"Slap" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... this mark of confidence; and I thought of Bob Trippett; and little Fred Spring, of the Navy Pay Office; Hulker, who is rich, and I knew took lessons in Paris; and a half-score of other bachelor friends, who might be considered as VERY ELIGIBLE—when I was roused from my meditation by the slap of a hand on my shoulder; and looking up, there was the Mulligan, who began, as usual, reading the papers ...
— The Christmas Books • William Makepeace Thackeray
... amain[obs3]; all at once &c. (instantaneously) 113; at short notice &c., immediately &c. (early) 132; posthaste; by cable, by express, by telegraph, by forced marches. hastily, precipitately &c. adj.; helter-skelter, hurry-skurry[obs3], holus-bolus; slapdash, slap-bang; full-tilt, full drive; heels over head, head and shoulders, headlong, a corps perdu[Fr]. by fits and starts, by spurts; hop skip and jump. Phr. sauve qui peut[French: every man for himself][panic], devil take the hindmost, no time ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... this small, bristling stranger, the ram stepped up and was just about to sniff at him inquiringly. Had he done so, the result would have been disastrous. He would have got a slap in the face from the porcupine's active and armed tail; and his face would have straightway been transformed into a sort of anguished pincushion, stuck full of piercing, finely barbed quills. He would have paid dear for his ignorance of woodcraft,—perhaps with the loss ...
— The Watchers of the Trails - A Book of Animal Life • Charles G. D. Roberts
... in the cattle-line did not seem, however, to be going on. Now and then a big fellow made an offer, and held out his hand for a little Pictish grazier to give it a slap—a cattle bargain being concluded by a slap of the hand—but the Welshman generally turned away, with a half-resentful exclamation. There were a few horses and ponies in a street leading into the fair ...
— George Borrow - The Man and His Books • Edward Thomas
... rends the air. There is a grim, fell silence in this hand-to-hand conflict, broken only by the snake-like hiss of the Ba-gcatya as an enemy goes down, by the slap and shock of shield meeting clubbed gun or stabbing knife, by the gasps of the combatants. The cloud of powder smoke hanging overhead partially veils the sun, which glowers, a blood-red ball, through this ...
— The Sign of the Spider • Bertram Mitford
... leaped to catch Reynard fast, but his skin was so slippery and oily he could not hold him. Nay, so wondrous nimble was he in the fight, that when the wolf thought to have him surest, he would shift himself between his legs and under his belly, and every time gave the wolf a bite with his teeth, or a slap on the face with his tail, that the poor wolf found nothing but despair in the conflict, albeit his ...
— Children's Literature - A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes • Charles Madison Curry
... of observation to discover that as a janitor the new man was the rare and perfect specimen who keeps alive in a chilly world the tender plant of faith. Long before the sun was up his busy mop and broom were heard in the land, and the slip-slap of his carpet slippers, flopping along the halls as he made his nightly round, was the lullaby of dissipated souls who "retired" at eleven. Results followed with gratifying promptness. Apartments long empty were soon ...
— Many Kingdoms • Elizabeth Jordan
... as large as their two hands, and many fierce-looking spiders, with long, hairy legs and bulging eyes. Ants were also numerous, and in one spot they located fifteen anthills, each as large as a big beehive. Insects of all sorts were numerous, and they had to continually slap at a specimen of red fly ...
— The Rover Boys on Land and Sea - The Crusoes of Seven Islands • Arthur M. Winfield
... forest's edge, felt his breast heave with an emotion beyond control as he stood so, looking upon the scene, listening to the sliding voice. Darkness hid the wilderness, out on the face of the lake a fish leaped with a slap, and a nightbird called shrilly off to the south. With aching throat the trapper turned softly back into the woods. When he came later along the shore, with heavier step than was his wont, the fagot and the forked stake were ...
— The Maid of the Whispering Hills • Vingie E. Roe
... rogue, "I just saw what you said I should. At four sharp, a carriage drove into the Place, and pulled up bang opposite the wigmaker's. Dash me, if it weren't a swell turnout!—horse, coachman, and all, in real slap-up style. It waited so long that I thought ...
— Caught In The Net • Emile Gaboriau
... means," Sigurd laughed. "Nor how Thorhild scolded when we came back! I would give a ring to know what she would say if she were here now. It is my belief that you would get a slap, ...
— The Thrall of Leif the Lucky • Ottilie A. Liljencrantz
... broken only by the swish of the propeller as it ploughed slowly, deliberately, through the sea; the slap of the ripples under the prow, and an occasional harp-like sigh of the zephyr in the softly-vibrating shrouds; Paul Clitheroe had stolen out of the cabin and was sitting by the companion-way on the port side. A small ladder still hung ...
— In the Footprints of the Padres • Charles Warren Stoddard
... try the laugh cure in the following manner. First of all assume a laughing position, in order to laugh properly and to secure the best results. Stand with feet far apart, and with the knees slightly bent. Now bring the palms of both hands down and "slap" them vigorously on the legs just above the knees, and then swing your bent arms overhead, making a noise as nearly as possible like laughing. Yes, you are quite right, it will sound very much like a cold stage laugh at first, and you ...
— Vitality Supreme • Bernarr Macfadden
... the time could not, without some difficulty, prevent her from knocking the girl on the head with a club which she had taken from one of the men for that purpose; nor did her husband seem inclined to prevent her till he was spoke to, when he gave her a pretty smart slap on the face; on this, his wife left them crying with passion, and came over to the governor's house, where the girl was now brought for greater security, and was followed by ...
— An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island • John Hunter
... quarters, in name; but the petty officers were allowed to move about, and as much license was given to the people as was wanted. I answered that I would gladly secure mine if he would get an order for it; but as we were still at quarters, and there lay John Bull, we might get a slap at him in the night. On this the gunner said he would go aft, and speak to Mr. Osgood on the subject. He did so, but met the captain (as we always called Mr. Osgood) at the break of the quarter-deck. When George had told his errand, the captain looked at the ...
