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Gavel   Listen
noun
Gavel  n.  
1.
The mallet of the presiding officer in a legislative body, public assembly, court, masonic body, etc.
2.
A mason's setting maul.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Gavel" Quotes from Famous Books



... in disorder, and a dozen men were trying to talk. Waterman, smiling patiently, rapped with the official gavel that Judge Walters wielded when counsel, in the heat of argument, ...
— Otherwise Phyllis • Meredith Nicholson

... in vain with his gavel for quiet. Not until they had worn themselves to momentary exhaustion could the ...
— The Vision Spendid • William MacLeod Raine

... bride beat a tattoo of outraged authority with the gavel, wholly without avail. The confusion that reigned in the charming drawing-room of Cicily Hamilton did but grow momently the more confounded. The Civitas Club was in full operation, and would brook no restraint. Each ...
— Making People Happy • Thompson Buchanan

... the Riverbeds started threateningly toward Elmer, and his friends struggled to get closer to him. An excitable woman in the audience screamed. Miss Grey was pounding vigorously with her gavel, but to no effect. Then Colonel Butler himself took matters in hand. He rose to his feet, stretched ...
— The Flag • Homer Greene

... a commotion. Hazlitt looked about him and saw strange faces light up, strange eyes gleam out of the electric-glowing dusk. Snow was falling outside. Pauline's hand gripped his forearm. Her fingers burned. Raps of a gavel for silence. The judge spoke. A sad-faced man, with a heavy mustache combating his words, stood up in the jury-box and spoke. In a vast silence a clerk beside the judge's bench cleared his voice, ...
— Erik Dorn • Ben Hecht

... small table before Mrs. Dankshire, shaded by a magnificent bunch of roses, lay that core and crux of all parliamentry dignity, the gavel; an instrument no self-respecting chairwoman may be without; yet which she still ...
— The Forerunner, Volume 1 (1909-1910) • Charlotte Perkins Gilman

... permanent organization," he said, using a bank ruler for a gavel; "we must first have a resolution to form an association; after that decide on a name; then elect ...
— A Canadian Bankclerk • J. P. Buschlen

... as if trying to overtake the fortunes that had slipped away from them. In the midst of all this din and confusion Fred Halsey stood where he could see Bryant and mark the effect of the blow he had given him. Down, down went the stock till 81 was reached. Then the gavel fell, and the battle was over for that day. Brokers Manson and Tracey rushed over to Fred and grasped his hand. Neither one had lost any fleece in ...
— Halsey & Co. - or, The Young Bankers and Speculators • H. K. Shackleford

... fashion of a cimeter had been laid. The blade was in its scabbard, but the scabbard was a mass of jewels, and the handle a flaming ruby. The belt was webbed with pearls and glistening brilliants. Under the sword were the instruments sacred then and ever since to Master Masons—a square, a gavel, a ...
— The Prince of India - Or - Why Constantinople Fell - Volume 1 • Lew. Wallace

... in my good money to attend this feast, like the rest of the rank and file, and now I have to work my passage as well. I am simply put in as a filler. The President, with his awe-inspiring, chill-producing gavel, is the "wrapper," and I am the filler; and you, who smoke, have observed ere this that a mighty fine wrapper is often associated with ...
— Modern Eloquence: Vol II, After-Dinner Speeches E-O • Various

... definite information," he began, when recognized and after the President of the Senate had pounded with the gavel to restore quiet, "so that this house can consider this important ...
— A Gentleman from Mississippi • Thomas A. Wise

... GAVEL-KIND, name of a land-tenure existing chiefly in Kent; from 16th century often used to denote custom of dividing a deceased man's property equally among ...
— The Alchemist • Ben Jonson

... The call bell began clanging slowly. Lancedale, glancing around, saw Cardon and nodded. On both sides of the chamber, the Literates began taking seats, and finally the call bell stopped, and Literate President Morehead rapped with his gavel. The opening formalities were hustled through. The routine held-over business was rubber-stamped with hasty votes of approval, even including the decisions of the extemporary meeting of that morning on the affair at Pelton's. ...
— Null-ABC • Henry Beam Piper and John Joseph McGuire

