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Nab   Listen
verb
Nab  v. t.  (past & past part. nabbed; pres. part. nabbing)  
1.
To catch or seize suddenly or unexpectedly. (Colloq.)
2.
To capture; to arrest; as, the police nabbed the culprit wtrying to hide in the basement.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Nab" Quotes from Famous Books



... the idea: 'All of you fellows that chase outlaws make too much fuss about it.' Well, some of us do, though the newspapers and the wind-bags that follow us around make ten times the fuss we do. He went on to say that the only way to nab a horse-thief or an express robber was to go right up to him, don't you know, like the little boy went up to the sign-post that he thought was ...
— McClure's Magazine, Vol 31, No 2, June 1908 • Various

... (Captain J. M'Nab) held the Round Hill on the right and a platoon of A Company held the village of Khan Abu Felah. C Company (Captain I.C. Nairn) held the centre hill and B Company (Captain D.D. Ogilvie) were on the left holding a "hog's back" known ...
— The Fife and Forfar Yeomanry - and 14th (F. & F. Yeo.) Battn. R.H. 1914-1919 • D. D. Ogilvie

... to see Mr. Hull, who came down with another big boat-load of cotton for our people to gin. They had finished ginning what he brought last week in two days. As soon as his boat came to the landing near Nab's house, the people made a rush for the cotton, the men carting it and the women carrying the bags on their heads and hiding it, so they might have some of it to gin. It was like rats scrambling ...
— Letters from Port Royal - Written at the Time of the Civil War (1862-1868) • Various

... Brer Wolf," said Uncle Remus, scratching his head with the point of his awl, 'he 'low, he did, dat he better not be so brash, en he sorter let Brer Rabbit 'lone. Dey wuz all time seein' one nudder, en 'bunnunce er times Brer Fox could er nab Brer Rabbit, but eve'y time he got de chance, his mine 'ud sorter rezume 'bout Brer Wolf, en he let Brer Rabbit 'lone. Bimeby dey 'gun ter git kinder familious wid wunner nudder like dey useter, en it got so Brer Fox'd call on Brer Rabbit, en dey'd set up en smoke der pipes, dey would, like ...
— Uncle Remus • Joel Chandler Harris

... go?" said the watchman, anticipative of half-a-crown. "I will run after him in a trice, your honour: I warrant I nab him." ...
— The Disowned, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... and some another. Sapskull said, "We must make her merry with some beer." Hardy said, "We must tie her down." But I proposed to ask her to sit for her picture as a guy, and then to carry her off. Master Quidd was, however, more cunning than any of us, and said, "I know how to nab her; I have a plan, and a capital one it ...
— Young Folks Treasury, Volume 3 (of 12) - Classic Tales And Old-Fashioned Stories • Various

... no one here to nab us; Jim's gone off: But I'd as lief be through with it, and away, Before ...
— Krindlesyke • Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

... synthetic jewels; scagliola[obs3], ormolu, German silver, albata[obs3], paktong[obs3], white metal, Britannia metal, paint; veneer; jerry building; man of straw. illusion &c (error) 495; ignis fatuus &c 423[Lat]; mirage &c 443. V. deceive, take in; defraud, cheat, jockey, do, cozen, diddle, nab, chouse, play one false, bilk, cully[obs3], jilt, bite, pluck, swindle, victimize; abuse; mystify; blind one's eyes; blindfold, hoodwink; throw dust into the eyes; dupe, gull, hoax, fool, befool[obs3], bamboozle, flimflam, hornswoggle; trick. impose upon, practice upon, play upon, put upon, palm ...
— Roget's Thesaurus

... ongai bolo Past na ita ongai bole Future natsi itatsi ongaitsi bolatsi Imperative nu ito ongai bo(le) Subjunctive no ito ongai bolo Infinitive namubabe itamubabe ongaimubabe bolamane Past participle namane itaname ongaimane bolamane Adjectival nab'ula(ne) itedondona ...
— The Mafulu - Mountain People of British New Guinea • Robert W. Williamson

... He is so ruse, this Strangwise. You are quite right, Bellward, he never admits himself beaten. And he never is! But tell me," she added, "what about Nur-el-Din? They'll nab her, eh?" ...
— Okewood of the Secret Service • Valentine Williams

... and as fortune favours the brave, at last I hit off this Lord Lynedale; and he, of course, was the ace of trumps—a fine catch in himself, and a double catch because he was going to marry the cousin. So I made a dead set at him; and tight work I had to nab him, I can tell you, for he was three or four years older than I, and had travelled a good deal, and seen life. But every man has his weak side; and I found his was a sort of a High-Church Radicalism, and that suited me well ...
— Alton Locke, Tailor And Poet • Rev. Charles Kingsley et al

