"Muffle" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... in her stall, with head thrown back, and eyes fixed upon the stage, in absorbed attention. There was no doubting the unconsciousness of the pose; she was as oblivious of the gaze of others as of his own presence, but he felt an irritated longing to muffle her in veils and wrappings; to lift her up and transplant her to the back seat in a box. What business had those idiots to stare at her, as if she were one of the actresses on the stage? He branded ...
— Flaming June • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
... have one of the gates opened by a trusty hand, the Captain foresaw no difficulty. He trotted along in excellent spirits, now stopping to scan with approval the dark line of his troopers, now to bid them muffle the jingle of their swords and corselets that nevertheless rang sweet music in his ears. He looked for an easy victory; but it was not any slight misadventure that would rob him of his prey. If necessary he would fight and fight hard. Still, as his company wound along the river-side or passed into ...
— In Kings' Byways • Stanley J. Weyman
... to season with fear every step that is taken, to augment the curve of the transition to the point of retarding progress, to dull that aurora, to denounce and retrench the harshness of enthusiasm, to cut all angles and nails, to wad triumph, to muffle up right, to envelop the giant-people in flannel, and to put it to bed very speedily, to impose a diet on that excess of health, to put Hercules on the treatment of a convalescent, to dilute the event with the expedient, to offer to spirits thirsting for the ideal that nectar ...
— Les Miserables - Complete in Five Volumes • Victor Hugo
... hour the watchman would be back from his rounds upon the upper floors, they proceeded to put out of action the more valuable and more complicated machines in the building. It was necessary, of course, that they should be almost silent; so their mode of procedure was to muffle up in an old blanket the most delicate and fragile parts of the machines before smashing them with a heavy hammer ...
— Two Daring Young Patriots - or, Outwitting the Huns • W. P. Shervill
... our apartment. Now, Germaine proposed that, during one of these absences, I should, in my capacity as teacher, feign some excuse to leave our room, and, if I found the lieutenant porteress unwilling to yield the keys to my passionate entreaty, we would unhesitatingly seize, gag, and muffle the damsel so securely, that, with the keys in our possession, we might open the gates, and pass without question the only sentinels who guarded the exterior corridor. Germaine was eloquent upon the merit of his scheme, ...
— Captain Canot - or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver • Brantz Mayer
... the sighs and despairing farewells of hearts forced to suppress their tears. Others reveal to us the discomfort and secret ennui of those guests at a fete, who find it in vain to expect that the gay sounds will muffle the sharp cries of anguished spirits. We sometimes catch the gasping breath of terror and stifled fears; sometimes divine the dim presentiments of a love destined to perpetual struggle and doomed to survive all hope, which, though devoured by jealousy and conscious that it can never ...
— Life of Chopin • Franz Liszt
... steadily on for half an hour, and then, that no precaution might be omitted, the crew were ordered to muffle their oars. This done, we resumed our way, but at a much quieter pace, the land rising up before us an uniform black mass against the deep violet of the star- studded sky, without the faintest suggestion of detail of any kind whereby to ...
— Under the Meteor Flag - Log of a Midshipman during the French Revolutionary War • Harry Collingwood
... the English knights, I cried, Who all their better feelings hide; Who muffle up their hearts with care, To hide the virtues nestling there, Who neither praise nor blame ...
— The Lay of Marie • Matilda Betham
... Brought forth in purple, cradled in vermilion, Baptized in molten gold, and swathed in dun, Glittering like crescents o'er a Turk's pavilion, And blending every colour into one, Just like a black eye in a recent scuffle (For sometimes we must box without the muffle). ...
— Don Juan • Lord Byron
... merriment, and repose with them at night when every bed has its three occupants, and parlor, bar-room, and kitchen are strewn with slumberers around the fire. Then let him rise before daylight, button his great-coat, muffle up his ears, and stride with the departing caravan a mile or two, to see how sturdily they make head against the blast. A treasure of characteristic traits will repay all inconveniences, even should a frozen nose be ...