... five feet nine, and thirty pounds lighter. Between us we had about an average forehead—his went up to the top of his head—my hairline starts about where my eyebrows leave off. Robes or no robes, there was something judicial about him, as though he'd been born with a gavel in ...
— Modus Vivendi • Gordon Randall Garrett

... the old war-horses felt like colts. They assumed their leadership, however, with that obliviousness to youth which usually characterizes old age. The gifted and attractive Reed had ruled often by aphorism and wit, but the unimaginative Cannon ruled by the gavel alone; and in the course of time he and his clique of veterans forgot entirely the ...
— The Boss and the Machine • Samuel P. Orth

... come to order. My gavel is in Iowa City, so I will use my pocket knife. We have to make a little change in our program. Our leader, Mr. Magill, is not ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Forty-Second Annual Meeting • Northern Nut Growers Association

... Flanking this were badges of divers shape and size, representing societies to which she belonged. In the cabinet at her left were still more disturbing treasures such as Gerald's first pair of shoes, and the gavel that the last president of the Federated Sisterhood had used before she had, as Mrs. Ivy was fond of saying, "been called upon to hand in her resignation ...
— A Romance of Billy-Goat Hill • Alice Hegan Rice

... absurdity of such a mode of decision seems to have been forcibly impressed upon the mind of the earl, by this affecting circumstance; and he agreed with the burgesses and inhabitants of Leicester, on the payment of one penny for every house that had a gable or gavel in the High-street (a payment afterwards known by the term gavel pence) that all pleas of the above mentioned nature should be determined by a ...
— A Walk through Leicester - being a Guide to Strangers • Susanna Watts

... tapped twice on the table with his gavel. "The basic reason for our meeting is to report progress and to reconsider the possibilities of new elements having entered into the situation which might cause us to re-examine our policies. I think we already have a fairly good idea of each other's development." His voice went ...
— Adaptation • Dallas McCord Reynolds

... take his place in the deacons' seat, below, with the warning of the meeting, the statute-book, and the ballot-boxes arranged before him on the communion-table, which in course of time became so banged and battered, by dint of lusty gavel-strokes, that there was scarcely a place big enough to put one's finger upon which was not bruised and dented. For, in the days of the fierce conflict between the Federalists and Democrats, the meetings were often noisy and disorderly; and once, even, ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I, No. 1, Nov. 1857 • Various

... self-conscious. His heart pounded. He was still more agitated when the ballots were counted and Gunch said, "It's a pleasure to announce that Georgie Babbitt will be the next assistant gavel-wielder. I know of no man who stands more stanchly for common sense and enterprise than good old George. Come on, let's give him our ...
— Babbitt • Sinclair Lewis

... and gold down the front, with the foamiest of sea-foam green trains hanging from her shoulders away out behind her. Slowly, majestically, she walked across the room, and stopped before a table on which lay a golden gavel. A quick tap of the gavel silenced the little murmur that had arisen at her entrance. The king glanced at the queen, and they both smiled with pride in their stately daughter. The princess ...
— Boys and Girls Bookshelf (Vol 2 of 17) - Folk-Lore, Fables, And Fairy Tales • Various

... Babson's gavel just as Mr. Tutt was leading Mr. Walsh, Mr. Tompkins and the others through the winding paths of the Argonne forests with tin helmets on their heads in the struggle ...
— Tutt and Mr. Tutt • Arthur Train

... with noisy excitement. Men threatened each other with violence on the floor of the House, cursing and shaking their fists. Others rushed here and there trying to find some trace of the Clerk. The Speaker, breathless from calling for order and pounding with his gavel, had to sit down and ...
— Stories of Achievement, Volume III (of 6) - Orators and Reformers • Various

... saved were some of the ivies and the roses which the classes had planted year by year; these the fire had not injured; and a slip from the great wistaria vine on the south side of College Hall has proved to be alive and vigorous. The alumnae gavel and the historic Tree Day spade were also unharmed. But that no life was lost outweighs all the other losses, and this was due to the fire drill which, in one form or another, has been carried on at Wellesley since the earliest years of the college. Doctor Edward Abbott, ...
— The Story of Wellesley • Florence Converse

