great ...
— A Mountain Europa • John Fox Jr.
... instantly out of the boat, threw up the skylight flap, and had a glimpse of the men down there crouching round the hatch. They looked up scared, and at that moment the Frenchman outside the door bellowed out 'Trahison—trahison!' They bolted out of the cabin, falling over each other and swearing ...
— Within the Tides • Joseph Conrad
... a pencil or small round object in the envelope, steamed a little, if necessary; the envelope is opened at the end flap and the contents pulled out without disturbing the seal, the contents are then read, put in their place again, the end flap re-inserted, a little gum used and the envelope is as intact ...
— Face to Face with Kaiserism • James W. Gerard
... morceau by epicures. A gigot of Leicester, Cheviot, or Southdown mutton makes a beautiful 'boiled leg of mutton,' which is prized the more the fatter it is, as this part of the carcass is never overloaded with fat. The loin is almost always roasted, the flap of the flank being skewered up, and it is a juicy piece. For a small family, the black-faced mutton is preferable; for a large, the Southdown and Cheviot. Many consider this piece of Leicester mutton roasted ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - April 1843 • Various
... brother's letter over and over distastefully. What the deuce did the old chap want now? he wondered. He gave a sigh of resignation, and broke open the flap. ...
— The Second Honeymoon • Ruby M. Ayres
... breath. Her eager thumb was almost under the flap of the envelope when she hesitated, eyed the letter uncertainly, and thrust it into the pocket of her calico gown. All day it lay there, save at times— which, indeed, were of frequent occurrence—when she took it from its hiding-place, pressed it to her cheek, or gloried ...
— Across the Years • Eleanor H. Porter
... augment, augmentation; increment, reinforcement, supernumerary, accessory, item; garnish, sauce; accompaniment &c. 88; adjective, addendum; complement, supplement; continuation. rider, offshoot, episode, side issue, corollary; piece[Fr]; flap, lappet, skirt, embroidery, trappings, cortege; tail, suffix &c. (sequel) 65; wing. Adj. additional &c. 37. alate[obs3], alated[obs3]; winged. Adv. ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... pretty she is!" he whispered, with evident affection and pride, turning back the flap of the rug ...
— Master Tales of Mystery, Volume 3 • Collected and Arranged by Francis J. Reynolds
... ears save the soft puff now and then of a porpoise, the slow creak of the masts as we swayed gently on the swell, the patter of the reef-points, and the occasional flap of the hanging sails. An awning covered the fore and after parts of the schooner, under which the men composing the watch on deck lolled in sleepy indolence, overcome with excessive heat. Bloody Bill, ...
— The Coral Island - A Tale Of The Pacific Ocean • R. M. Ballantyne
... tail-coat and round hat, and the other man on her right—well, he was a sailor-man in wet oilskins. I could see the moonlight shining on the water that ran down him, and on the little puddle that had settled where the flap of his sou'wester was turned up behind: and one of his wet, shiny arms was round Mamie's waist, just above Jack's. I was fast to the spot where I stood, and for a minute I thought I was crazy. We'd had nothing but some cider for dinner, and tea in the evening, ...
— Man Overboard! • F(rancis) Marion Crawford
... skin flap to depart, when a low exclamation brought him back to the girl's side. She brought herself to her knees on the bearskin mat, her face aglow with true Eve-light, and shyly unbuckled his heavy belt. He looked down, perplexed, suspicious, his ears alert ...
— The Son of the Wolf • Jack London
... enough children anyway. But the Gold Rooster on the top of the barn looked down, laughing at him. He couldn't really laugh, you know, or flap his wings, but he swung from west to southwest and back ...
— Seven O'Clock Stories • Robert Gordon Anderson
... right up on to the reeking carcass, and, seizing a huge fragment of blubber, strive with might and main to tear it away. Then the lethal spade would drop upon his soft crown, cleaving it to the jaws, and with one flap of his big tail he would loose his grip, roll over and over, and sink, surrounded by a writhing crowd of his fellows, by whom he was speedily reduced ...