— Sketches From Memory (From "Mosses From An Old Manse") • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... wasn't quite so much in one's life—to muffle! [He pulls the cork. She tosses the pillow on to the settee, a little ...
— The Gay Lord Quex - A Comedy in Four Acts • Arthur W. Pinero
... with door bolted and curtain down, he would spread out the glittering pieces on the table, and bend over them with an amorous glow in his faded eyes. These were his blond mistresses; he took a fearful joy in listening to their rustling, muffle laughter as he drew them towards him with eager hands. If at that instant a blind chanced to slam, or a footfall to echo in the lonely court, then the withered old sultan would hurry his slaves back into their iron-bound seraglio, and extinguish the light. It would have been ...
— The Stillwater Tragedy • Thomas Bailey Aldrich
... love The raining music from a morning cloud, When vanish'd larks are carolling above, To wake Apollo with their pipings loud;— If ever thou hast heard in leafy shroud The sweet and plaintive Sappho of the dell, Show thy sweet mercy on this little crowd, And we will muffle up the sheepfold bell Whene'er thou ...
— The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood • Thomas Hood
... from neck to heels in a gray cloak crossed the mottled lights, and disappeared into Carewe Street. This cloaked person wore on his head a soldier's cap, and Tom, not recognizing him surely, vaguely wondered why Tappingham Marsh chose to muffle himself so warmly on a evening. He noted the quick, alert tread as like Marsh's usual gait, but no suspicion crossed his mind that the figure might ...
— The Two Vanrevels • Booth Tarkington
... shallow loves, And likings of a ten days' growth, use courtesies, And show red eyes at parting. Who bids "Farewell!" In the same tone he cries "God speed you, sir?" Or tells of joyful victories at sea, Where he hath ventures; does not rather muffle His organs to emit a leaden sound, To suit the melancholy dull "farewell," Which they in Heaven not use?— So peevish, Margaret? But 'tis the common error of your sex When our idolatry slackens, or grows less, (As who ...
— The Works of Charles Lamb in Four Volumes, Volume 4 • Charles Lamb
... the expression of the face, for they were not in such plight as would enable them to observe one another's faces much. The icy wind bore with it a burden of sparkling sand, so that they were often forced to muffle their faces, walking ...
— The Mermaid - A Love Tale • Lily Dougall
... as though we had rubbed it with phosphorus. Nor was I the only one to lay this last peril to heart. Raffles sat silent for several minutes on his thwart; and when he did dip his sculls it was to muffle his strokes so that even I could scarcely hear them, and to keep peering behind him down ...
— Mr. Justice Raffles • E. W. Hornung
... not fall into the wound. Some surgeons of stout and comfortable habit, who are apt to perspire in the high temperature of an operating-room, will tie a band of gauze around their foreheads, to prevent any unexpected drops of perspiration from falling into the wound; while some purists muffle up the mouth and lower part of the face lightly in ...
— Preventable Diseases • Woods Hutchinson
... 'im back; I won't have nothin' to say to 'im, never!' Ad' I'll quarrel 'bout you too; an' when all ov 'em is done fussin' 'bout me comin' back, I'll steal to you in a dark night, an' lay a plan to meet on Lickin' River; an' we'll take a skiff an' muffle oars till we get to the Ohio; an' I knows jus' whar to go in any dark night, an' we 'll be free together. I didn't tell Jim I's gwine to make massa b'leve all my lies to get you; for I tell you, Liz, I ain't ...
— A Woman's Life-Work - Labors and Experiences • Laura S. Haviland
... of our business just now. It may be honest enough, and we'd get into a peck of trouble if we peeked. So let's just chuck it in some hollow stump as we go along, and muffle our trail behind us so he can't find where we put it. Later on I think I know some one who will be glad to look into ...
— The Banner Boy Scouts - Or, The Struggle for Leadership • George A. Warren
... "I intend to muffle the sweeps and row the schooner up to the head of the creek there, from which point we can command the pile of sandal-wood with our gun. Then I shall land with all the men except two, who shall take ...
