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Lick   /lɪk/   Listen
Lick

verb
(past & past part. licked; pres. part. licking)
1.
Beat thoroughly and conclusively in a competition or fight.  Synonyms: bat, clobber, cream, drub, thrash.
2.
Pass the tongue over.  Synonym: lap.
3.
Find the solution to (a problem or question) or understand the meaning of.  Synonyms: figure out, puzzle out, solve, work, work out.  "Work out your problems with the boss" , "This unpleasant situation isn't going to work itself out" , "Did you get it?" , "Did you get my meaning?" , "He could not work the math problem"
4.
Take up with the tongue.  Synonyms: lap, lap up.  "The cub licked the milk from its mother's breast"






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Lick" Quotes from Famous Books



... am utterly conscious that no Man has so good a Right to repose in it, as yourself. Therefore, dear, good good Mr. Pope, be seated!... Whether you call me Dunce or Doctor, whether you like me, or lick me, contemn, jerk, or praise me, you will still find me the same merry Monarch I was before you did me the Honour to put yourself out of ...
— Chapters in the History of the Insane in the British Isles • Daniel Hack Tuke

... bit, captain. They are sure to have a lot of redskins with them, and they will be lurking in the woods, in hopes that we may try such a move. No; we have got a strong position here, and can lick them three to one; but in the woods, except Stark's men, and perhaps yours, none of the others wouldn't ...
— With Wolfe in Canada - The Winning of a Continent • G. A. Henty

... once incredulous and disappointed. "Surely that's not thy best lick, lad," he said, in an aggrieved tone; "why, old as I am, I could better it mysel'." Thus saying, the miner drew back a fist like a sledge-hammer, and let drive a blow at "Blacky" that sent the pointer up ...
— The Copper Princess - A Story of Lake Superior Mines • Kirk Munroe

... many a mountain pass'd and valley wide, Then reach'd the wild; where, in a flowery nook, And seated on a mossy stone, he spied An ancient man: his harp lay him beside. A stag sprang from the pasture at his call, And, kneeling, lick'd the wither'd hand that tied A wreath of woodbine round his antlers tall, And hung his lofty neck with many a ...
— The Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair, and Falconer - With Lives, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes • Rev. George Gilfillan [Ed.]

... "You are not worth taking—guess you'll keep till we lick the Yanks," and walking around the helpless officer he ...
— Westways • S. Weir Mitchell

... over and take 'em apart; what then? You have a scrap; probably you lick 'em." The men growled ominously, but did not stir. "You whale daylights out of a lot of men who probably don't know any more about this here shooting of our dams than a hog does about a ruffled shirt. Meanwhile ...
— The Blazed Trail • Stewart Edward White

... so hard you were numb? I was numb. I wondered why I was living. I thought I had nothing more to live for. When a dog is wounded he crawls away alone to lick his wounds. I felt like the wounded dog. I wanted to crawl away to lick ...
— The University of Hard Knocks • Ralph Parlette

... not one constant difference can be pointed out between their structure and that of the smaller races of dogs. They agree closely in habits: jackals, when tamed and called by their master, wag their tails, lick his hands, crouch, and throw themselves on their backs; they smell at the tails of other dogs, and void their urine sideways; they roll on carrion or on animals which they have killed; and, lastly, when in high spirits, they run round in circles or in a figure of eight, ...
— The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication - Volume I • Charles Darwin

... peopled by Spaniards, the descendants of settlers who came over after Cortez's time; and a very lazy, cowardly set most of them are,—very different from the old heroes, their forefathers. Our Yankee cousins can lick them now, one to five, and will end, I believe, in conquering the whole country. But in Cortez's time, the place was very different. It was full of vast numbers of heathens, brownish coloured people, something like the Red Indians ...
— True Words for Brave Men • Charles Kingsley

... storm sounded no louder, the sky was no heavier, the air no colder, the wind no higher,—an' I built my hopes upon a delay in its comin', an' plunged on. We were makin' good time; the dogs were keepin' up a fast lick, an' the Indian ahead, workin' to break the trail, was movin' like a streak. I sure never did see an Indian travel the speed he did. I was behind, pushin' the sled, an' I had to put out all there was in me. An ...
— The Boy With the U.S. Census • Francis Rolt-Wheeler

... noble patrons and to prove their title to immortality. When they were off their guard they wrote much better. The reminiscences of the gay days of his youth stirred Hoccleve's muse to unwonted vivacity. In the London Lick-penny Lydgate, if Lydgate's it be, wrote humorous satire with success. Skelton himself, though in his (much too respectfully spoken of) play Magnificence he could flounder with the worst of his predecessors, in his light ...
— Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse • Various

