20 Metaphors for inquiry

If it isn't our Smiths, think what an outrage any inquiries would be; and if it is, how cruel to stir the matter up!

That this is not a proper time for this inquiry has been, indeed, urged, but surely no time can be more proper than when we may, by a resolution unanimously passed, regulate, in some degree, the conduct of the other house, and faint to them the opinion of this assembly on a question which is, perhaps, to-morrow to be brought before them.

Lately, within these last ten years, Caius Maenius, dictator, having enforced inquiries, with more strictness than consisted with the safety of some powerful men, a charge was thrown out by his enemies, that he himself was infected with the very crime against which his inquiries were directed;now Maenius, I say, in order that he might, in a private capacity, meet the imputation, abdicated the dictatorship.

The first inquiry we naturally make is in regard to the various religious systems which were accepted by the ancient nations, since religion, in some form or other, is the most universal of institutions, and has had the earliest and the greatest influence on the condition and life of peoplesthat is to say, on their civilizationsin every period of the world.

[The preceding Inquiry is merely an outline.

The Knight's first inquiry at the Abbey in giving orders, as the most acting executor, was"What would be the difference in the expense between a public and private funeral?" and was told only a few pounds to the prebendaries, and about ninety pairs of gloves to the choir and attendants; and he then determined that, "as Dr. Johnson had no music in him, he should choose the cheapest manner of interment."

Lewisham's inquiries for evening teaching and private tuition were essentially provisional measures.

It may be urged, my lords, I own, that all inquiries into futurity are idle speculations; that the expedient proposed is proper on the present occasion, and that no methods of justice are to be allowed, if the possibility of applying them to bad purposes, is a sufficient reason for rejecting them.

A vague sense that the prefects were at fault, and that this inquiry was a blind to cover their shortcomings, spread through the meeting.

Whether this inquiry was a cause for ill-feeling or not, Mifflin was one of the most outspoken against the commander-in-chief as his opponents gathered force, and Washington informed Henry that he "bore the second part in the cabal."

Now there were several fishermen fishing in boats near that castle, and of these the pilot of Sir Tristram's boat made inquiry what castle that was.

"Inquiry is the proper duty and function of the House of Commons....

Blessed be God, I have escaped snares set for me by this arch-fiend, one of which a simple inquiry from you was the means of detecting.

On one day as many as six hundred people, several of whom were quite poor patients, called to ask how he was, and daily inquiries from all parts, including the Royal Family were a proof how much he was respected.

Scriptural inquiry, the study of languages, and of the history of the Church, watching the progress of religious light and liberty on the Continent of Europe, his garden, the binding of his booksthese were the employments of his industrious leisure.

He was obliged to make some answer to this speech, and so he briefly remarked that he had no desire to alter the appearance of his dining-room, and then hastened to change the conversation by making some inquiries about that interesting young woman, her niece, who, he had been informed, was not a married lady, as he had supposed her to be.

It is about the gentleman and the lady that used to set in them places, that inquiries is bein' made.

Free inquiry, religious as well as civil libertythis is the spirit of Protestantism.

Their anxious inquiry regarding every particular relating to the treatment, is a strong manifestation of their uneasiness on this subject.

To inquire thus is, perhaps, to inquire too curiously; yet such inquiries are the stuff of which great scientific theories are made.

20 Metaphors for  inquiry