— The Coral Island - A Tale Of The Pacific Ocean • R. M. Ballantyne
... hind quarters. This combined suggestion of the rabbit and the tiger was peculiarly daunting in its effect. The strange beast's head was round and cat-like, but with high, tufted ears, and a curious, back-brushed muffle of whiskers under the throat. Its eyes, wide and pale, shone with a cold ferocity and unconquerable wildness. Its legs, singularly large for the bulk of its body, and ending in broad, razor-clawed, furry pads of feet, would have seemed clumsy, but for the impression ...
— The Watchers of the Trails - A Book of Animal Life • Charles G. D. Roberts
... the loud cannoning of thunderbolts, Screeking of wolves, howling of tortur'd ghosts, Pursue thee still, and fill thy amaz'd ears With cold astonishment and horrid fears! O, how these senses muffle Common Sense! And more and more with pleasing objects strive To dull his judgment and pervert his will To their behests: who, were he not so wrapp'd I'the dusky clouds of their dark policies, Would never suffer right to suffer wrong. ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. IX • Various
... shouldn't, mustn't, won't be tempted, this gorgeous day?" Or, "I start precisely—precisely, mind—at half-past one. Come, come, come, and walk in the green lanes. You will work the better for it all the week. Come! I shall expect you." Or, "You don't feel disposed, do you, to muffle yourself up and start off with me for a good brisk walk over Hampstead Heath? I knows a good 'ous there where we can have a red-hot chop for dinner, and a glass of good wine:" which led to our first experience ...
— The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete • John Forster
... failure. If when I write, I were to think of the critics who, I know, are waiting for Currer Bell, ready 'to break all his bones or ever he comes to the bottom of the den,' my hand would fall paralysed on my desk. However, I can but do my best, and then muffle my head in the mantle of Patience, and sit down ...
— The Life of Charlotte Bronte • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
... It was the new Gospel against the old Law, and the fierceness of the struggle rent her. Just now, the doing of the kindly act seemed somehow to gratify not only her maternal instinct toward service of love, but, too, to muffle for a little the rebuking voice of her ...
— Within the Law - From the Play of Bayard Veiller • Marvin Dana
... entirely composed of large pearls and diamonds; in itself a fortune. The Seora de C—-a, as Madame de la Valliere, in black velvet and diamonds, looking pretty as usual, but the cold of the house obliged her to muffle up in furs and boas, and so to hide her dress. The Seora de G—-a, as Mary, Queen of Scots, in black velvet and pearls, with a splendid diamond necklace, was extremely handsome; she wore a cap, introduced by the Albini, in the character of the Scottish Queen, but which, though pretty in itself, ...
— Life in Mexico • Frances Calderon de la Barca
... evening merriment, and repose with them at night when every bed has its three occupants, and parlor, barroom, and kitchen are strewn with slumberers around the fire. Then let him rise before daylight, button his greatcoat, muffle up his ears, and stride with the departing caravan a mile or two, to see how sturdily they make head against the blast. A treasure of characteristic traits will repay all inconveniences, even should a frozen nose be ...
— The Great Stone Face - And Other Tales Of The White Mountains • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... though certainly the mansion appeared to enjoy a quieter phase of existence than the temple. Some of its windows too were aglow; the lower casements opened upon the lawn; curtains concealed the interior, and partly obscured the ray of the candles which lit it, but they did not entirely muffle the sound of voice and laughter. We are privileged to enter that front door, and to penetrate to the ...
— Shirley • Charlotte Bronte
... Carlyon, "except for this." He loosened the chuddah from his own head and stooped to muffle it about hers. "I have provided for your going," he said. "You will see no one. You know ...
— Rosa Mundi and Other Stories • Ethel M. Dell
... hours spent on a slow-moving train were full of shocks and surprises to a young traveler who knew almost every civilized country better than his own. The lonely look of the fields, the trees shattered by war, which had not yet had time enough to muffle their broken tops with green; the negroes, who crowded on board the train, lawless, and unequal to holding their liberty with steady hands, looked poor and less respectable than in the old plantation days—it was as if the long discipline ...