— Ned Myers • James Fenimore Cooper
... fight of it, and sometimes come off best when their places was stuck up; but not when they were bested from the very start, like this one. No man could have had a show, if he was two or three men in one, at the Ballabri money-shop. We walked slap down to the hotel—then it was near the bank—and called for drinks. There weren't many people in the streets at that time in the afternoon, and the few that did notice us didn't think we were any one in particular. Since the diggings broke out all ...
— Robbery Under Arms • Thomas Alexander Browne, AKA Rolf Boldrewood
... or lever failed to act. The boat became unmanageable, could not be stopped, or slowed, or done anything with. In short, she ran away. But Pirate Tom was not to be imposed on by any such feeble tricks. He immediately steered the Lily slap into the nearest bank and tied her up to a tree. Then the three went on shore, with a bottle of rum and a pack of cards, and sat down at a respectful distance to await the progress of events, and to enjoy a game ...
— Brighter Britain! (Volume 1 of 2) - or Settler and Maori in Northern New Zealand • William Delisle Hay
... dropped to his feet, and, quite sure that the time was now past to ask polite questions, Peter brought down the butt of the revolver with a smart slap where the long black pigtail joined a fat little head. With a throaty gurgle his victim joined ...
— Peter the Brazen - A Mystery Story of Modern China • George F. Worts
... household. Elizabeth Brower would sit looking gravely down at me, as I stood by her knees reading, in those days of my early boyhood. Uncle Eb listened with his head turned curiously, as if his ear were cocked for coons. Sometimes he and David Brower would slap their knees and laugh heartily, whereat my foster mother would give them a quick glance and shake her head. For she was always fearful of the day when she should see in her children the birth of vanity, and sought to put it off as far as might be. Sometimes she would cover her mouth ...
— Eben Holden - A Tale of the North Country • Irving Bacheller
... with his fist, he must pay him one sela; if he slaps his face, he is to pay two hundred zouzim; but for a back-handed slap the assailant is to pay four hundred zouzim. If he pulls the ear of another, or plucks his hair, or spits upon him, or pulls off his mantle, or tears a woman's head-dress off in the street, in each of these cases he is ...
— Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and - Kabbala • Various
... but for an unfortunate destiny. Although his patronage was such as a mouse might bestow upon a lion, he had a vast opinion of its condescension; and in the warmth of that sentiment, occasionally rose on tiptoe, to slap the ...
— Pictures from Italy • Charles Dickens
... shouted. That is the whole story, but I remember it whenever I see these dear tame men who merely say, 'It is a pity that we have been so unfortunate!' and whose hearts feel only a mild regret instead of the most ardent revenge. And then my hand itches, and I would like to lift it up, like Jahn, and slap ...
— NAPOLEON AND BLUCHER • L. Muhlbach
... reprehensible on the part of that expansive youth, Geoffrey, to have acquainted Gladys—strictly between themselves of course—that his company had been "dished out with a brand-new, slap-up, experimental automatic rifle, that'll make Mr. Boche sit up when we get across." Still it did no harm, because Gladys doesn't care twopence about rifles of any kind, and had forgotten all about it before she ...
— Experiences of a Dug-out, 1914-1918 • Charles Edward Callwell
... know what singin wor he did, an' when he wor in Horstraly (A voice—"What does ta know abaat Horstraly, tupheead, tha niver went noa farther ner Burtonheead i' all thi life"). This ryled Cim, an' he up wi' a stooil an' whew'd it slap at th' cheerman. Aw saw ther wor likely to be a row, for whativer other sperit wor thear, aw could see plain enuff 'at th' sperit o' mischief wor i' some on 'em, soa aw crept up beside th' door an' pop'd aght, an' left 'em to settle it ...
— Yorksher Puddin' - A Collection of the Most Popular Dialect Stories from the - Pen of John Hartley • John Hartley
... exasperation. "Ginger, I'd like to slap you," she said. It was maddening, this intrusion of sentiment into business affairs. Why, simply because he was a man and she was a woman, should she be restrained from investing money in a sound commercial undertaking? If Columbus had taken up this bone-headed stand towards ...
— The Adventures of Sally • P. G. Wodehouse
... and pile up in heap. I like to do one turn for you. We goin' the same way—you bring me the good luck, like a bird in the han'. This is my clean-up, you understand. You bring me the beautiful luck. You turn me up right bower first slap. Now it's goin' be my deal. I like ...
— The Desert and The Sown • Mary Hallock Foote
... so at last there were only about half a dozen of us left on our feet. It was as hot work as I ever was in,—shot pelting, earth-works crumbling, gabions crashing, guns and gun-carriages tumbling over together, men falling on every side like leaves, till, all at once, a shot went slap through our flag-staff, and down ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, January 1878, No. 3 • Various
... It was as though the mountain tops had corralled all the clouds in the country and held them penned like sheep over the valleys. With the gray sunrise came the wind again, and howled and trumpeted and bullied the harassed forests until dark. And then, with dark came the stinging slap of rain upon the windows, and pressed Jack's loneliness deep into ...
— The Lookout Man • B. M. Bower
... to show 'em what a wedding's like," she remarked ominously—"I'm going to do everything in the real, proper, slap-up style. I'm going to have a white dress and a veil and carriages and bridesmaids and favours—" this was the old Joanna—"you don't mind, do you, Martin?" this was ...
— Joanna Godden • Sheila Kaye-Smith
... There are injuries that can only be wiped out in blood. And, when a great country like ours has received a slap in the face like that of 1870, it can wait forty years, fifty years, but a day comes when it returns the slap in the face ... ...
— The Frontier • Maurice LeBlanc
... carefully examined the inside of the coach, and giving his victim a good shake, asked him how much money he had in his possession. Clare, trembling all over, took out his purse, and found he had ten shillings and a few pence. The terrible coachman grasped the purse, gave the owner a slap on the back as a receipt, and with a valedictory 'Go along, you scamp!' dismissed the unhappy poet. John Clare felt faint and ready to sink to the ground; but fear gave him courage, and he ran away as fast as he could. It ...