... to get out of town," persisted the other. "If you speak quick we can nab them all, and then I'll let you go. You understand, we won't do a thing to you, if you'll come thru and tell us who put you up to this. We know it wasn't you that planned it; it's the ...
— 100%: The Story of a Patriot • Upton Sinclair

... looking directly at any one, and his eyes somehow gave you the idea that they were trying to glance back over his shoulder, as if he feared pursuit. Some said that old Druce was in constant terror of assassination, while others held that he knew the devil was on his track and would ultimately nab him. ...
— Revenge! • by Robert Barr

... "Cremorne Gardens" and his "Valparaiso," for this was such a night effect as he could have painted, and so I thought of The M'Nab's saying, "The night is the night if the men were the men."—someone, a Neish perhaps, may see the connection of ideas here, I admit ...
— From Edinburgh to India & Burmah • William G. Burn Murdoch

... the officers. "We've just taken him from your brother. He's been stirring trouble with his speeches and has got to be quieted. But we'll have him to-day, for he's to be married, and a scouting party is on the road to nab him ...
— Myths And Legends Of Our Own Land, Complete • Charles M. Skinner

... fellows get down below the car and crawl in under the truck where you can't be seen. Evidently that cuss isn't here, but he's likely to come by and by. If so, nab him if you can, and if you can't, fire two shots. Mosely, are ...
— Master Tales of Mystery, Volume 3 • Collected and Arranged by Francis J. Reynolds

... he muffled up his anger pretty well: He said, "I have a notion, and that notion I will tell; I will nab this gay young sorter, terrify him into fits, And get my gentle wife to chop ...
— Fifty Bab Ballads • William S. Gilbert

... Robert, in our hours of crime Certain to nab us every time, Or, failing, fill a dungeon cell With someone who does just ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, June 9, 1920 • Various

... you may be sure he hasn't been lost sight of since. Reports I have received indicate that he will presumably go to the Chateaudun cross-roads and from there to the Place Pigalle, in the direction of Doctor Chaleck's house. We shall nab him at the cross-roads. Needless to say we are not going to keep together. As soon as our man comes in sight you will pass on ahead, walking at his pace on the same pavement and ...
— The Exploits of Juve - Being the Second of the Series of the "Fantmas" Detective Tales • mile Souvestre and Marcel Allain

... enough, they are new-comers, and it may be well to have a closer look at them in these troublesome times! Here, Nab, take the garment, and press down the seams, you idle hussy; for neighbour Hopkins is straitened for time, while your tongue is going like a young lawyer's in a justice court. Don't be sparing of your elbow, girl; for it's ...
— The Red Rover • James Fenimore Cooper

... enough in the world to pay the damages the Athelstones would get against the paper. He'd take just one look at it and then catch the first train for Chicago. Perhaps he could get a job there digging sewers, or selling ribbons in Fields', or start a school of journalism. Any old thing, if they didn't nab him and put him in Bloomingdale before he could get away.... He made for the street again. He wouldn't look at the Banner. What malignant little devils the types were when they shouted your sins, not another ...
— The False Gods • George Horace Lorimer

... "Failing to nab you, Brandy, I dare say I'll have to come down to a duke or, who knows? maybe a mere prince. It isn't very enterprising, is it? And certainly it isn't a gay prospect. Really, I had hoped you would have me. I flatter ...
— The Hollow of Her Hand • George Barr McCutcheon

... asleep," counseled The Sky Pilot. "Two of us can tackle this Bridge and hand him the k.o. quick. Eddie and Soup Face had better attend to that. Blackie can nab The Kid an' I'll annex Miss Abigail Prim. The lady with the calf we don't want. We'll tell her we're officers of the law an' that she'd better duck with her live stock an' keep her trap shut if she don't want to get mixed up with a ...
— The Oakdale Affair • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... with a round turn, you and your newspapers. I'll bet you won't get further than Poitiers before the police will nab you." ...
— The Illustrious Gaudissart • Honore de Balzac

... business, if the lot gets out under the trade-mark. The best thing to do with it is to send it to the coal heap, for if you try to get your money back at a Front Street auction room, some hand-cart syndicate will nab it and cut your price. They'll undersell the direct trade, and when you have finished writing an explanation to the men on the road, you'd wish you had eaten ...
— Cupid's Middleman • Edward B. Lent

... back. Well, I crept close to t' gert stone an' kept my een on her. First of all shoo crept down to t' watter an' put her feet intul it, an' gat agate o' splashin' t' watter all ower her, just like a bird weshin' itsel i' t' beck. Then shoo climmed up to t' top o' t' nab that were hingin' ower t' fall an' let t' watter flow all ower her face an' showders. I could see her lish body shinin' through t' watter an' her yallow hair streamin' out on both sides of her head. Efter a while shoo climmed on to a rock i' t' beck below t' fall an' gat howd o' t' bough of an esh. ...
— More Tales of the Ridings • Frederic Moorman

