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Spear   Listen
noun
Spear  n.  
1.
A long, pointed weapon, used in war and hunting, by thrusting or throwing; a weapon with a long shaft and a sharp head or blade; a lance. "A sharp ground spear." "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks."
2.
Fig.: A spearman.
3.
A sharp-pointed instrument with barbs, used for stabbing fish and other animals.
4.
A shoot, as of grass; a spire.
5.
The feather of a horse. See Feather, n., 4.
6.
The rod to which the bucket, or plunger, of a pump is attached; a pump rod.
Spear foot, the off hind foot of a horse.
Spear grass. (Bot.)
(a)
The common reed. See Reed, n., 1.
(b)
meadow grass. See under Meadow.
Spear hand, the hand in which a horseman holds a spear; the right hand.
Spear side, the male line of a family.
Spear thistle (Bot.), the common thistle (Cnicus lanceolatus).






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Spear" Quotes from Famous Books



... what is probably the original of a world-wide story: A man was chopping a felled tree, when a mosquito settled on his bald head and stung him severely. Calling to his son, who was sitting near him, he said, "My boy, there is a mosquito stinging my head, like the thrust of a spear—drive it off." "Wait a bit, father," said the boy, "and I will kill him with one blow." Then he took up an axe and stood behind his father's back; and thinking to kill the mosquito with the axe, he only ...
— The Book of Noodles - Stories Of Simpletons; Or, Fools And Their Follies • W. A. Clouston

... lit upon the gold, When it was carried to the ship, and there He croaked till Siegfried, who could understand, At first stopped up his ears and would not hear, And whistled. Then the precious stones he threw To drive the bird, and when it would not fly, At last in desperation cast his spear. ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. IX - Friedrich Hebbel and Otto Ludwig • Various

... boatman other ten dinars, the man took them, saying, "I commit the affair to Allah the Almighty!" and fared on with him down stream. When they came to the flower garden, the youth sprang out of the boat, in his joy, a spring of a spear's cast from the land, and cast himself down, whilst the boatman turned and fled. Then Ibrahim fared forward and found all as it had been described by the Gobbo: he also saw the garden- gate open, and in the porch a couch of ivory, whereon sat a hump backed man of pleasant presence, ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 9 • Richard F. Burton

... not yet sunrise. A servant of the Sultan's, gray with fright, was pounding on the walls of the house with a long spear to wake me, begging me, when I opened the lattice, to come to the ...
— Anting-Anting Stories - And other Strange Tales of the Filipinos • Sargent Kayme

... defile until there were already twenty or thirty thousand on Bronco Mesa, with fifty thousand to follow. Bill Johnson had shot his way through the jam and disappeared into the Pocket, but he could do nothing now—his little valley was ruined. There would not be a spear of grass left for his cattle, and his burros had already come out with the pack animals of the sheepmen. No one knew what had happened when he reached his home, but the Mexican herders seemed to be badly scared, and Johnson had probably tried ...
— Hidden Water • Dane Coolidge

... saw that the eunuchs had been attacked and were crying aloud, they ran back 67 both of them, and perceiving that which was being done they turned to self-defence: and one of them got down his bow and arrows before he was attacked, while the other had recourse to his spear. Then they engaged in combat with one another; and that one of them who had taken up his bow and arrows found them of no use, since his enemies were close at hand and pressed hard upon him, but the other defended himself ...
— The History Of Herodotus - Volume 1(of 2) • Herodotus

... you willingly in any battle but that of the petticoats, in that of spear and axe, but not of the wine flasks. My good companions here present have not wives at home, it is otherwise with me. I have a sweet wife, to whom I owe my company, and an account of all my deeds ...
— Droll Stories, Complete - Collected From The Abbeys Of Touraine • Honore de Balzac

... Andy. He aimed a blow at a native who was still clinging to the ship and endeavoring to spear the old hunter. Andy missed his blow, just as the native let fly his spear, which pierced ...
— Through the Air to the North Pole - or The Wonderful Cruise of the Electric Monarch • Roy Rockwood

... of brass on his head, and his body was well protected with a covering of iron and brass, while he carried a monstrous spear and sword, and a heavy shield. As he came before the two camps, he cried out: "I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may ...
— Wee Ones' Bible Stories • Anonymous

... streams, knowing, perhaps, that the salmon-fry, as the young are called, will have fewer enemies away from the ocean. The salmon go over a hundred miles up to the McCloud River to spawn, and will jump or leap up small falls or rapids in their way. Indians spear many of them, but a number go back to the ocean again. Thousands and thousands of ocean salmon are caught along the northern coast and taken to the canneries. There the fish are put into cans and cooked, and when sealed up are sent all over the world. California salmon is eaten ...
— Stories of California • Ella M. Sexton

... that Don Francisco de Mogente had purposely avoided crossing the bridge, where to this day the night watchman, with lantern and spear, peeps cautiously to and fro—a startlingly mediaeval figure. It seemed also that the traveler was expected, though he had performed the last stage of his journey on foot ...
— The Velvet Glove • Henry Seton Merriman

... and warriors. The usual California natives were yellow in color, fat and inclined to be peaceable. The Yana were smaller of stature, lithe, of reddish bronze complexion, and instead of being diggers of roots, they lived by the salmon spear and the bow. Their range extended over an area south of Mount Lassen, east of the Sacramento River, for a distance of ...
— Hunting with the Bow and Arrow • Saxton Pope

... Behold, a people cometh from the north country; and a great nation shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth. They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea, and they ride upon horses; every one set in array, as a man to the battle, against thee, ...
— The Conquest of America - A Romance of Disaster and Victory • Cleveland Moffett

... shock that came to the boys crouching behind the rock was a dead thump near their heads. An uprooted tree had been hurled from some point above, like an enormous spear, and, striking the rock at a slant, slid over the rough surface like the finger of a player over the face of a tambourine and out beyond, hunting for some spot where it could penetrate. It found it on the ground, but it was instantly wrenched loose ...
— The Hunters of the Ozark • Edward S. Ellis

... the human head does the great outward distinction appear. The brain is the great instrument with which the mind works. You can gauge the strength of Ulysses by his bow, and the bulk of the giant by the staff of his spear, which was like a weaver's beam. The brain of the largest ape is about thirty two cubic inches. The brains of the wildest Australians are more than double that capacity. They measure from seventy-five inches to ninety. Europeans' brains ...
— Fables of Infidelity and Facts of Faith - Being an Examination of the Evidences of Infidelity • Robert Patterson

