Free translatorFree translator
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Plain   Listen
verb
Plain  v. t.  (past & past part. plained; pres. part. plaining)  
1.
To plane or level; to make plain or even on the surface. (R.) "We would rake Europe rather, plain the East."
2.
To make plain or manifest; to explain. "What's dumb in show, I'll plain in speech."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Plain" Quotes from Famous Books



... the short-comings of the people as an agricultural population, and though he set down naught in malice it is equally certain that he extenuated nothing. This plain speaking tells with the Hawaiians, especially when it falls from the lips of their hereditary rulers. In the first place allusion was made to the almost universal want of perseverance which marks the character of the laboring classes more than that of any other. The ...
— Speeches of His Majesty Kamehameha IV. To the Hawaiian Legislature • Kamehameha IV

... the house. The butler does not wear a white waistcoat, a watch chain, or jeweled studs with his after noon or evening livery. Nor may he wear a boutonniere or an assertive tie or patent leather shoes. And it is extremely bad taste for him to use perfume of any kind. He wears white linen with plain white studs in the shirt front, a standing collar, white lawn tie and plain black shoes. His watch is slipped into his waistcoast pocket without chain or fob. White gloves are no longer the custom for men servants in ...
— Book of Etiquette • Lillian Eichler

... dashed madly on, yet under perfect control, and the gallant skipper, when he saw through the deep darkness, the white breakers on Rock Island, felt entirely relieved from the responsibility which had before almost crushed his spirits, for it was plain sailing after he had passed that point and the dangerous reefs which environed it. If the Fawn could stand such a sea as that, she could stand anything, and her character was fully established ...
— Little By Little - or, The Cruise of the Flyaway • William Taylor Adams

... it plain That we are Monks of Oyster-le-Main, That is no reason we should abstain From cups ...
— The Dragon of Wantley - His Tale • Owen Wister

... thie waterres flowe, And Rudborne streeme be Rudborne streeme indeede! Haste, gentle Juga, tryppe ytte oere the meade, 40 To knowe, or wheder we muste waile agayne, Or wythe oure fallen knyghtes be menged onne the plain. ...
— The Rowley Poems • Thomas Chatterton

... ascend, it appears less compact, more porous and granular, assuming gradually the character of snow, till in the higher regions the snow is as light, as shifting, and incoherent, as the sand of the desert. A snow-storm on a mountain-summit is very different from a snow-storm on the plain, on account of the different degrees of moisture in the atmosphere. At great heights, there is never dampness enough to allow the fine snow-crystals to coalesce and form what are called "snow-flakes." ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863 • Various

... as if to say: "Just as I told you." Prescott thought it strange that they should speak so plainly before him, a mere subordinate, but policy might be in it, he concluded on second thought. They might desire their plain opinion to get back informally to General Lee. There was some further talk, all of which they seemed willing for him to hear, and then they returned to the inner room, taking Mr. ...
— Before the Dawn - A Story of the Fall of Richmond • Joseph Alexander Altsheler

... breath. Her religion was very much a matter of fact to her, and the thought of Tom—Martha Gordon's son—stumbling in the plain path of belief was dismaying. "Why would you have to be a hypocrite? Do you mean that you are not sure you ought ...
— The Quickening • Francis Lynde

... "Twelve hundred a year!" said he to himself as he rode slowly home. If it were the fact that Mrs. Bold had twelve hundred a year of her own, what a fool would he be to oppose her father's return to his old place. The train of Mr. Slope's ideas will probably be plain to all my readers. Why should he not make the twelve hundred a year his own? And if he did so, would it not be well for him to have a father-in-law comfortably provided with the good things of this world? Would it not, moreover, ...
— Barchester Towers • Anthony Trollope

... had already risen clear, and was heading for a breadth of virgin white clover, which to an overtired bee is as soothing as plain ...
— Actions and Reactions • Rudyard Kipling

... pads out crossin' the lava beds, though what in time any hombre who ain't plumb loco is trapesin' round there for, beats me. There is some grazin' on top of the Cumbre mesa, enough for a small herd, but the other side is jest plain hell with the lights out, one big slice of desert thirty ...
— Rimrock Trail • J. Allan Dunn

... swarm, But sad to tell,—th' plain honest fact is, They'd rayther bid yo shun all harm, Nor put ther ...
— Yorkshire Lyrics • John Hartley

... located astride some of oldest and most significant land routes in Europe; Moravian Gate is a traditional military corridor between the North European Plain and the ...
— The 2000 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... such was the case. Had Mr Tombe given the usual address of Nethercoats, nothing further would have been demanded from him on that subject. But he had foolishly presumed that the question had been based on special information as to his client's visit to London, and he had told the plain truth in a ...
— Can You Forgive Her? • Anthony Trollope