... had exhausted every line of dissipation, and when I decided that it was no longer possible to hold him, I insulted and provoked him into a quarrel, and we were both arrested. Licked me, did he? He couldn't lick his upper lip." ...
— The Outlet • Andy Adams

... great wolf came along the forest-ways to where Sigmund was chained. When she snuffed over him she found the honey upon his face. She put down her tongue to lick over his face. Then, with his strong teeth Sigmund seized the tongue of the wolf. She fought and she struggled with all her might, but Sigmund did not let go of her tongue. The struggle with the beast broke the beam ...
— The Children of Odin - The Book of Northern Myths • Padraic Colum

... their path was lost behind them. Then we came down, for we desired their clothes, and their bridles, and their rifles, and their boots—more especially their boots. That was a great killing—done slowly.' Here the old man will rub his nose, and shake his long snaky locks, and lick his bearded lips, and grin till the yellow tooth-stumps show. 'Yes, we killed them because we needed their gear, and we knew that their lives had been forfeited to God on account of their sin—the sin of treachery to the salt which they had eaten. They rode up ...
— The Kipling Reader - Selections from the Books of Rudyard Kipling • Rudyard Kipling

... all about it, and begin to lick each other's noses and toes—I was nearly saying toeses—in the funniest way imaginable. After that they go in for one of the most terrible sham fights ...
— Little Folks (Septemeber 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various

... say, this factory end of it; only a symptom, don't you see? What we're dealing with is the most dangerous element in the life of this city! Tact!... When fire couldn't sweep through that new house of yours faster than the corrupting ideals of these people'll lick through this community!" ...
— V. V.'s Eyes • Henry Sydnor Harrison

... once to her relief; and Captain Ballcock, after carefully enquiring his way to this place he knew so well (as he would have us believe), starts off with it, accompanied by his boatswain, a good-natured kind of lick-spittle, who never failed to back up his captain's assertions, which again was to our great advantage; for Simon would thus learn our story from his lips, and find no room ...
— A Set of Rogues • Frank Barrett

... in Candle. Here they had the next "big sleep," lying on clean straw on the floor beside Allan, whose closeness calmed their nerves. It was a great comfort to be able to place a paw on him, or sociably lick his hand—for they felt that all was well if they were but within reach of ...
— Baldy of Nome • Esther Birdsall Darling

... themselves three times a day—we only do it once a week.' When a Kaffir steals a stone we usually court-martial him, but I don't hold with it, as the floggers on the compound can't be trusted; so I always lick my own niggers, being more kinder, and if anybody does anything against me, ...
— The Manxman - A Novel - 1895 • Hall Caine

... Dunsmore boys are in good trim, I'm afraid they'll give us a stiff pull," observed David, "but the stiffer the pull the more interesting it is to watch, so long as they don't lick us." ...
— Grace Harlowe's Plebe Year at High School - The Merry Doings of the Oakdale Freshmen Girls • Jessie Graham Flower

... not a child. You haven't got the excuse that you're training her. And you know she can't hit you. You're a good fighter, but I notice you don't hit Peter Knight or Charleton Falkner, any time they peeve you a little. It was all right to lick me and Jude when we were little. But now I warn you. I'm going to hit back. And you got to leave Judith ...
— Judith of the Godless Valley • Honore Willsie

... lurked a dangerous glitter, "yo're a ornery, low-down cur-dog what hain't fitten to be run with by man, beast, or devil. I'd ort to shoot yo' daid right wher' yo' at—an' mebbe I will. But comin' to squint yo' over, that there damage looks mo' like a quirt-lick than a limb. Thet ort to hurt like fire fer a couple a days, an' when it lets up yo' face hain't a-goin' to be so purty as what hit wus. Ef she'd jest of drug the quirt along a little when hit landed she c'd of cut plumb into the bone—but hit's middlin' fair, as hit stands. I'm a-goin' ...
— The Gold Girl • James B. Hendryx

... tempted, lured, impelled to howl for drink. The liquor, generously diluted with minerals, was served out in pannikins; and when the concert ended the National Anthem was taken by storm, as also were the empty bottles to squeeze, lick, and ...
— The Siege of Kimberley • T. Phelan

... his voice. "They copied Charley's clothes," he said. "I guessed that. As the Indian came up to me, I spoke. But when he answered, I knew—just a second too late. He gave me a terrible lick, but I caught it on my arm and came back with the gun. Don't know how I ever reached ...
— The Plow-Woman • Eleanor Gates

... have some sense myself of the sacred duty of surprise; and the need of seeing the old road as a new road. But I cannot claim that whenever I go out for a walk with my family and friends, I rush in front of them volleying vociferous shouts of happiness; or even leap up round them attempting to lick their faces. It is in this power of beginning again with energy upon familiar and homely things that the dog is really the eternal type of the Western civilisation. And the donkey is really as different as is the Eastern civilisation. His very ...
— The New Jerusalem • G. K. Chesterton

