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Explain   /ɪksplˈeɪn/   Listen
Explain

verb
(past & past part. explained; pres. part. explaining)
1.
Make plain and comprehensible.  Synonym: explicate.
2.
Define.
3.
Serve as a reason or cause or justification of.  Synonym: excuse.  "Her recent divorce may explain her reluctance to date again"



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"Explain" Quotes from Famous Books



... Theodore's treatment of foreigners, I will endeavour to explain the real cause of the misfortunes that befell Mr. Stern. That he was only the victim of circumstances, is a fact beyond any doubt. The extracts from his book and the notes from his diary, brought as charges against him, were only discovered several weeks after many cruelties had been ...
— A Narrative of Captivity in Abyssinia - With Some Account of the Late Emperor Theodore, - His Country and People • Henry Blanc

... pertaining to spiritual substances, by whom we are urged to good or evil; this pertains to the discernment of spirits. Moreover it extends to the direction of human acts, and this pertains to knowledge, as we shall explain further on (Q. 177). Accordingly we must first of all consider prophecy, and rapture which ...
— Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) • Thomas Aquinas

... his embarrassment, the judicial mind had been able to plume itself upon the penetration which had enabled it to detect something of doubtful odour about him from the first. "Kitty!" That word might explain so much—Rainham's long sojourns away ...
— A Comedy of Masks - A Novel • Ernest Dowson and Arthur Moore

... till she is older. She may then be able to suggest something herself. She will know at least how she feels, and explain ...
— Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know • Various

... to the details of construction of our space ship. Eyer will hold a couple of classes to explain everything. Then, when we've made things as clear as possible, Eyer and I will take off and get up to do our best to counteract the—whatever it is—that seems to be ruling the stratosphere. We'll do everything possible to hold the influences in check until you can send up ...
— Lords of the Stratosphere • Arthur J. Burks

... her eyes wide. "Why, you are a courageous person!" she said and laughed, but did not explain what she meant, and he did not like ...
— Maurice Guest • Henry Handel Richardson

... saying, 'have been glad enough to use women's help to get candidates elected. We've been quite intelligent enough to canvass for them; we were intelligent enough to explain to the ignorant men——' She acknowledged the groans by saying, 'Of course there are none of that sort here, but elsewhere there are such things as ignorant men, and women by dozens and by scores are sent about to explain to them why they should vote this way ...
— The Convert • Elizabeth Robins

... with the words: "Though he may conceive it as his own good only on account of his interest in others, and in spite of any amount of suffering on his own part incidental to its attainment." He is willing to grant the self-seeking ego an eye single to its own interests, but he is careful to explain that: "These are not merely interests dependent on other persons for the means to their gratification, but interests in the good of those other persons, interests which cannot be satisfied without the consciousness that those other persons are ...
— A Handbook of Ethical Theory • George Stuart Fullerton

... that a discovery was made respecting Alan Rookwood, in order to explain which we must again revert to the night of the ...
— Rookwood • William Harrison Ainsworth

... the opening of the exposition Mrs. Hart was directed to proceed to St. Louis, where she was designated as hostess and placed in charge of the bureau of information in the Alaska Building. At the same time attendants were selected, whose duty it was to explain the exhibits to visitors. ...
— Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission • Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

... remember in our Indian studies, again and again, we meet the medicine man who has visions. Even modern ones have done things that are pretty impossible to explain. I believe they have spiritual powers beyond the capability of the white man. The prehistoric medicine men may have developed this power even more. I think the old man there is ...
— The Hohokam Dig • Theodore Pratt

... of thought, are at a loss without a store of material; that is, facts from which suggestions may arise. And this store of materials can only be attained through a thoroughgoing acquaintance with the particular field of inquiry. Thinking aims to explain the relations between facts, and an intimate acquaintance with facts involved in a given situation is prerequisite to any ...
— Human Traits and their Social Significance • Irwin Edman

... abortive expedition against the coast of France. There were those who thought that this had been their destination from the first, and that the proposed attack on Canada was only a pretence to deceive the enemy. It was not till the next spring that Newcastle tried to explain the miscarriage to Shirley. He wrote that the troops had been detained by head-winds till General Saint Clair and Admiral Lestock thought it too late; to which he added that the demands of the European war made the ...
— A Half-Century of Conflict, Volume II • Francis Parkman

... apartments, had read the news at the same time, and, as a matter of fact, in the same august and highly moral newspaper, as the governess in the luxurious mansion a few doors down on the opposite side of the street. But they read them with different feelings. They were thunderstruck. Fyne had to explain the full purport of the intelligence to Mrs. Fyne whose first cry was that of relief. Then that poor child would be safe from these designing, horrid people. Mrs. Fyne did not know what it might mean to be suddenly reduced from riches to absolute penury. ...
— Chance • Joseph Conrad