... counties saw the blaze On Malvern's lonely height, Till streamed in crimson on the wind The Wrekin's crest of light, Till broad and fierce the star came forth On Ely's stately fame, And tower and hamlet rose in arms O'er all the boundless plain; ...
— Ten Great Events in History • James Johonnot

... certain Figures in Rhetorick, which are the common Dialect of a Part of the Town famous for good Fish and Female Orators. Thus he continued his Course of Writing, sometimes very obscure, sometimes too plain: according as either Vapours, or Spleen, or Love, or Resentment, or French Wine predominated; which I, by my Skill in Natural Philosophy observing, thought it advisable to leave him to himself, till the Court ...
— The Theater (1720) • Sir John Falstaffe

... banner across the back of each car, and our green veils fluttering in the breeze. Mr. Evans waved the paper on which the bet was recorded significantly, and shouted "Remember!" in a sepulchral tone, and it was plain to be seen he was sure he would win the bet. He even tempted Fate so far as to throw an old rubber after us as we departed, instead of an old shoe, to bring us luck according to the Rain Jinx. It landed in the tonneau of our car and Sahwah pounced upon it as a favorable ...
— The Campfire Girls Go Motoring • Hildegard G. Frey

... another, "it promises to be a fine crap anyhow, and myself can't help thinkin' it quare that Mikee Coghlan, that's a plain-spoken, quite (quiet) man, and simple like, should have finer craps than Pether Kelly o' the big farm beyant, that knows all about the great saycrets o' the airth, and is knowledgeable to a degree, and has all the hard words that iver was coined at ...
— Stories of Comedy • Various

... who understand the law of the subject will have no one but themselves to blame if they do not derive all possible benefits from it. The greatest Teacher of Mental Science the world has ever seen has laid down sufficiently plain rules for our guidance. With a knowledge of the subject whose depth can be appreciated only by those who have themselves some practical acquaintance with it, He bids His unlearned audiences, those common ...
— The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science • Thomas Troward

... Against which gate, his serried company. Rank then thy bravest, with what speed thou may'st, Hard by the gates, to dash on them, for now, Full-armed, the onward ranks of Argos come! The dust whirls up, and from their panting steeds White foamy flakes like snow bedew the plain. Thou therefore, chieftain! like a steersman skilled, Enshield the city's bulwarks, ere the blast Of war comes darting on them! hark, the roar Of the great landstorm with its waves of men! Take Fortune by ...
— Suppliant Maidens and Other Plays • AEschylus

... progress; she sauntered for about thirty yards along the lake and presently sat down in plain sight under a ...
— In Search of the Unknown • Robert W. Chambers

... said Miss Assher scornfully, 'I understand. Whenever you make love to a woman—that is her secret, which you are bound to keep for her. But it is folly to be talking in this way, Captain Wybrow. It is very plain that there is some relation more than friendship between you and Miss Sarti. Since you cannot explain that relation, there is no more to be said ...
— Scenes of Clerical Life • George Eliot

... delicate, about a third larger than that of the gray squirrel, indicating no haste or speed, but, on the contrary, denoting the most imperturbable ease and leisure, the footprints so close together that the trail appears like a chain of curiously carved links. Sir Mephitis mephitica, or, in plain English, the skunk, has awakened from his six weeks' nap, and come out into society again. He is a nocturnal traveler, very bold and impudent, coming quite up to the barn and outbuildings, and sometimes taking up his quarters for the season under the haymow. There is no such word as hurry in ...
— Winter Sunshine • John Burroughs

... said, 'We must go in this direction in order to get out of the wood,' and shortening himself again, he took the prince's horse by the bridle, and led him along. Very soon they got clear of the forest, and saw before them a wide plain ending in a pile of high rocks, covered here and there with trees, and very much like the ...
— The Grey Fairy Book • Various

... was reared successfully in this nest, but the second was not so fortunate. Late in September—and you know the swallows are off to Africa in October—a servant found a poor little shivering bird on the steps. It was plain that it had tried to fly from the nest, with its brothers and sisters, but had not been strong enough. The poor birdie seemed almost dead when it was picked up, but in the family there was a lady who ...
— Twilight And Dawn • Caroline Pridham

... rest of you?" Ross retorted coldly. "I have met these before; they can will a man to obey them. Look you—" He slammed his left hand flat on the table. The ridges of scar tissue were plain against his tanned skin. He knew no better way of driving home the dangers of dealing with the star men than providing this graphic example. "I held my own hand in fire so that the hurt of it would work against their pull upon my thoughts, against their willing that I ...
— Key Out of Time • Andre Alice Norton