... king o' the woods, boys," answered Herb Heal, his voice vibrating. "A fine young bull-moose, as sure as this is a land of liberty. I dropped him by a logon on the east bank of Fir Pond, about four miles from here. I started out early, hoping to nab a deer; for I had no fresh meat left, and I didn't want to have a bare larder when you fellows came along. But the woods were awful still. There didn't seem to be anything bigger than a field-mouse travelling. ...
— Camp and Trail - A Story of the Maine Woods • Isabel Hornibrook

... heard except an occasional command—sharp, short and imperative—or the shrill order of the boatswain's whistle. The next moment, the Queen's yacht shot past the fleet and literally led it out to sea. Near the Nab, the royal yacht hove to and the whole fleet sailed past her, carried swiftly out by a fine westerly breeze. Her Majesty waved her handkerchief as they passed and it is said she wept. If she had not wept she would have been less than a woman ...
— An Orkney Maid • Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

... the servant. "Pretty near all the men's boots in the house has gone out, you see, and they'll only be coming back just about now. I'll look out for 'em, sir, and nab 'em as soon as ...
— Short Story Classics (American) Vol. 2 • Various

... of hosts, king of the country of Assyria, 2. who trusteth in the god Ashur and the goddess Blit, 3. on whom the god Nebo (Nab) and the goddess Tasmetu 4. have bestowed all-hearing ears 5. and his possession of eyes that are clearsighted, 6. and the finest results of the art of writing 7. which, among the kings who have gone before, ...
— The Babylonian Story of the Deluge - as Told by Assyrian Tablets from Nineveh • E. A. Wallis Budge

... come. He won't be here till some time after dinner, he said when he went away last night. He's tryin' ter git ther stage coach ter run through ther pass ag'in, an' if it does we'll let it go fur ther first two or three trips, an' then when they've got a good pile aboard we're goin' ter nab on it. Cap knows his business, all right; an' we make more by his bein' away than ...
— Young Wild West at "Forbidden Pass" - and, How Arietta Paid the Toll • An Old Scout

... do not feel like nabbing her and turning her over to the officers. We might not be able to nab ...
— Frank Merriwell's Bravery • Burt L. Standish

... a lot about that prying into his things—pretty bad show, really, you know. (Going to the left window) I wonder if they'll ever nab him? ...
— Night Must Fall • Williams, Emlyn

... A lot of things, my boy. They'll nab you if you hang around here till three o'clock. You saw ...
— From the Housetops • George Barr McCutcheon

... until the very end of summer. We can't do a thing till then; have to lie low and wait. You need money, I heard you say; I suppose you're afraid to hock this twinkler"—touching the pearl pendant. "Police probably watching the pawnshops and would nab you. Well, I'll stake you till Mrs. ...
— No. 13 Washington Square • Leroy Scott

... the responsibility, I guess. So, while the thing is still fresh in my mind, I'll trot around to Headquarters to wake up our sleeping Chief. Things have come to a pretty pass here in Scranton when boys have to lend a helping hand to the police force so as to nab a ...
— The Chums of Scranton High at Ice Hockey • Donald Ferguson

... attended a cattle-show which pleased me much: some very fine cattle competed for the different prizes. There is a good walk above the town which, commands a fine view of the distant country. I walked to Dunedern, the mansion of Sir Allan M'Nab, who made such a formidable stand for the constitution against the rebels ...
— Journal of a Voyage across the Atlantic • George Moore

... out from their hiding-places in the old dead leaves at the feet of the Brooklet, and so jump up to greet the warming rays: or how, when a fly fell down from the overhanging boughs, and tried to swim away, they would jump to nab a bit of lunch, scrabbling and tugging as they went; or how, when the largest fish of all threw off his dignity, and played with them at hide and seek under the foot-deep bottom of mud, they would all shoot about her life-blood drops without regard to the angles ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 2, No. 4, March, 1851 • Various

... Don't gabble about what I've said. Keep the secret. If nothing gets out, Hathaway may think the coast is clear and it's safe for him to come back. In that case I—or someone appointed by the Department—will get a chance to nab him. That's all. ...
— Mary Louise • Edith van Dyne (one of L. Frank Baum's pen names)

... people higher up will know it and will escape before I can get his confession and the warrants. I'd much rather have the whole thing done at once. Isn't there some way we can get the whole Stacey crowd together, make the arrest of Douglas and nab the guilty ones in the case, all together without giving them a chance to escape or ...
— The Poisoned Pen • Arthur B. Reeve