... or less impregnated with saline solutions. These licks are visited frequently—perhaps daily—during the summer months by sheep of all ages, and such points are favorite watching places for men who need meat, and wish to secure it as easily as possible. At a certain lick in northern Montana, shots at sheep may be had almost any day by the man who is willing to watch for them. In the summer of 1903 a bunch of nine especially good rams visited a certain lick each day. The guide of a New York man who was hunting there in June—of ...
— American Big Game in Its Haunts • Various

... Whip, what are you thinking about?" cried the Field-Marshal; "you aren't going to let the young 'un lick you, surely?" ...
— My Friend Smith - A Story of School and City Life • Talbot Baines Reed

... you like," replied Heidi, "send her a little salt; you know how she likes to lick some out of grandfather's hand when she ...
— Heidi • Johanna Spyri

... ingratiatingly, and Starr called. Pat came running in long leaps, nearly wagging himself in two because someone he liked was going to be nice to him. Starr petted him and talked to him and pulled his ears and slapped him on the ribs, and Pat in his joy persisted in trying to lick Starr's cheek. ...
— Starr, of the Desert • B. M Bower

... lenitives could abate their rancour, he answered me with the Italian fable of the wolf who swore to a flock of sheep that he would protect them against all his comrades provided one of them would come every morning and lick a wound he had received from a dog. He entertained me with the like witticisms three or four months together, of which this was one of the most favourable, whereupon I made these reflections that it was more unbecoming a Minister ...
— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre

... have rejected Thee and followed him. Oh, ages are yet to come of the confusion of free thought, of their science and cannibalism. For having begun to build their tower of Babel without us, they will end, of course, with cannibalism. But then the beast will crawl to us and lick our feet and spatter them with tears of blood. And we shall sit upon the beast and raise the cup, and on it will be written, "Mystery." But then, and only then, the reign of peace and happiness will come for men. Thou art proud of Thine elect, but Thou hast ...
— The Brothers Karamazov • Fyodor Dostoyevsky

... to your expectations, you find that Talbot is not a dog that will lick the dust: but then there's enough of the true spaniel breed to be had ...
— The Parent's Assistant • Maria Edgeworth

... as though to pay A last, sad tribute there, while neighbors craned Their heads above the high board fence, and deigned To sigh "Poor Dog!" remembering how they Had cuffed him, when alive, perchance, because, For love of them he leaped to lick their hands— Now, that he could not, were they satisfied? We children thought that, as we crossed his paws, And o'er his grave, 'way down the bottom-lands, Wrote "Our First Love Lies Here," ...
— Songs of Friendship • James Whitcomb Riley

... just going to take a peep in, when out comes the little dog Trig, and begins to leap and fawn upon him, as if it would eat him. The mother, too, came running out to see what was the matter, when the dog made another spring up about Jack's neck, and gave his lips the slightest lick in the world with its tongue, the crathur was so glad to see him: the next minute, Jack forgot the lady, as clane as if he had never seen her; but if he forgot her, catch him at forgetting the money—not he, avick!—that ...
— The Ned M'Keown Stories - Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of - William Carleton, Volume Three • William Carleton

... turned my roasting-spit during these last fourteen years. I have nothing to reproach him with. He is a good servant, who has never stolen the smallest morsel of turkey or goose. He was always satisfied to lick the roaster as his wage. But he is getting old. His legs are getting stiff; he can't see, and is no more good to turn the handle. Jacquot, my boy, it is your duty to take his place. With some thought and some practice, you certainly will succeed ...
— The Queen Pedauque • Anatole France

... uncomprehending moment; then dropped, to the ground, shivering, as Touaa gave a little whine. Then they walked slowly round the couch, whining and sniffing as they went, and Touaa stayed a moment to lick the hand which had so often pulled her silky ears, and Iouaa rose for an instant upon his hind-legs, and scratched at his master's boot, as he had so often done when impatient to be up and ...
— The Hawk of Egypt • Joan Conquest

... years runnin'. She wanted it when we hired you. She's out of a job, and will be glad to take it till you can walk. I'll see her to-day. You look young to manage unruly boys, and there's a pile of 'em in Deestrick No. 5 want lickin' half the time. Ruby Ann can lick 'em. She's five feet nine. You ...
— The Cromptons • Mary J. Holmes

... stands up against a man who is as strong as one's self, and a mighty quick and hard hitter, you have got to hit sharp and quick too. You know my opinion, that there aint half a dozen men in the country could lick you if ...
— Colonel Thorndyke's Secret • G. A. Henty

... O'Reilly. "There are Irishmen who are willing to lick the hand that has beaten them and has held them in subjection, but they are not true sons of Erin. I am against England, but I do not despise the English as you Germans do. Once they are aroused, mark my words, slow as they may be at the start, they will be a mighty force." His eyes flashed. ...
— Ted Marsh on an Important Mission • Elmer Sherwood