... to exchange opinions concerning the remarkable happenings of the night just passed and in this way many things that had not been very clear to Perk were made plain. On his part he was able to offer several suggestions that added to the stock of knowledge Jack already possessed so that it was ...
— Eagles of the Sky - With Jack Ralston Along the Air Lanes • Ambrose Newcomb

... too much self-assertion, Sister?" I said, feeling sorry it should be thus plain to all my Sisters. "I ...
— In Convent Walls - The Story of the Despensers • Emily Sarah Holt

... his; they were full of gratitude and something more. But he resisted the temptation to answer her question in the way it was plain to him he ...
— The Hunt Ball Mystery • Magnay, William

... is the simplest form and is in most common use among trappers for the smaller animals. These stretchers are of two kinds, the plain and the wedged. The plain stretcher consists of a piece of board a quarter of an inch in thickness, about eighteen inches long and six inches in width. One end of this board is rounded off, as seen in our illustration, and the sides should also be whittled ...
— Camp Life in the Woods and the Tricks of Trapping and Trap Making • William Hamilton Gibson

... fire, the two officers would write out their field notes, for they had to report very fully to President Jefferson. Sometimes one wrote, sometimes the other, and often one would copy the other's notes. Only the originals could make all that plain. And, alas! not all the original ...
— The Young Alaskans on the Missouri • Emerson Hough

... we were as far apart almost as if one was a pagan. Protestantism in France always has seemed to me such a rigid form of worship, so little calculated to influence young people or draw them to church. The plain, bare churches with white-washed walls, the long sermons and extempore prayers, speaking so much of the anger of God and the terrible punishments awaiting the sinner, the trials and sorrows that must come to all. ...
— Chateau and Country Life in France • Mary King Waddington

... Believes he has secured us—means to lure us Still further on by splendid promises. 125 To me he portions forth the princedoms, Glatz And Sagan; and too plain I see the angle With which he doubts not ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Vol I and II • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... from Algeciras, with troops and stores; and on the 26th the Spaniards began to form a camp, on the plain below San Roque, three miles from the garrison. This increased in size, daily, as ...
— Held Fast For England - A Tale of the Siege of Gibraltar (1779-83) • G. A. Henty

... would grieve.' 'That is of grace, and if he come again To speak of love?'—'I might from grief refrain.' 'Then wilt thou, daughter, our design embrace?'— Can I resist it, if it be of grace?' 'Dear child! in three plain words thy mind express: Wilt thou have ...
— Crabbe, (George) - English Men of Letters Series • Alfred Ainger

... given to intimate that there is no scientific justification for the term "species," but to make plain to my non-professional readers what every well-informed biologist already knows, namely, that at the present time the "species question" is still in a very unsatisfactory state. The facts given above would strongly suggest that there probably ...
— Q. E. D., or New Light on the Doctrine of Creation • George McCready Price

... existing Authorities. BY J.K. COLLING, Architect. Containing four plain and two coloured plates, and Title and ...
— Notes & Queries, No. 41, Saturday, August 10, 1850 • Various

... touch a man's living you touch him, would seem to be about as plain a truth as could be put in words; but our ancestors had not the least difficulty in getting around it. 'Of course,' they said, 'you must not touch the man; to lay a finger on him would be an assault punishable by law. But his living is quite ...
— Equality • Edward Bellamy

... strains that softly sweep From mermaid's shell, across the moonlit deep— The tones of visions which have only dwelt In that deep bosom which has wildly felt— Those notes like far off music from the plain, Where grief nor hate can e'er be known again— That haunt the spirit 'midst this lower sphere, And wake the dreamer's ever faithful tear— How die away in saddest silence all Those strains, O Criticus! ...
— Lays of Ancient Virginia, and Other Poems • James Avis Bartley

... found the spot in this silver-broidered green plain. Almira went in front; at one place she lay down and put her head on the ground: that was ...
— Timar's Two Worlds • Mr Jkai

... tranquilly among the flowery herbage, or a line of buffaloes, like a caravan on its march, moving across the distant profile of the prairie. The Canadians, however, began to apprehend an ambush in every thicket, and to regard the broad, tranquil plain as a sailor eyes some shallow and perfidious sea, which, though smooth and safe to the eye, conceals the lurking rock or treacherous shoal. The very name of a Sioux became a watchword of terror. Not an elk, a wolf, or any other animal, could appear on ...
— Astoria - Or, Anecdotes Of An Enterprise Beyond The Rocky Mountains • Washington Irving

... will to my darling be Both law and impulse; and with me The girl, in rock and plain, In earth and heaven, in glade and bower, Shall feel an overseeing power ...
— Harvard Classics Volume 28 - Essays English and American • Various