... explosion shook the earth outside, and the fragments of a hundred bodies blown from the sabat by our countermine filled the air. Then indeed did our men-at-arms, footmen and horsemen, sally forth to pursue with sword and spear their scattered and dismayed enemies, sending scores to their deaths and the survivors scampering to their ...
— Tales of Destiny • Edmund Mitchell

... traveller was then allowed to pass through the village by the public road; nor was any canoe allowed in the lagoon off that part of the settlement. There was great feasting, too, on these occasions, and also games, club exercise, spear-throwing, wrestling, etc. ...
— Samoa, A Hundred Years Ago And Long Before • George Turner

... stone, but which, faithful in death to the ruling law of their lives, still pointed, like the others, to the free air and the light. And then, in the deeper recesses of the cave, where the floor becomes covered with uneven sheets of stalagmite, and where long spear-like icicles and drapery-like foldings, pure as the marble of the sculptor, descend from above, or hang pendent over the sides, we found in abundance magnificent specimens for Sir George. The entire expedition was one of wondrous interest; and ...
— My Schools and Schoolmasters - or The Story of my Education. • Hugh Miller

... is the doctrine of every red man on the American prairies, of every African chief who ornaments his hut with human skulls. It was the doctrine of our heathen forefathers, when they came hither slaying, plundering, burning, tossing babes on their spear-points. But I am sorry that it should be the doctrine of any one calling himself a gentleman, ...
— David • Charles Kingsley

... 'For thou hast striven with God and with men,' than in the Authorised rendering. His victory with God involved the certainty of his power with men. All his life he had been trying to get the advantage of them, and to conquer them, not by spear and sword, but by his brains. But now the true way to true sway among men is opened to him. All men are the servants of the servant and the friend of God. He who has the ear of the emperor ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers • Alexander Maclaren

... He looked back, and was hardly conscious of the manger where the horned oxen fed, the lowly birth, the obscure years, in the sublime conception that He had come forth from God. He looked forward, and was hardly conscious of the cross, the nail, the thorn-crown, and the spear, because of the sublime consciousness that He was stepping back, to go to Him with whom He realized His identity. He looked on through the coming weeks, and knew that the Father had given all things into His ...
— Love to the Uttermost - Expositions of John XIII.-XXI. • F. B. Meyer

... Wordsworth in at least four different places (one being in the fourth book of 'The Excursion,' three others in Sonnets) describes most impressive appearances amongst the clouds: a monster, for instance, with a bell-hanging air, a dragon agape to swallow a golden spear, and various others of affecting beauty. Would it have been any just rebuke to Wordsworth if some friend had written to him: 'I regret most sincerely to say that the dragon and the golden spear had all vanished before nine ...
— The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1 (2 vols) • Thomas De Quincey

... forehead gave proof of brains, and yet the San Reve was one more apt to act than think, particularly if she felt herself aggrieved. If you must pry into a matter so delicate, the San Reve was twenty-eight; standing straight as a spear, with small hands and feet, she displayed that ripeness of outline ...
— The President - A novel • Alfred Henry Lewis

... perhaps for the same purpose—to prevent unchristian envy, hatred, and malice. Almost any trooper in an Anglo-Indian cavalry regiment would have done better; but then he would have couched his bamboo spear properly and would have put out his horse to speed—an idea which seemed to elude the Madeiran mind. The fete ended with a surprise less expensive than that with which the Parisian restaurant astonishes the ...
— To the Gold Coast for Gold - A Personal Narrative in Two Volumes.—Vol. I • Richard F. Burton

... sword would be a turtle dove, my helmet a wine bowl, my plume a woven chaplet, my spear a dice box, my corselet a downy robe; where I'd be given a couch for a horse, with a bad, bad girl beside me for a ...
— Amphitryo, Asinaria, Aulularia, Bacchides, Captivi • Plautus Titus Maccius

... do they abound in iron, as from the fashion of their weapons may be gathered. Swords they rarely use, or the larger spear. They carry javelins or, in their own language, framms, pointed with a piece of iron short and narrow, but so sharp and manageable, that with the same weapon they can fight at a distance or hand to hand, just as need ...
— Tacitus on Germany • Tacitus

... me the prize for this contest that is finished: for under a veil I have declared to thee certain things thou hast ill understood. For under the name I gave before of 'spear-point' I signified Odd, whom my hand ...
— The Danish History, Books I-IX • Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Learned")

... was hurled in his direction and he dashed it aside with a blow of his massive paw. Then came a spear, the point barely penetrating the skin of his flank. Warruk turned with a snarl and crunched the shaft between his teeth. Blazing clubs and spears were now falling in a shower; with a terrible roar he charged through ...
— The Black Phantom • Leo Edward Miller

... feeling of the tusk, Cried: "Ho! what have we here. So very round, and smooth, and sharp? To me 'tis very clear, This wonder of an elephant Is very like a spear!" ...
— The New McGuffey Fourth Reader • William H. McGuffey

... shall do (as thou biddest)"—they two went away with the intention of slaying Yavakri. And with her charms, the female whom the large-hearted sage had created, robbed Yavakri of his sacred water-pot. Then with his uplifted spear the demon flew at Yavakri, when he had been deprived of his water-pot and rendered unclean. And seeing the demon approach with uplifted spear for the purpose of slaying him, Yavakri rose up all on a sudden and fled towards a ...
— Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa Bk. 3 Pt. 1 • Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa

... that any one who desired to win her must run a race with her. If he could beat her in running, then she promised to marry him, but if he lost the race, he was to be killed. Some say that the man was allowed to run first, and that the girl followed with a spear in her hand and killed him when she overtook him. There are different accounts of the contest. Many suitors lost the race and were killed. But finally young man called Hippomenes obtained from the ...
— Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn • Lafcadio Hearn

... spoke of that silver woman—how beautiful and noble an appearance she made, in the spear she ort ...
— Samantha at the World's Fair • Marietta Holley

... prophets proclaiming the Incarnation of the Only-begotten. Then he spake of the Son, his dwelling among men, his deeds of kindness, his miracles, his sufferings for us thankless creatures, his Cross, his spear, his voluntary death; finally, of our recovery and recall, our return to our first good estate; after this, of the kingdom of heaven awaiting such as are worthy thereof; of the torment in store for the wicked; the fire that is not quenched, the never ...
— Barlaam and Ioasaph • St. John of Damascus

... himself. Through roundabout channels, he let his chief editorial writer understand that, when the final onset was timed, The Patriot's editorial page would be expected to lead the charge with the "spear that knows no brother." Banneker would appreciate that his own interests, almost as much as his chief's, were committed to ...
— Success - A Novel • Samuel Hopkins Adams

