As it struck a sunken mine it gave two plunging jerks.

Next a hind leg stretched out straight and tense as a bar, and was taken back again in nervous little jerks.

From the feeling of turns, jerks and swings, Andy decided that within four minutes the rig had left the post-office fully half-a-mile to the rear.

" The words came with difficult jerks, his breathing was short and laboured.

His words came in quick jerks, as if for some reason he wanted to get them spoken without delay.

The buzzer goes on and on in impatient jerks which mount in anger.

For the extraordinary torture, which then took the name of estrapade, they raised the victim, with two hundred and fifty pounds attached to his feet, to the ceiling by means of a capstan; he was then allowed to fall several times successively by jerks to the level of the ground, by which means his arms and legs were completely dislocated (Fig. 340).

These horses were first made to give short jerks; and when the agony had elicited heart-rending cries from the unfortunate man, who felt his limbs being dislocated without being broken, the four horses were all suddenly urged on with the whip in different directions, and thus all the limbs were strained at one moment.

He then placed his feet on the tied hands of the condemned, and suspending himself by his hands to the gibbet, he finished off his victim by repeated jerks, thus ensuring complete strangulation.

A.They are never pressed down by weights; in fact, weights would not answer on a locomotive at all, as they would jump up and down with the jerks or jolts of the train, and cause much of the steam to escape.

Probably one of those jerks in a Land Rover.

The public madness was immense, tempestuous, and unequalled by anything of the kind since the "jerks" which appeared in the early part of this century under the thundering ministrations of Peter Cartwright.

When they straightened out on the level going beneath, the bay was staggering; there was no longer any of the lilt and ease of the strong horse running; it was a succession of jerks and jars, and the panting was a sharper sound than the thunder of the hoofs.

"Chronic by jerks," she sighed; "there can be few things worse than that; and at her age, too!"

So, the next morning the two nurses set out together: Richards carrying Paul, and Susan leading little Florence by the hand, and giving her such jerks and pokes as she considered it wholesome to administer.

The system of coupling adopted is alike rude and uncomfortable; instead of screwing the carriages tightly up against the buffers, as is the practice in England, they are simply hooked together, thus subjecting the passengers to a succession of jerks when starting, and consequently producing an equal number of concussions when the train stops.

She, in a series of jerks and pauses, took off the ring; with an expression and a gesture that gave no further hint of how she had valued it, both for its own beauty and for what it represented, she handed it to him.

I try to console myself with such reflections, and then I break forth, and crying passionately:jerks, wire splintered wood.

It does not last so long as the oak, but it is more elastic and can better resist sudden shocks and jerks; it is therefore particularly desirable for the spokes of wheels and ladders and the beams of floors.

The cam for working the nipper has also been altered to give a smoother motion than usual; one that moves the nipper quietly and without jerks when the machine runs from 80 to 95 strokes per minute.

The light is turned down; he jerks his head and body, passes his hand over his eyes and begins to talk in broken, childish sentences.

Again the jerks, the rubbing of the eyes, and the Indian maid is once more Mr. Copeland.

The servant, after waiting for two or three more jerks at the bell, so as to be quite sure that it was the bell, went to the door, and there found Mr. Numble, the butcher, who supplied the Whedells with meat on the strength of the brownstone front.

The idea is often a very simple one when you get at it; it's only obscure because it is conveyed by hints and jerks and nudges.

He procured a tough and pliant shoot of a kind of vine (Cissus) of sufficient length to pass nearly round the tree, and holding one end of this in each hand and pressing his legs and feet against the tree, he ascended by a series of jerks, resting occasionally, holding on for half a minute at a time with one end of the vine in his mouth.