— The Life of John Clare • Frederick Martin
... taken to see that whenever, throughout the exercises, this position is taken—as at the completion of each movement—full control is retained over the arms; the hands should not be allowed to slap against ...
— Keeping Fit All the Way • Walter Camp
... and down excitedly, becoming more and more exasperated: "It is infamous to have betrayed my child, infamous! He is a wretch, this man, a cad, a wretch! and I will tell him so. I will slap his face. I will ...
— Une Vie, A Piece of String and Other Stories • Guy de Maupassant
... poising it. God had granted her prayer—to save France. Now the past and the ignominy of the past might be merged in Judith's nobler guilt. But I must tell you that in the supreme hour, Destiny at her beck, her main desire was to slap the man for his childishness. Oh, he had no right thus to besot himself with adoration! This dejection at her feet of his high destiny awed her, and pricked her, too, with her inability to understand him. Angrily she flung away the baton. "Go! Ah, go!" she cried, like ...
— Chivalry • James Branch Cabell
... springing to his feet in the stern-sheets of the launch, and waving his sword above his head. "Give way, and get alongside before they can fire again. Gunners, fire slap at his bulwarks, and we'll board in the smoke. Marines, fire in through the open ports. Hurrah, lads, put your backs ...
— A Middy of the King - A Romance of the Old British Navy • Harry Collingwood
... mention marriage; but was always answered with a slap, a hoot, and a flounce. At last he began to press her closer, and thought himself more favourably received; but going one morning, with a resolution to trifle no longer, he found her gone to church with a young journeyman from the neighbouring shop, of whom she had become ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson - Volume IV [The Rambler and The Adventurer] • Samuel Johnson
... up again!" vociferated a delighted plumber, with a sounding slap on his own leg. "Gor blimy, if she ain't a ...
— Tommy and Co. • Jerome K. Jerome
... to save a little time," he commented, giving the horse's sweaty neck a slap. "I'd like to know how the devil those two ever drove ...
— Shoe-Bar Stratton • Joseph Bushnell Ames
... is to be accomplished, when the child starts to indulge in an emotional runaway, if the parent contracts the same spirit, begins to talk fast and loud, to gesticulate wildly, grabs the child, begins to slap and shake it—that is merely an exhibition on the part of the parent of the very same weakness he is trying to correct in his offspring. I am afraid it is entirely too true that for every time you shake one demon out of a child in anger, you shake in seven ...
— The Mother and Her Child • William S. Sadler
... repeated Billy impatiently. And once on shore, when Moritz lifted her out of the boat, Billy felt that she must do something which would contradict the aristocratic calm of this quiet pond, the little crucians, and the old willows, something which would slap it in the face, and she bent forward and kissed Moritz. "But Billy, I don't understand," stammered Moritz, turning a deep red, but ...
— The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries - Masterpieces of German Literature Vol. 19 • Various
... had nearly fallen forward. Thinking that one of the kangaroo dogs, in his greeting, had pushed me between the legs, I turned round to give him a slap, but no dog was there, and I soon found out that what I had felt was nothing more than strong muscular ...
— The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888 • Ernest Favenc
... even with the window tightly closed and nailed over with slats, Sam could not endure it to remain on the bench long. Leaping up he began to stamp his feet and slap his arms across his chest to get them warm. Soon he heard ...
— The Rover Boys In The Mountains • Arthur M. Winfield
... some men have felicity in replying to a question, others a felicity in replying to the motive which prompted the question. In one case you get an answer addressed to your understanding; in the other, an answer which smites like a slap in the face. Thus, when a pert skeptic asked Martin Luther where God was before He created heaven, Martin stunned his querist with the retort,—"He was building hell for such idle, presumptuous, fluttering, and inquisitive spirits ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 90, April, 1865 • Various
... noises of men singing out at the ropes. The topsails came to the mast-heads with "Cheerly, men!'' and, in a few minutes, every sail was set, for the wind was light. The head sails were backed, the windlass came round "slip— slap'' to the cry of the sailors;— "Hove short, sir,'' said the mate;— "Up with him!''— "Aye, aye, sir.'' A few hearty and long heaves, and the anchor showed its head. "Hook cat!'' The fall was stretched along the decks; all hands laid hold;— "Hurrah, for the last time,'' ...
— Two Years Before the Mast • Richard Henry Dana
... commented critically. "He ain't no rockin'-chair hoss, that's for sure. If I was you, I'd look round for somethin' better to slap ...
— Ride Proud, Rebel! • Andre Alice Norton
... gave a violent slap on his knee; 'I like your taste,' said he, 'I am fond of a glass of Madeira myself, and can give you such a one as you will not drink every day; sit down, young gentleman, you shall have a glass of Madeira, ...
— Lavengro - The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest • George Borrow
... good-natured grin, "don't lose yer wool over it; you ain't got any ter spare. 'Is Lordship's been a-arskin' fer 'em, and like as not they ain't turned up. Let's see what's the time? 'Arf-past eight." He shook his bullet-shaped head. "Well, I'll be doin' as you say. Slap on me 'at and jacket and myke off ter the blinkin' stytion. What's the shortest ...
— The Riddle of the Frozen Flame • Mary E. Hanshew
... the very basin of the fountain, and the crown that was on her brow fell and rolled to the feet of Nashta. The girl lifted it, laughing, and was in the act of fitting it to her fair head amid the chuckles of her companions, when a slap from the hand of Bhanavar spun her twice round, and she dropped to the marble insensible. The King bellowed in wrath, and ran to Nashta, crying to the Queen, 'Surrender that crown to her, foul hag!' But Bhanavar had ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... rested his oars, listening. No sound came to him except the slap of the increasing waves and the occasional flap of a wet fish ...