... agin letting the Bank orf," growled Garstang. "Why not let the escort get its gold to the Bank, and then nab everything in the show. ...
— The Tale of Timber Town • Alfred Grace

... I do ken," the Egyptian answered. "And this mair I ken, that the captain of the soldiers is confident he'll nab every one o' you that's wanted ...
— The Little Minister • J.M. Barrie

... the Nab are the gates of the promise, Their mothers to them—and to us it's our wives. I've sailed forty years, and—By God it's upon us! Down royals, Down top'sles, down, ...
— Songs of Action • Arthur Conan Doyle

... dozen of us. We've got all the laundry bags in the house heaped up just outside of Beekstein's door and, I say, we're going to pile 'em all up on top of him and then jump on and pie him, and scoot for our rooms before old Bundy can jump the stairs and nab us. It'll be regular touch and go—a regular ...
— The Varmint • Owen Johnson

... soon as I found out where you wor stopping I ran off directly on Mr. M'Kail's little business. You'll excuse the liberty, sir; but we must all mind our professions; though, indeed, sir, if you b'lieve me, I'd rather nab a rhyme than a gintleman any day; and if I could get on the press I'd ...
— Handy Andy, Vol. 2 - A Tale of Irish Life • Samuel Lover

... them, sir, and many other things besides. I have a little system of my own, which appears by no means a bad one. Just see the triumph of my method of induction, which Gevrol ridiculed so much. I'd give a hundred francs if he were only here now. But no; my Gevrol wants to nab the man with the earrings; he is just capable of doing that. He is a fine fellow, this Gevrol, a famous fellow! How much do you give him a year ...
— The Widow Lerouge - The Lerouge Case • Emile Gaboriau

... too far out for 'em to nab us again," the skipper said, as he glanced shoreward through his night-glass, where the coast lay some seven or eight ...
— The Black Bar • George Manville Fenn

... "If I can nab them two chaps I shall get promotion," he ses; "and it's a fi'-pun note to anybody that helps me. I wish I ...
— Sailor's Knots (Entire Collection) • W.W. Jacobs

... a second. "Chief," he said at last, "if you can think of any way to nab them, I'll ...
— Out Like a Light • Gordon Randall Garrett

... and in whom, though he was considerably altered, I recognised the well-remembered features of Richard Cumberland, paused, as if in doubt what to do; not so his companion, however, who, shouting, "Come on, sir, we may nab him yet," drove the spurs into the stout roadster he bestrode and galloped furiously after him, an example which Cumberland, after a moment's hesitation, hastened to follow, though at a more moderate rate. Wilford suffered the foremost rider to come nearly up to him, and then, quickening his ...
— Frank Fairlegh - Scenes From The Life Of A Private Pupil • Frank E. Smedley

... eyes on that fellow Barker," he ordered curtly. "I'll send Reed up to team with you. Don't let him get away. Nab him ...
— Midnight • Octavus Roy Cohen

... Parliamentary duties of a long summer session, rush down to Southampton every Saturday and each steps off his train or motor-car on to the deck of his yacht, and then, after a spin westward to the Needles or eastward to the Nab or Warner Lightship, soothed by the lapping of the waters, and refreshed by the pure sea air, returns on the Monday to face again the terrors of London ...
— The Automobilist Abroad • M. F. (Milburg Francisco) Mansfield

... I promised to stay with mother; but the fact is that I'm so pestered and hunted down by that rascally press-gang, that I don't know what to do. They're sure to nab me at last, too, and then I shall have to go away whether I will or no, so I've made up my mind as a last ...
— The Lighthouse • Robert Ballantyne

... come in," answered Jack stoutly. "If you hear any one coming to steal the fruit, you shout, 'Guard turn out!' and we'll nab 'em." ...
— Soldiers of the Queen • Harold Avery

... know his kind; I've hounded too many of 'em to the finish. But you're a man of sense, Rockamore, and you know you've got to help me out of this for your own sake. I tell you, some one's on to the whole game, and they're just sitting back and waiting for the right moment to nab us. They not only learn every move we make—they anticipate them! It's every man for himself, now, and I warn you that ...
— The Crevice • William John Burns and Isabel Ostrander

... nab me for something?" he exclaimed. "Well, that is a joke. Don't you worry. The Yankees know who to fool with. I licked 'em too many times for them to ...
— The Clansman - An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan • Thomas Dixon

... since Shakespeare; and few homes, certainly, have been moulded into such close accordance with their inmates' nature. The house, which has been altered since Wordsworth's day, stands looking southward, on the rocky side of Nab Scar, above Rydal Lake. The garden was described by Bishop Wordsworth immediately after his uncle's death, while every terrace-walk and flowering alley spoke of the poet's loving care. He tells of the "tall ash-tree, in which a thrush has ...
— Wordsworth • F. W. H. Myers