... day in the consciences of men, and what passes in you and in me, every time that we fall into sin, which causes death to Jesus Christ, as well as to our souls! Behold what makes the enormity and wickedness of this sin! I know that we do not always speak, that we do not always explain ourselves in such express terms and in so perceptible a manner; but after all, without explaining ourselves so distinctly and so sensibly, there is a language of the heart which says all this. For, from the moment that I know that this pleasure is criminal and forbidden of God, I know ...
— The World's Great Sermons, Vol. 2 (of 10) • Grenville Kleiser

... immediately hastened to explain the cause of his presence. He was greatly astonished. Here, then, was the corpulent country-girl his imagination had fancied! Before him stood a young lady altogether different to anything he had pictured her to be. "A girl of about seventeen," he tells himself, but later ...
— The Silver Lining - A Guernsey Story • John Roussel

... church promoted by the proprietary interest; withal it proved itself, both then and afterward, to hold a deposit of truth and of usages of worship peculiarly adapted to supplement the defects of the Quaker system. It is not easy to explain the ill success of the enterprise. In Philadelphia it took strong root, and the building, in 1727, of Christ Church, which survives to this day, a monument of architectural beauty as well as historical interest, marks an important epoch in the progress of Christianity in America. ...
— A History of American Christianity • Leonard Woolsey Bacon

... wait to explain," I replied. "I must get Warner from the lodge. If you came out for air, you'd better put on your overshoes." And then I noticed that Gertrude was limping—not much, but sufficiently to make her progress ...
— The Circular Staircase • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... part which the gallant is called upon to act in the revolution that winds up the tragic interest, while it is highly in character, serves to bring the catastrophe of both parts of the play under the eye of the spectator, at one and the same time. Thus much seemed necessary to explain the felicity of combination, upon which Dryden justly valued himself, and which Johnson sanctioned by his high commendation. But, although artfully conjoined, the different departments of this tragi-comedy are separate subjects ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Vol. 6 (of 18) - Limberham; Oedipus; Troilus and Cressida; The Spanish Friar • John Dryden

... tell; that's what I don't know. It's as great a mystery to me as it is to you. I can only conjecture that when I was writing that address I was thinking of coming to explain to Mrs. Campbell that I was going away to-day, and shouldn't be back till after her party. It was too complicated to put in a note without seeming to give my regrets too much importance. And I suppose that when I was addressing the note ...
— A Likely Story • William Dean Howells

... me to explain. There are a hundred of them at the Great Shirley School, and I am going—No, I can't explain. I will stop here instead of running away. I meant to run away when my affinity would have nothing to do ...
— The Rebel of the School • Mrs. L. T. Meade

... ELLEN,—I left Swarcliffe a week since. I never was so glad to get out of a house in my life; but I'll trouble you with no complaints at present. Write to me directly; explain your plans more fully. Say when you go, and I shall be able in my answer to say decidedly whether I can accompany you or not. I must, I will, I'm set upon it—I'll be obstinate and bear down ...
— Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle • Clement K. Shorter

... a daughter of her age,' replied the general, slowly. 'This child is so like her that I should feel like murdering my own were I to order her shot. Major, I cannot do it. See that my orders are carried out. I shall explain my action in this matter to my ...
— The Children of France • Ruth Royce

... I suppose to be continually driven round the globe by the constant motion and impulse of the heavens, and not to be alternately swallowed and cast up again by the breathing of Demogorgon, as some have imagined on purpose to explain the ebb and flow of the sea. Sebastian Cabot himself named these lands Baccalaos, because he found in the seas thereabout such multitudes of certain large fishes like tunnies, called baccalaos by the natives, that they sometimes stayed his ships. He found also the people of these regions ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume VI - Early English Voyages Of Discovery To America • Robert Kerr

... he restored universal tranquillity to his dominions, but was not able to ward off calamities of a more domestic nature. As the wretched historians of this period are entirely at variance with each other, it is not easy to explain the motives which induced him to put his wife Faus'ta, and ...
— Pinnock's Improved Edition of Dr. Goldsmith's History of Rome • Oliver Goldsmith

... will be well to consider first the rules for the Index of Prohibited Books, sketched out by the fathers delegated by the Tridentine Council, published by Pius IV., augmented by Sixtus V., and reduced to their final form by Clement VIII. in 1595.[119] Afterwards I shall proceed to explain the operation of the system, and to illustrate by details the injury inflicted ...
— Renaissance in Italy, Volumes 1 and 2 - The Catholic Reaction • John Addington Symonds

... explain further until they turned up High Street and stopped at the dark and long-empty shop beside the ...
— Janice Day at Poketown • Helen Beecher Long