— The Harbor of Doubt • Frank Williams
... turned up his nose at fat men. The poet never could stand frying; he calls it, in 'Macbeth,' 'the young fry of treachery.' Probably he'd had more taste of the traitor than was good for him. Has a good slap somewhere on the critter that 'devours up all the fry it finds.' I reckon that Shakspeare always set a proper valuation on human digestion; 'cause when he speaks of a man with a good stomach,—an excellent ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 85, November, 1864 • Various
... a straight run for it now, slap up the Sound—and believe me we was breezin' along some swift! Vee had come back with the rest of us, her hair all sparkled up with salt spray and her eyes shinin', and shows me how to coil up the slack of the sheet like a doormat. On and on we booms, with ...
— Torchy, Private Sec. • Sewell Ford
... I will slap him this time," said Neddy, running to save his handsome bird from destruction. But before he got there poor cocky had pulled his fine tail-feathers all out in his struggles, and when set free was so frightened and mortified that he ran away and hid in the bushes, and ...
— The Louisa Alcott Reader - A Supplementary Reader for the Fourth Year of School • Louisa M. Alcott
... perceive the use of all this too, the inevitability of all this; but perceive it (at the present height it has attained) to be disastrous withal, to be horrible and even damnable. That Judas Iscariot should come and slap Jesus Christ on the shoulder in a familiar manner; that all heavenliest nobleness should be flung out into the muddy streets there to jostle elbows with all thickest-skinned denizens of chaos, and get itself at every turn trampled into the gutters and annihilated:—alas, the reverse of all ...
— The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol II. • Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson
... of cream. "Different worlds, different customs," he iterated the old tag of the Service. "Be glad this one is so easy to conform to. There are some I can think of—There," he ended his massage with a stinging slap. "You're all evenly greased. Good thing you don't have Van's bulk to cover. It takes him a good hour to get his cream on—even with Frank helping to spread. Your clothes ought to be steamed up ...
— Plague Ship • Andre Norton
... American ships. They are divided into three (I think) probationary classes of "volunteers," instead of being at once advanced to a warrant. Nor will you fail to remark, when you see an English cutter officered by one of those volunteers, that the boy does not so strut and slap his dirk-hilt with a Bobadil air, and anticipatingly feel of the place where his warlike whiskers are going to be, and sputter out oaths so at the men, as is too often the case with the little boys wearing best-bower anchors on their lapels in ...
— White Jacket - or, the World on a Man-of-War • Herman Melville
... at our place," said Morrell. "She's full of it. Mulholland was batting at the middle net, and somebody else—I forget who—was at the one next to it on the right. The bowler sent down a long-hop to leg, and this Johnny had a smack at it, and sent it slap through the net, and it got Mulholland on the side of the head. He was stunned for a bit, but he's getting all right again now. But he won't be able to conduct tonight. Rather bad luck on the man, especially as he's so ...
— The Head of Kay's • P. G. Wodehouse
... turned to Dade amiably, his knuckles pressing lightly upon his hips that his palms might be saved immaculate for the next little corn cake which he would presently slap into ...
— The Gringos • B. M. Bower
... himself a slap on the forehead and breaking into a hearty laugh, exclaimed, "Before God, Brother, now am I disabused of an error in which I have been living all this long time I have known you, all through which I have taken you to be shrewd and sensible in all you do; but now I see you are as far from ...
— Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
... should be spanked by their parents if by anyone; and that a teacher who cannot induce good behavior in children of that age, without spanking, has mistaken her vocation. However, it is against their principles for kindergartner's to spank, slap, flog, shake or otherwise wrestle with their youthful charges, no matter how much they seem to need these instantaneous and sometimes very effectual methods of dissuasion ...
— The Girl and the Kingdom - Learning to Teach • Kate Douglas Wiggin
... of Choking, a violent slap with the open hand between the shoulders of the sufferer will often effect a dislodgment. In case the accident occurs with a child, and the slapping process does not afford instant relief, it should ...
— Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889 • Barkham Burroughs
... slap on the cheek for me! Mercy! how it burns! No, I did not forget what was due to my father's guests; on the contrary, I consider it due to them to save them, if I can, from the snares that I see set for them. I have told you that I abhor all traps, whether for the poor simple ...
— Marriage • Susan Edmonstone Ferrier
... thirteen-year-old children. Thirteen-year-old children with the strength of adults—and no one to slap them or tell them not to.... After all, they probably only thought of death now and then. And they never thought of fuel. They supposed there was no end to that. So they used up their woods and kept goats ...
— The Secret Places of the Heart • H. G. Wells
... the slap on Swimming Wolf's ear, the pale eyes of the White Chief glowed. Truly, as Kayak Bill had said, one could never tell about a white woman. Here was a situation he would have to handle with care. Here was a time when his knowledge of Indian nature, gained during years ...
— Where the Sun Swings North • Barrett Willoughby
... human-kindness in the frozen husk he had for a time become. But he must be blamed for icily rejecting the Turk's blundering attempts to make peace. He courteously—courtesy, between these two!—declined the Turk's offer to help him carry his suit-cases to the station. That was like a slap. ...
— The Trail of the Hawk - A Comedy of the Seriousness of Life • Sinclair Lewis
... answered still more audaciously: "Yes, convert the savages, say rather, convert the beavers." "It is false," replied the priest, somewhat vexed. Michel, who was angry, raised his arm to strike the father, at the same time saying, "If I were not restrained by the respect due to my chief, I would slap your face for your denial." "I ask your pardon," said the father, "it was not in my mind to injure you, and if my answer has vexed you, I regret it." Michel was not satisfied and began to blaspheme, so that Champlain was scandalized, and said: "You swear ...
— The Makers of Canada: Champlain • N. E. Dionne
... you know. I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll just drive slap over to Harrington and chance it. I'll take the two bays in ...
— Phineas Redux • Anthony Trollope
... eyes twinkled. "Ah, just so. The country is opening up, all we want is capital to develop it. Slap down the rails and bring the land into market. The richest land on God Almighty's footstool is lying right out there. If I had my capital free I could plant it ...