... less enlightened age. His only hope of giving any real guidance to the confused and distressed laity of his church thus appeared to depend on the possibility of discovering an expression of Christianity so authoritative that the most learned perverter of the faith could not repudiate it and so plain that the humblest believer could understand it. In his anxiety it even seemed to him that the Lord had failed adequately to provide for His little ones if He had not supplied them with such a shield against the storm ...
— Hymns and Hymnwriters of Denmark • Jens Christian Aaberg

... whom the assistant had actually mistaken him! He glanced hurriedly at the envelopes of the letters. They were addressed to Shelby Fowler, the name by which the assistant had just called him. The mystery was plain now. And for the present he could fairly accept his good luck, and trust to later fortune ...
— Colonel Starbottle's Client and Other Stories • Bret Harte

... The plain people who think—the mechanics, farmers, merchants, workers with head or hand, the men to whom American traditions are dear, who love their country and try to act decently by their neighbors, owe it to themselves to remember that the most ...
— State of the Union Addresses of Theodore Roosevelt • Theodore Roosevelt

... comprehend, And all will be plain to our sight, Then dry up the tears which flow for our friend, In full faith that God ...
— The Poets and Poetry of Cecil County, Maryland • Various

... of things we could do—in theory. But we didn't have that kind of equipment. The plain fact was that the plants were going to lose the battle against our lungs. The carbon dioxide would increase, speeding up our breathing, and making us all seem to suffocate. The oxygen would grow thinner and thinner, once our supplies of bottled gas ran out. And eventually, ...
— Let'em Breathe Space • Lester del Rey

... discriminating in favor of American shipping through the Panama Canal. A clever lawyer's argument can be made that when the United States said "all nations" in its treaty with Great Britain regarding the Canal it meant all nations except itself. But Mr. Root declined to make it, holding that plain morality and a greater respect for the obligations of a treaty than Bethman Hollweg expressed when he called them scraps of paper required this country to charge just the same tolls for American ships using the canal as for British ships or any ...
— The Mirrors of Washington • Anonymous

... to the spot from which the voice had been heard they found three stones lying side by side on the floor of the gangway. It was plain that they had been placed one on top of the other, and so they accepted them as ...
— Boy Scouts in the Coal Caverns • Major Archibald Lee Fletcher

... side the lady, who from time to time blushed, darted with the rapidity of lightning a glance toward the inconstant Porthos; and then immediately the eyes of Porthos wandered anxiously. It was plain that this mode of proceeding piqued the lady in the black hood, for she bit her lips till they bled, scratched the end of her nose, and could not sit still ...
— The Three Musketeers • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... the children, in the long spring afternoons, Susan liked to go in for a moment to see Lydia Lord in the library. Lydia would glance up from the book she was stamping, and at the sight of Susan and the children, her whole plain face would brighten. She always came out from behind her little gates and fences to talk in whispers to Susan, always had some little card or puzzle or fan or box ...
— Saturday's Child • Kathleen Norris

... Andy, we comes up to de little tavern by the river, and I rides a leetle ahead,—(I's so zealous to be a cotchin' Lizy, that I couldn't hold in, no way),—and when I comes by the tavern winder, sure enough there she was, right in plain sight, and dey diggin' on behind. Wal, I loses off my hat, and sings out nuff to raise the dead. Course Lizy she hars, and she dodges back, when Mas'r Haley he goes past the door; and then, I tell ye, she clared out de side door; she went down de river bank;—Mas'r Haley he seed her, ...
— Uncle Tom's Cabin • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... which Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg seeks to establish the two sides of this case are in flat contradiction of the plain facts. ...
— Current History, A Monthly Magazine - The European War, March 1915 • New York Times

... nothing could be more satisfactory; and recently another noble Californian—Mrs. Hearst—has devoted a queenly gift to securing a plan worthy of the University of California. At the opening of Cornell, as I have already said, a general plan was determined upon, with an upper quadrangle of stone, plain but dignified, to be at some future time architecturally enriched, and with a freer treatment of buildings on other parts of the grounds; but there is always danger, and I trust that I may be allowed to remind my associates and successors in the board of trustees, of the necessity, ...
— Volume I • Andrew Dickson White

... forest was congenial to him, and the excitement of pursuing the game afforded some slight relief to his agitated spirit. One day, when he had wandered far from home, he came upon the cabin of a Dutchman with whom he had formed some previous acquaintance. He had a daughter, who was exceedingly plain in her personal appearance, but who had a very active mind, and was a bright, ...
— David Crockett: His Life and Adventures • John S. C. Abbott

... reduced to resort to "foreign novelties." Three of the most famous dancers of the French Opera, L'Abbee, Balon, and Mademoiselle Subligny, were at several times brought over at extraordinary rates to revive that sickly appetite which plain sense and nature had satiated. In Paris, indeed, the ballet was very securely instituted. The Academie Royale de Musique et de Danse had been founded in 1669, and from that date the ballet, as an entertainment of dancing only, may be said ...
— A Book of the Play - Studies and Illustrations of Histrionic Story, Life, and Character • Dutton Cook