... you mean." Allen looked about fiercely at his comrades, who indeed seemed very much attracted by his pretty companion. "I see where I'll have to lick the whole camp." ...
— The Outdoor Girls in Army Service - Doing Their Bit for the Soldier Boys • Laura Lee Hope

... Occasionally a Clarke's crow soared about overhead or clung in any position to the swaying end of a pine branch, chattering and screaming. Flocks of cross-bills, with wavy flight and plaintive calls, flew to a small mineral lick near by, where they scraped the clay with ...
— Hunting the Grisly and Other Sketches • Theodore Roosevelt

... ran round in circles in the snow and barked at the moon. When Menie and Monnie came out of the hole, Tup jumped up to lick Monnie's face. He bumped her so hard that she fell right into the snowbank ...
— The Eskimo Twins • Lucy Fitch Perkins

... the four corners of the building in rivers of hellfire. On the facade that faced the river the black line of the mansard was profiled distinctly against the ruddy sky, amid the red tongues that rose to lick its base, while colonnades, entablatures, friezes, carvings, all stood out with startling vividness in the blinding, shimmering glow. So great was the energy of the fire, so terrible its propulsive force, that the colossal structure was in some sort ...
— The Downfall • Emile Zola

... dead faint. The porter and I picked him up, carried him to his lounge, and sprinkled water in his face. Then we sent for the doctor. He gave him a dose of something or other and told him not to do a lick ...
— The Desired Woman • Will N. Harben

... you, my boys," he said. "The Arabs won't meet you this time, I expect, and you have had your walk for nothing. I expect that they see that the sun will lick us single-handed, and they need ...
— For Fortune and Glory - A Story of the Soudan War • Lewis Hough

... Major colloquially, as we strolled away, "of Falstaff drilling his recruits. So does the texture of the khaki they serve out to the O.T.C. 'Dowlas, filthy dowlas!' But you've no idea how soon he'll lick them into shape. These 'dug-outs' are as primitive as cave-dwellers in their way but they know their job. And what is ...
— Leaves from a Field Note-Book • J. H. Morgan

... at a place called Buffalo Lick near the Yadkin River, and built a home there. Daniel now spent little time about the farm, for he had learned the value of skins in the Atlantic cities. Buffalo were plentiful all about the settlement, and he could kill four or five ...
— Historic Boyhoods • Rupert Sargent Holland

... a picture of burglar tools once, and the ones Tom had was just like 'em. Long-handled wrenches, brace an' bits, an' all. He tried to hide 'em, but me an' Sam was too quick for him. He wanted to lick me, too." ...
— Tom Swift and his Airship • Victor Appleton

... her," murmured Bog, "just because he was lucky enough to do her a little bit of a kindness, I'll lick him till he's blue." Besides whipping him for the insults which he might offer, Bog felt that he could give him a few good blows for his impudence in assuming Bog's exclusive prerogative of rescuing that ...
— Round the Block • John Bell Bouton

... no firing up, or blowing up; all that is necessary, when wishing to commence a journey, is to start, and when tired of going, all that is to be done is to stop the mules; in giving a lick ahead, they are all made to bounce at once, and in giving a lick back, they are turned around and made to pull the other way: and should the wind prove favorable, by means of a mast, with which they are all provided, sails ...
— Scientific American magazine Vol 2. No. 3 Oct 10 1846 • Various

... and calculated the future positions of this satellite, which enabled Mr. Melotte to find it again in the autumn—a great triumph both of calculation and of photographic observation. This satellite has never been seen, and has been photographed only at Greenwich, Heidelberg, and the Lick Observatory. ...
— History of Astronomy • George Forbes

... hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude than the animating contest of freedom,—go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ...
— The World's Best Orations, Vol. 1 (of 10) • Various

... it comes to slaughter You'll do your work on water, And lick the bloomin' boots of him ...
— South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 2 (of 6) - From the Commencement of the War to the Battle of Colenso, - 15th Dec. 1899 • Louis Creswicke

... fiery Offut, whose greatest delight seemed to be in provoking a quarrel. "I can lick you out of your boots, and I will do it before I will let you get in here." By this time Mr. Henshaw, a rather rough man, as slow as he was of comprehension, was interested in the dispute, and not averse to encouraging sport of ...
— Jack North's Treasure Hunt - Daring Adventures in South America • Roy Rockwood

... many a time by my mistress and overseer. I'd get behind with my work and he would come by and give me a lick with the bull whip ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, Arkansas Narratives, Part 4 • Works Projects Administration