... pregnant hinges of the knee"; it had become an instinct with him—an instinct that went back far behind the twenty years of his conscious life, that went back twenty thousand years, perhaps ten times twenty thousand years, to a time when Peter had chipped flint spear-heads at the mouth of some cave, and broiled marrow-bones for some "Old Man" of the borde, and seen rebellious young fellows cast out to fall ...
— 100%: The Story of a Patriot • Upton Sinclair

... imagination could not easily outrun: that was he who, when the earth's mighty ones were banded together to crush him under their armed heels, spoke but one little word; and it fell among them like the spear of Cadmus; the strong ones turned their hands against each other, and the armies melted away; and the proudest monarch of the earth lay at that monk's threshold three winter nights in the scanty clothing of penance, ...
— Froude's Essays in Literature and History - With Introduction by Hilaire Belloc • James Froude

... need your help, we'll be sure to let you know—but at present,' she says, 'we couldn't think of troubling you.' And then, by granny! she turns right around and smiles up at me—he-he! Made me feel like somebody'd tickled m' ear with a spear of hay when I was asleep, by granny! Never felt anything like it—not jest with somebody smilin' ...
— Lonesome Land • B. M. Bower

... of the crew. "Norton, the sailor who went out with Mr. Newton, is trying to kill the monster with his spear!" ...
— Tom Swift and his Undersea Search - or, The Treasure on the Floor of the Atlantic • Victor Appleton

... reconcilement. There is the seeing eye, the mildly understanding heart. So true everywhere; true eyesight and vision for all things; material things no less than spiritual; the Horse,—'hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?'—he 'laughs at the shaking of the spear!' Such living likenesses were never since drawn. Sublime sorrow, sublime reconciliation: oldest choral melody as of the heart of mankind;—so soft, and great; as the summer midnight, as the world with its seas and stars! There is nothing written, I think, in the Bible or out of it, ...
— Sartor Resartus, and On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History • Thomas Carlyle

... knowledge of the people and their secret customs. Then he put on long hair and a venerable beard, stained his limbs with henna, and called himself Abdullah of Bushire, a half-Arab. In this disguise, with spear in hand and pistols in holsters, he travelled the country with a little pack of nick-knacks. In order to display his stock he boldly entered private houses, for he found that if the master wanted to eject him, the mistress would be sure to oppose ...
— The Life of Sir Richard Burton • Thomas Wright

... Grecian spear, the Roman sword, or the modern bayonet, might be acquired with comparative ease. But nothing short of the daily exercise of years could train the man-at-arms to support his ponderous panoply, ...
— Critical and Historical Essays Volume 2 • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... trailed it to the crazy structure, and placed it in the oldest and most ramshackle of the two weather-worn vessels. After untying the rope that fastened the boat to its wharf, Lagardere caught up a boat-hook that lay hard by, and, raising it as if it were a spear, he drove it with all his strength against the bottom of the boat and knocked a ragged hole in its rotting timbers. Then, with a vigorous push, he sent the boat out upon the smooth, ...
— The Duke's Motto - A Melodrama • Justin Huntly McCarthy

... Nun, they keep Their vigil on the green; One seems to guard, and one to weep, The dead that lie between; And both roll out, so full and near, Their music's mingling waves, They shake the grass, whose pennoned spear Leans on the ...
— The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Complete • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... me On the prow with the Vikings; But War-thief whenas I set widows a-weeping; Spear-thief when I Sent forth the barbed shafts; Battle-thief when I Burst forth on the king; Hel-thief when I Tossed up the small babies: Isle-thief when I In the outer isles harried; Slaws-thief when I Sat aloft over men: Yet since have I drifted ...
— The Story Of Frithiof The Bold - 1875 • Anonymous

... boy was fourteen he was ready to become an esquire. He was then taught to get on and off a horse with his heavy armor on, to wield the battle axe, and practise tilting with a spear. His service to the ladies had now reached the point where he picked out a lady to serve loyally. His endeavor was to please her in all things, in order that he might be known as her knight, and wear her glove or scarf as a ...
— The Junior Classics, V4 • Willam Patten (Editor)

... democrat named Widdison had made several pikes and sold twelve to Gales, a well-known Jacobinical printer. Further, that a witness, William Green, swore that a man named Jackson had employed him and others to make spear-heads; they made twelve dozen or more in two days, and the heads were sent to the lodgings of Hill and Jackson. Wilkinson wrote for instructions how to deal with these men; also for a warrant to arrest Gales. On 20th May Dundas sent down warrants for the arrest of Gales, W. ...
— William Pitt and the Great War • John Holland Rose

... aedile's wife, with complacent importance, for she knew all the names and qualities of each combatant; 'he is a retiarius or netter; he is armed only, you see, with a three-pronged spear like a trident, and a net; he wears no armor, only the fillet and the tunic. He is a mighty man, and is to fight with Sporus, yon thick-set gladiator, with the round shield and drawn sword, but without body armor; he has not his helmet on now, in order that you may see his face—how fearless ...
— The Last Days of Pompeii • Edward George Bulwer-Lytton

... colonies. Here they were made to dig the soil and to plant cereals and sweet potatoes in order that the armies might be fed; and should any one of these women on the march fall by the wayside, her body was transfixed by the spear of one of the escort as an example to the rest. Thus the roadway was littered with the corpses of these ...
— South America • W. H. Koebel

... the net, coiling its folds into one hand, taking the good spear in his other. A bush stirred ahead, against the pull of the light breeze. Rynch froze, then the haft of his spear slid into a new hand grip, the coils of his net spun out. A snarl cut over the ...
— Star Hunter • Andre Alice Norton

... boy in the village told me that bumble-bees have 'got no spears.' And I believed him and tried to help one out of the window once. And I very soon found that he had got a spear." ...
— The Spinners • Eden Phillpotts

... purpose. There he consulted several books of ancient chivalry, of which he was exceedingly fond, and found that, on every occasion on which this oath had been used, Chanticleer had always crowed a second time. "Perdition seize the naughty fowl," he muttered, "I have seen the day when, with my stout spear, I would have run him through the gorge, and made him crow for me an 'twere in death!" He then retired to a comfortable lead coffin, and ...
— Humorous Ghost Stories • Dorothy Scarborough

... Gordon still carried neatly spiked between two ribs proved serious. But Bill Blunt thought not, and Houten produced his medical and surgical kit from the launch in order that Bill's assertion might be tested. The seamen soothed each other's burns, and those of them who had received arrow or spear wounds waited in fear for the result of ...
— Gold Out of Celebes • Aylward Edward Dingle