— The Life of Nancy • Sarah Orne Jewett
... returned for the boxes. He opened one and from it selected a pair of pink stockings and slipped them on Peaches; then tiny, soft buckskin moccasins embroidered and tied with ribbons to match the hose. Peaches squealed and clapped her hand over her mouth to muffle the sound; but Mrs. Harding heard and came to the door. Mickey ...
— Michael O'Halloran • Gene Stratton-Porter
... come on armoured trains To the further side of the Channel; Prayers are said in a hundred fanes For its godlike soul, and whenever it rains They muffle its throat with flannel. ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, November 4, 1914 • Various
... there it showed deep purple stains; for a flight of little snowflake clouds were fluttering in from the Atlantic, followed at leisure by deep-folded, glistering drifts, now massed on the horizon-rim to muffle the descending sun. Yet that tide, with all its smoothness, showed a broad band of foam wherever it touched the pebbles, which lay dry before its sliding, for it was on its way in. It had nearly reached the cliff's foot ...
— Stories by English Authors: Ireland • Various
... muffle, good Graccus, do not taint thy sence With sight of these infectious animalles, 'Less[233] reason in thee have the upper hand To governe sence, to see and shun the sight. Here's new discovered sins, past all the rest; Men strive to practice ...
— A Collection Of Old English Plays, Vol. IV. • Editor: A.H. Bullen
... Acu. O muffle muffle, good Graccus, do not taint thy sence With sight of these infectious animalles, 'Less[233] reason in thee have the upper hand To governe sence, to see and shun the sight. Here's new discovered sins, past all the rest; Men strive ...
— A Collection Of Old English Plays, Vol. IV. • Editor: A.H. Bullen
... indeed, cling to their national dress. But to the Barringtons, landing at Nagasaki, they seemed ugly, shapeless and dingy. Their hair was greasy and unkempt. Their faces were stupid and staring. Their figures were hidden in the muffle of their dirty garments. Geoffrey had been told they have baths at least once a day, but he was inclined to doubt it. Or else, it was because they all bathed in the same bath and their ablutions were merely ...
— Kimono • John Paris
... the moment, then sank to her knees. Slowly she crept to the threshold, placed the jewel case so that it would fall inward when the door was opened, and started back. Instinct bade her hurry, but reason made her cautious. She forced herself to walk slowly and to muffle the latch of the gate with her skirts as she had done ...
— A Spinner in the Sun • Myrtle Reed
... a sketch of him, with the inscription, "The Little Colley, Eheu! Taken in, June 14. In spite of care, died July 1. Speravimus meliora." Major Ewing, wearing a broad Scotch bonnet, dug a grave in the garden, and as we had no "dinner-bell" to muffle, we waited till the pipers broke forth at sundown with an appropriate air, and then lowered the little Scotch ...
— Juliana Horatia Ewing And Her Books • Horatia K. F. Eden
... objectionable. It expresses distrust of the working man. It is a fragment of that old mantle of patronage in which so many estimable Thugs, so darkly wandering up and down the moral world, are sworn to muffle him. Good beer is a good thing for him, he says, and he likes it; the Depot could give it him good, and he now gets it bad. Why does the Depot not give it him good? Because he would get drunk. Why does the Depot not let him have a pint with his dinner, ...
— The Uncommercial Traveller • Charles Dickens
... warmth to the world, is unrivalled. There are a hundred singing like one. They are noisy enough then, and sing, as poets should, with no afterthought. But when they come after cherries to the tree near my window, they muffle their voices, and their faint pip pip pop! sounds far away at the bottom of the garden, where they know I shall not suspect them of robbing the great black-walnut of its bitter-rinded store.(1) They are feathered ...
— My Garden Acquaintance • James Russell Lowell
... that a sweater and a pair of leggings could muffle their ears as to what had gone before, ...