... crust of his fine manners giving to the pressure of the volcano within. "I can't stand the connection, if you can. Carey was bad enough, but he had some claim beside his coat to rank as a gentleman. This crawling ass, who would lick your boots for sixpence, to have him patting me on the back and calling himself my brother—Good God! it's ...
— Sisters • Ada Cambridge

... households, herded together in the only asylum (short of the Arno [Footnote: Arno: the river that flows through Florence.]) open to them, driven in like dead leaves in November, flitting dismally round and round for a span, and watching each other die without a mew or a lick! Saint Francis was not the wise man I had thought him. [Footnote: St. Francis not the wise man, etc. ...
— Short Stories and Selections for Use in the Secondary Schools • Emilie Kip Baker

... noticed the place bore every mark of elegant bachelor ease and convenience that good taste could dictate. The best "Songs From Vagabondia," I am told, are written in comfortable apartments, where there are a bath and a Whitely Exerciser; but patient, persistent effort and work overtime are necessary to lick the lines into shape so they will live. Good poets run ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 14 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Musicians • Elbert Hubbard

... you thinking I'll put my head in a bag like that, and he my own brother? 'Deed, I'd never get a lick of work out of him on Saturday if I did! Na, na, lads! Whoever's Chief, it ...
— The Scotch Twins • Lucy Fitch Perkins

... work, I'd gather him in! They couldn't stop me, then! But—" Jason choked. When he could speak again, "He's never studied a lick in his life, I tell you! Yet he makes a he-cow's behind out of the best man and the best scientific equipment Annex can provide! How? How, I ask you! He doesn't know the first blasted thing about any blasted thing in ...
— Zero Data • Charles Saphro

... Histories, relate the same fact as to the dogs drinking of the Nile. "To treat a thing, as the dogs do the Nile," was a common proverb with the ancients, signifying to do it superficially; corresponding with our homely saying, "To give it a lick and a promise." Macrobius, in the Saturnalia, B. i. c. 2, mentions a story, that after the defeat at Mutina, when enquiry was made as to what had become of Antony, one of his servants made answer: "He has done what the dogs do in Egypt, he drank and ...
— The Fables of Phdrus - Literally translated into English prose with notes • Phaedrus

... himself forgotten. Here was a companion whom neither Jocint nor his mission required. Exasperated, he seated himself on a fallen tree and whistled softly. The dog, who had been holding back, dashed to his side, trembling with eagerness, and striving to twist his head around to lick the hand that patted him. Jocint's other hand glided quickly into his pocket, from which he drew forth a coil of thin rope that he flung deftly over the animal's head, drawing it close and tight ...
— At Fault • Kate Chopin

... Creek to ascertain if water was still to be procured in it, but I had not felt justified in availing myself of his offer. My mind, however, dwelling on the critical posture of our affairs, and knowing and feeling as I did the value of time, and that the burning sun would lick up any shallow pool that might be left exposed, and that three or four days might determine our captivity or our release, I sent for Mr. Browne, to consult with him as to the best course to be adopted in the trying situation in which we were placed, and a plan ...
— Expedition into Central Australia • Charles Sturt

... said Gordon. "Swanking it about how they are going to lick us to bits. My word, I would give something to smash them to smithereens. I have taken on a bet with every man in Buller's whom I found offering long odds. I stand to win quite a lot. And I shall ...
— The Loom of Youth • Alec Waugh

... the candied tongue lick absurd pomp; And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee, Where thrift ...
— Familiar Quotations • Various

... ain pigs, and damaged a score of them. And then the reird raise, and hadna these twa gentlemen helped me out of it, murdered I suld hae been, without remeid. And as it was, just when they got haud of my arm to have me out of the fray, I got the lick that donnerit me ...
— The Fortunes of Nigel • Sir Walter Scott

... eend on't," said Ezra. "By that time govment seen the people wuz in arnest, an quit foolin. Ginral Court passed a law pardnin all on us fer wat we'd done. They allers pardons fellers, ye see, wen ther's tew many on em tew lick, govment doos, an pooty soon arter they passed that ere tender law fer tew help poor folks ez hed debts so's prop'ty could be offered tew a far valiation ...
— The Duke of Stockbridge • Edward Bellamy

... in the chimney; it breathes sparks like a dreadful beast—it is hungry; its red tongues lick for that which they may not yet have. Already its breath is hot upon the wax image on the hearth. But the image is round of limb and sound. Yes, though it is but toy-large, it is perfect and firm! See how it stands in the red shine: ...
— The Thing from the Lake • Eleanor M. Ingram

... picked the thing up and started again, and at once my hand began to slip away from its hold (nightmare sensation exactly). I bent my head down, managed to lick my hand without raising it, and stiffened the muscles of my arm. We were watched, once more, by a million eyes—again I stepped on a head of hair buried somewhere in the ground. Then some voice cried shrilly: "Ah! ...
— The Dark Forest • Hugh Walpole