... Thereupon they brought him a dyed robe[FN264] and he donned it and sat discoursing gaily with Ja'afar and jesting with him. Then said he, "Allow us to be a partaker in your pleasures, and give us to drink of your Nabz."[FN265] So they brought him a silken robe and poured him out a pint, when he said, "We crave your indulgence, for we have no wont of this." Accordingly Ja'afar ordered a flagon of Nabz be set before ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 1 • Richard F. Burton

... right, though I don't care. The men will be crazy after her,—she's the kind,—red hair and soft skin and all that.... Better look out for that young brother of yours, Isabelle. She is just the one to nab our ...
— Together • Robert Herrick (1868-1938)

... I was in liquor. I don't want it; what's the good of it to me? If I were to pawn it they'd only nab me. I 'm no thief. I 'm no worse than wot that young Barthwick is; he brought 'ome that purse that I picked up—a lady's purse—'ad it off 'er in a row, kept sayin' 'e 'd scored 'er off. Well, I scored ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... may be the troopers are after the Yaquis. I sure hope so, for the imps are going to be hard enough to nab once they get up in the foothills and mountains. We'll need the help of the ...
— The Boy Ranchers Among the Indians - or, Trailing the Yaquis • Willard F. Baker

... though he wouldn't mind going a hundred miles out to sea in an old shoe to nab a ship for the firm. If the business had been his own and all to make yet, he couldn't have done more in that way. And now . . . all at once . . . like this! Thinks I to myself: 'Oho! a rise in the screw—that's ...
— Lord Jim • Joseph Conrad

... and to take in a glorious view. Before it, at some distance across the valley, stretches a high screen of bold and picturesque mountains; behind, it is overtowered by a precipitous hill, called Nab-scar; but to the left, you look down over the broad waters of Windermere, and to the right over the still and more ...
— Seeing Europe with Famous Authors - Vol. II Great Britain And Ireland, Part Two • Francis W. Halsey

... the nab of the Harmanbeck, If we mawnd Pannam, lap, or Ruff-peck, Or poplars of yarum: he cuts, bing to the Ruffmans, Or els he sweares by the light-mans, To put our stamps in the Harmans, The ruffian cly the ghost of the Harmanbeck If we heaue a booth we ...
— Musa Pedestris - Three Centuries of Canting Songs - and Slang Rhymes [1536 - 1896] • John S. Farmer

... poet's writings, you catch a gleam of Windermere over the grove tops." "A footpath," Mr. Phillips says, "strikes off from the top of the Rydal Mount road, and, passing at a considerable height on the hill side under Nab Scar, commands charming views of the vale, and rejoins the high road at White Moss Quarry. The commanding and varied prospect obtained from the summit of Nab Scar, richly repays the labour of the ascent. From the summit, which is indicated ...
— Rides on Railways • Samuel Sidney

... to do it," Barnes enthused, rubbing his hands. "Get a policeman in here, and when the other Mr. Gladwin shows up nab him. Then this marriage can't come off without the ...
— Officer 666 • Barton W. Currie

... dining-room just outside my door. He ought to be relieved at one o'clock, but he'll have to go out and wake up his relief. He'll go out the kitchen door, and when he does nab him, but don't let him yell. Now pass me ...
— The Free Range • Francis William Sullivan

... respects,—prompt and forceful measures. "Talk" means to him delay, compromise, confession of weakness. "Well, if you must palaver," said Boynton, finally, "take me along. I've had more to do with those beggars than Davies, and," he added to himself, "I'll make it possible to nab that fellow." ...
— Under Fire • Charles King

... immediately attacked with apoplectic symptoms, and die unless promptly bled. Nor does bleeding by any means always save them. The worst of it is, that when empty they are keenest after it, and nab it in spite of one's most frantic appeals, both verbal and flagellatory. Some say that tutu acts like clover, and blows out the stomach, so that death ensues. The seed-stones, however, contained in the dark pulpy ...
— A First Year in Canterbury Settlement • Samuel Butler

... in the water washing his boat and hoping for a fare. The man in black came down and was carried across to Arlingham. He asked many questions concerning the tides and the sands. The water ran like a mill-race round the Nab, and the stranger crossed himself when he entered the boat, and again when the ferryman took him on his back to carry him through the shallow water and the mud. He paid the penny for the passage, and then vanished ...
— Sea-Dogs All! - A Tale of Forest and Sea • Tom Bevan

... shan't have you, I say!" Peace declared savagely. "But if I take you home to Saint Elspeth, like as not the Human Society will be right there to nab you; and if they ain't now, Miss Curtis will send 'em along as soon as she finds we've run away. Where can I ...
— The Lilac Lady • Ruth Alberta Brown

