15 Verbs to Use for the Word distaffs

"He consumed his time in writing verses to the canon's niece; and even as Hercules in the gay court of Omphale threw down his club in order to hold the distaff, so Abélard laid aside his sceptre as a monarch of the schools to sing sonnets at the feet of Héloïse."

Hercules served Omphale, put on an apron, took a distaff and spun; Thraso the soldier was so submissive to Thais, that he was resolved to do whatever she enjoined.

In one corner stood a low table of Italian mosaic, bearing a somewhat battered statuette of Saint Geneviève plying her distaff, and the walls were fairly covered with photographs photographs, for the most part, of women more anxious to display their charms of person to an admiring world than to observe the rigour of convention.

One division of this army had a white standard, in the middle of which was depicted a distaff full of cotton; a half-filled spindle was hanging to the distaff; and the field, studded with empty spindles, bore this inscription: "Now, fair one, come!"

At last the thread was snapped; her head was bowed; Life dropped the distaff through his hands serene; And loving neighbors smoothed her careful shroud, While death and winter closed the autumn scene.

285 So erst, when HERCULES, untamed by toil, Own'd the soft power of DEJANIRA'S smile; His lion-spoils the laughing Fair demands, And gives the distaff to his awkward hands; O'er her white neck the bristly mane she throws, 290 And binds the gaping whiskers on her brows; 290 Plaits round her slender waist the shaggy vest, And clasps the velvet paws across her breast.

She was offered a distaff and a sword.

He paints the three Fates for instance like young and joyous Bacchantes; if we placed rose-garlands and thyrsi in their hands instead of the distaff and the thread of human destinies, they might figure upon the panels of a banquet-chamber in Pompeii.

"For shame, Sir!" said the elderly woman, raising her distaff,her great glittering eyes flashing beneath her silver hair like tongues of lightning from a white cloud, "Have a care!this child is named for blessed Saint Agnes, and is under her protection.

Agnes wound some silvery-white flax round her distaff, and seated herself near him under an orange-tree; and while her small fingers were twisting the flax, her large, thoughtful eyes were wandering off on the deep blue sea, pondering over and over the strange events of the day before, and the dreams of the night.

The Distaff. Distaff, blithely whirling distaff, azure-eyed Athena's gift To the sex the aim and object of whose lives is household thrift, Seek with me the gorgeous city raised by Neilus, where a plain Roof of pale-green rush o'er-arches Aphroditè's hallowed fane.

" "Beware the grandmother's distaff!" said the other, laughing.

"Tradesmen left their shops, women their distaffs, servants ran from their masters, children from their parents, scholars left their tutors, all to hear him, some for novelty, some for zeal.

The maid of Domrémy was about to change her distaff for an oriflamme.

If she chose the distaff she became a slave; if a sword she struck it to the heart of her paramour and emancipated herself from her degrading connection.

15 Verbs to Use for the Word  distaffs