... the grain, a machine for supporting the grain at the instant of cutting, a machine for receiving the cut grain, a machine for conveying the cut grain to a bindery, a machine for measuring the cut grain into gavels, a machine for compressing the gavel, a machine for applying the band, a machine for tying the band, a machine for discharging the bundle, a machine to receive the bundles and carry them to a place of deposit, and a machine to deposit the accumulated bundles. The machine would be useful with one or more of these ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 1178, June 25, 1898 • Various

... the attention of the audience from your attack or reply. Again, the relief is only temporary, for in a few minutes you are again in the same dilemma. Then, worst of all, right in the middle of an argument, down comes the gavel, and with a lame "I thank you," you sit down. There are men who can carry the time in their heads, but as a rule they are not good debaters, as they do so because only a part of their energies are thrown into the ...
— The Art of Lecturing - Revised Edition • Arthur M. (Arthur Morrow) Lewis

... was nominated with speeches and elected with votes to be the chairman, he stood up on the platform and took a gavel and banged with the gavel and made the Committee of Sixty ...
— Rootabaga Stories • Carl Sandburg

... opened the door to announce that Governor Johnson was in the anteroom requesting speech with Coleman. The latter, handing his gavel to Dempster, ...
— The Gray Dawn • Stewart Edward White

... there. The old chap falls flat on his face at Dravot’s feet and kisses ’em. ‘Luck again,’ says Dravot, across the Lodge to me, ‘they say it’s the missing Mark that no one could understand the why of. We’re more than safe now.’ Then he bangs the butt of his gun for a gavel and says:—‘By virtue of the authority vested in me by my own right hand and the help of Peachey, I declare myself Grand-Master of all Freemasonry in Kafiristan in this the Mother Lodge o’ the country, and King of Kafiristan equally with Peachey!’ At that he puts on his crown and I puts ...
— The Man Who Would Be King • Rudyard Kipling

... vice-president-at-large she presided over every session, and never was in better voice or more enthusiastic spirits. As she sat by the table clad in a handsome dress of black satin, she was the life and soul of the meetings.... She does not make much noise with her gavel,[80] nor does she have to use it often, but she manages to keep the organization over which she presides in a state of order that puts to shame many a convention of the other sex. Business is transacted in proper shape, and every important measure receives its due share of attention. There ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV • Various

... big enough to fill—it was really like the death of Napoleon in that world. There was J. M. Robertson, Foote, and Charles Watts. But Bradlaugh liked Foote as little as most autocrats like their successors; and when he, before his death surrendered the gavel (the hammer for thumping the table to secure order at a meeting) which was the presidential sceptre of the National Secular Society, he did so with an ill will which he did not attempt to conceal; ...
— Gilbert Keith Chesterton • Maisie Ward

... the bench and rapped with his gavel, and when the name of Sam Opdyke was called, heads craned, feet shuffled, and an oppressive ...
— The Roof Tree • Charles Neville Buck

... Adjoining to the eastern gavel of the old house a new building had been begun, but had only been carried up a few feet at the time of the siege. Since the year 1745, great alterations have been made in this building, which has been lowered ...
— Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745 - Volume III. • Mrs. Thomson

... brother's sake, Resolv'd to try his fortune on the seas. 'Tis now twelve years since we had tidings from him. If there was one among us who had heard That Leonard Ewbank was come home again, From the great Gavel [3], down by Leeza's Banks, And down the Enna, far as Egremont, The day would be a very festival, And those two bells of ours, which there you see Hanging in the open air—but, O good Sir! This is sad talk—they'll never sound for him Living or dead—When ...
— Lyrical Ballads with Other Poems, 1800, Vol. 2 • William Wordsworth

... chap falls flat on his face at Dravots feet and kisses em. Luck again, says Dravot, across the Lodge to me, they say its the missing Mark that no one could understand the why of. Were more than safe now. Then he bangs the butt of his gun for a gavel and says:By virtue of the authority vested in me by my own right hand and the help of Peachey, I declare myself Grand-Master of all Freemasonry in Kafiristan in this the Mother Lodge o the country, ...
— The Man Who Would Be King • Rudyard Kipling

... McTurpin's eyes. "Sold to Juana Briones for thirty-five dollars," he said, as his improvised gavel fell on ...
— Port O' Gold • Louis John Stellman