... to Harlem any time if you held a little money in front of his nose. He's been fooled up to the eyes with a faked-up message that he's to deliver secretly to some faked-up crooks out West. He's just about starting away on the train now. And that's where the police nab him—running away from the murder he's pulled in his room here to-night. Looks kind of bad for Nicky Viner—eh? We should worry! It cost a hundred dollars and his ticket. Cheap, wasn't it? I guess you're worth that ...
— The White Moll • Frank L. Packard

... empty. How bare the ship wharves; hardly a score of vessels along the miles of city front. About as many more, the lieutenant said, were at the river's mouth waiting to put to sea, but the towboats were all up here being turned into gunboats or awaiting letters of marque and reprisal in order to nab those very ships the moment they should reach good salt water. Constance and Miranda tingled to tell him of their brave Flora's investment, but dared not, it ...
— Kincaid's Battery • George W. Cable

... keep out of the way of the bloody cannibals altogether. Ten to one, men, if you go ashore, you will get into some infernal row, and that will be the end of you; for if those tattooed scoundrels get you a little ways back into their valleys, they'll nab you—that you may be certain of. Plenty of white men have gone ashore here and never been seen any more. There was the old Dido, she put in here about two years ago, and sent one watch off on liberty; they ...
— Typee - A Romance of the South Sea • Herman Melville

... carried off by Caterans on his bridal-day is taken from one which was told to the author by the late Laird of Mac-Nab, many years since. To carry off persons from the Lowlands, and to put them to ransom, was a common practice with the wild Highlanders, as it is said to be at the present day with the banditti in the south of Italy. Upon the occasion alluded to, a ...
— Waverley • Sir Walter Scott

... entered the assembly below by the secret door and made them believe I was Trokoff!... It leaves a way open for future transactions!... Some day, not so far ahead, I may return, may find that devil's Will o' the Wisp of a bandit there and nab him at last!"... Did Michel suspect there were Nihilists on ...
— A Nest of Spies • Pierre Souvestre

... "I shall nab Baby's bronchitis-kettle," Hugh announced, "and make a distiller, and we can begin to-morrow. You girls will have to help me, for I must watch the distilling all the time, and someone must keep ...
— The Happy Adventurers • Lydia Miller Middleton

... happens, sir. Sometimes we nab a night patrol of a dozen or fifteen and send them to the rear under a one-man guard. Then, again, a little bunch of Heinies will fight like the devil. They say it depends on what part of Germany they come from; the Bavarians and Saxons are ...
— One of Ours • Willa Cather

... it, boys," Hawkins ruefully said. "We've still got a chance to nab them, though. They can't get far over this ground ...
— The Boy Ranchers on Roaring River - or Diamond X and the Chinese Smugglers • Willard F. Baker

... may imagine, I too had battered my brain with various conjectures, but without practical result till one night after hunting all day, and having lamed my mare badly with an overreach, I was returning slowly homeward by a short cut across Eston Nab, so as to strike the Guisboro' Road, and thence ...
— Border Ghost Stories • Howard Pease

... in your claim, haven't you?" jeered Gage, who was plainly playing with his intended victim. "Serves you right, after jumping us out of the property just because the law said you could! But the gold's there, and we've got a man with mineral rights to nab the claim as soon ...
— The Young Engineers in Nevada • H. Irving Hancock

... he develops sagacity more than human. (Robinson gave a little groan.) Aha," cried Miles, "the beggar has burned his finger. I'm glad of it. Why should I be the only sufferer by his thundering irons? 'Here is a lark,' said I, 'we'll nab this dark lantern—won't we, Hazy?' 'Rather,' said Hazy. 'Wait till I get my pistols, and I'll give you a cutlass, George,' says Tom Yates. I forget who George was; but he said he was of noble blood, and I think myself he was some relation ...
— It Is Never Too Late to Mend • Charles Reade

... Wear ship and drive back to the fork o' the waters," shouted the old man. "Hull down an' under though he be, we'll nab yon picaro, with his jolly treasure. Rapido, ...
— Blackbeard: Buccaneer • Ralph D. Paine

... expect us to make a railroad station as soon as possible," he explained, "and they are probably trying to nab us on the way to it—if those men have anything to do with us at all." He said nothing about his vivid fear of arrest for the camels and the tool such an arrest would be for Kerissen's designs. He merely added, "I think we'd better try to give them the slip and steer clear of all the little ...
— The Palace of Darkened Windows • Mary Hastings Bradley

... from his belt and putting it into Narkom's hand. "Better go with Sir Horace at once, sir. Leave the door of the gallery open and the light on. Fish and me will stand guard over the stuff till you come back, so in case the man is in one of them flues and tries to bolt out at this end, we can nab him before he can ...
— Cleek: the Man of the Forty Faces • Thomas W. Hanshew

