Do we say idle or idol

idle 3575 occurrences

I had graver thoughts to occupy my mind than the punctilios of idle youth, and yet I did not see how the thing could have been shunned.

Weak as I was, I had the fierce satisfaction that our errand had not been idle.

We had gone too far to turn back, and, as our proverb says, "It is idle to swallow the cow and choke on the tail.

" I knew it was idle to protest.

But you would not have me stay idle when my plain duty commands.

I told myself that Ringan would never have countenanced this idle grief.

My pistols hung idle, and the ropes drove the hafts into my flesh.

St. Leger's promises would be as the idle wind when Thayendanega's followers wanted victims for the stake!"

I was sick at heart and literally faint with fear when this knowledge was forced in upon me, for I knew only too well how idle would be all the promises of St. Leger if the savages were inclined to massacre the prisoners that were surrendered on promises of fair treatment.

He began by saying that it was the opinion of himself and his staff that the men ought to know exactly the condition of affairs, lest they be led astray by idle fears, and to that end he called upon the quartermaster for a detailed statement of the amount of eatables then on hand.

"If those who are to suffer were Colonel Gansevoort's nearest friends, still must he remain here idle rather than put in jeopardy all the garrison.

All knew that we inside the fortification were powerless to aid those who had wilfully gone to their doom, and none better than those same brave fellows who were ready to risk their lives in behalf of comrades who would have worked disaster to the entire garrison, yet they could not stand idle without at least a show of willingness to face danger in the hope of saving life.

I was literally sickened by the horrible scene, and began to wish most fervently that I had been the one to draw the shortest twig, for it was by no means agreeable to remain there idle while murder was being done, even though it was a bitter enemy who had thus been cowardly done to death.

Yet, lest any should say that the Emperor neglects his duties, absorbed in idle amusement, I will refer thy invention to the chief armourers of my capital.

It was at once understood that the new conqueror would not remain idle within the crumbling walls of Constantinople.

King James was flying; the Dutchmen were coming; awful stories about them and the Prince of Orange Mrs. Worksop used to tell to the idle little page, who enjoyed the exciting narratives.

Under these circumstances it is idle to speak of this well-known relief picture as a portrait of the Queen.

Cæsar too had known and loved him from his childhood; but the stories which are related to account for this attachment must be rejected as foolish inventions of idle persons; for nothing is more natural than that Cæsar should look with great fondness upon a young man of such extraordinary and amiable qualities.

Meanwhile Harold had not been idle.

We are here in a most pleasant country, full of walks, and idle to our heart's desire.

An' so he did try; for there's not an idle bone in that same boy's skin.

For Ulysses had concealed from them the wounds, never to be healed, which Scylla was to open: their terror would else have robbed them all of all care to steer, or move an oar, and have made them hide under the hatches, for fear of seeing her, where he and they must have died an idle death.

I have not been idle.

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.

and how much would our wealth be increased, by saving those sums which are yearly squandered in idle expeditions, or in negotiations equally useless, and, perhaps, equally expensive?

idol 1106 occurrences

"If we now destroy the German national idol, it must not be to set up an idol of our own in its place.

"If we now destroy the German national idol, it must not be to set up an idol of our own in its place.

Meanwhile Colonel Newcome was preparing his mind to leave his idol, who he knew would be happy without as with him.

He, himself, was comfortably settled in the only place which would ever be home to him,his son, the idol of his heart, was with Ethel, his darling.

No idol e'er this heart could share, This heart has worshipp'd thee alone.

Rome, the "Eternal City," was regenerated, and a new life bounded through her old limbs; and the August head of the Catholic Church, the greatest religious potentate of the civilized world, the infallible, the object of veneration to half Christendom, and hitherto the most despotic and conservative sovereign in Europe, was now the daring innovator, the radical, the idol of the populace.

Self has got to be the idol, though in the general scramble a man is sometimes puzzled to know whether he is himself, or one of the neighbours.

I was in Persepolis for the time; and the burning idol of their devotion almost converted me into a worshipper.

Its idol was jubilant, careless as a schoolboy, babbling but sober.

I knew that he plucked flowers meant to be given to her, only to lay them carelessly on the floor beside his seat when school "took in," lacking the courage to bestow them brazenly upon his idol as others did.

Like Mr. Benfield, she was in danger of raising an ideal idol, and of spending the remainder of her days in devotion to qualities, rarely if ever found identified with a person that never had existed.

Their idol was not happy.

Yet vehement, or direct, or plain as were Jeremiah's denunciations to the idol-worshippers of Jerusalem in the seventh century before it was finally destroyed by Titus, he was no more severe than when Jesus denounced the hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees, no more mournful than when he lamented over the approaching ruin of the Temple.

Another idol has displaced me; and if it can comfort you in time to come, as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to grieve.

" "What Idol has displaced you?" "A golden one.

They had likewise an idol called Jomala, which is still the name of one of the deities of the Finlanders.

About the lake there are many fair buildings and palaces of the principal men, and numerous idol temples, with monasteries of idolatrous priests.

Sometimes with the queen, and sometimes with these concubines, the king used to go in his barge for recreation on the lake, or to visit the idol temples.

On crossing this river they came to a great city, where the ambassadors were more splendidly, feasted that in any other place; and here they saw a more magnificent idol temple than any of the former.

In one of the temples of this city there stands a gilded brass image fifty cubits high, called the image with a thousand hands, for such is the number with which this idol is furnished, and on the palm of each there is an eye.

The feet of this idol are near ten cubits long.

Round this idol there are several others of different heights, placed in chambers or niches, some reaching only as high as the ankle of the great one, others to the knee, and others again as high as the breast.

In this retirement, the emperor has no picture or idol of any of his gods; as during this period, all his devotions are addressed solely to the GOD of Heaven.

On the contrary, the emperor went to an idol temple, where he said on his knees, "The GOD of Heaven is angry with me, and therefore hath burned my palace.

The circumstances of the idol temple, says the editor of Astleys Collection, seems malicious; as, in his opinion, there are no images in the imperial temples of Pe-king.

Do we say   idle   or  idol