... pray you, good husband," said his wife more gently, though from the way in which she clasped her daughter to her breast it was plain she had been deeply moved by the story of her peril. "Remember what the Scriptures say: 'Thou shalt not kill,' 'Vengeance is mine,' and ...
— In the Wars of the Roses - A Story for the Young • Evelyn Everett-Green

... babies were warm and comfortable, old Mrs. Possum went to the door and looked out. It was plain to be seen that Mrs. Possum was worried. That was the tenth time she had looked out in half an hour. Her sharp little old face looked sharper than ever. It always looks sharper when she is worried, just as the tongues of some people always grow ...
— The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum • Thornton W. Burgess

... they had failed to notice him before, inasmuch as his dress was dissimilar from the others, he having the usual tarpaulin hat and the broad trowsers of the American and English sailor. It was plain, too, that he was scarcely a man, being, in fact, a boy, who by some strange means was adrift in ...
— Adrift on the Pacific • Edward S. Ellis

... German and Slavic peoples an absolute superiority of social, economic, and political power. The Magyars occupy almost exclusively the more desirable portion of the country, i.e., the great central plain intersected by the Danube and the Theiss, where they preponderate decidedly in as many as nineteen counties. Clustered around them, and in more or less immediate touch with kindred peoples beyond the borders, ...
— The Governments of Europe • Frederic Austin Ogg

... particularly so in all cases with women. I want at this particular time, more than anything else, to do right with you; and if I knew it would be doing right, as I rather suspect it would, to let you alone, I would do it. And for the purpose of making the matter as plain as possible, I now say that you can now drop the subject, dismiss your thoughts (if you ever had any) from me forever, and leave this letter unanswered, without calling forth one accusing murmur from me. And I will even go further, and say that if it will add anything to your comfort or ...
— A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln - Condensed from Nicolay & Hay's Abraham Lincoln: A History • John G. Nicolay

... and audacity of the deed made it known to us. Therefore on hearing about it, we ordered thanksgiving masses because only a plain court lady, and not one of the children born of your Highness, was captured from the ...
— The Knights of the Cross • Henryk Sienkiewicz

... Jews and men of business, who, from the nature of their pursuits, were of more enlarged views than mere Arab chieftains or the petty tradesmen of Arab towns. Through such agency the first impetus was given. As to the rapid success, its causes are in like manner so plain as to take away all surprise. It is no wonder that in fifty years, as Abderrahman wrote to the khalif, not only had the tribute from the entire north of Africa ceased, through the population having become altogether Mohammedan, but that the Moors boasted an Arab descent ...
— History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, Volume I (of 2) - Revised Edition • John William Draper

... an accomplice on the arbitrary grounds of plain common sense. They don't grow two such crazy men at once; and one crazy man is naturally too suspicious to hire help. I took it for granted. Had to make a guess somewhere; but, contrary to our legal friends, I believe ...
— The Sign at Six • Stewart Edward White

... Mikchich if he would not take part in it, telling him that all the maidens would be there, and asking him why he had never married, and saying that he should not live alone. Then the uncle said: "Poor and old and plain am I; I have not even garments fit for a feast; better were it for me to smoke my pipe at home." "Truly, if that be all, uncle," replied Glooskap, "I trow I can turn tailor and fit you to a turn; and have ...
— The Algonquin Legends of New England • Charles Godfrey Leland

... It is plain enough to any impartial reader that there are at least plausible grounds for this accusation against Mr. Motley's critic. And on a careful examination of the formidable volume, it becomes obvious that Mr. Motley has presented a view of the events and the personages of the stormy epoch with ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... we passed through the neat-looking town of Franklin. It looks very new, most of the houses being substantial bricks. Here we met General Fry, the man who slewed Zollicoffer. The General is of plain, unostentatious appearance, a keen eye, lips compressed, the whole countenance denoting determination and quickness ...
— Incidents of the War: Humorous, Pathetic, and Descriptive • Alf Burnett

... The plain fact was that the various princes did not want German National unity; for the reason that it is not human nature for men to give up an advantage for an uncertainty. Also, at this time, neither Prussia ...
— Blood and Iron - Origin of German Empire As Revealed by Character of Its - Founder, Bismarck • John Hubert Greusel

... a second time. Lone Wolf and Pine Tree, who had slept in the morning, were again their guards. Both saw at once that some great event was at hand. The excitement in the village had increased visibly, and a multitude was pouring toward a certain point, a wide, grassy plain beside the Little Big Horn. Lone Wolf and Pine Tree willingly took the captives with the crowd, and the two boys looked upon a sight which few white men have beheld in all ...
— The Last of the Chiefs - A Story of the Great Sioux War • Joseph Altsheler