... rapid progress. Ewell's column—the sharp head of the Southern spear—reached Winchester on the 13th of June, and Rodes, who had been detached at Front Royal to drive the enemy from Berryville, reached the last-named village on the same day when the force there retreated to Winchester. On the next morning Early's ...
— A Life of Gen. Robert E. Lee • John Esten Cooke

... been kept intact for him, when the letting of it to a rich Englishman would greatly have helped the failing fortunes of the family; it was not enough that the poor people about, knowing Lady Macleod's wishes, had no thought of keeping a salmon spear hidden in the thatch of their cottages. Salmon and stag could no longer bind him to the place. The young blood stirred. And when he asked her what good things came of being a stay-at-home, what could ...
— Macleod of Dare • William Black

... fish to them. Sometimes in fine weather the canoes are out in such numbers that the whole sea appears illuminated. In the canoes they fish with hook and line and on the reefs they struck the fish with a spear. Some likewise carry out small nets which are managed by two men. In the daytime their fishing canoes go without the reefs, sometimes to a considerable distance, where they fish with rods and lines and catch bonetas and other fish. Whenever there ...
— A Voyage to the South Sea • William Bligh

... fortified his battalions with a large number of spearmen, after the German fashion. The arrangement is highly commended by the sagacious Machiavelli, who considers it as combining the advantages of both systems, since, while the long spear served all the purposes of resistance, or even of attack on level ground, the short swords and targets enabled their wearers, as already noticed, to cut in under the dense array of hostile pikes, and bring the enemy to close quarters, ...
— The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella The Catholic, V3 • William H. Prescott

... and running after it to catch it up and aim it with a good throw at a tree some yards away. He went through this performance four or five times over before aiming for a dense clump of the abundant bracken, into the midst of which he darted his mock spear, dashed in after it, and did not appear again, for the hazel-rod was left where it fell, and the boy was crawling rapidly on hands and knees beneath the great bracken fronds, keeping well out of sight till, judging by the towering beeches ...
— The New Forest Spy • George Manville Fenn

... lower hoist side corner; the upper half is white bearing the brown silhouette of a large shield with crossed spear and club; the lower half is a diagonal blue band with a green triangle ...
— The 1996 CIA Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... killed and wounded who fell outside the inclosure. As soon as the fighting was over Chebron ran down to the boat to allay the fears of the girls and assure them that none of their party had received a serious wound, Jethro alone having been hurt by a spear thrust, which, however, glanced off his ribs, inflicting only a flesh wound, which he treated ...
— The Cat of Bubastes - A Tale of Ancient Egypt • G. A. Henty

... rose and fell with the dashing waves, we listened with heaving bosoms. 'Twas of a boy, who once played with his comrades on that self-same Island of Raughlin. How in the pleasant summer time he had learned from his noble brothers to draw the bow, and, child as he was, to brandish the spear. How maidens were there, some of whom he called his sisters; and how they sang the wild legends of the coast and told him tales of lovers and fairies and heroes. And how, now and again a white boat came over from the mainland, and on it a noble warrior, gigantic in form, with his yellow ...
— Sir Ludar - A Story of the Days of the Great Queen Bess • Talbot Baines Reed

... night, and towards the end of the following day he actually found and roused the dreadful animal, and although weakened by his long fast and fatigue, his fury gave him force to fight and conquer it, or else the powers above came to his aid; for when he stood spear in hand to wait the charge of the furious beast he vowed that if he overcame it on that spot he would build a chapel, where God would be worshipped for ever. And there it was raised and has stood to this day, its doors open ...
— Afoot in England • W.H. Hudson

... irregularly serrated, wrinkled; dark green above, paler underneath. Lower leaves egg-shaped; upper leaves spear-shaped. Leaf-stalks fleshy; bordered. ...
— An Account of the Foxglove and some of its Medical Uses - With Practical Remarks on Dropsy and Other Diseases • William Withering

... that is a spear without iron, was anciently the reward of a soldier the first time that he conquered in battle, Serv. ad Virg. Aen. vi. 760; it was afterward given to one who had struck down an enemy in a sally or skirmish, Lips. ad Polyb. ...
— Conspiracy of Catiline and The Jurgurthine War • Sallust

... they rattled through the street of a sleepy village that seemed to have no reason for being except its picturesqueness; now they were creeping up a tortuous steep gloomed by menacing crags; and now their way lingered for miles along a precipice, over the edge of which they could see the spear-like tips of the tall pines ...
— The Queen of Sheba & My Cousin the Colonel • Thomas Bailey Aldrich

... Estsanatlehi. When they reached the house of the Sun they called him father, as they had been instructed to do, but the Sun disowned them and subjected them to many ordeals, and even thrust at them with a spear, but the mother had given each of the youths a magic feather mantle impervious to any weapon. Klehanoai (the night bearer—the moon) also scoffed at them and filled the mind of the Sun with doubts concerning the paternity ...
— Navaho Houses, pages 469-518 • Cosmos Mindeleff

... when Charlie touches him with his spear, or sees him light on the top of Niphates—one of which things will happen soon enough— he'll not be slow to discover who he is. If not, I'll tell Walter, and he shall be ...
— St. Winifred's - The World of School • Frederic W. Farrar

... all dressed in armor, that shone in the sun: he had a helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders; his spear was so tremendous that the staff of it was like a weaver's beam, and his shield so great that a man went ...
— Stories to Tell to Children • Sara Cone Bryant

... the terror of the field. From Gath he sprung, Goliath was his name, Of fierce deportment, and gigantic frame: A brazen helmet on his head was plac'd, A coat of mail his form terrific grac'd, The greaves his legs, the targe his shoulders prest: Dreadful in arms high-tow'ring o'er the rest A spear he proudly wav'd, whose iron head, Strange to relate, six hundred shekels weigh'd; He strode along, and shook the ample field, While Phoebus blaz'd refulgent on his shield: Through Jacob's race a chilling horror ran, When thus the huge, enormous chief began: "Say, what the cause ...
— Religious and Moral Poems • Phillis Wheatley

... confined to the cave he kept thinking about the rabbit he had seen and how he might catch one. Finally, he determined to make a spear. He broke down a thin, young sapling, stripped off its branches and in one end fastened a sharp stone. He then went to bed, for he wanted to be up early for his first hunting trip on ...
— An American Robinson Crusoe - for American Boys and Girls • Samuel. B. Allison

... the Senior Shade. And now, as scorning to upbraid, With curving, parabolick smile, Contemptuous, eying him the while, His Rival thus: 'Twere vain, my Lord, To wound a gnat by spear or sword[3]; If therefore I, of greater might, Would meet this thing in equal fight, 'Twere fit that I in size should be As mean, diminutive, as he; Of course, disdaining to reply, I pass the wretch unheeded by. But since your Lordship deigns to know What I ...
— The Sylphs of the Season with Other Poems • Washington Allston