— The Gilded Age, Complete • Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner
... in,' said Robert, when he had groaned for some time; 'that's all. Don't mention it; I like it. The stairs just go right slap into the ceiling, and it's a stone ceiling. You can't do good and kind actions underneath ...
— The Phoenix and the Carpet • E. Nesbit
... see from a note from Falconer (about a wonderful fossil Brazilian Mammal, well called Meso- or Typo-therium) that he expects no sympathy from me. He will end, I hope, by being sorry. Lyell lays himself open to a slap by saying that he would come to show his original observations, and then not distinctly doing so; he had better only have laid claim, on this one point of man, to verification ...
— More Letters of Charles Darwin - Volume I (of II) • Charles Darwin
... smaller than your elbow into the inner part of your ear." Now, of course, you can't put your elbow into such a tiny hole! So the old saying means, never put anything in. The eardrum is very thin and can easily be broken. Even a slap on the ear, or a loud sound too close to it, might crack and spoil the ...
— The Child's Day • Woods Hutchinson
... any efforts to help the poor, we must not become realistic and see them from the outside. We must become melodramatic, and see them from the inside. The novelist must not take out his notebook and say, "I am an expert." No; he must imitate the workman in the Adelphi play. He must slap himself on the chest and say, ...
— Heretics • Gilbert K. Chesterton
... chap!" cried Guy, seizing hold of his guest, rumpling his hair, and giving him a slap on the back which made him stagger. "Have you come ...
— Under Padlock and Seal • Charles Harold Avery
... of her anticipations, Polly found it indispensable to put down her piece of toast, cross one of her little fat knees over the other, and bring her little fat right hand down into her left hand with a business-like slap. After this gathering of herself together, Polly, by that time, a mere heap of dimples, asked in a wheedling manner: "What are we going to do, ...
— Mugby Junction • Charles Dickens
... teach Pink Upham manners. You know well enough that I always pick up your handkerchief and stand until mamma is seated, and things like that, so you needn't hint about 'em to me when he's here. You're just trying to slap at Pink over ...
— Mary Ware's Promised Land • Annie Fellows Johnston
... hand swung around and that slap was heard all over the room. There was a moment of dead silence; then half a dozen of us grabbed Bi. We thought he'd gone crazy, but he didn't try to shake us off. He just stood there and looked at Hecker. The coach never raised a hand and never changed ...
— The New Boy at Hilltop • Ralph Henry Barbour
... up quite a little money for a 'cause' or something. Well, let him holler! I guess we can attend to him when we get back from over yonder. By George, old Ram, I'm gettin' kind of floppy in the gills!" He administered a resounding slap to his comrade's shoulder. "It certainly looks as if our big days were ...
— Ramsey Milholland • Booth Tarkington
... all up tight with his fum." Dickie cast a rueful look at his own guilty thumb as he thought this. "I wouldn't like that! But I'd like very much indeed to buzz and tickle Mally's nose when she was twying to sew. She'd slap and slap, and not hit me, and I'd buzz and tickle. How I'd laugh! But perhaps flies don't know how to laugh, ...
— Nine Little Goslings • Susan Coolidge
... receptacle, chest, case, coffer, carton, caddy, bandbox, casket, caisson; ciborium, pyx; binnacle; slap, ...
— Putnam's Word Book • Louis A. Flemming
... trick he had learned and practiced. It was a feint, aimed at the first of the Drab's crew to try to leap aboard. The intended victim threw up his hands to ward off the blow from the top of his head, but he received, instead, a stinging, crushing slap across ...
— The Motor Boat Club and The Wireless - The Dot, Dash and Dare Cruise • H. Irving Hancock
... was rather funny. One of our boats came up slap underneath a low Zepp. 'Looked for the sky, you know, and couldn't see anything except this fat, shining belly almost on top of 'em. Luckily, it wasn't the Zepp's stingin' end. So our boat went to windward and kept just awash. There was a bit ...
— Sea Warfare • Rudyard Kipling
... legs, second by creeping, third by walking. Note a child feeding itself, how unsteady he is in getting his food to his mouth; sometimes his spoon misses his mouth and the food is spilled, for which he usually receives a slap, although he has displayed all his energy in getting his food in his mouth. Next we find him a trained athlete and skilled laborer, capable of applying himself to most ...
— ABC's of Science • Charles Oliver
... would almost drop off to sleep and my old mistress would shout, "Milton aren't you sleepy?". "No ma'am", I would reply, "Why, yes you are; I'll slap your jaws". My young mistress would then take the reins and tell ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States - Volume II. Arkansas Narratives. Part I • Work Projects Administration
... being crushed by them, and the bells go jing-jing, jing-jing on the frosty air which just about takes the hide off your face; when you hold your mittens up to your ears and then have to take them down to slap yourself across the chest to get the blood agoing in your fingers; when you kick your feet together and dumbly wonder why it is your toes don't click like marbles; when the cold creeps up under your knitted pulse-warmers, and in at every possible little ...
— Back Home • Eugene Wood
... remain of either. That the public service must suffer was certain, but what were the sufferings of the public service compared with the risks run by a young mosquito — a private secretary — trying to buzz admiration in the ears of each, and unaware that each would impatiently slap at him for belonging to the other? Innocent and unsuspicious beyond what was permitted even in a nursery, the private ...
— The Education of Henry Adams • Henry Adams
... Miss Clara, giving the girl's cheek a playful slap and going back to her place. Miss Verjoos came in and took a chair by her sister. Mrs. Benson leaned forward and raised her eyebrows at Miss Clara, who took a quick survey of the room and nodded in return. Herr Schlitz seated himself ...
— David Harum - A Story of American Life • Edward Noyes Westcott
... thousand throats cleft the air, and with its last notes came the rattle of musketry from the brow of the hill across the little ravine. The bullets sang viciously overhead. They cut the leaves and branches with sharp little crashes, and struck men's bodies with a peculiar slap. A score of men in the disordered group fell back dead or dying upon the ...