... the space of three hours until he be dead; and thereafter to be cut down by the hangman, his head, hands, and legs to be cut off, and distributed as follows—viz., his head to be affixed on an iron pin, and set on the pinnacle of the west gavel of the new prison of Edinburgh; one hand to be set on the port of Perth, the other on the port of Stirling; one leg and foot on the port of Aberdeen, the other on the port of Glasgow. If at his death penitent, and relaxed from excommunication, then ...
— Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers and Other Poems • W.E. Aytoun

... the president, a large florid woman of fifty, with gray hair rising from the brow, fluent of speech, endowed with a public manner, a commanding bust and a vigorous, ingratiating smile, wielded a gavel at a little table and directed the exercises. A paper on Shakespeare's heroines was read and discussed. Selections on the piano followed. A thin woman in eye-glasses, the literary editor of the Benham Sentinel, recited "Curfew ...
— Unleavened Bread • Robert Grant

... exceptions made and taken by Steger, and subsequently when he was cross-examining Stener, by Shannon, he errs greatly. At times the chamber was coruscating with these two gentlemen's bitter wrangles, and his honor was compelled to hammer his desk with his gavel, and to threaten both with contempt of court, in order to bring them to a sense of order. Indeed while Payderson was highly incensed, the ...
— The Financier • Theodore Dreiser

... floor again in a few minutes, so I thought it safer to call you before I started to sell. Mr. Randolph, they cannot take much more of anything in here, and if I begin to throw stocks over, it will bring the gavel inside of ten minutes; and that will be to announce a dozen failures. It's yet twenty minutes to one and God only knows what will happen before three. It's up to you, Mr. Randolph, to do something, and unless I am on a bad slant, you haven't many minutes ...
— Friday, the Thirteenth • Thomas W. Lawson

... only an adapted continuation of a medieval idea. On the raised dais under an unsanitary and dusty canopy of green plush sits the judge; instead of a sceptre he holds the gavel. This gavel, by the way, is falling more and more into disuse. As a symbol of authority, a little wooden hammer has become a trifle ludicrous. If a judge were to shake it too violently there might be a fear on the part of those ...
— The Man in Court • Frederic DeWitt Wells

... and white marble, while red, white, and yellow flowers were represented as growing from urns and vases. A long, double row of chairs stretched across the scene from wing to wing, flanking a table covered with a red cloth, on which was set a pitcher of water and a speaker's gavel. ...
— The Octopus • Frank Norris

... is this: if a man be slain we reckon all equally dear, English and Dane, at eight half marks of pure gold, except the churl who dwells on gavel land and their leisings, they are also equally dear at two hundred shillings. And if a king's thane be accused of manslaughter, if he desire to clear himself, let him do so before twelve king's thanes. If any man accuse a man who is of less degree than king's thane, ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 5 • Various

... president, a Mrs. Lake, advanced to the desk, smote it fiercely with a gavel and demanded order. The hall, which had been buzzing like a colony of June bugs, gradually grew still. Then Mrs. Lake opened the meeting. She delivered a short speech. Mrs. Black, in lieu of the secretary, who was absent, read the minutes. Then there were motions ...
— Cap'n Dan's Daughter • Joseph C. Lincoln

... that convention if a strong, courageous presiding officer had been in the chair. As I sat behind Mr. McPherson, the presiding officer, and watched the proceedings, I thought that if I had had that gavel in my hands there would have been no adjournment and James G. Blaine would have been nominated. An adjournment was secured, however; the lights were extinguished, and the enemies of Blaine united, and Hayes ...
— Fifty Years of Public Service • Shelby M. Cullom

... was settin' fire to—" The Judge hammering furiously with his gavel drowned his words. ...
— The Shepherd of the North • Richard Aumerle Maher

... naturally desire to know something of the manner in which the rough material was shaped into order, and the workmanship by which the whole was "fitly joined together." It can not be said of this fabric of legislation that it went up without "the sound of the hammer." The rap of the gavel was often heard enforcing order or limiting ...
— History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States • Wiliam H. Barnes