... until they approached where the Peohtes dwelt. And he took one of his knights, and sent to the Peohtes, and said to them that he came, if they would him receive. The Peohtes were blithe for their murder (that they had committed), and they took their good gear—there was neither shield nor spear Vortiger weaponed all his knights forth right, and the Peohtes there came, and brought the head of the king. When Vortiger saw this head, then fell he full nigh to the ground, as if he had grief most of all men, with his countenance ...
— Brut • Layamon

... whose face was almost entirely destroyed, his nose, including the bone, was perfectly flat, and one cheek and one eye were so beaten in that the hollow would almost receive a man's fist, yet no ulcer remained; and our companion, Tupia, had been pierced quite through his body by a spear headed with the bone of the sting-ray, the weapon having entered his back, and come out just under his breast; but, except in reducing dislocations and fractures, the best surgeon can contribute very little to the cure of a wound; the blood ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 13 • Robert Kerr

... hymns. Thus, if we slay Kinsfolk and friends for love of earthly power, Ahovat! what an evil fault it were! Better I deem it, if my kinsmen strike, To face them weaponless, and bare my breast To shaft and spear, than answer blow ...
— The Bhagavad-Gita • Sir Edwin Arnold

... A spear flying through the air and missing its mark is a volnus raptum per auras (iii. 196). More startling than these is the picture of a charge of trousered ...
— Post-Augustan Poetry - From Seneca to Juvenal • H.E. Butler

... where all trees were dead and still standing—a melancholy sight. Beyond, and far round and down to the left, opened up a slope of spruce and bare ridge, where a few cedars showed dark, and then came black, spear-tipped forest again, leading the eye to the magnificent panorama of endless range on ...
— The Mysterious Rider • Zane Grey

... plain what appeared to me to be nothing but a halfgrown black pig, or shoat. He was not in much of a hurry either, and gave no evidence of ferocity, yet it is said that this insignificant looking animal is dangerous when hunted with the spear —the customary way. After an early dinner at the chateau we returned to Florence, and my venison next day arriving, it was distributed among my American ...
— The Memoirs of General P. H. Sheridan, Complete • General Philip Henry Sheridan

... or sample of it is brought in its place; land, for instance, is represented by a clod, a house by a single brick. In the example selected by Gaius, the suit is for a slave. The proceeding begins by the plaintiff's advancing with a rod, which, as Gaius expressly tells, symbolised a spear. He lays hold of the slave and asserts a right to him with the words, "Hunc ego hominem ex Jure Quiritium meum esse dico secundum suam causam sicut dixi;" and then saying, "Ecce tibi Vindictam imposui," he touches him ...
— Ancient Law - Its Connection to the History of Early Society • Sir Henry James Sumner Maine

... every other file operation you might want to do). It is said that when the program was originated, during the development of the PDP-6 in 1963, it was called ATLATL ('Anything, Lord, to Anything, Lord'; this played on the Nahuatl word 'atlatl' for a spear-thrower, with connotations of utility and primitivity that were ...
— THE JARGON FILE, VERSION 2.9.10

... never weary of watching them at feast or in the combat. Sometimes, indeed, when some battle on earth was impending, he would appear, riding upon his eight-footed grey horse, and with white shield on arm would fling his glittering spear into the ranks of the warriors as signal for the fight to begin, and would rush into the fray with his war-cry, ...
— Told by the Northmen: - Stories from the Eddas and Sagas • E. M. [Ethel Mary] Wilmot-Buxton

... how pale his lady look'd, Frae off the castle wa', When down before the Scottish spear She saw brave Percy fa'! How pale and wan his lady look'd, Frae off the castle hieght, When she beheld her Percy yield To ...
— Sir Walter Scott and the Border Minstrelsy • Andrew Lang

... lamentation, stays her and forces her to hear her husband's pleading. Other shepherds appear on the scene, and the act ends with an eclogue. In the next we find her reconciled to Cefalo, to whom she gives the wind-swift dog and the unerring spear which she had received as a nymph of Diana. Cefalo at once sets the hound upon the traces of a boar, and goes off in pursuit, while his wife returns home. He shortly reappears, having lost boar and hound alike, and, tired with the chase, falls asleep. Meanwhile ...
— Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Drama - A Literary Inquiry, with Special Reference to the Pre-Restoration - Stage in England • Walter W. Greg

... assuming, struggled upright upon a cane. The cane, so to speak, with which primitive man wooed his bride, defended his life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, and brought down his food, was (like all canes which are in good taste) admirably chosen for the occasion. The spear, the stave, the pilgrim's staff, the sword, the sceptre—always has the cane-carrying animal borne something in his hand. And, down the long vista of the past, the cane, in its various manifestations, has ever been the mark of strength, ...
— Walking-Stick Papers • Robert Cortes Holliday

... heard this, his skin bristled with rage and he cried out at them with a cry which made them tremble. Then he sprang upon his horse and settling himself in the saddle, galloped till he came to the King's assembly, when he shouted at the top of his voice, saying, "To horse, O horsemen!" and couched his spear at the pavilion wherein was Zuhayr. Now there were about the King a thousand smiters with the sword; but Al-Abbas charged home upon them and dispersed them from around him; and there abode none in the tent save ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton

... differs from the existing arrangement only in the following cases, to wit: Lieutenant Erkuries Beatty, promoted to a vacant captaincy in the infantry; Ensign Edward Spear, promoted to a vacant lieutenancy of artillery; Jacob Melcher, who has been serving as a volunteer, to be an ensign, vice Benjamin Lawrence, who was appointed nearly three years past and has never been mustered or ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Section 1 (of 4) of Volume 1: George Washington • James D. Richardson

... the town the dancing began, and while Gawigawen was dancing with Aponibolinayen he seized her and put her in his belt. [29] Kadayadawan, who saw this, was so angry that he threw his spear and killed Gawigawen. Then Aponibolinayen escaped and ran into the house, and her husband brought his victim back to life, and asked him why he had seized the wife of his host. Gawigawen explained that she was his wife who ...
— Philippine Folk Tales • Mabel Cook Cole

... defence or excuse: a thing to cover up with blushes: a being so much sunk beneath the zones of sympathy that pity might seem harmless. And the judge had pursued him with a monstrous, relishing gaiety, horrible to be conceived, a trait for nightmares. It is one thing to spear a tiger, another to crush a toad; there are aesthetics even of the slaughter-house; and the loathsomeness of Duncan Jopp enveloped and infected the image of ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. XIX (of 25) - The Ebb-Tide; Weir of Hermiston • Robert Louis Stevenson