— The Red Acorn • John McElroy
... 'Just start 'em. Like this! ' He bounded up to the leader of the rush on the stall—a youth a good head taller than himself—and gave him an open-handed slap on the jaw, which rang like a pistol-shot. The Ravens leapt to support him, and the marauders were driven off in short order, the Raven who had knocked the old man's hat off now exerting himself with tremendous zeal to show the ...
— The Wolf Patrol - A Tale of Baden-Powell's Boy Scouts • John Finnemore
... made his approach he had in his mind a picture of skulking Venezuelans with pointed carbines; his ears were prepared for a command to throw up his hands, for the slap of a bullet. He had convinced himself that around the angle of the impenetrable hedge this was the welcome that awaited him. And when he was confronted by a girl who apparently was no more a daughter of Venezuela ...
— The White Mice • Richard Harding Davis
... settled on the head of a Bald Man and bit him. In his eagerness to kill it, he hit himself a smart slap. But the Fly escaped, and said to him in derision, "You tried to kill me for just one little bite; what will you do to yourself now, for the heavy smack you have just given yourself?" "Oh, for that blow I bear no grudge," he replied, ...
— Aesop's Fables • Aesop
... "On Thursday there was a grand dinner; Present, Lords A.B.C."—- Earls, dukes, by name Announced with no less pomp than Victory's winner: Then underneath, and in the very same Column: date, "Falmouth. There has lately been here The Slap-dash regiment, so well known to Fame, Whose loss in the late action we regret: The vacancies are filled ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 6 • Lord Byron
... understand? Why, wut's to hender, pray? Must I go huntin' round to find a chap To tell me when my face hez hed a slap? ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 52, February, 1862 • Various
... and she was slightly breathless as she ended, but she stared across the table with brazen determination, like a naughty child expecting a slap. ...
— The Safety Curtain, and Other Stories • Ethel M. Dell
... Pembury. "If we can make it a regular school paper it will be a far better slap at the Sixth than if we did nothing but pitch into them. Look here, you fellows, leave it to me to get out the first number. We'll astonish the ...
— The Fifth Form at Saint Dominic's - A School Story • Talbot Baines Reed
... coffee-house to dine, and may be you may get her down and into spirits again. But, for your lives, don't touch upon Ireland this night, nor till she has fairly got the better of the marriage. Apropos—there's my wager to Mordicai gone at a slap. It's I that ought to be scolding you, my Lord Colambre; but I trust you will do as well yet, not in point of purse, may be. But I'm not one of those that think that money's every thing—though, I grant you, in this world there's nothing to be had without it—love excepted,—which ...
— Tales and Novels, Vol. 6 • Maria Edgeworth
... should love to see a bear here. I guess if he should come near me, I would give him one good slap that would make him feel pretty bad. I could kill ...
— The Teacher - Or, Moral Influences Employed in the Instruction and - Government of the Young • Jacob Abbott
... what he was going to do, Paddy the Beaver dived into the pond, and as he disappeared, his broad tail hit the water such a slap that it made Jerry jump. Then there began a great disturbance down under water. In a few minutes up bobbed a stick, and then another and another, and the water grew so muddy that Jerry couldn't see what ...
— The Adventures of Jerry Muskrat • Thornton W. Burgess
... to bake a hoecake, To bake it good an' done; Jes' slap it on a Nigger's heel, An' hol' it to ...
— Negro Folk Rhymes - Wise and Otherwise: With a Study • Thomas W. Talley
... working on the enemy's side of the river, within 200 yards of their advance trenches. Never have I felt a more comforting sensation then when watching those Japanese shells bursting just over our heads, a little in advance, the shrapnel from them going slap into the Germans every time. I must say it was a magnificent sight when the Japanese guns were going, the German rockets, etc., and their machine guns and rifles joining in when they could get their heads up. One had to shout to make oneself heard, ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume III (of VIII) - History of the European War from Official Sources • Various
... numerous, and with these Yourii felt unable to cope. All that in his imagination seemed luminous and beautiful and strong, became thin and feeble on the canvas. Details no longer fascinated him, but were annoying and depressing. In fact, he ignored them and began to paint in a broad, slap-dash style. Thus, instead of a clear, powerful portrayal of life, the picture became ever more plain of a tawdry, slovenly female. There was nothing original or charming about such a dull stereotyped piece of work, so he thought; a veritable imitation of a Moukh ...
— Sanine • Michael Artzibashef
... 'faint heart never won fair tusk. I'll risk it, and have a slap at them. But how?' I could not advance across the open, for they would see me; clearly the only thing to do was to creep round in the shadow of the bush and try to come upon them so. So I started. Seven or eight minutes of careful stalking brought ...
— Maiwa's Revenge - The War of the Little Hand • H. Rider Haggard
... lover, except for two small worries that she had: she feared that her uncle, Louie Gratz, with whom she lived, or one of her few friends, might, when they found she was to marry Toby, allude to him as a "Dago," in which case she had an intuition that he would slap the offender; and she was afraid of the smallpox, which had caused the quarantine of two shanties not far from her uncle's house. The former of her fears she did not mention, but the latter she spoke of frequently, telling Pietro how Gratz was panic-stricken, and talked ...
— In the Arena - Stories of Political Life • Booth Tarkington
... Huri, as he stroked him into submission, "Andy like to ride in big carriage. He no walk!" at which resentful Andy gave him a sounding slap that ...
— All Aboard - A Story for Girls • Fannie E. Newberry
... fight cowards," mumbled Harberth, holding his jaw—and, at this meanness, Dam was moved to go up to Harberth and slap him right hard upon his plump, inviting cheek, a good resounding blow that made his hand tingle with pain and his heart ...
— Snake and Sword - A Novel • Percival Christopher Wren
... active; but it had ceased to trouble her very much. Since the evening on which Fan had baffled her by blowing out the candle, Rosie had not attempted to inflict corporal punishment beyond an occasional pinch or slap, but contented herself by mocking and jeering, and sometimes ...