... was over, Rienzi touched the Bishop, and whispered, "We will explain this to your liking. You feast with us at the Lateran.—Your arm." Nor did he leave the good Bishop's arm, nor trust him to other companionship, until to the stormy sound of horn and trumpet, drum and cymbal, and amidst such a concourse as might have hailed, ...
— Rienzi • Edward Bulwer Lytton

... interview, which I readily granted; and then with tears, and groans, and lamentations, told me that her husband's fate rested in my hands, and that if I wished to kill her I could by pursuing a harsh course. I begged her to explain, but she threw herself upon her knees and vowed that she would never rise until I had promised to do as she wished. I declined to make a profession that I did not understand, and at length I drew from her that her husband, the man whom she had married in opposition ...
— The Gold Hunter's Adventures - Or, Life in Australia • William H. Thomes

... groan, a long incredulous whistle, a sharp intake of breath— these were but too readily translated as adverse criticisms, but between these explosions came intervals of silence less easy to explain. Ron deliberately rolled over on his side, turning his back on his companion, thereby making it impossible to see his face. Those who have never trusted their inmost thoughts to paper can hardly imagine the acute suffering of the moment when they are submitted to the ...
— Big Game - A Story for Girls • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... can I find the place?" was Fran's quick rejoinder. She could not explain the dislike rising within her. She was too young, herself, to consider the other's youth an advantage, but the beauty of the imperious woman in the doorway—why did it not stir ...
— Fran • John Breckenridge Ellis

... very sharp talk, and it made the boys angry. Particularly did Jack resent any intimation that he was not to be trusted. But the new master was excited and naturally spoke severely. Nor did he give the boys a chance to explain at that time. ...
— The Hoosier School-boy • Edward Eggleston

... the operation, which is not sanguinary, the leaves of a tree called mentawa being applied to the wound. They could give no reason why they follow this practice any more than the ordinary Dayak can explain the purpose ...
— Through Central Borneo: - An Account of Two Years' Travel in the Land of Head-Hunters - Between the Years 1913 and 1917 • Carl Lumholtz

... by a West Indian Negro, and explain in very concise form the attitude of the educated African mind [211] with reference to the matters they deal with. Mr. Froude is free to perceive that no special religion patched up from obsolete creeds could be acceptable to those with whose sentiments the thoughts of the writer ...
— West Indian Fables by James Anthony Froude Explained by J. J. Thomas • J. J. (John Jacob) Thomas

... mother. She repeated to her the terrible words she had just heard, and her mother tried to calm her; but she herself was disturbed. She went immediately to Madame de la Roche-Jugan, and supplicated her to have pity on them and to retract the abominable innuendo she had thrown out, or to explain it more fully. She made her understand that she would inform M. de Camors of the affair in case of need, and that he would hold his cousin Sigismund responsible. Terrified in her turn, Madame de la Roche-Jugan judged the best method was to destroy M. de Camors in the estimation of Madame de Tecle. ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... of several democracies, not of democracy. There are links in the argument, there are phases of development which he leaves unnoticed, because his object has not been to trace out the properties and the connection of ideas, but to explain the results of experience. We should consult his pages, probably, without effect, if we wished to follow the origin and sequence of the democratic dogmas, that all men are equal; that speech and thought are free; that each generation is a law to ...
— The History of Freedom • John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

... materialistic terminology with the repudiation of materialistic philosophy I share with some of the most thoughtful men with whom I am acquainted. And, when I first undertook to deliver the present discourse, it appeared to me to be a fitting opportunity to explain how such a union is not only consistent with, but necessitated by, sound logic. I purposed to lead you through the territory of vital phaenomena to the materialistic slough in which you find yourselves now plunged, and then to point out to you the ...
— Lectures and Essays • Thomas Henry Huxley

... disagreeable. Alone you'd feel stranded. Attempt marrying again, where would you find a man with half the points that count for good, to replace him? In after years when your children realize the man he is, how are you going to explain to them why you couldn't ...
— Michael O'Halloran • Gene Stratton-Porter

... amazement he calmly proceeded to induct himself into them, with my assistance, and I then saw that the whole affair constituted a complete body armour of a kind, helmet and all. But, even then, I had no idea of what he was driving at until he condescended to explain. ...
— Turned Adrift • Harry Collingwood

... interview, 'that I went to Monte Carlo to obtain first-hand material for my book. The stories of my breaking the bank there, however, are wildly exaggerated. Of course, I played a little, in order to be able to put myself in the place of my hero. I should explain that I was in Monte Carlo with my cousin, Mr. Dolbiac, the well-known sculptor and painter, who was painting portraits there. Mr. Dolbiac is very much at home in Parisian artistic society, and he happened to introduce ...
— A Great Man - A Frolic • Arnold Bennett