... stockings, and untanned shoes; over his shoulders he has a cloak of brown frieze, with the hood drawn over his steel cap, so that his face is partly hidden. He is very tall, and massively built, with a long white beard, but somewhat bowed by age; his weapons are a round shield, sword, and spear. ...
— The Vikings of Helgeland - The Prose Dramas Of Henrik Ibsen, Vol. III. • Henrik Ibsen

... European monarchs. The peasant was bound to serve under the banner of a military chieftain only for a short time: then he returned to his farm. His great military weapon was the bow,—the weapon of semi-barbarians. The spear, the sword, the battle-axe were the weapons of the baronial family,—the weapons of knights, who fought on horseback, cased in defensive armor. The peasant fought on foot; and as the tactics of ancient warfare were inapplicable, and those of modern warfare unknown, the strength of armies was in ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume V • John Lord

... yawning, "but perhaps, Zikali, you will come to the point of the spear. What of her? How is she named, and if she exists ...
— She and Allan • H. Rider Haggard

... their conjectures. He only laughed at their curious inquiries, and remained on as good terms as ever. His boys, too, as they grew up became great favourites with all. They were the best shots of their age, could ride a horse with any, could swim the Mississippi, paddle a canoe, fling a lasso, or spear a catfish, as though they had been full-grown men. They were, in fact, boy-men; and as such were regarded by the simple villagers, who instinctively felt the superiority which education and training had given to these youths over their ...
— The Boy Hunters • Captain Mayne Reid

... scorn to waste any powder on so small a game as the buffalo. On ahead are animals each one of which is as big as twenty buffalo—we keep our great gun for those. As for buffalo, we kill them as the Indians do, with the bow and with the spear. We shall want the stiffest bows, with sinewed backs. Our ...
— The Magnificent Adventure - Being the Story of the World's Greatest Exploration and - the Romance of a Very Gallant Gentleman • Emerson Hough

... temper of his sword, the tried Escalabour, The bigness and the length of Rone, his noble spear, With ...
— Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol 1 - A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook • The Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D.

... the flying donkey-boys, hacking and hewing with a cold-blooded, deliberate ferocity. One little boy, in a flapping Galabeeah, kept ahead of his pursuers for a time, but the long stride of the camels ran him down, and an Arab thrust his spear into the middle of his stooping back. The small, white-clad corpses looked like a flock of sheep trailing over ...
— A Desert Drama - Being The Tragedy Of The "Korosko" • A. Conan Doyle

... partnership in London with a bookseller named Henry Watson (E. G. Duff, Early Printed Books). Ames, in his Typographical Antiquities, mentions a broadside 'containing a wooden cut of a man on horseback with a spear in his right hand, and a shield of the arms of France in his left. "Emprynted at Beverley in the Hyegate by me Hewe Goes," with his mark, or rebus, of a great H and a goose.' But ...
— A Short History of English Printing, 1476-1898 • Henry R. Plomer

... that no community ever played cricket as did the Britannulans. The English went in first, with the two baronets at the wickets. They looked like two stout Minervas with huge wicker helmets. I know a picture of the goddess, all helmet, spear, and petticoats, carrying her spear over her shoulder as she flies through the air over the cities of the earth. Sir Kennington did not fly, but in other respects he was very like the goddess, so completely enveloped was he in his india-rubber guards, and so wonderful ...
— The Fixed Period • Anthony Trollope

... bewail thee for thy lost fate, Prometheus. A flood of trickling tears from my yielding eyes has bedewed my cheek with its humid gushings; for Jupiter commanding this thine unenviable doom by laws of his own, displays his spear appearing superior o'er the gods of old.[28] And now the whole land echoes with wailing—they wail thy stately and time-graced honors, and those of thy brethren; and all they of mortal race that occupy a dwelling neighboring on hallowed Asia[29] ...
— Prometheus Bound and Seven Against Thebes • Aeschylus

... of power, toil, and liability, milder realities have now been substituted; and Ministerial responsibility comes between the Monarch and every public trial and necessity, like armor between the flesh and the spear that would seek to pierce it; only this is an armor itself also fleshy, at once living and impregnable. It may be said, by an adverse critic, that the Constitutional Monarch is only a depository of power, ...
— Prose Masterpieces from Modern Essayists • James Anthony Froude, Edward A. Freeman, William Ewart Gladstone, John Henry Newman and Leslie Steph

... ever happened, since the harp of Orpheus drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek, that ruth has taken so grim a form as that of Edom o' Gordon, as he turned over with his spear the body of ...
— The Balladists - Famous Scots Series • John Geddie

... was as real to me two thousand years after interment as those I had seen in the body. The abstract personality of the dead seemed as existent as thought. As my thought could slip back the twenty centuries in a moment to the forest-days when he hurled the spear, or shot with the bow, hunting the deer, and could return again as swiftly to this moment, so his spirit could endure from then till now, and ...
— The Story of My Heart • Richard Jefferies

... whole has grown very rapidly. In a map of the beginning of the nineteenth century there are comparatively few houses; these nestle in the shape of a spear-head and haft about the High Street. At West End and Fortune Green are a few more, a few straggle up the southern end of the Kilburn Road, and Rosslyn House and Belsize House are detached, ...
— Hampstead and Marylebone - The Fascination of London • Geraldine Edith Mitton

... was pretty large, and was made of wood. It was set up by the road side, like a sign post in America. From the middle of the post out to the left hand end of the arm of the cross, there was a spear fixed. This spear, of course, represented the weapon of the Roman soldier, by which the body of Jesus was pierced in the side. From the same part of the post out to the end of the opposite arm of the cross was a pole with two sponges at the end of it, which represented the sponges with ...
— Rollo in Naples • Jacob Abbott

... by TURA's wall, by the tree of the rustling sound. His spear leaned against a rock. His shield lay on grass, by his side. And as he thus sat deep in thought a scout came running in all haste and cried, 'Arise! Cathullin, arise! I see the ships of the north. Many, chief of men, are the foe! Many the heroes ...
— English Literature For Boys And Girls • H.E. Marshall

... were present, and the foreign ambassadors, and one of the most distinguished spectators was "my lord of Richmond." The coursers were running at each other with either spear or sword, and at the close of the jousts, the Princess of the Feast, with all her ladies and gentlewomen, withdrew to the King's great chamber at Westminster to decide upon the prizes. First, however, the high and mighty ...
— Harper's Young People, February 10, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... with these, and remember that they must aim at the legs of the Romans. It is useless to shoot at either shields or armour. Besides, let each man make himself a spear, strong, heavy, and fully eighteen feet long, with the point hardened in the fire, and rely upon these rather than upon your swords to check their progress. Whenever you find broad paths of firm ground across the swamps, cut down trees and bushes ...
— Beric the Briton - A Story of the Roman Invasion • G. A. Henty

