Do we say fast or abrupt

fast 10495 occurrences

For five years I proceeded with success proportionate to close application and untainted integrity; was a daring bidder at every sale; always paid my notes before they were due; and advanced so fast in commercial reputation, that I was proverbially marked out as the model of young traders, and every one expected that a few years would make me an alderman.

and, when I envied the finery of my neighbours, told me that brag was a good dog, but hold-fast was a better.

The coffin is made of woven reeds or hollow canes tied fast at both ends.

Men blacked the whole face for a period of ten days after a death in the family, while the women blacked only the cheeks; the faces of the children were blacked for three months; they were also required to fast for the same length of time, the fasting to consist of eating but one meal per day, to be made entirely of hominy, and partaken of about sunset.

Some in country; some different place," answered Iromea, who ran from English to French to Tahitian, but of course not with the ease of Lovaina, for that great heart knew many of the cities of her father's land, was educated in needlework style, and with a little dab of Yankee culture, now fast disappearing as she grew older.

Familiar faces of passengers appeared on her deck as she made fast to the quay, holding cigarettes as if they had waked up after a night in their own beds.

Lovaina almost wept with astonishment and grief, but kept the champagne moving toward the Chappe-Hall table as fast as it could be cooled, meanwhile assuring the scandalized guest that nothing undecorous ever happened in the Tiare Hotel, but that it were better it did than that young men should go to evil resorts for their outbursts.

He had a perfection of ease in his movements; not fast, for he was very big, but with never an unnecessary gesture nor word.

Looking toward the shore, the edge of milky coral sand met the green matting of moss and grass, and then the eye marked the fields of sugar-cane, the forests of false coffee on which grew the vanilla-vines, the groves of cocoanuts, and then the fast-climbing ridges and the glorious ravines, the misty heights and the grim crags.

They were trenchermen beyond compare, and the dishes were emptied as fast as filled.

So rapid was the movement, so fast the music, so strenuous the singing, and so actual the vision of the dancer, that she exhausted herself in a few minutes, and another took the turf.

We made one by rolling four blankets together tightly and tying around them a long rope with which our boat was made fast to the ship when we embarked.

The natives are dying fast, and we must replace them, or the land will become jungle.

I copied her action, and lulled by the falling water, the rippling of the pool, and the drowsy rustling of the trees, I fell fast asleep, and dreamed of Eve and the lotus-eaters.

Tahia of Atuona She held fast.

But Dryden, although thus closely beleaguered, held fast his integrity; and no prospect of personal advantage, or importunity on the part of Tonson, could induce him to take a step inconsistent with his religious and political sentiments.

The end of Dryden's labours was now fast approaching; and, as his career began upon the stage, it was in some degree doomed to terminate there.

Before the end of my visit to Harley the Duke and I became fast friends, and while not possessing Antony's lightness of wit or personal attractions, he is an agreeable companion and out of the ordinary run of young men.

You must have lived very fast; who knows what you have done in the worldsly boots!

During our absence Mr. Roe, who was fast recovering from the effects of his fall, had obtained the sun's meridional altitude upon the islet at the entrance of the river, which gave 15 degrees 25 minutes 46 seconds for its latitude, differing from the plan of last year by only fifteen seconds.

When they have eaten they lie down till the next low water, and then all that are able march out, be it night or day, rain or shine, 'tis all one; they must attend the weirs, or else they must fast; for the earth affords them no food at all.

They did greedily devour what we gave them, but took no notice of the ship, or any thing in it, and when they were set on land again, they ran away as fast as they could.

They hearing the noise, ran away as fast as they could drive; and when they ran away in haste, they would cry gurry, gurry, speaking deep in the throat.

On one occasion it was necessary to lay a kedge anchor out in the direction of their dwelling-place, and upon the boat's crew landing and carrying it along the beach, the natives followed and intimated by signs that we should not go that way; as soon however as the anchor was fixed and they understood our intention, they assisted the people in carrying the hawser to make fast to it.

I dared not turn my head, for I had still to guard myself against the traitor Von Reuss's attack, but with the tail of my eye I could see two or three men rise from behind bushes and rocks, and come running as fast as they could towards us.

abrupt 832 occurrences

It thus assists in relieving the abrupt projections and depressions of the general surface, and in giving roundness and symmetry to the entire body.

Diana is never abrupt; her voice is ever modulated to soft, even tones; she rises from a chair or couch with the lithe, sinuous motion of a serpent uncoiling.

My abrupt action seemed to bring Joyce to herself.

She was just busy thinking how rude he was not even to have said "Good morning," when an abrupt remark from him caused her to look up.

"Perhaps you will tell me what you suspect?" "Will you forgive me, in my turn, if I am abrupt, or if I speak my mind a little too plainly?"

The natural result was that his manner was offensively abrupt.

When one has been bowling the whole morning, and bowling well, without the slightest success, one is inclined to be abrupt.

All scientific additions came to an abrupt stop about the decade of 1880-90.

Cissie's own interest in historic furniture and textiles came to an abrupt conclusion.

In its surface Africa has been compared to an inverted saucer,the high plateaus occupying most of the interior descending to the sea by short, abrupt, and steep slopes, so that the wide and peaceful rivers of the plateaus are lashed into foam as they approach the ocean by many series of rapids and cataracts.

The meeting of the stiff marl and the fine sand was abrupt, and well marked by the vegetation.

The remainder is rather abrupt, at least much more so than the lovers of fervid poetry could wish, especially as the termination is with the following exquisite ballad: Our native land, our native vale, A long and last adieu!

It grew rather stern, rather abrupt.

" It was on the strength of such abrupt questions that strangers were apt to think that the Khan had fallen into his second childhood before his time.

I must return to the army, and these cruel circumstances oblige me either to make a declaration which she may possibly condemn as too abrupt, or go and leave her unknowing of my heart, and thereby deprive myself even of her pity:Which party, madam, shall I take?Will the severe extreme, to which I am driven, be sufficient to attone for a presumption which else would merit her disdain?

We may observe, in conclusion, that the abrupt termination of Rasselas, so left, according to sir John Hawkins, by its author, to admit of continuation, and its unbroken gloom, induced Miss E. Cornelia Knight to present to the public a tale, entitled Dinarbas, to exhibit the fairer view of life.

The eye passes over rocks, rugged, broken, and abrupt towards their summits, crowned and darkened with wood; and the narrow road winding between the trees, until it loses itself in the forest, forms a feature very gratifying to the traveller.

They addressed these words to him in the abrupt tone in which men usually speak when anxious to get rid of a troublesome person, and instantly arose and walked away.

Immediately in front of him all signs of the trail ceased; both tracks came to an abrupt end.

The small settlement came to an abrupt ending just over the brow of the hill.

But to-day his manner was more abrupt than usual.

Her conduct towards Annie was just the same, in fact, she more than once answered her grandmother in such a tart and abrupt manner, that her mother whipped her for it.

If poetic diction be different in species from plain English, then let us have it as poetical as possible, and as unlike English; as ungrammatical, abrupt, involved, transposed, as the clumsiness, carelessness, or caprice of man can make it.

It seems to me I've seen youjust lately" Moffatt seemed about to answer, but his reply was checked by an abrupt movement on the part of Mr. Spragg.

She did not know what had passed between her guests before her abrupt descent through the pergola, but she was quite certain she had fallen into the middle of a psychological moment.

Do we say   fast   or  abrupt