... said, that nature regulates our position for such spectacles, without any intermeddling of ours. When, indeed, a mountain stands, like Snowdon or Great Gavel in Cumberland, at the centre of a mountainous region, it is not denied that, at some seasons, when the early beams strike through great vistas in the hills, splendid effects of light and shade are produced; strange, ...
— Autobiographic Sketches • Thomas de Quincey

... other members, seated, wrote studiously; others mildly read newspapers; others lounged, half-standing against their desks, unlighted cigars in their mouths, laughing; all the while the patient Speaker tapped with his gavel on a small square of marble. Suddenly perfect calm would come and the voice of the reading clerk drone for half an hour or more, like a single bee in a ...
— In the Arena - Stories of Political Life • Booth Tarkington

... more law you won't be ignoramus enough to come into a public hearing and try to break it up. You'd better go and study law," said the indignant mayor. He pounded his gavel to indicate ...
— The Landloper - The Romance Of A Man On Foot • Holman Day

... willing to do; for as soon as they entered the room and caught sight of Glaubmann, who by this time was fairly cowering in his chair, they immediately began a concerted tirade that was only ended when Goldstein banged vigorously on the library table, using as a gavel one ...
— Elkan Lubliner, American • Montague Glass

... said Geoffrey, crushingly, bringing down his fist as an imaginary gavel with incredible force and dignity. 'Dr. and Mrs. Winship, will you oblige the Chair by acting as ...
— A Summer in a Canyon: A California Story • Kate Douglas Wiggin

... streets of Philadelphia during all the sessions of the conventions. In an off year, as partisans call it, there had never been seen so great excitement, enthusiasm and earnestness in any political assemblage. Mr. Durant called the Southern Convention to order with the same gavel that had been used in the Secession Convention in South Carolina. Governor Hamilton of Texas, who presented it for the occasion, reminded his audience that the whirligig of time brings about its revenges, and that it ...
— Twenty Years of Congress, Volume 2 (of 2) • James Gillespie Blaine

... first vice-president, Mrs. Anna M. Scott, might be heard, who made a brief but eloquent speech. When the time came for the final vote Speaker Cole surrendered his place to Representative Bigelow, so that a woman might wield the gavel when the result was announced.[21] The bill went immediately to the Governor, who signed it on the 15th. Colorado had by this ratification placed the seal of her approval on the twenty-six years of woman ...
— The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume VI • Various

... after-end of the cabin there was a platform, reached by several steps. Upon it the chief of the rowers sat; in front of him a sounding-table, upon which, with a gavel, he beat time for the oarsmen; at his right a clepsydra, or water-clock, to measure the reliefs and watches. Above him, on a higher platform, well guarded by gilded railing, the tribune had his quarters, overlooking ...
— Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ • Lew Wallace

... have two among our most treasured trophies, and with them an ivory ring beautifully formed which we saw made. Set in the ring is a blue stone of irregular shape which was fitted into its ivory niche with a nicety of workmanship that few jewellers could attain. I had fashioned for me also a gavel in the shape of a sleeping seal, made of fossil ivory from the Little Diomedes. The contrast of the weathered brown of the outside of the ivory with the pure white of the inner layers, when worked up into a carved design, gives the effect of ...
— The New North • Agnes Deans Cameron

... of the Hellenes, "loud as when billows lash the beetling crags." The trailing oars beat again into the water, and even as the ships once more gained way, Themistocles nodded to Ameinias, and he to the keleustes. The master oarsman leaped from his seat and crashed his gavel ...
— A Victor of Salamis • William Stearns Davis

... delegate with a weak voice had gained recognition for the laudable purpose of suggesting a limitation upon nominating speeches; the permanent chairman had mistaken him for another gentleman for whom he was prepared, and he hastened to correct his blunder. He seized the gavel and began pounding vigorously and the man with the weak voice never again caught ...
— A Hoosier Chronicle • Meredith Nicholson

... almost to disease, Who pepper'd the highest was surest to please. But let us be candid, and speak out our mind, If dunces applauded, he paid them in kind. Ye Kenricks, ye Kellys, and Woodfalls so grave, What a commerce was yours, while you got and you gavel How did Grub Street re-echo the shouts that you raised, While he was be-Rosciused and you were be-praised! But peace to his spirit, wherever it flies, To act as an angel and mix with the skies; Those poets who owe their best fame to his skill, Shall still be his flatterers, go where he will; ...
— Oliver Goldsmith • Washington Irving