... brow and the sack- cloth of the slave is exchanged for imperial purple, he'll think no more of the lonely little woman by Nilus bank, who prays that Isis will magnify his power, that Osiris will shield him when the Hebrew sword rings on the Hivite spear. He will take to wife some fair cousin of Esau's house, a maid more beauteous far than those who drink the sweet waters of the south. Old Abram's daughters are fair and have dove's eyes; their lips are as threads of scarlet and their breasts like young roes that feed among the ...
— Volume 1 of Brann The Iconoclast • William Cowper Brann

... pow'r impart the spear and shield, At which the wizard passions fly, By which the giant ...
— The Mysteries of Udolpho • Ann Radcliffe

... bee-eater. Fish are abundant in the rivers and marshes, principally barbel and carp, which latter grow to a great size in the Euphrates. Barbel form an important element in the food of the Arabs inhabiting the Affej marshes, who take them commonly by means of a fish-spear. In the Shat-el-Arab, which is wholly within the influence of the tides, there is a species of goby, which is amphibious. This fish lies in myriads on the mud-banks left uncovered by the ebb of the tide, and moves with great agility ...
— The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 1. (of 7): Chaldaea • George Rawlinson

... we held in our hands, and rushed to the door. I seized a rope as I ran, while Cudjo took his long spear, thinking it might be of use to us. This was the work of a moment, and the next we ...
— New National Fourth Reader • Charles J. Barnes and J. Marshall Hawkes

... the Doge at Venice, And bid him pack me straightway to the wars, And there I will, being now sick of life, Throw that poor life against some desperate spear. [A groan from the DUKE'S chamber again.] Did ...
— The Duchess of Padua • Oscar Wilde

... saw that the flagstones of the fireplace in the turret had been lifted," hoarsely whispered the overjoyed Dennis. "With this old boar spear I pried up the slabs. It's all down in there. A valise full of notes! Here! Help me drag this couch over the stones, and move the furniture. The German police must not see this. To-night you and I will gather ...
— The Midnight Passenger • Richard Henry Savage

... were prominently disposed round about the figure: a bundle of nails; the hammer to drive them; the sponge; the reed that supported it; the cup of vinegar; the ladder for the ascent of the cross; the spear that pierced the Saviour's side. The crown of thorns was made of real thorns, and was nailed to the sacred head. In some Italian church-paintings, even by the old masters, the Saviour and the Virgin wear silver or gilded crowns that are fastened ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... to cease unto the end of the earth; He breaketh the bow and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the chariot in ...
— A Day Of Fate • E. P. Roe

... The doctor was talking about a surgical case he had been to see at the hospital. Something about a soldier as had been walking about for three years with a bit of broken spear stuck in him out in ...
— In the Mahdi's Grasp • George Manville Fenn

... Well-cords in slenderness, pressed to the breast Of my war-horse still as I pressed on them. Doggedly strove we and rode we. Ha! the brave stallion! Now is his breast dyed With blood drops, his star-front with fear of them! Swerved he, as pierced by the spear points. Then in his beautiful eyes stood the tears Of appealing, words inarticulate. If he had our man's language, Then had he called to me. If he had known our tongue's secret, Then had ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Vol. I. Jan. 1916 • Various

... gallantly repelled.—II. The army is distressed by want of corn and forage; Julian is alarmed by prodigies.—III. The emperor, while, in order to repulse the Persians, who pressed him on all quarters, he rashly rushes into battle without his breastplate, is wounded by a spear, and is borne back to his tent, where he addresses those around him, and, after drinking some cold water, dies.—IV. His virtues and vices; his personal appearance.—V. Jovian, the captain[151] of the imperial guards, is tumultuously elected emperor.—VI. ...
— The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus • Ammianus Marcellinus

... he knows the dreadful spear to wield— Alas! their fearful limbs are fenc'd with care: And, what can valour, when th'extended shield[3] May leave, so ...
— Elegies and Other Small Poems • Matilda Betham

... his body was not changed until he himself ascended, - or, in other words, rose even higher in the understanding of Spirit, God. To convince 46:18 Thomas of this, Jesus caused him to examine the nail- prints and the spear-wound. ...
— Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures • Mary Baker Eddy

... this matter. Though a draft granting this request was drawn up, it was not executed; but in 1599 a renewed application was successful, the heralds giving an exemplification of the coat which the applicants claimed had been assigned them in 1568, "Gold, on a bend sable, a spear of the first, and for his crest or cognizance a falcon, his wings displayed argent, standing on a wreath of his colours, supporting a spear gold steeled as aforesaid." The motto is "Non Sans Droit." ...
— The Facts About Shakespeare • William Allan Nielson

... vision sinks, dissolving, and night has once more within its keeping cuirass and spear and the caparisons of war, the oppressed mind is beset as by a heavy sound, gathering up from the abysses, deeper, more dread and mysterious than the death-march of heroes—the funeral march of the empires of the world, the requiem ...
— The Origins and Destiny of Imperial Britain - Nineteenth Century Europe • J. A. Cramb

... catkins, and the silver-notched palm; and I am told on good colour-authority that there is a lovely purplish bloom, almost like plum-bloom, over certain copses in the valley; by taking thought, I have observed the long horizontal arms of the beech growing spurred with little forked branches of spear-shaped buds, and I see little green nipples pushing out through the wolf-coloured rind of the dwarf fir-trees. Spring is arming in secret to attack the winter—that is sure enough, but spring in secret is no spring for me. I want to see her marching gaily with green pennons, and flashing ...
— Prose Fancies (Second Series) • Richard Le Gallienne

... Attendolo killed Terzi by a spear-thrust in the back. Pandolfo Petrucci murdered Borghese, who was his father-in-law. Raimondo Malatesta was stabbed by his two nephews disguised as hermits. Dattiri was bound naked to a plank and killed piecemeal by the people, who bit his flesh, cut slices out, and sold and ate it—distributing ...
— Renaissance in Italy, Volume 1 (of 7) • John Addington Symonds

... foe, who places his trust in cold steel, the case is different. For the first thrust perhaps the bayonet has the advantage, for the weight of the rifle behind it sends it very quick and true, and difficult to parry. But the point once turned or avoided, the spear gets the pull, as, by drawing back the hand which holds it, the point can be withdrawn to the shoulder, and launched, without a chance of ...
— For Fortune and Glory - A Story of the Soudan War • Lewis Hough