... of the floors in one of the buildings in one of the streets that slope precipitously from the Strand to the Thames Embankment, there is a door that would be all the better for a lick of paint, which bears what is perhaps the most modest and unostentatious announcement of its kind in London. The grimy ground-glass displays ...
— Something New • Pelham Grenville Wodehouse

... by expecting Him to keep the poor from becoming paupers by the dribs you give them. And if Mart Culpepper can give his time and his money every day helping them poor devils down by the track, niggers and whites, good and bad, male and female, I guess the Lord will put in lick for lick with Mart and see that his helping doesn't hurt them." Dolan shook his head at the banker, and then smiled at him good-naturedly as he finished, "Put that in your knapsack, you son of a gun, and chew on it till I ...
— A Certain Rich Man • William Allen White

... aspect of things is soon changed. "De non apparentibus, et de non existentibus," saith the law, "eadem est ratio." The first practitioner in the common law, before whom the case came, in its roughest and earliest form, in order that he might "lick it into shape," and "advise generally" preparatory to its "being laid before counsel," was Mr. Traverse, a young pleader, whom Messrs. Quirk and Gammon were disposed to take by the hand. He wrote a very ...
— Ten Thousand a-Year. Volume 1. • Samuel Warren

... Mary. "But you can't get those because he made 'em himself an' sealed 'em with a lick. Oh!" she sighed, with the accent of a starving Sybarite, "I do wish I could see him do it again! Do you know," she added suddenly, "he wrote me a letter and ...
— The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary • Anne Warner

... already verberated a strange roar as the forest-fire leaped up the opposite hillside in one clear lick of incandescence. This roar hummed through the heavens and trembled over the ...
— Darkness and Dawn • George Allan England

... dident know but it trubles me a good deal. then the other one sed whitch arm is it and i sed the right one and she sed you must be lefthanded and i sed yes i am a little. i lied about that but i dident lie about my week arm or about my truble with it. both my arms is week. if they wasent i cood lick Pewt and it trubles me becaus my arms is so skinny. the fellers laff at my ...
— Brite and Fair • Henry A. Shute

... grave and reverend seniors of the upper school took a well-disguised interest in the matter and pretended that the affair should be allowed to go on, as it would do Harberth a lot of good if de Warrenne could lick him, and do the latter a lot of good to reinstate himself by showing that he was not really a coward in essentials. Of course they took no interest in the fight as a fight. Certainly not (but it was observed ...
— Snake and Sword - A Novel • Percival Christopher Wren

... they could plainly perceive the hull of one of their own ships, presumably; but her ports were open, and her interior appeared as a glowing furnace, while, even as they looked, tongues of fire spurted up from her deck and began to lick round her masts, and from the hapless vessel a long wail of anguish and despair came floating ...
— Across the Spanish Main - A Tale of the Sea in the Days of Queen Bess • Harry Collingwood

... to an accompaniment of the elements, and the blare and crash of the bottomless pit itself. The Pilgrim's March is the sad sound of footsore men; the San Graal the tremulous yearning of servitude for richer, deeper bondage. The yellow, thirsty flames lick up the willing sacrifice, the water wails the secret of the river and the sea; the birds and beasts, the shepherd with his pipe, the underground life in rocks and caverns, all cry their message to this nineteenth-century ...
— The Roadmender • Michael Fairless

... She could not have been her father's daughter without having that virtue. There was no "lick and a promise" in Nan Sherwood's housekeeping. She did not sweep the dust under the bureau, or behind the door, or forget to wipe the rounds of the chairs and the baseboard all ...
— Nan Sherwood at Pine Camp - or, The Old Lumberman's Secret • Annie Roe Carr

... began, with fascinating fluency. "You thousand-legged, double-jointed, ox-footed truck horse. Come on out of here and I'll lick the shine off your shoes, you blue-eyed babe, you! What did you get up for, huh? What did you think this was going to be ...
— Roast Beef, Medium • Edna Ferber

... they reached the Mohawk village, crossing the river at a different place and by a nearer route than before. The Indians had met the Governor with horses at "the end of the plain, near the Salt Lick Creek." The party finally arrived at Navy Hall on the 10th day ...
— The Country of the Neutrals - (As Far As Comprised in the County of Elgin), From Champlain to Talbot • James H. Coyne

... beg her pardon, my fine prince ... lick the dust in an English cottage, thou foreign devil ... or, by God, I will kill ...
— The Nest of the Sparrowhawk • Baroness Orczy

... I ain't. You see, Mick, that handsome lady you're going to lick the stuffing out of me about is only a plumb ornery sassy ...
— Bucky O'Connor • William MacLeod Raine