... say correctly, "Solomon built the temple;" for he stood in that relation to the matter which supposes it would not have been built without his direction and command. To accomplish such an action, however, he need not raise a hammer or a gavel, or draw a line on the trestle board. His command made known to his ministers was sufficient to cause the work to be done. Hence the whole fact is indicated or declared by the single ...
— Lectures on Language - As Particularly Connected with English Grammar. • William S. Balch

... clump, pencil; set, batch, lot, pack; budget, assortment, bunch; parcel; packet, package; bundle, fascine[obs3], fasces[obs3], bale; seron[obs3], seroon[obs3]; fagot, wisp, truss, tuft; shock, rick, fardel[obs3], stack, sheaf, haycock[obs3]; fascicle, fascicule[obs3], fasciculus[Lat], gavel, hattock[obs3], stook[obs3]. accumulation &c. (store) 636; congeries, heap, lump, pile, rouleau[obs3], tissue, mass, pyramid; bing[obs3]; drift; snowball, snowdrift; acervation[obs3], cumulation; glomeration[obs3], agglomeration; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus

... capacity," and "To each capacity according to its work." Private property is to be retained, but its transmission by inheritance or testamentary disposition must be abolished. The property is to be held by a tenure resembling that of gavel-kind. It belongs to the community, and the priests, chiefs, or brehons, as the Celtic tribes call them, to distribute it for life to individuals, and to each individual according to his capacity. It was supposed that in this way the advantages of both common and individual property might be secured. ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 6 • Various

... Congress, which met in extra session, in October, 1877. He was prompt in his seat on the first day of the first session. Regularity in attendance, and constant attention to public business, have been characteristics of Mr. Robinson's Congressional career. He is in his seat when the gavel falls in the morning; he never leaves it until the House adjourns at night. He does not spend his time in importuning the departments for clerkships, but he welcomes the civil service law. He does not ...
— Bay State Monthly, Volume II. No. 4, January, 1885 - A Massachusetts Magazine • Various

... reassurance. Gaining a little time while the hall fairly rocked with its thunder of negation I laid the gavel down and stepped to the edge of the platform and ...
— Marse Henry, Complete - An Autobiography • Henry Watterson

... was obliged to leave the chair, as his predecessor Mr. Colfax had been compelled to do, "to chastise the insolence of the gentleman from Massachusetts." Butler replied by some charge against Blaine, to which Blaine, as he was walking back to take the gavel again, shouted out: "It's a calumny." My sympathies in the matter, so far as the measure of legislation was concerned, were with Butler, though I had, as is well known, little sympathy with ...
— Autobiography of Seventy Years, Vol. 1-2 • George Hoar

... in place except the Judge. Suddenly the CLERK looks off-stage right and motions for everybody to rise. Enter the JUDGE. He wears a black cap and gown and has his gavel in his hand. The two POLICEMEN walk behind him holding up his gown. He mounts the bench and glares all about him before he seats himself. There is a PRETTY GIRL in the front row left, and he takes a good ...
— Three Plays - Lawing and Jawing; Forty Yards; Woofing • Zora Neale Hurston

... bewildered judge could lift his gavel, the prosecuting attorney rose, dramatically, and asked to be allowed to read a telegram that had just been received, which purported to be the signed confession of a ...
— Snow on the Headlight - A Story of the Great Burlington Strike • Cy Warman

... gavel. "Goils," she remonstrated, "this ain't no way to act. Say, Miss Masters," she went on, "I guess the whole lot of us is out of order now. What would you do about ...
— New Faces • Myra Kelly

... his gavel. "Mr. Cornell," he boomed angrily. "A thief cannot be trusted. Within a matter of minutes you could remove yourself from the jurisdiction of this court unless a binding penalty is placed against your person. You may go ...
— Highways in Hiding • George Oliver Smith

... the temporary chairman, a huge man, the periphery of whose abdomen rivalled the circumference of the "working terrestrial globe" at the other end of the platform, pounded perspiringly with his gavel and announced that the conference would adjourn until the following Monday morning. It was Friday afternoon, so he had sixty hours in which to connect with Bennie, if Bennie could be discovered. A telegram of inquiry brought no response, and he took ...
— The Man Who Rocked the Earth • Arthur Train