... the stigmata wounds of the crown of thorns. The white garment was redly splotched over her heart from the wound in her side at the spot where Christ's body, long ages ago, had suffered the final indignity of the soldier's spear-thrust. ...
— Autobiography of a YOGI • Paramhansa Yogananda

... looked like armies of ghosts, he thought, marching, marching through the pines, with their white flags flying and streaming. Then the sun came out red at evening, and Randal's father rode away with all his men. He had a helmet on his head, and a great axe hanging from his neck by a chain, and a spear in his hand. He was riding his big horse, Sir Hugh, and he caught Randal up to the saddle and kissed him many times before he clattered out of the courtyard. All the tenants and men about the farm rode with him, all with spears and a flag embroidered with a crest in gold. His ...
— The Gold Of Fairnilee • Andrew Lang

... Loudoun has red clover, timothy, herd's-grass, orchard-grass, and Lucerne to which last little attention is now given. Native grasses are the white clover, spear grass, blue grass, fox-tail and crab grass, the two last-named being summer or annual grasses. Several varieties of swamp or marsh grass flourish under certain conditions, but soon disappear with proper drainage ...
— History and Comprehensive Description of Loudoun County, Virginia • James W. Head

... knife-like edge that seems cleaving heaven with its keen and glistening cimeter of snow, reminding one of Isaiah's sublime imagery, 'For my sword is bathed in heaven.' She points at the grizzly rocks, with their jags and spear- points. Evidently she is beside herself, and thinks she can remember the names of those monsters, born of earthquake and storm, which cannot be named nor known but by sight, and then are known at ...
— The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe • Charles Edward Stowe

... dwarfs, took Gunther's place and won the three trials for him, Gunther going through a pantomime of the appropriate actions while Siegfried performed the feats. The passage which tells of the encounter is curious. A great spear, heavy and keen, was brought forth for Brunhild's use. It was more a weapon for a hero of might than for a maiden, but, unwieldy as it was, she was able to brandish it as easily as if it had been a willow wand. Three ...
— Hero Tales and Legends of the Rhine • Lewis Spence

... effigy of a crocodile with cooked rice, and they put fowl's eggs in its head for eyes and bananas for teeth, and cover it with scales made from the stem of the banana plant. When all is ready it is transfixed with a wooden spear, and the chief cuts off its head with a wooden sword. Then pigs and fowls are slaughtered and cooked, and eaten with the rice from the rice-crocodile, the chiefs eating the head and the common people the body. The chief of these people could give us no explanation ...
— The Pagan Tribes of Borneo • Charles Hose and William McDougall

... discipline; his weapons were the axe, the bow, the pike, and the sling, the latter sometimes throwing pieces of red-hot iron. Gustavus instructed his men to fashion their arrows in a more effective shape, and increased the length of the spear by four or five feet, with a view to repel the attacks of cavalry. He caused monetary tokens to be struck—an expedient which seems to have been not uncommon in Sweden, since, from a remote period, even leather money is mentioned. The coins now struck at ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 9 • Various

... hall. In one window I beheld four and twenty damsels, and the least fair of them was fairer than Guenevere at her fairest. Some took my horse, and others unbuckled my armour, and washed it, with my sword and spear, till it all shone like silver. Then I washed myself and put on a vest and doublet which they brought me, and I and the man that entered with me sat down before a table of silver, and a goodlier feast I ...
— The Lilac Fairy Book • Andrew Lang

... laborious or exhausting, no night so long or drowsy, but Theodore Parker's unsleeping memory stood on guard full-armed, ready to do battle at a moment's warning. This is generally known; but what may not be known so widely is, that, the moment the adversary lowered his spear, were it for only an inch or an instant, that moment Theodore Parker's weapons were down and his arms open. Make but the slightest concession, give him but the least excuse to love you, and never was there ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. VI.,October, 1860.—No. XXXVI. - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... of last resort, to be used when his espada fails. Spear-pointed. Gift of Count San Juan de Violada, of ...
— A Catalogue of Early Pennsylvania and Other Firearms and Edged Weapons at "Restless Oaks" • Henry W. Shoemaker

... earliest and the greatest epic, or heroic poem, in our literature. It begins with a prologue, which is not an essential part of the story, but which we review gladly for the sake of the splendid poetical conception that produced Scyld, king of the Spear Danes.[2] ...
— English Literature - Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English Speaking World • William J. Long

... the darkness is grown deep. That Emperour, rich Charles, lies asleep; Dreams that he stands in the great pass of Size, In his two hands his ashen spear he sees; Guenes the count that spear from him doth seize, Brandishes it and twists it with such ease, That flown into the sky the flinders seem. Charles sleeps on nor wakens ...
— The Song of Roland • Anonymous

... anger the chief clutched his spear of flint; and he cried to them, "Fill up the bowl to the mark that marks an hour, and fill it up again till the two hours mark is reached; and ere the last drop is out will I stand on yon blue hill; and moisten ...
— The Strand Magazine, Volume V, Issue 25, January 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various

... exhibits considerable courage, and probably several of the dogs have been wounded by his tusks. As soon as they come up every gun is discharged, and the animal almost immediately drops. At other times the mounted sportsmen attack them with a spear or sword. Generally, the muntjak does not go off like the stag in any direct track, but takes a circular course, and soon returns to the spot whence it was started. It perhaps makes several of these circles, and at length entangles itself in a ...
— The Dog - A nineteenth-century dog-lovers' manual, - a combination of the essential and the esoteric. • William Youatt

... that some Washo still keep a bit of this material with their fishing gear, although they are apt to rationalize it as a lure rather than real medicine. It should be remembered that hook-and-line or spear fishing accounted for a much smaller percentage of the total annual take than did trapping, damning, netting, or other communal methods ...
— Washo Religion • James F. Downs

... of Aden from the sea, though picturesque, is not inviting, giving one an idea of great barrenness. The mountains and rocks have a peaked appearance, like a spear pointed at one, as much as to say, "better keep off." People who land, however, for the first time, are agreeably disappointed by finding that every opportunity for encouraging the growth of vegetation and imparting its cheerful effect to the hard rocky ...
— Foot-prints of Travel - or, Journeyings in Many Lands • Maturin M. Ballou



Words linked to "Spear" :   arm, trident, spear up, impale, fishing rig, rig, fizgig, harpoon, king's spear, fishing tackle, spear carrier, weapon system, gig, jut, spearpoint, project, shaft, empale, spear thrower, stick out, spike, javelin, transfix, implement, spear-point, lance, weapon, spear thistle, leister, assegai



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