... low yet firm my brother ordered me to my feet. This wasn't work for girls when men were about, he grumbled; and perhaps it was as well, for I never made a wood fire in my life. As for him, he might have been a fire-tamer, so quickly did the flames leap up and try to lick his hands. When it was certain that they couldn't go stealthily crawling away again, he shot from the room, and in two minutes was back with the big kettle of hot water under whose weight I should ...
— The Motor Maid • Alice Muriel Williamson and Charles Norris Williamson

... this novice accounted for the best things he said himself; though I must own that the personal knowledge of the lady, which I am favoured with, made it easy to me to lick into shape what the good woman reported to me, as the character given her by the young Levite: For who, even now, in her decline of health, sees not that all these attributes belong ...
— Clarissa, Volume 7 • Samuel Richardson

... got to do, young fellow, is to get up your strength and go back and lick the stuffing out of that scum. If you don't, your life won't ...
— The Spoilers of the Valley • Robert Watson

... celestial object. The light, after passing through the lenses, is brought to a focus at the lower end of the tube, where the image is examined visually with an eyepiece, or photographed upon a sensitive plate. The largest instruments of this type are the 36-inch Lick telescope and the 40-inch refractor of the ...
— The New Heavens • George Ellery Hale

... let Pincher go, and was just going to say he was very welcome, and we'd rather not have the money, which seemed the best way out of it, when that beastly dog spoiled the whole show. Directly I let him go he began to jump about at us and bark for joy, and try to lick our faces. He was so proud of what he'd done. Lord Tottenham opened his eyes and he just said, 'The dog seems to ...
— The Story of the Treasure Seekers • E. Nesbit

... I was doing. I'll tell Lester I saw you, and if he wants to he kin come over to Big Horn Ranch and visit—he ain't of much account around my place. And I'll git at the bottom of what happened to this auto, too, even if I have to lick ...
— The Rover Boys at Big Horn Ranch - The Cowboys' Double Round-Up • Edward Stratemeyer

... class in England was in a state of mind which has darkened its judgment more than once; the state of mind which, when it encounters an obstacle to its plans, regards that obstacle as an enemy, and remarks in language brutally frank, though not wholly elegant: "We will lick him first and then decide who is right." In 1770 King George III, who fretted at all seasons at the slowness with which he was able to break down the ascendency of the Whigs, manipulated the Government so as to make Lord North Prime Minister. Lord North was a servant, one might say ...
— George Washington • William Roscoe Thayer

... Theodore? Isn't the water poison? If you drink, will it not physic you? When animals lick it in the dry season, do they not die on the margin by scores? Now, a 'book-man' like you, my brother, knows well enough that water alone can't kill; so that whenever it does, the devil must be in it; and, moreover, is it not he ...
— Captain Canot - or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver • Brantz Mayer

... sleep, the angry grizzly had travelled southward, heading towards the lonely peak of White Face. As the distance from his old haunts increased, his fears diminished; but his anger grew under the ceaseless fretting of that wound on his neck just where he could not reach to lick and soothe it. The flies, however, could reach it very well, and did. As a consequence, by the time he reached the upper slopes of White Face, he was in a mood to fight anything. He would have charged a regiment, had he suddenly ...
— Kings in Exile • Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts

... my lord, says he only wants a few fresh troops to follow the enemy up now, and lick them to the devil. These are his ...
— The Thin Red Line; and Blue Blood • Arthur Griffiths

... more surprised to see a mastodon really walking around out here. Of course, you know that President Jefferson wrote Lewis not to be surprised if he did see the mastodon still living in this unknown country. You see, all of them knew about the mastodon bones found in the Big Lick, Kentucky. They didn't know a thing about this new world we'd just bought of Napoleon, mastodons, mules, ...
— The Young Alaskans on the Missouri • Emerson Hough

... servant brought sugar, And out of his leather pocket he pulled, And culled some pound and a half; For which he was suffered to smack her That was his sweetheart, and would not depart, But turned and lick'd the calf. He rung her, and he flung her, He kissed her, and he swung her, And yet she did nothing ...
— The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-night's Dream' • Compiled by Frank Sidgwick

... promised. On occasions when the two young men discussed the coming event with Jane and Miss Clegg, Rigby's preoccupied air was strangely in contrast with the animation of the others. Graydon accused his liver and advised him to go to French Lick. Far from that, the old quarterback was gradually preparing himself to go to James Bansemer. To himself he was saying, as he put off the disagreeable task from day to day: "He'll kick me out of the office and that's ...
— Jane Cable • George Barr McCutcheon

... destroyed his plans. She had doggedly peeled potatoes and addressed him as follows: "You watch out, Henry, an' take good care of yerself in this here fighting business—you watch out, an' take good care of yerself. Don't go a-thinkin' you can lick the hull rebel army at the start, because yeh can't. Yer jest one little feller amongst a hull lot of others, and yeh've got to keep quiet an' do what they tell yeh. I know how you ...
— The Red Badge of Courage - An Episode of the American Civil War • Stephen Crane