... her guardian were kindred spirits. They never needed to explain themselves to each other. Both knew ...
— The Highgrader • William MacLeod Raine

... to explain everything to Major Lacey, who will report to head-quarters if he considers ...
— Gil the Gunner - The Youngest Officer in the East • George Manville Fenn

... explain that Yakoub insisted that if the mistress were appropriated by Abderrahman, the maid should be his compensation. Eyoub, who had been the foremost in the rescue from the wreck, was furious at the demand, and they were on the point of fighting when thus withheld; while the Sunakite ...
— A Modern Telemachus • Charlotte M. Yonge

... are nineteen sub-species of the eastern Song Sparrow. These vary from the typical bird by differences in size and shades of marking. In a similar way there are nine climatic variations of Screech Owls, six Long-billed Marsh Wrens, and fourteen Horned Larks. It is {121} difficult to explain why this variation in colour and size is so pronounced in some species and yet is totally absent in others of equally wide range. The Mourning Dove breeds in many localities from the southern tier of Canadian Provinces southward throughout the United States and ...
— The Bird Study Book • Thomas Gilbert Pearson

... old Shoshonee guide and his son had left us, and been seen running up the river several miles above. As he had never given any notice of his intention, nor had even received his pay for guiding us, we could not imagine the cause of his desertion, nor did he ever return to explain his conduct. We requested the chief to send a horseman after him to request that he would return and receive what we owed him. From this however he dissuaded us, and said very frankly, that his nation, the Chopunnish, would take from the old ...
— History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, Vol. I. • Meriwether Lewis and William Clark

... circumstances related in these chapters, which either do not enter at all, or are slightly mentioned in the officers journals; for these, my public papers and copies of letters have principally furnished materials, and a tolerably faithful memory has supplied the rest. It seemed necessary to explain this, that the reader may know to what the deficiencies and abridgments in some parts of these chapters are to be attributed; and this being premised, I resume the narrative of our preparations for ...
— A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 2 • Matthew Flinders

... He walked on the sea. But this is not consistent with what has been decided above (Q. 14). For these gifts of a glorified body result from an overflow of the soul's glory on to the body, as we shall explain further on, in treating of glorified bodies (Suppl., Q. 82): and it has been said above (Q. 13, A. 3, ad 1; Q. 16, A. 1, ad 2) that before His Passion Christ "allowed His flesh to do and to suffer what was proper to it" (Damascene, De Fide Orth. iii): nor was there ...
— Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) - From the Complete American Edition • Thomas Aquinas

... now relate. On our way to Siena we fell in with a bandit who robbed us, and though my uncle is tarrying here in the hope of the recovery of his property the matter is not altogether simple but presents more complications than I can explain ...
— Romance of Roman Villas - (The Renaissance) • Elizabeth W. (Elizbeth Williams) Champney

... says "In Kennington Station House." I was dropping at his feet Stone at the image of that Innocence in cells with murderers when he adds "He followed the Monkey." I says deeming it slang language "O sir explain for a loving grandmother what Monkey!" He says "Him in the spangled cap with the strap under the chin, as won't keep on—him as sweeps the crossings on a round table and don't want to draw his sabre more than he can help." Then I understood it all and most thankfully thanked him, and ...
— Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings • Charles Dickens

... thus looking at her in silence and thinking of these things, and then he went slowly forward, scarce knowing how to address her or explain his presence, who had so long ...
— Calvert of Strathore • Carter Goodloe

... words: "I perceive, mother, that my silence yesterday has much troubled you; I was not, nor am I sick, as I fancy you believed; but I assure you, that what I felt then, and now endure, is worse than any disease. I cannot explain what ails me; but doubt not what I am going ...
— Types of Children's Literature • Edited by Walter Barnes

... during the first hours of the night,—broke and reverberated into the room, bringing him to an instant stand. Feeling that something extraordinary had occurred, the startled court, parties and spectators, alike paused, and eagerly listened for something further to explain the sudden outbreak. But, for several minutes, all was still, or hushed down to the low hum of mingling voices, and not a distinct, intelligible sound reached their expectant senses. Soon, however, the noise of trampling feet ...
— Gaut Gurley • D. P. Thompson

... (i.e., lunar regions), are reserved for men devoted to action. These are attained by persons subject to birth and death. That end, however, which persons desirous of salvation have before their eyes, is indescribable. Yoga is the best means for attaining to it. It is not easy to explain it (to thee). Those that are learned live, reflecting on the scriptures from desire of finding what is unreal. They are, however, often led away to this and to that in the belief that the object of their search exists in this and that. Having mastered, however, the Vedas, the Aranyakas, and the ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 - Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 • Unknown