... tossed the half-smoked cigar away and slackened his pace until his feet dragged in the old lifeless, East Falls manner. He tried to remember that he was the owner of Childs' Cash Store, accustomed to command, whose words were listened to with respect in the Employers' Association, and who wielded the gavel at the meetings of the Chamber of Commerce. He strove to conjure visions of the letters in black and gold, and of the string of delivery wagons backed up to the sidewalk. But Agatha's New England spirit was as sharp as the frost, and it travelled to him through solid house-walls and across ...
— The Turtles of Tasman • Jack London

... Here the gavel of the Most Esteemed Toolymuckahi fell with a sickening thud, and the visiting brother was told that the time assigned to communications, new business and good of the order had expired, but that the discussion would ...
— Remarks • Bill Nye

... the Grand Master is that of visitation. He has a right to visit any lodge within his jurisdiction at such times as he pleases, and when there to preside; and it is the duty of the Master to offer him the chair and his gavel, which the Grand Master may decline or accept at his pleasure. This prerogative admits of no question, as it is distinctly declared in the first of the Thirty-nine Regulations, adopted in 1721, in ...
— The Principles of Masonic Law - A Treatise on the Constitutional Laws, Usages And Landmarks of - Freemasonry • Albert G. Mackey

... sit up on an elevated Throne, wearing a Bib and holding a dinky Gavel, and administer a blistering Oath to the Wanderer who seeks the Privilege of helping ...
— More Fables • George Ade

... gloves in a way that is always amusing and often worth while in showing the ridiculous nature of some of them. The Third House is usually held on some evening during the first or second week of the session, and is opened by the Speaker calling the house to order with a thundering racket of the gavel—"made from the wood of trees grown on the prairies of the State"—and announcing the squatter governor. Since the State was a territory, this announcement, after due formalities, has been followed by ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, August, 1885 • Various

... girls; we seem to spend half our time wrangling," and the president knocked, with what she made answer for the speaker's gavel, noisily on the table. "I nominate our vice-president, Miss Underwood, to inform these young ladies of their having been chosen, and to report from them at ...
— Miss Ashton's New Pupil - A School Girl's Story • Mrs. S. S. Robbins

... conflict in the least with what is generally said of inheritance by "gavel kind," whereby the property was equally divided among the sons to the exclusion of the daughters; as it is clear that the property to be thus divided was only movable and ...
— Irish Race in the Past and the Present • Aug. J. Thebaud

... themselves forgotten what they said. No verbatim records are available now. In fact I am told that no record could have been kept, for many times two or three were speaking at once and the chairman was breaking the third commandment with his gavel. But this much everyone wanted, "A Veteran's Organization." This much everyone swore he would have, one that was neither political nor partisan, one that would perpetuate righteousness, insure "honor, faith, and a sure intent," and despite whatever bickering there might have been, ...
— The Story of The American Legion • George Seay Wheat

... lot, pack; budget, assortment, bunch; parcel; packet, package; bundle, fascine^, fasces^, bale; seron^, seroon^; fagot, wisp, truss, tuft; shock, rick, fardel^, stack, sheaf, haycock^; fascicle, fascicule^, fasciculus [Lat.], gavel, hattock^, stook^. accumulation &c (store) 636; congeries, heap, lump, pile, rouleau^, tissue, mass, pyramid; bing^; drift; snowball, snowdrift; acervation^, cumulation; glomeration^, agglomeration; conglobation^; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... six-shooter as gavel. "Gentlemen, have you anything more to offer? If not will you hear the question? Is it the sense of this meeting that united we fall upon this infamous coalition with the jaw bone of an ass and get their money; dishonestly if ...
— The Desire of the Moth; and The Come On • Eugene Manlove Rhodes

... sudden outbreak of wild enthusiasm as the verdict was given, quickly checked by the court's gavel, then all craned their necks while in a few kind words, the judge congratulated and dismissed the prisoner. Then counsel and friends gathered about Nate with outstretched hands, till his arm ached with the constant pumping, and his tongue was tied with the excitement and confusion. To ...
— Joyce's Investments - A Story for Girls • Fannie E. Newberry