... chance to nab 'em both, then-our last chance, maybe. The game is up. That fine gentleman has smoked it." He was angry beyond measure. Their plans were far from ripe, and yet to delay longer now that their vigilance was detected ...
— The Lion's Skin • Rafael Sabatini

... said Micah, speaking in a cautious undertone, "neow's the time, ef we do it at all, to nab them deer. While your gittin' rigged and takin' a cold bite, I'll tell ye the lay o' things. Ye see, don't ye, that pint o' land ahead on us, a juttin' out into the stream? Well, we've got to put the canoe on the water right away, hustle in the things, ...
— Adele Dubois - A Story of the Lovely Miramichi Valley in New Brunswick • Mrs. William T. Savage

... let you go. 'Sides, if I said I would, there's always Jemmy Dadd, or big Tom Dunley, or father waiting outside, and they'd be sure to nab you." ...
— Cutlass and Cudgel • George Manville Fenn

... one," answered Frank. "Do you see that big lobster of a boat on the other side? That looks as though it would carry almost a dozen anyway. We won't need any more than that to nab the Huns, because we'll have the advantage of the surprise if our plans go through ...
— Army Boys on the Firing Line - or, Holding Back the German Drive • Homer Randall

... Hab or nab.—That is, according to Nares, have or have not; subsequently abridged into hab, nab. Hob or nob is explained by him to mean "Will you have a glass of wine or not?" Hob, nob is applied by Shakspeare to another alternative, viz. give or take (Twelfth Night, ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 208, October 22, 1853 • Various

... fellows don't gain anything by all this jawing. You've been at it for an hour, and you're more tangled up now than when you started. My motto with a case of this kind is just to sit quiet and watch it; and pretty soon the rat thinks the coast is clear, and pokes out his head, and you nab him." ...
— The Gloved Hand • Burton E. Stevenson

... so kindly disposed; but, in my humble opinion, he's a artful young dodger, and this 'ere job has been planned ever so long, and he's connived at it, and has hooked it along with his pals. I knows 'em, but we'll soon nab him; and if so be as you'll be so kind as to let me take down in writin' all you knows about 'J. Cole,' which is his name, I'm informed, where you took him from, his character, and previous career, it will help considerable in laying hands on him; and when he's found ...
— J. Cole • Emma Gellibrand

... part. So, as the devil would have it, before I was aware, out I blunder'd, "Parson," said I, "can you cast a nativity when a body's plunder'd?" (Now you must know, he hates to be called parson, like the devil.) "Truly," says he, "Mrs. Nab, it might become you to be more civil; If your money be gone, as a learned divine says, d'ye see: You are no text for my handling; so take that from me: I was never taken for a conjuror before, I'd have you to know." "Law!" said I, "don't be angry, I am ...
— English Satires • Various

... prosperity until the War of 1812 broke out, when the Americans under General M'Arthur, moving from Detroit, despoiled it of stores, cattle, and sheep, and almost obliterated it. In 1818 Lord Selkirk {20} sold the land to John M'Nab, a trader of the Hudson's Bay Company. Many descendants of the original settlers are, however, still ...
— The Red River Colony - A Chronicle of the Beginnings of Manitoba • Louis Aubrey Wood

... couldn't do that! I guess I can do ut fer ye. Ut's jes' a leetle ticklish. I reckon ef yer pa wuz to nab me ut'd go hard ...
— A Reversible Santa Claus • Meredith Nicholson

... If you would just stroll down by the lake after chapel, and loiter sort of inconspicuously among the trees, you know, I would come that way a little later, and then, when the detective person came along after me, you could just nab her and—" ...
— When Patty Went to College • Jean Webster

... drive down the road and search for the ball at the same time. "It's risky, but if I can get the car under it and we can hop out in time, it should crash through the roof. That ought to slow it down enough for us to nab it." ...
— The Big Bounce • Walter S. Tevis

... to himself and to his ancient Castle of Glencardine. Reid, in his Annals of Auchterarder, relates how, after the Civil War, Lord Dundrennan, in company with his cousin, George Lochan of Ochiltree, and burgess of Auchterarder and the Laird of M'Nab, descended into Strathearn and occupied the castle with about fifty men. He hurriedly put it into a state of defence. General Overton besieged the place in person, with his army, consisting of eighteen hundred foot and eleven hundred horse, and battered the walls ...
— The House of Whispers • William Le Queux

... cousin. She did not believe anyone would attack him unless he were alone, and she meant to keep him company on his return walk. Just as she reached the edge of the woods she came upon a group of Sophomores standing a short distance away and she heard one say. "We'll nab him as ...
— A Dear Little Girl at School • Amy E. Blanchard