... to explain to the uninitiated reader, that the harpoon is a barbed spear, with a small, but stout cord, or whale line fastened to it. The boat approaches the fish bow foremost, but is made sharp at both ends that it ...
— The Crater • James Fenimore Cooper

... us by Mendelism are now established beyond controversy. Led by the German biologists, the leading scientists of the world had already acknowledged that "pure" Darwinism or natural selection cannot explain the origin of new organs or new forms. And now Mendelism destroys the other supposed foundation for biological evolution, by showing that small variations cannot be accumulated into large differences ...
— Q. E. D., or New Light on the Doctrine of Creation • George McCready Price

... It is necessary, it seems. We must have printed matter to give to those who make application for information. It would be impossible to explain personally to everybody who inquires, and to show ...
— A Woman Intervenes • Robert Barr

... successfully controlled him during three weeks, and in another fortnight he must return to Russia. Paul confessed to himself that his brother's visit was not an unmitigated blessing, and found it hard to explain the object of it. Indeed, it was so simple that his diplomatic mind did not find it out; for Alexander had merely said to himself that he had never seen Constantinople, and that, as his brother was there, ...
— Paul Patoff • F. Marion Crawford

... cruel thing?' I said. 'Explain,' he faltered. 'Pray you, sir, explain!' I said, and thrust the letters in his hand. And as he sat in silence reading hers, I saw the pangs of conscience on his face; I saw him tremble like a stricken soul; And then a tear-drop fell upon his hand; ...
— The Feast of the Virgins and Other Poems • H. L. Gordon

... Isabella, and surrounded by his two brothers and his friends, he finally recovered his former health, but he could not renew his attack on the cannibal islands, because of the disturbances which had broken out amongst the Spaniards he had left in Hispaniola. Concerning these I shall later explain. Fare ...
— De Orbe Novo, Volume 1 (of 2) - The Eight Decades of Peter Martyr D'Anghera • Trans. by Francis Augustus MacNutt

... topics, seldom of Russia, and never of his experiences. Constantine and I had settled down together as two men will sometimes do, who work together and are drawn by a sympathy of unlikeness which neither can explain. Both of us worked on an evening paper of pronounced views upon moral questions and a fine feeling for a good ...
— Bog-Myrtle and Peat - Tales Chiefly Of Galloway Gathered From The Years 1889 To 1895 • S.R. Crockett

... bombardment of the forts in the Dardanelles, probably to clear the way for Russia's commerce—are the outstanding features of the speech by Lloyd George presented below, foreshadowing a new phase in the war. The speech was made in the House of Commons on Feb. 15, 1915, to explain the results of the financial conference between the allied powers to unite their monetary resources, held in Paris during the week of Feb. 1. It may be regarded as one of the most momentous utterances ...
— New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 2, No. 1, April, 1915 - April-September, 1915 • Various

... our tennis squad all knew me well and felt at perfect liberty to ask me as many questions as they could think up. I was besieged with requests to explain why Jones missed a forehand drive down the side-line, or Smith couldn't serve well, or Brown failed to hit the ball at all. Frankly, I did not know, but I answered them something at the moment and said to myself it was time I learned some fundamentals ...
— The Art of Lawn Tennis • William T. Tilden, 2D

... appearance presented by those that are wicked, and what are those acts which they that are called good are to do? Explain to me this, O holy one! Indeed, tell me what the indications are of the ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... what for? God forbid! you are too tiresome, without counting the difficulty of pleasing you with your food. Oh! no, indeed! Explain to me whence comes ...
— The Forty-Five Guardsmen • Alexandre Dumas

... was the answer, as the rugged sailor's face turned fondly towards the two. "I have a notion that her letter will explain how, all unconsciously, my little girls have been a link between her and her ...
— All Aboard - A Story for Girls • Fannie E. Newberry

... earth—the Jurassic period, which was the zenith of the reptilian type, and the Pliocene, which was the zenith of the colossal terrestrial tertiary mammals. I say on purpose, 'from the evidence before us,' because, as I shall go on to explain hereafter, I do not myself believe that any one age has much surpassed another in the general size of its fauna, since the Permian Epoch at least; and where we do not get geological evidence of the existence of big animals in any particular deposit, we may take it for ...
— Falling in Love - With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science • Grant Allen

... evening of the second day he had left Harmony, enmeshed and helpless in a tangle of language, trying to explain to the little Bulgarian the reason American women wished to vote. Byrne flung down the stairs and out into the street, ...
— The Street of Seven Stars • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... tell you something that is not in the papers—yet—ma'am," said Starmidge. "I think it will explain matters to you. When we examined Mr. Hollis's effects at Scarnham, yesterday morning, after the finding of his body, we found in his letter-case a cheque ...
— The Chestermarke Instinct • J. S. Fletcher