— Mary Marie • Eleanor H. Porter
... sort of hamlet, two cottages, three public-houses, and a duck-pond, and that sort of thing. I only know it because Welch and I ran there once last year. It's in the Badgwick direction, about three miles by road, mostly along the level. I vote we muffle up fairly well, blazers and sweaters and so on, run to Worbury, tea at one of the cottages, and back in time for lock-up. ...
— Tales of St. Austin's • P. G. Wodehouse
... filed out of the court-yard and began their march. When the open country was reached the guide took up a position a trifle in advance of the detachment and led the way. Complete silence was maintained and the utmost care taken to muffle the tramp ...
— Monte-Cristo's Daughter • Edmund Flagg
... liked to muffle the sound of the carriage wheels upon the stones, to have made our passage a silent one past the spot where a soul was about to take flight. Francesca, I am sure, shared ...
— The Child of Pleasure • Gabriele D'Annunzio
... thing!" cried Miss Prue, snatching up the cage and rushing indoors, where she set it down with a thump on the hall-table; and, dragging off her black silk wrap, proceeded to muffle the profane creature in its shiny folds; then, turning to Sara with a ...
— Sara, a Princess • Fannie E. Newberry
... furnaces required, the "wind" and "muffle" furnaces. These are built of brick, fire-brick, of course, being used for the lining. They are connected with a chimney that will provide a good draught. Figure 6 shows a section of the wind furnace, fig. 7 a section of the muffle furnace, and fig. 8 a general ...
— A Textbook of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. • Cornelius Beringer and John Jacob Beringer
... purposes. It was somewhere in the year 1822, as well as I can recollect, that I mentioned it to Sir James (then Mr.) South; and, in consequence, the trial was made in his laboratory in Blackman Street, by precipitating and working a large quantity of borate of lead, and fusing it under a muffle in a porcelain evaporating dish. A very limpid (though slightly yellow) glass resulted, the refractive index 1.866! (which you will find set down in my table of refractive indices in my article "Light," Encyclopaedia Metropolitana). It was, however, too soft for optical ...
— Faraday As A Discoverer • John Tyndall
... on a record, closed the doors of the instrument tight to muffle the sound, and set the needle. She recognized the melody at once. It was Drdla's "Souvenir"—and the first notes seemed ...
— The Snowshoe Trail • Edison Marshall
... seen. Another boat somewhat larger in build was already in the creek, and there was a post to which craft could he made fast whilst the owners landed. Kay dexterously performed this office, and taking Cuthbert by the arm, bid him muffle his face in the collar of his cloak, and walk cautiously and with circumspection. They quickly reached the great block of buildings of which the Houses of Parliament formed the most conspicuous feature; and diving down a narrow entry, Kay paused suddenly before a low-browed door, and gave ...
— The Lost Treasure of Trevlyn - A Story of the Days of the Gunpowder Plot • Evelyn Everett-Green
... muffle round thy knees with fern, And shadow Sumner-chace! Long may thy topmost branch discern The ...
— The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson • Tennyson
... right to visit my folks in Cleveland and Ellen was feeling just fine. Well, anyway, we started home tonight—we live in Jefferson City—and just about the time I got on the thruway, Ellen started having pains. I was never so scared in my life. She screamed once and then tried to muffle them but I knew what was happening and all I could think of was to get her to a hospital. I guess I went out of my head, what with her moaning and the traffic and everything. The only place I could think ...
— Code Three • Rick Raphael
... the close, is the parable about the absent master of a house; and Peter asks, "Lord? (Sir?) speakest thou this parable unto us, or also unto all?" Who would not have hoped an ingenuous reply, "To you only," or, "To everybody"? Instead of which, so inveterate is his tendency to muffle up the simplest things in mystery, he replies, "Who then is that faithful and wise steward," &c., &c., and entirely evades reply to the very ...
— Phases of Faith - Passages from the History of My Creed • Francis William Newman |