... is not reckoned a member of the Church according to his body, but according to his soul, nay, according to his faith...It is plain that the Church can be classed with a temporal community as little as spirits with bodies. Whosoever would not go astray should therefore hold fast to this, that the Church is a spiritual assembly of souls in one faith, that no one is reckoned a Christian for his body's sake; ...
— Works of Martin Luther - With Introductions and Notes (Volume I) • Martin Luther

... Water. Plain, ordinary aitch-two-oh. See those little vents at the side? They exhaust oxygen and helium. It burns about four hundred milligrams of water per ...
— Damned If You Don't • Gordon Randall Garrett

... speculations of many of the ancients on the human understanding are so confused, and so purely hypothetical, that their greatest admirers are not agreed upon their meaning; and whenever we can procure a plain statement of their doctrines, all other modes of refuting them appear to be wholly superfluous.' Miss Beulah, I especially commend you to these humorous lectures." He bowed to ...
— Beulah • Augusta J. Evans

... him. Sommers looked at her searchingly, curious to find where this power lay. Her face had grown white and set. The features and the figure were those of a large woman. Her hair, bronzed in the sunlight as he remembered, was dark in the gloom of this room. The plain, symmetrical arrangement of the hair above the large brow and features made her seem older than she was. The deep-set eyes, the quivering lips, and the thin nostrils gave life to the passive, restrained face. The passions of her life lay just beneath the ...
— The Web of Life • Robert Herrick

... dug out of the ground; which had been particularly noted to be plain and level, and ploughed just before; but where it was now found to have made a great fissure, or cleft, an ell wide, whilst it singed ...
— Remarks Concerning Stones Said to Have Fallen from the Clouds, Both in These Days, and in Antient Times • Edward King

... Procopius to have dwelt in Britain; though Beda makes no mention of them. Assume, however, that the Saxons of the latter writer were the Frisians of the former, and all is plain and clear. But, then, they should be more unlike the Angles than they can be ...
— The Ethnology of the British Islands • Robert Gordon Latham

... what you would call floored by a Jew. He passed me several times crying out for old clothes in the most nasal and extraordinary tone I ever heard. At last I was so provoked, that I said to him, "Pray, why can't you say 'old clothes' in a plain way as I do now?" The Jew stopped, and looking very gravely at me, said in a clear and even fine accent, "Sir, I can say 'old clothes' as well as you can; but if you had to say so ten times a minute, for an hour together, you would say Ogh Clo as I do now;" and so he ...
— Specimens of the Table Talk of S.T.Coleridge • Coleridge

... ordinary intelligent women. She must manifest an absolute confidence in him—that was the true significance of his present motives. The censures and suspicions which she had not scrupled to confess in plain words must linger in no corner of ...
— The Odd Women • George Gissing

... Sir? What can savages tell, but what they themselves have seen? Of the past, or the invisible, they can tell nothing. The inhabitants of Otaheit and New-Zealand are not in a state of pure nature; for it is plain they broke off from some other people. Had they grown out of the ground, you might have judged of a state of pure nature. Fanciful people may talk of a mythology being amongst them; but it must be invention. They have once had religion, which has been gradually ...
— The Life Of Johnson, Volume 3 of 6 • Boswell

... word nor wagged a finger, and yet shaped my whole subsequent career. You have crossed the States, so that in all likelihood you have seen the head of it, parcel-gilt and curiously fluted, rising among trees from a wide plain; for this new character was no other than the State capitol of Muskegon, then first projected. My father had embraced the idea with a mixture of patriotism and commercial greed, both perfectly genuine. ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 13 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... I found Lieutenant Long, towering so far above all his surroundings as to have been easily recognized even had he not been in uniform. Beside him sat Corporal Castillo of the "plain-clothes" squad, a young man of forty, with a high forehead, a stubby black mustache, and a chin that was ...
— Zone Policeman 88 - A Close Range Study of the Panama Canal and its Workers • Harry A. Franck

... its natural state is porous and therefore a healthful foot covering. Patent- leather shoes, however, have been made air-tight by a special process, and are very hot, uncomfortable and unsanitary. The sole of the shoe should consist of nothing but plain leather. So-called waterproofing processes, making the shoe air-tight as well as waterproof, should be avoided. Patented, waterproof soles are highly objectionable. If you can have your shoes made to order see to it that the sole consists of ...
— Vitality Supreme • Bernarr Macfadden

... Christians! help, neighbours! my house is broken open by force, and I am ravished, and like to be assassinated!—What do you mean, villains? will you carry me away, like a pedlar's pack, upon your backs? will you murder a man in plain day-light? ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Vol. 6 (of 18) - Limberham; Oedipus; Troilus and Cressida; The Spanish Friar • John Dryden