... also, that it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled,' An act for the better regulating the government of the province of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England.'—And also, that it may be proper to explain and amend an act, made in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, intituled, 'An act for the trial of treasons committed out of ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. II. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... this unexpected resistance, the troops drew back, as they were entirely without means of making an assault upon the city. The governor and council at once sent Archdeacon Hamilton to the royal camp, to excuse themselves for what had happened, and to explain that the firing was the action of a turbulent body of men, whom they were unable to restrain, and whom they represented as drunken rebels. The better class of citizens, they said, were all resolved to surrender dutifully, ...
— Orange and Green - A Tale of the Boyne and Limerick • G. A. Henty

... explain. Jake is rash and fond of excitement and gay society. He makes friends easily and trusts those he likes, but this has some drawbacks because his confidence is often misplaced. Now I don't think you would find it difficult to ...
— Brandon of the Engineers • Harold Bindloss

... of a culture wholly distinct from the Prussian ideal, was an inspiration, in which I once more detect the Hand of Heaven. Unfortunately it has been misunderstood in neutral countries; and, to appease their protests, I have had to explain that this feat of righteous wrath has given me an ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, September 16, 1914 • Various

... citizen to understand economic principles. As conduct is the greater part of life, and morality, not only the bond of social union, but the main source of individual happiness, I took the ethical part of the subject first, and tried to explain that education was of no value unless it was used for good purposes. As without some wealth, civilization was impossible, I next sought to show that national and individual wealth depends on the security that is given by law, and on the ...
— An Autobiography • Catherine Helen Spence

... not explain! The fact turned out to be that, never having seen any woman so wonderfully and bewitchingly beautiful before, the natives had crowded uninvited into the cottage, and there, seated on their hams round the walls, quietly gazed at her to their hearts' ...
— Sunk at Sea • R.M. Ballantyne

... to open before you when you observed, "that to see one half of the human race excluded by the other from all participation of government, was a political phenomenon that, according to abstract principles, it was impossible to explain." If so, on what does your constitution rest? If the abstract rights of man will bear discussion and explanation, those of woman, by a parity of reasoning, will not shrink from the same test: though a different opinion prevails ...
— A Vindication of the Rights of Woman - Title: Vindication of the Rights of Women • Mary Wollstonecraft [Godwin]

... that am but lorn.* *undone Lo, lord, my lady hath my death y-sworn, Withoute guilt, but* thy benignity *unless Upon my deadly heart have some pity. For well I wot, Lord Phoebus, if you lest,* *please Ye may me helpe, save my lady, best. Now vouchsafe, that I may you devise* *tell, explain How that I may be holp,* and in what wise. *helped Your blissful sister, Lucina the sheen, That of the sea is chief goddess and queen, — Though Neptunus have deity in the sea, Yet emperess above him is she; ...
— The Canterbury Tales and Other Poems • Geoffrey Chaucer

... know what to do," he said, in a hopeless way. "Father's persisting in living with us is throwing a burden on you, that with all your other cares is quite too much for you. I see and feel it every day. Don't you think I had better explain this to him and let ...
— Stepping Heavenward • Mrs. E. Prentiss

... at the moment explain even to her what had threatened me, but her calm sweet words at last gave my story vent. Out it came ...
— A Son of the Middle Border • Hamlin Garland

... as a (very big) set of program notes to accompany his second piano sonata. Here, he puts forth his elaborate theory of music and what it represents, and discusses Transcendental philosophy and its relation to music. The essays explain Ives' own philosophy of and understanding of music and art. They also serve as an analysis of music itself as an artform, and provide a critical explanation of the "Concord" and the role that the philosophies of Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau and the Alcotts play in forming ...
— Essays Before a Sonata • Charles Ives

... hallucination, especially as when he spoke about his eyes, the doctor continued with a smile, and in his most childish accents: "Of course, Monsieur, you cannot understand what I am saying to you, and I must beg your pardon for it. To-morrow you will receive a letter which will explain it all to you, but, first of all, it was necessary that I should let you have a good, a careful look at my eyes, my eyes, which are myself, my only and true self, as ...
— Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories • Edited by Julian Hawthorne

... 'The devil is come among you, having great wrath!' He then drew Mr Glowry aside into another apartment, and after remaining some time together, they re-entered the library with faces of great dismay, but did not condescend to explain to any one ...
— Nightmare Abbey • Thomas Love Peacock

... before he had received any intimation of my confinement, and bringing with them a bundle of clothes that I had left at Daman Jumma's house, for my use in case I should return by the way of Jarra. Johnson was led into Ali's tent and examined; the bundle was opened, and I was sent for to explain the use of the different articles. I was happy, however, to find that Johnson had committed my papers to the charge of one of Daman's wives. When I had satisfied Ali's curiosity respecting the different articles of apparel the bundle was again tied ...
— Travels in the Interior of Africa - Volume 1 • Mungo Park