— The Cruise of the Cachalot - Round the World After Sperm Whales • Frank T. Bullen
... over, trembling, and assisted me to a standing on the ice. We scrambled along the track of debris left by the crew. At the moment half a dozen of the latter were rolling back a broad flap of the hide, in which they had found a long L-shaped rent revealed. Then a hoarse cry broke from them, and I stumbled forward and ...
— At a Winter's Fire • Bernard Edward J. Capes
... knows how many skins he put into it! I don't, nor did I ever try to find out. Bjaaland was also in full swing with alterations to his. He found the opening at the top inconvenient, and preferred to have it in the middle; his arrangement of a flap, with buttons and loops, made it easy to mistake him for a colonel of dragoons when he was in bed. He was tremendously pleased with it; but so he was with his snow-goggles, in spite of the fact that he could not see with ...
— The South Pole, Volumes 1 and 2 • Roald Amundsen
... sun erelong asserted its equatorial power, and, clearing away the clouds, allowed the celestial blue to smile on the turmoil below. The first result of that smile was that the wind retired to its secret chambers, leaving the ships of men to flap their idle sails. Then the ocean ceased to fume, though its agitated bosom still continued for some time to heave. Gradually the swell went down and soon the unruffled surface reflected a dimpling smile ...
— Blown to Bits - or, The Lonely Man of Rakata • Robert Michael Ballantyne
... possible where several boilers were connected and working, and using small and smoky coals. In an establishment in West London the system in vogue was in this manner: all the bridges were built hollow, and an iron flap covered the bottom of the bridge, and a long iron rod from the flap was carried to the front of the boiler, and an inch steam pipe with cock attached entered the fireplace above the door, and was joined to a two-inch perforated pipe that ...
— The Stoker's Catechism • W. J. Connor
... to take you away from me and them. What does it matter if we were to have to take the bed covers and make a tent for ourselves to camp along Providence Road just so we all can crawl under the flap together? I need nothing in the world but to be sure your smile is not a-going ...
— Rose of Old Harpeth • Maria Thompson Daviess
... mother had the two corner seats in the roomy tonneau, and I settled myself on the flap which lets down when the door is closed. In doing this, I was not unconscious of the fact that if the fastening of the door gave way owing to vibration or any other cause, I should indubitably go swinging out into space; also, that ...
— My Friend the Chauffeur • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson
... T-square will run along the edge of the block well enough for sketches, but it is better to carry a straight-edge to clamp on the edge of the block with thumb-screws for the square to work on. Have a canvas bag made with a flap in which to carry the block. It will keep out the dirt and dust of travel and be of ...
— The Brochure Series Of Architectural Illustration, Vol 1, No. 2. February 1895. - Byzantine-Romanesque Doorways in Southern Italy • Various
... especially in such a matter as the conquest of the air. Yet there were observers of nature who argued that since birds could raise themselves by flapping their wings, man had only to make suitable wings, flap them, and he too would fly. As early as the thirteenth century Roger Bacon, the scientific friar of unbounded inquisitiveness and not a little real genius, announced that there could be made 'some flying instrument, so that a man sitting ...
— A History of Aeronautics • E. Charles Vivian
... and forming a beautiful contrast to the pale straw-colour of the under portion of their extended pinions. With discordant screams they circle about, as if a little undetermined, and then perch upon the topmost branches of the tallest trees, where they screech, flap their wings, and engage in a series of either imaginary combats, or affectionate caresses, until, the coast being clear, they are again enabled to ...
— Australian Search Party • Charles Henry Eden
... and most of the pet baggage camels were passionately fond of bread. I always put a piece under the flap of my saddle, and so soon as Reechy came to the camp of a morning, she would come and lie down by it, and root about till she found it. Lots of the people, especially boys and children, mostly brought their lunch, as coming to see the camels was quite a holiday affair, and whenever they ...