... number of cruel country men risen, and (after a gallant resistance) taken him, west from Lismahagow, in the head of Dalsyrf or Glassford parish. Nay, it is said, they were so cruel that, while defending himself against three in number, having turned his horse with his back to a stone gavel, one of them came with a corn fork and put it behind his ear, and turned off his head-piece; to whom he said, "O cruel country man! that used me thus, when my face was to mine enemy." However, he was by them taken to Edinburgh, ...
— Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies) • John Howie

... 1856, with the nation's sword of commander-in-chief in the hand of the impulsive Fremont, and Lincoln, inheriting the patient wariness and cool blood of three generations of pioneers and Indian-fighters, wielding only the powerless gavel of Vice-President? But the hour of destiny had not ...
— Abraham Lincoln, A History, Volume 2 • John George Nicolay and John Hay

... Representatives to be a republic. Through its own groveling abjections, however, it long ago sunk to an autocracy with the Speaker in the role of autocrat. It sold its birthright for no one knows what mess of pottage to pass its slavish days beneath a tyranny of the gavel. The Speaker settles all things. No measure is proposed, no bill passes, no member speaks except by the Speaker's will. He constructs the committees and selects their chairmen and lays out their work. With a dozen members, every one of whom votes and acts beneath ...
— The President - A novel • Alfred Henry Lewis

... cries of "Order! Order!" and "Sit down!" and the gavel was rattling on the chairman's desk. Then some one rose to a point of order, so dear to the heart of the negro debater. The point was sustained and the Ohioan yielded the floor, but not until he had gazed straight into the eyes of Miss Kirkman as they rose from her ...
— The Strength of Gideon and Other Stories • Paul Laurence Dunbar

... down the gavel for the last time, I may be pardoned for detaining you for a moment, in the attempt to give expression to my gratitude for the uniform courtesy extended me, for the many kindnesses shown me, during ...
— Something of Men I Have Known - With Some Papers of a General Nature, Political, Historical, and Retrospective • Adlai E. Stevenson

... men, ranged in rows, hats in hands, chewed with something of nervous uncertainty as to the wisdom of the innovation which they were about to witness. In a large chair on a small platform Mr. Chinn, president of the council, sat in solemn silence, gavel in hand, waiting for the hour to strike, and for once in its history all ten of the city fathers were on time and ...
— Miss Gibbie Gault • Kate Langley Bosher

... ably to get the proposed amendment to the charter through; but every alderman and a majority of the Council were against it. The debate was hot and turbulent. Several times the mayor had to bring down her gavel sharply, and call to order men much older and better versed in parliamentary tactics than herself. And when it was all over, the assembly had voted to lay the whole ...
— A Woman for Mayor - A Novel of To-day • Helen M. Winslow

... Mr. Sutherland was forgotten and cries of "Never! She was too good! It's all calumny! A wretched lie!" broke in unrestrained excitement from every part of the large room. In vain the coroner smote with his gavel, in vain the local police endeavoured to restore order; the tide was up and over-swept everything for an instant till silence was suddenly restored by the sight of Amabel smoothing out the folds of her crisp white frock with an incredulous, almost ...
— Agatha Webb • Anna Katharine Green

... the chair's attention, but Lesseur brought the gavel down sharply once, and his voice rang over the speakers. "It has been moved and seconded that Resolution 1843 be tabled. The senators will ...
— Victory • Lester del Rey

... gavel with which we open this forty-third annual meeting of the Northern Nut Growers Association has some historical significance. It was made from a pecan tree which grew in the orchard of Mr. Thomas Littlepage in Maryland, near the city ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 43rd Annual Meeting - Rockport, Indiana, August 25, 26 and 27, 1952 • Various

... turned principally on demands from the supporters of the bill, that Speaker Stanton tell why he had felt "the ground slipping from under his feet" in his speech of six days before. But Stanton wouldn't or couldn't tell. He leaned on his gavel through it all looking ...
— Story of the Session of the California Legislature of 1909 • Franklin Hichborn



Words linked to "Gavel" :   beetle, mallet



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