— Fan • Henry Harford
... democracy in Germany. The Chancellor, who had impressed neutral observers as being a real leader of democracy in Germany, sided with the Kaiser. Thus by one stroke the democratic movement which was under way in Germany received a rude slap. The man the people had looked upon as ...
— Germany, The Next Republic? • Carl W. Ackerman
... with milky-whitish eyes in a dark-red face and a perfect cap of thick, grey, curly hair. This person stopped short, looked at me, opened his mouth wide, and with a metallic chuckle, he gave himself a smart slap on his haunch, kicking his leg up in front ...
— The Jew And Other Stories • Ivan Turgenev
... fenestreto. Slack malstrecxa. Slacken (speed) malakceli. Slacken (loose) malstrecxi. Slag metala sxauxmo. Slake sensoifigi. Slander kalumnii. Slang vulgaresprimo. Slanting oblikva. Slap in the face survango. Slash trancxadi, trancxegi. Slate ardezo. Slater tegmentisto. Slates (roofing) tegmentajxo. Slaughter (animals) bucxadi. Slaughter mortigi. Slaughter-house bucxejo. Slave sklavo. Slavery sklaveco. Slavish sklava. Slavishness sklavemo. Slay ...
— English-Esperanto Dictionary • John Charles O'Connor and Charles Frederic Hayes
... cousins. With what noisy good cheer the men entered the house after they had put up their horses! I remember how they laid their hard, heavy hands on my head and shook it a little as they spoke of my "stretchin' up" or gave me a playful slap on the shoulder—an ancient token of good will—the first form of the accolade, I fancy. What joyful good humor there was in those simple men and women!—enough to temper the woes of a city if it could ...
— The Light in the Clearing • Irving Bacheller
... Hazel, in answer to this side slap; "there are no tigers here; no large animals of prey ...
— Foul Play • Charles Reade
... Most certainly the Baron did not desire a reconciliation with Silviane, but he vowed that he would overturn everything if necessary in order to send her a signed engagement for the Comedie, and this simply by way of vengeance, as a slap, so to say,—yes, a slap which would make her tingle! That moment spent with Barroux had been ...
— The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete - Lourdes, Rome and Paris • Emile Zola
... deck now, for the sailors had ceased rushing about adjusting the canvas, though there was still plenty of noise. There was the rattle and bang of blocks, the whipping about of ends of ropes, the slap, now and then, of the storm jib, as it was whipped back and forth. Now and then a heavy sea would fall on deck ...
— The Moving Picture Girls at Sea - or, A Pictured Shipwreck That Became Real • Laura Lee Hope
... they should be pulling together. Through it all, motherhood misunderstood. And fatherhood misunderstood. The body cheapened to the soul. And the soul cheapened to the body. Every child being a slap in ...
— Sane Sex Life and Sane Sex Living • H.W. Long
... buttoned close against the driving wind, he strode toward the fort in one of those melodramatic moods to which youth in all climes and times is subject. It was like a slap in the face when Captain Helm met him at the ...
— Alice of Old Vincennes • Maurice Thompson
... a most effectual slap, but there's always a dreadful disturbance with the children on these occasions. Little Fay roars the house down when William ...
— Jan and Her Job • L. Allen Harker
... be a payin' job," sneered Farrington, "when a poor country parson kin fork out four thousand dollars at one slap. I see now why ye're allus dunnin' us fer money. Mebbe ye've got a hot sermon all ready on the subject fer ...
— The Fourth Watch • H. A. Cody
... listened to him as long as he could do so with patience, and then brought him to a conclusion by a slap ...
— Sevenoaks • J. G. Holland
... see if you were a crook or just a fool," she told him, her words like a slap in his face. "No man could be so big a fool as that! ...
— Judith of Blue Lake Ranch • Jackson Gregory
... I hauled off and fetched the broadside of my leg a slap you could have heard to Jericho. 'By the creepin', jumpin',' says I. 'I've got it!' 'Yes,' he says, 'you act as if you had. But what do you take for it?' 'I wouldn't take a dollar note for it right now,' I told him. And ...
— Fair Harbor • Joseph Crosby Lincoln
... return! what a slap in the face to Costecalde when the Forum should publish an account of the ascension! Who would dare to dispute ...
— Tartarin On The Alps • Alphonse Daudet
... Nancy, her favourite doll, seemed to have some difficulty about swallowing the milk that was being administered to her in large spoonfuls; for Helen suddenly put down the cup and began to slap her on the back and turn her over on her knees, trotting her gently and patting her softly all the time. This lasted for several minutes; then this mood passed, and Nancy was thrown ruthlessly on the floor and pushed to one side, while a large, pink-cheeked, ...
— Story of My Life • Helen Keller
... slaip, Jasper. Well, Tamsin shall give 'ee a bed, oal down, my deear—make 'ee sleep when you do'ant want to. I do veel like that, too. After we've 'ad a slaip, Jasper, we'll talk a bit avore the booys do come up to supper. A slap-bang ...
— The Birthright • Joseph Hocking
... entitled to the congratulations of the community. Nor was the community on the whole disposed to grumble, for home talent had been employed by the architect; under rigorous supervision, to be sure, so that poor material and slap-dash workmanship were out of the question. Still, payments had been prompt, and Benham was able to admire competent virtue. The church was a monument of suggestion in various ways, artistic and ethical, and it shone ...
— Unleavened Bread • Robert Grant
... author will add much credit to their Society! For my part, I shall take no notice of any of his handycrafts. However, as there seems to be a willingness to carp at me, and as gnats may on a sudden provoke one to give a slap, I choose to be at liberty to say what I think Of the learned Society; and therefore I have taken leave of them, having so good an occasion presented as their council on Whittington and his Cat, and the ridicule that Foote has thrown on them. They are welcome to say any thing on ...