... young man," continued he: "and now I will explain to you how it was that I was adrift, like a bear in a washing-tub. My first mate was below. I had just relieved the deck, for in this blowing weather we must keep watch in harbour. The men were all at their dinner, when I heard the boat ...
— Newton Forster • Frederick Marryat

... and with a complete set of the plans, embodying his latest ideas, Tom went into the library where his father was seated in an easy-chair. Dr. Gladby had said it would not now harm the aged inventor to do a little work. Tom spread the drawings out in front of his father, and began to explain them ...
— Tom Swift and his Sky Racer - or, The Quickest Flight on Record • Victor Appleton

... mushroom-growing pay the farmer who has the cellar and the manure as well? Mr. Gardner raises mushrooms, and lots of them. When I visited him last November, instead of trying to hide anything in their cultivation from me, he took particular pains to show and explain to me everything about his way of growing them. And he assures me that by adopting simple means of preparing the manure and "fixing" for the crop, and avoiding all complicated methods, one can get good crops and make ...
— Mushrooms: how to grow them - a practical treatise on mushroom culture for profit and pleasure • William Falconer

... to marry me," she repeated, "you have got a right to know all there is to know. Have I refused to explain? I haven't had much chance to explain yet. Have I refused to tell you anything? If you ever thought of anybody beside yourself, you might be asking yourself how all this talk would affect a girl like ...
— North of Fifty-Three • Bertrand W. Sinclair

... Assurance sat upon his brow; Who gained the post whereto he strained— The grain-controllership attained. But then old laws were very strict, And punished actions derelict. Accounts were passed by year and year, The auditors would then appear, And his controllership of grain Must his accounts and stock explain. ...
— Fables of John Gay - (Somewhat Altered) • John Gay

... milk Rose ran to Phebe, ordered her to leave her dishes, to put on her hat, and take a note back to Uncle Alec, which would explain this somewhat mysterious performance. Phebe obeyed, and when she went to the boat Rose accompanied her, telling the boys she was not ready to go yet, but they could, some of them, come for her when she hung a white signal ...
— Eight Cousins • Louisa M. Alcott

... design to set everything forth, as far as may be, plainly and perspicuously (for nakedness of the mind is still, as nakedness of the body once was, the companion of innocence and simplicity), let me first explain the order and plan of the work. I distribute it ...
— Prefaces and Prologues to Famous Books - with Introductions, Notes and Illustrations • Charles W. Eliot

... ancient workmanship; and this led to a suspicion that the Arabs about the first cataract had discovered a new tomb. For a long time nothing definite could be found; but, at last, vigorous measures having been taken,—measures which Brugsch Bey did not explain, but which I could easily understand to be the time-honored method of tying up the principal functionaries of the region to their palm-trees and whipping them until they confessed,—the discovery was revealed, and Brugsch Bey, having gone up the Nile to ...
— Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White Volume II • Andrew Dickson White

... written from Rome just before his martyrdom A. D. 67. It was written to further instruct Timothy and to explain his own personal affairs. It is the last letter written by Paul, a sort of last will and testimony and is of great importance as it tells as how he fared just before his death. It is more personal in tone than First Timothy ...
— The Bible Book by Book - A Manual for the Outline Study of the Bible by Books • Josiah Blake Tidwell

... you—such a heterogeneous nature, that can have so little in common with you. She was educated with my sister for several years in Kniephof, although she was four or five years the elder of the two. Either she loves you—which I should find quite easy to explain—or has other prosaic intentions. I fancy that she, as is quite natural, does not feel at home in her father's house; she has, therefore, always made her home with others for long periods ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. X. • Kuno Francke

... I am a little dense, won't you?" he begged. "To tell you the truth," he went on, smiling, "I've got a sort of feeling that I'd like to do anything you ask me. Now won't you just explain a little more clearly what you mean, and I'll blow up the old place sky high, if ...
— The Vanished Messenger • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... explain away Mr. Tilden's discovery, but was met at once by that gentleman, who more than fastened his guilt upon him. ...
— Lights and Shadows of New York Life - or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great City • James D. McCabe

... goes to the right, is due to the fact that in the former case, the upper crutch is drawn away from the right thigh; but in the latter case, it forms a more or less effective obstacle to the forward movement of the right thigh, and thus helps the rider to retain her seat. To explain this subject more fully, I may point out, that if a person is standing on the foot-board of the right side of a rapidly moving train which suddenly turns to the left, he or she would be far more inclined to fall off, than if a similar change of direction had been made to the ...
— The Horsewoman - A Practical Guide to Side-Saddle Riding, 2nd. Ed. • Alice M. Hayes