... superbly indifferent to his surroundings, gazing straight before him with the eyes of a Viking who searches the far horizon. He walked with the free swing of a pirate. And as the woman turned her dazzling face towards him, it was plain to all that she saw none but him in ...
— Charles Rex • Ethel M. Dell

... month, which was then L760, and now it is but L717. But it hath chiefly arisen from my layings-out in clothes for myself and wife; viz., for her about L12, and for myself L55, or thereabouts; having made myself a velvet cloake, two new cloth suits, black, plain both; a ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys

... It was of much consequence to us to be well informed of the fabric and strength of this fort; which, we learnt from our prisoners, had eight pieces of cannon, but neither ditch nor outwork, being merely surrounded by a plain brick wall; and that the garrison consisted of one weak company, though the town might possibly be able to arm three hundred men. Having informed himself of the strength of the place, the commodore determined upon ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 11 • Robert Kerr

... Others applied themselves to study only, and for that purpose journeyed from one master's cell to another. The Irish welcomed all comers. All received without charge daily food: barley or oaten bread and water, or sometimes milk—cibus sit vilis et vespertinus—a plain meal, once a day, in the afternoon. Books were supplied, or what is more likely, waxed tablets folded in book form. Teaching was as free as the open air in which ...
— Old English Libraries, The Making, Collection, and Use of Books • Ernest A. Savage

... prison governor to the Minister of Justice in reference to any prisoner whom he may deem worthy of the privilege, provided that prisoner has completed three-fourths of the sentence imposed upon him and has shown a disposition to live more worthily. I do not quite know how this latter fact is made plain in gaol, but at any rate the prison governor has to be convinced of it. A prisoner thus released remains under police supervision during ...
— The Empire of the East • H. B. Montgomery

... went on, after a pause, and turning round, "yonder's Kit's House, wi' Kit's Cottage, next door. You can't see the house so plain, 'cos 'tes behind the trees. But there ...
— The Astonishing History of Troy Town • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... slopes of the hills which probably formed the shores of the old lagoons. An expert can tell from the external appearance of the ground where the richest deposits are likely to be found. The caliche itself is not found on the surface of the plain, but is covered up by two layers. The uppermost, known technically as chuca, is of a friable nature, and consists of sand and gypsum; while the lower, the costra, is a rocky conglomerate of clay, gravel, and fragments of felspar. The caliche varies in thickness from a few inches to 10 or ...
— Manures and the principles of manuring • Charles Morton Aikman

... middle of the attic, extending up through the roof, was a big chimney. It could not be seen in the rest of the house, but here in the attic the bricks were in plain view, and Charlie said, on cold Winter days, when it snowed, it was warm in the attic because of the heat ...
— Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Big Woods • Laura Lee Hope

... shot. On I went: the Indian was so close that I could feel his horse's breath, and the idea came across my mind that the brute was trying to catch hold of the calf of my leg. At a hundred yards I could see Maud's face quite plain, and then I felt certain I was saved. She looked as steady as if she had been taking aim at a mark, and the thought flashed across me of how last week she had hit a small stone on a post, at eighty yards, first ...
— Out on the Pampas - The Young Settlers • G. A. Henty

... Faust, cannot be described in analytic steps. The loss of faith in the rationality of the universe, the collapse of the "beautiful world" within, can be told step by step; the process of integration and reconstruction, on the other hand, always remains somewhat of a mystery, though it is plain enough that a new and richer inner world has been found. So, too, with Mysticism. The experience itself may, and often does, bring to the recipient an indubitable certainty of spiritual realities, revealing themselves within his own spirit, ...
— Spiritual Reformers in the 16th & 17th Centuries • Rufus M. Jones

... well that we should be plain, so as to be avoiding all misconceptions," said O'Moy. "You must know, sir, and your Council must know, that wherever armies move there must be reason for complaint. The British army does not claim in this respect to be superior to others—although I don't say, mark ...
— The Snare • Rafael Sabatini

... Frank found the latter busied in "pricking out" the ship's course on the chart, and was thus able to survey him at leisure. Captain Gray's plain black suit and standing collar, his grayish-brown hair, close-cut whiskers, and mild expression, made him look more like a preacher than like one who had led a forlorn hope over the ruins of Fort Sumter, and had captured, single-handed, ...
— Harper's Young People, April 6, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... her to stay at home from school, but said she must tell Mrs. Nott the plain truth, and, if she had time before the class began, learn the lesson from some of the other girls' books. Fortunately, the missing task was that which Phoebe had learned before leaving the school the day before; but, owing to her haste and agitation, it was so incorrectly repeated ...
— The Story of a Robin • Agnes S. Underwood