... "Well, I'm not afraid of what's in there. Maybe I'm not so observant, but that fellow in there can't scare me. If Pee-wee doesn't want to go and nab him, I'll go and ...
— Roy Blakeley's Bee-line Hike • Percy Keese Fitzhugh

... don't know what pluck is, neither of you," replied Edward. "What would you do if a policeman should nab you?" ...
— Oscar - The Boy Who Had His Own Way • Walter Aimwell

... fast as it could move, and the eye never again saw them, except in proof. Verse I write twice, and sometimes three times over. This may be called in Spanish the Dar donde diere mode of composition, in English hab nab at a venture; it is a perilous style, I grant, but I cannot help it. When I chain my mind to ideas which are purely imaginative—for argument is a different thing—it seems to me that the sun leaves the landscape, that I ...
— The Journal of Sir Walter Scott - From the Original Manuscript at Abbotsford • Walter Scott

... of the Nab-men—I see it all clear enough; and you have given a very concise, but comprehensive picture of your own situation; but don't despair, man, you will yet find all right, be assured; put yourself under my guidance, let the world wag as it will; it is useless to torment ...
— Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II. • Pierce Egan

... dissolved by the pious monarch, and masses ordered to be said daily in the parish church for the repose of the soul of the founder. Such was the legend attached to the little cell, and tradition went on to say that the anchoress broke her leg in crossing Whalley Nab, and limped ever afterwards; a just judgment on such a heinous offender. Both these little structures were picturesque objects, being overgrown with ivy and woodbine. The chapel was completely in ruins, while the cell, profaned by the misdoings of the dissolute ...
— The Lancashire Witches - A Romance of Pendle Forest • William Harrison Ainsworth

... large body of Highlanders, whom Colkitto, dispatched for that purpose, had levied in Argyleshire. Among the most distinguished was John of Moidart, called the Captain of Clan Ranald, with the Stewarts of Appin, the Clan Gregor, the Clan M'Nab, and other tribes of inferior distinction. By these means, Montrose's army was so formidably increased, that Argyle cared no longer to remain in the command of that opposed to him, but returned to Edinburgh, and there threw up his commission, under pretence that ...
— A Legend of Montrose • Sir Walter Scott

... almost over his head. Then came a low whine, which was kept up for fully a minute, followed by another roar. Dick hardly knew what was best — to remain at the bottom of the hollow or try to escape to some tree at the top of the opening. "If I go up now he may nab me on sight," he thought dismally. "Oh, if only I had my — ...
— The Rover Boys in the Jungle • Arthur M. Winfield

... we passed close to the Bembridge or Nab Light-vessel. This vessel carries two bright fixed lights, one hoisted on each of her masts, which can be seen at night ten miles off, and of course it can be distinguished from the revolving Warner light. Farther off to the west, at the end of a shoal extending off Selsea Bill, is another lightship, ...
— A Yacht Voyage Round England • W.H.G. Kingston

... along, believe me," asserted Steve, as they arose to leave the vicinity of the bench. "I'll be skimpy with my throws to third to catch a runner napping, for fear Fred might make out to fumble and get the ball home just too late to nab the runner. And, Jack, try your level best to convince Fred that the eyes of all Chester will be on him during that game, with his best girl, pretty Molly Skinner, occupying a front seat in the ...
— Jack Winters' Baseball Team - Or, The Rivals of the Diamond • Mark Overton

... Merry, with an expression of regret; "but the police have been notified, and they promised to do their best to nab him. How is Inza?" ...
— Frank Merriwell's Pursuit - How to Win • Burt L. Standish

... wouldn't have thought so much of two thousand, but every dalesman then knew what good shearing was. Now," and the old man shook his head slowly, "good shearers are few and far between. Why, there's some here from beyond Kirkstone Pass and Nab Scar!" ...
— The Squire of Sandal-Side - A Pastoral Romance • Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

... there's a vessel ready to take him. He'll get on board the first that sails. It's a good dodge, a very neat dodge, and if Sawney hadn't been at the station, Mr. Joseph Wilmot would have given us the slip as neatly as ever a man did yet. But if Mr. Thomas Tibbles is true, we shall nab him, and bring him home as quiet as ever any little boy was took to school by his mar and par. If Mr. Tibbles is true,—and as he don't know too much about the business, and don't know anything about the extra reward, or the evidence that's turned up at Winchester,—I ...
— Henry Dunbar - A Novel • M. E. Braddon

... may be," said Will; "but I intend to run for it. I've an old dame would make a sore disturbance at my death, more especially if dangling from the gallows-tree, which of all the trees in the wood hath been my aversion ever since I saw Long Tom of the Nab make so uncomfortable ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby



Words linked to "Nab" :   seize, tag, apprehend, nail, pick up, prehend, baseball game, arrest, collar



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