... Isis is impossible of being lifted entirely, still there is a Something that enables one to see at least dimly the features of the Goddess behind the veil. And that Something is that Intelligent Faith that "knows," although it is unable to explain even to itself. And the voice of that Something Within informs him who has that Faith: All Is Well, Brother! For beyond planes, and states, and universes, and time, and space, and name, and form, and Things—there must be THAT which transcends them all, and from which they all proceed. Though we ...
— Reincarnation and the Law of Karma - A Study of the Old-New World-Doctrine of Rebirth, and Spiritual Cause and Effect • William Walker Atkinson

... our employments—our sewing, our weeding and cultivating the garden, or our reading. Of the latter, I had many times endeavored to give her some idea, showing her the plates in the Family Bible, and doing my best to explain them to her, but of late I had quite lost sight of her. Now, how changed, how wan she looked! As I addressed her with my ordinary phrase, "Tshah-ko-zhah?" (What is it?) she gave a sigh that was almost a sob. She did not beg, but ...
— Wau-bun - The Early Day in the Northwest • Juliette Augusta Magill Kinzie

... may provide, as it were, a safety-valve for other places in the same part of the world. Instead of a general shrinking, the materials would be sufficiently elastic and flexible to allow the shrinking for a very large area to be done at this particular locality. In this way we may explain the fact that immense tracts on the earth are practically free from earthquakes of a serious character, while in the less fortunate regions the earthquakes ...
— The San Francisco Calamity • Various

... Laius had the words explain'd, "Before his time to every mind obscure; "And the dark prophetess, down headlong flung, "Laid lifeless, all her riddling tales forgot. "Her, fostering Themis saw, and unreveng'd "To lie not suffer'd. Straight another ...
— The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & II • Ovid

... word that I said, arose at the back of the church and said: "I have listened to all that this lady has had to say, but I am not convinced. I have it on good authority that in Colorado, where women vote, a woman once stuffed a ballot-box. How can the lady explain that?" I said I could explain it, though, indeed, I could not see that it needed any explanation. No one could expect women to live all their lives with men without picking up some of their little ways! That seemed to hold the ...
— The Next of Kin - Those who Wait and Wonder • Nellie L. McClung

... latitude thirteen, instead of north latitude six or seven; but the error of latitude is not so remarkable and unaccountable as the very erroneous latitude which he assigns to Cape Aromata, on a coast which was visited every year by merchants he must have seen at Alexandria. The most difficult point to explain in Ptolemy's central Africa is the river Gir, which he describes as equal in length to the Niger, and running in the same direction, till it loses itself in the same lake. What this river is, geographers have not agreed. It is mentioned by Claudian, as resembling the Nile in ...
— Robert Kerr's General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 18 • William Stevenson

... Pont-de-Veyle. "Monsieur," said she, "open that box or rather hand it to me." She took the box, opened it, and took the bouquet from it. "But above all, gentlemen, I must explain to you why I have preserved this bouquet." While saying this she attempted to smell the ...
— The International Monthly Magazine - Volume V - No II • Various

... and endowing a chapel in connection with the Church of England. To render this possible the duke proposed to sell some of his horses. For the same purpose the duchess left a golden vase valued at L1200 to be sold. To quote her own words to explain what resulted from this charitable idea: "The Duchess of Beaufort, hearing of my vase, thought of her diamond ear-rings, which she got me to dispose of for a chapel in Wales, and her diamonds made me think of my jewels; and as the duke had always ...
— Excellent Women • Various

... Highness sent no word to her he had called 'Life of my Life.' Perchance he was much occupied. The Prussian King was an exacting guest, she told herself; framing excuses, reasons, all the pitiful resources of a woman's heart, to explain away her beloved's coldness. The fact that the courtiers held aloof from her caused her no pain, only bitter anger, yet even for these she elaborated reasons of absence. How often had she wearied of these people's importunities, how often longed to be ...
— A German Pompadour - Being the Extraordinary History of Wilhelmine van Graevenitz, - Landhofmeisterin of Wirtemberg • Marie Hay

... us to leave the building, but have not said that they have a preference of one door over the other. If she finds herself confronted by strangers, she can easily explain who she is and say that her mother will soon join her. Can there be any objection to such a course, or is she likely to suffer on ...
— Cowmen and Rustlers • Edward S. Ellis

... too glad to find some one who will bestow advice on me," said Eustace; and he proceeded to explain his difficulties with ...
— The Lances of Lynwood • Charlotte M. Yonge



Words linked to "Explain" :   account for, excuse, say, rede, clarify, justify, inform, tell, explanatory, interpret, explanation, naturalize, vindicate, comment, clear up, explicate, re-explain, state, elucidate, alibi



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