... peeked impudently at me from an oak limb, and a roguish gray squirrel chattered along the low ridge-pole, with seeming willingness to make friends, until Rover, suddenly spying me, sprang hastily around the comer of the house to lick my hand, with glad barkings and a frantic effort to wave the stub of his poor old tail. It was such a homely, quiet scene, there in the heart of the backwoods, one I had known unchanged so long, that I little dreamed it was soon to witness the ...
— When Wilderness Was King - A Tale of the Illinois Country • Randall Parrish

... priest-ridden Spain that all through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries led the van of revolt against the rules and precepts of the grammarians. While Torquato Tasso remained the miserable slave of grammarians unworthy to lick the dust from his feet, Lope de Vega slyly remarked that when he wrote his comedies, he locked up the givers of precepts with six keys, that they might not reproach him. J.B. Marino declared that ...
— Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic • Benedetto Croce

... for Beau," said Pontotoc Bibb, "if he gives him a rub on the raw like that another lick. ...
— Short Story Classics (American) Vol. 2 • Various

... do just as well alone. If I am not captured by the other side I shall make it easily, and," he added, "I am sure I shall not be captured, for I can lick any squad of peons that I'm likely ...
— The Broncho Rider Boys with Funston at Vera Cruz - Or, Upholding the Honor of the Stars and Stripes • Frank Fowler

... some sweet thing a little of it happened to stick on her lips. A gentleman told her of it, and offered to lick it off. She said: "No, sir, I thank you; I have a tongue ...
— The Wit of Women - Fourth Edition • Kate Sanborn

... smoke at once. Little flames soon began to lick along the cracks between the deck planks. The mules brayed and became more uneasy. They did not like the smell of the smoke; much less did they like the vicinity of the flames which grew rapidly ...
— The Corner House Girls Growing Up - What Happened First, What Came Next. And How It Ended • Grace Brooks Hill

... can't exactly be said that I've left him, seeing that I have not been with him since we parted aboard of this schooner; and as to his fightin' the niggers alone, hasn't he got ever so many hundred Christian niggers to help him to lick the others?" ...
— Gascoyne, The Sandal Wood Trader - A Tale of the Pacific • R. M. Ballantyne

... breathing, and the sand was wet where her pivot nostrils had ground it. While Genesmere untangled her and gave her tongue the last of his canteen the calf walked round and round. He placed the cow upon her feet, and as soon as he moved away to his horse the calf came to its mother, who began to lick it. He presently marked ahead the position of the coming 'dobe-hole by the ravens assembled in the air, continually rising and lighting. The white horse and mules quickened their step, and the trail became obliterated by hundreds of hoof-marks leading to the water. As a spider looks in the ...
— Red Men and White • Owen Wister

... Squire's feet he stopped, and pawed the ground in the funny way he sometimes does, and looked up at his master as much as to say, "You see it's only play," and then turned round and raced back to me as hard as he could lay legs to ground. This time he reached me, and jumped to lick my face, and I threw my arms round his neck ...
— Last Words - A Final Collection of Stories • Juliana Horatia Ewing

... pulled up to one quarter, Adair to the other, and before the slavers knew where they were going, the boats had hooked on, the seamen, led by their two gallant young officers, were springing over the low quarters of the schooner. Adair, however, got a severe lick on the shoulder, which would have sent him back into the boat had not one of his men given him a shove up; while Jack got an ugly gash on his arm from a cutlass, and would have had his head laid bare, had not Dick Needham's trusty weapon interposed to save him. All this time the slaver's crew were ...
— The Three Midshipmen • W.H.G. Kingston

... Nimshi,—destined to be both instrument and witness of the retribution. With unwonted austerity, without preface or waste of words, Elijah broke forth: "Thus saith Jehovah!"—how the monarch must have quaked at this awful name: "In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs also lick thine, even thine." The conscience-stricken, affrighted monarch could only say, "Hast thou found me, oh mine enemy!" And terrible was the response: "Yes, I have found thee! and because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord, behold, I will take away thy posterity, ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume II • John Lord



Words linked to "Lick" :   counter, thresh, strike, drink, fisticuffs, break, beat out, pugilism, boxing, haymaker, knockout punch, sucker punch, lam, guess, cream, infer, jab, reason, thrash, figure out, clout, trounce, puzzle out, understand, drub, KO punch, touch, shell, answer, beat, blow, sediment, flail, resolve, touching, parry, Sunday punch, crush, work, deposit, riddle, rabbit punch, imbibe, vanquish, hook, stroke, counterpunch, tongue



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