— Letters of Horace Walpole, V4 • Horace Walpole
... for I have been on his back more than an hour, and have not gained half a mile." He gave me a broad grin, and good-naturedly led the horse until I got clear of the houses. He then let go the bridle, gave the animal a smart slap on the flank, which set him off at a hand-gallop, and nearly jerked me over the taffrail. I kept him to his speed, and in about half an hour he stopped suddenly near a small farmhouse, and I was again nearly going over his bows. A slovenly kind of woman hove in sight. I hailed her, and asked ...
— A Sailor of King George • Frederick Hoffman
... thick as leaves on a tree. So I decided to sit up in front of the tent on watch. Along about midnight, I suppose, I dropped off into a doze, for the first thing I heard was the hee-haw of a mule right in my ear. It sounded like a clap of thunder, and I jumped up, coming slap-bang against the brute's nose so blamed hard it knocked me flat; and then, when I fairly got my eyes open, I saw five Sioux Indians creeping along through the moonlight, heading right toward our pony herd. I tell you things looked mighty skittish for me just then, but what do you suppose ...
— Bob Hampton of Placer • Randall Parrish
... high design, Vendors of grain-eggs-pulse-and-vegetables, Ye garlic-tavern-keepers of bakeries, Strike, batter, knock, hit, slap, and scratch our foes, Be finely imprudent, say what you think of them.... Enough! retire and do not rob ...
— Lysistrata • Aristophanes
... bringing down his big hand with a resounding slap upon his knee. "Mrs. Macdonald's the body for you! There's not a better woman in Rudham, and I know 'em pretty well in these parts. Her husband's only just gone up street; he were talkin' here not five minutes ago. There's only their two selves, and the cottage one of the best ...
— The Village by the River • H. Louisa Bedford
... read it all over again from the beginning? I fancied that she must have done this last because she did not like to read such a lot of stupid, crookedly written stuff herself, yet wanted to point out to Papa my utter lack of feeling. I expected him to slap me in the face with the verses and say, "You bad boy! So you have forgotten your Mamma! Take that for it!" Yet nothing of the sort happened. On the contrary, when the whole had been read, Grandmamma said, "Charming!" and kissed me on the forehead. Then ...
— Childhood • Leo Tolstoy
... she belongs to you," said David, encouragingly, "but—confound you—I can't believe it, you old dog! I can't believe it!" He leaned over and gave Brokaw a jocular slap, forcing a laugh out of himself. "She's too pretty for you. Prettiest kid I ever saw! How did it happen? ...
— The Courage of Marge O'Doone • James Oliver Curwood
... My boat's not gone far. Whistle her, and I'll go slap for Bristol. Never you mind for a day ...
— Stories by English Authors: The Sea • Various
... boy, yes; it is a deal of money is n't it?"... said Gudule's brother, accompanying his words with a sounding slap on his massive thigh. "I should rather think it is. With that you can do something, at all events... and shall I tell you something? In Bohemia the oat crop is, unfortunately, very bad this season. But in Moravia it's splendid, and is two groats cheaper.... So there's your chance, Ephraim, ...
— A Ghetto Violet - From "Christian and Leah" • Leopold Kompert
... distaste she told Linda that positively she could slap her for letting them bring up orange-juice. "How often must I explain to you that it freezes my fingers." Linda replied that she had repeated this in the breakfast-room and perhaps they had the wrong order. Neither her mother nor she said anything ...
— Linda Condon • Joseph Hergesheimer
... cupped, arched blue Of Heaven it rose. Its flickering tongues up-drew And vanished in the sunshine. How it came We guessed not, nor what thing could be its name. From each to each had sprung those sparks which flew Together into fire. But we knew The winds would slap and quench it in their game. And so we graved and fashioned marble blocks To treasure it, and placed them round about. With pillared porticos we wreathed the whole, And roofed it with bright bronze. Behind carved locks Flowered ...
— Sword Blades and Poppy Seed • Amy Lowell
... eyes, lost in infinite contemplation. They glittered like an animal's in the calm of digestion, or in a chance gleam of light, nothing more. Withal the lady was common, vulgar, accustomed to govern by a slap all the little world of her native hut, and the least opposition threw ...
— Artists' Wives • Alphonse Daudet
... they left the road and took their way over fields; twice they forced a passage through a slap in a dyke; thrice they used gaps in the paling which MacLure had made ...
— Stories by English Authors: Scotland • Various
... tranquilly deposited the rock full upon the shrub and proceeded to slap mortar around it and tap ...
— Clark's Field • Robert Herrick
... Judith had a slap-dash impressionistic manner of cooking all her own, following no rules or recipes, but with an unerring instinct that produced results. She said she cooked by ear. Whatever her method, the motormen were vastly pleased with the hot suppers she ...
— The Comings of Cousin Ann • Emma Speed Sampson
... her bird's cage hanging from one of the lashings of the awning, close beside her. I'd just been down to fetch our third officer's telescope; and as I came up again, something brushed past me. I saw the cat spring up at the cage, the cord snapped, and down went bird, cage, cat, and all, slap-dash into ...
— Little Folks (December 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various
... conceited as to think that everybody likes us. Now, for example, I can see that you don't like me and my ways one bit. But Lord love you, that isn't necessary. The one thing necessary is for me to run this Home according to the book, and if you're fool enough to prefer a slap-dash boarding-house to this hygienic Home, why, you'll make your bed—or rather some slattern of a landlady will make it—and you can lie in it. Come with me. ...
— The Job - An American Novel • Sinclair Lewis
... Moss exclaimed quickly. "Slap-up offices; thousands of letters a day full of postal orders; shutters up suddenly—and bunco! Fine appearance for the job!" he ...
— An Amiable Charlatan • E. Phillips Oppenheim
... Marry, that was a slap on the mouth to my young knight, who grew as red as scarlet, and cast down his eyes upon his boots, while M. Joel began to demonstrate the magic blood-letting to them ...
— Sidonia The Sorceress V2 • William Mienhold |