... perilous seat once more, and moved out into the night. The wind seemed to have gone down. There was a deep hush in the air, as if the high stars listened in their illimitable spaces. The plain seemed as lonely and as unlighted as the Arctic Ocean. Even the barking of a farm-yard dog had a ...
— A Spoil of Office - A Story of the Modern West • Hamlin Garland

... understood to those which are more difficult to grasp. The language is simple and as free as possible from unusual and technical phrases. Those which are unavoidable are carefully defined. The outline is made very plain, and the paragraphing is designed to be of real assistance to the ...
— An Elementary Study of Chemistry • William McPherson

... he'll be the ruin of you? And why do 'ee always put me off with vague answers when I git upon that subject? You did not use to act like that, Jim. You were always fair an' above-board in your young days. But what's the use of askin'? It's plain that bad company has done it, an' my only wonder is, how you ever come to play the hypocrite to that extent, as to go to the prayer-meeting and make believe you've ...
— The Floating Light of the Goodwin Sands • R.M. Ballantyne

... that wherever he drove in the state so low a number created a sensation, and "though it was pretty nice to have the honor, yet traffic cops remembered it only too darn well, and sometimes he didn't know but what he'd almost as soon have just plain B56,876 or something like that. Only let any doggone Booster try to get Number 5 away from a live Rotarian next year, and watch the fur fly! And if they'd permit him, he'd wind up by calling for a cheer for the Boosters and Rotarians ...
— Babbitt • Sinclair Lewis

... Harry came in after school to feed me and give me water. In the afternoon I was put into the cab. Jerry took as much pains to see if the collar and bridle fitted comfortably as if he had been John Manly over again. There was no check-rein, no curb, nothing but a plain ring snaffle. What a blessing ...
— Black Beauty, Young Folks' Edition • Anna Sewell

... the girls draw near, to view The slaughter of a stricken plain, In mimic battle, at this cue, The boys now join with ...
— The Sexual Life of the Child • Albert Moll

... bronzed soldiers of liberty, and pointed to their tattered uniforms and worn-out shoes as proofs of their triumphant energy: above all, they gazed with admiration, not unmixed with awe, at the thin pale features of the young commander, whose plain attire bespoke a Spartan activity, whose ardent gaze and decisive gestures proclaimed a born leader of men. Forthwith he arranged for the investment of the citadel where eighteen hundred Austrians held out: he then received the chief men of the city with easy Italian ...
— The Life of Napoleon I (Volumes, 1 and 2) • John Holland Rose

... David, "the' ain't much to tell, but it's plain I don't git no peace till you git it out of me. It was like this: The young feller's took holt everywhere else right off, but handlin' the money bothered him consid'able at fust. It was slow work, an' I c'd see it myself; but he's gettin' ...
— David Harum - A Story of American Life • Edward Noyes Westcott

... said it was the telegraph.... It is fearful to see the Governor-General arrayed in gold clothes flying along like a madman, with only a guide, as if he was pursued.... Specks had been seen in the vast plain around the station moving towards it (like Jehu's advance), but the specks were few—only two or three—and were supposed to be the advanced guard, and before the men of Fogia knew where they ...
— General Gordon - A Christian Hero • Seton Churchill

... isolated in the middle of a plain, rose about a hundred feet from the forest. It was a building of massive architecture, shaded by five or six venerable trees. The horseman paused before the portal, over which were placed three statues ...
— The Companions of Jehu • Alexandre Dumas, pere



Words linked to "Plain" :   snowfield, yawp, inveigh, squawk, patterned, peck, manifestly, solid-coloured, protest, unvarnished, tailored, evident, scold, floodplain, coastal plain, repine, knit, spare, complain, steppe, plain wanderer, report, backbite, unmistakable, unelaborate, murmur, knitting stitch, pure, knit stitch, unrhetorical, terra firma, apparent, mutter, tundra, moorland, inelaborate, Olympia, salt plain, sound off, land, plain sailing, deplore, flood plain, bare, Serengeti, grumble, peneplain, croak, dry land, evidently, dry, literal, unmingled, grouse, champaign, plain clothes, patently, unpretentious, sheer, moor, cheer, vanilla, simple, plain flour, lament, rail, austere, field, undecorated, beef, colloquialism, whine, plainly, severe, bewail, apparently, plain stitch, nag, fancy, Nullarbor Plain, bleat, obviously, alluvial plain, Serengeti Plain, holler, kvetch, ground, unpatterned, crab, bellyache, obvious, unadorned, kick, grizzle, plain weave, direct, homely, unornamented, plainness, unembellished, llano, gripe, yammer, solid ground, solid-colored, plain-woven, mere, patent, stern, hen-peck, peneplane, grouch, unattractive, quetch, flat, manifest, bitch, trim, plain turkey



Copyright © 2024 Free Translator.org