— Australia Twice Traversed, The Romance of Exploration • Ernest Giles
... which I sustained, hence his logical spite includes me). John was melting pine gum and elk tallow into a dressing for our boots. I took a mean advantage of him, his hands being in the tallow and the tent-flap down, and tried on him a little of—now, don't deride me!—'Wood Notes.' It is seldom one can get the comment of a genuine woodsman on Nature according to ...
— The Desert and The Sown • Mary Hallock Foote
... eastern horizon like the reflection of a distant fire, while an owl hooted close by from a tree and then flew with a lurch across the meadow, evidently to the destruction of some small creature, for a squeal accompanied the swoop. A mysterious thing, this flight of the owl: the wings did not flap, there was no sound, merely the consciousness of ...
— The Garden, You, and I • Mabel Osgood Wright
... fire comes roaring on, like a host in war array! Nor lacks it gallant music to cheer it on its way, Nor flap of flame-tongued banner, like the Oriflamme of old, Its vanward cohorts heralding, ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV. • Various
... Passover, there shall ye keep it every year, and afterwards shall thou find that which thou hast set in thine heart, even the land promised unto the Saints." And when the bird had so spoken, it rose from the prow, and returned unto the others. And when the hour of evening came, they all began to flap their wings, and to sing as it were with one voice, saying, "Praise waiteth for Thee, O God, in Zion, and unto Thee shall the vow be performed in Jerusalem, through our ministry." And they repeated that verse even for the space ...
— Brendan's Fabulous Voyage • John Patrick Crichton Stuart Bute
... big square letter in her lap and ran her finger under the flap of the long, thin, beautifully addressed envelope, and drew forth several quite as perfectly written sheets. She read them slowly and deliberately, sometimes turning back a page and going over a part of it again. When she finished, ...
— A Daughter of the Land • Gene Stratton-Porter
... herself, and broke up half the black bread for her supper, reserving the other half against the morning. Then I gathered what I should want within reach, took off my wet boots and gaiters, which I wrapped in my waterproof, arranged my knapsack for a pillow under the flap of my sleeping-bag, insinuated my limbs into the interior, and buckled myself in like a bambino. I opened a tin of Bologna sausage, and broke a cake of chocolate, and that was all I had to eat. It may sound offensive, but I ate ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition - Vol. 1 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... like to have seen that scarf," said Dicksie reflectively. She rose and looked around the tent. In a few minutes she made Marion lie down on one of the cots. Then she walked to the front of the tent, opened the flap, and looked out. ...
— Whispering Smith • Frank H. Spearman
... by spanning the two columns of each pier with a narrow strip of stiff white paper bent up into a point at the centre and out into a flap at each end (Fig. 78). The flaps rest on top of the spools. The photograph shows how the entire bridge should look, and in the photograph you will find a little lady hurrying across the bridge on her way home, and following in her ...
— Little Folks' Handy Book • Lina Beard
... there the day before. Jack told afterward how he thought of her asleep upstairs, caring nothing for him, and of the way she had made sport of him and of his letters; and having advanced so far, he was not to be hindered now. By forcing the large blade of his knife under the flap of the bureau, he burst the weak lock; within was the rosewood work- box just as she had placed it in her hurry to keep it from him. There being no time to spare for getting the letters out of it then, he took it ...
— Life's Little Ironies - A set of tales with some colloquial sketches entitled A Few Crusted Characters • Thomas Hardy
... his joy at the enchanted, tacit acquiescence of the mate, Ahab did not hear his foreboding invocation; nor yet the low laugh from the hold; nor yet the presaging vibrations of the winds in the cordage; nor yet the hollow flap of the sails against the masts, as for a moment their hearts sank in. For again Starbuck's downcast eyes lighted up with the stubbornness of life; the subterranean laugh died away; the winds blew on; the ...
— Moby Dick; or The Whale • Herman Melville
... once the Duckling could flap its wings; they beat the air more strongly than before, and bore it strongly away; and before it well knew how all this had happened, it found itself in a great garden, where the elder trees smelt sweet, and bent their long green branches down to the canal that wound ...
— Types of Children's Literature • Edited by Walter Barnes |
