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Rapid   /rˈæpəd/  /rˈæpɪd/   Listen
Rapid

adjective
1.
Done or occurring in a brief period of time.
2.
Characterized by speed; moving with or capable of moving with high speed.  Synonym: speedy.  "A speedy car" , "A speedy errand boy"



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"Rapid" Quotes from Famous Books



... schools, and two manual-labor schools; that they cultivate their lands so diligently that they pay all the expenses of their living. They are reported as advancing in church discipline, growing in temperance; and are making rapid progress towards a ...
— Four Months in a Sneak-Box • Nathaniel H. Bishop

... Wyllys party moved away from the spring, to walk in the pretty wood adjoining, they saw a young man coming towards them at a very rapid pace. ...
— Elinor Wyllys - Vol. I • Susan Fenimore Cooper

... to New York, and the strain of secrecy upon the conspirators during the interval would seem to have been too great. In any case indications of surrounding mystery, quite sufficient to arouse Mr. Whistler's attention, brought about his rapid action. Messrs. Lewis and Lewis were instructed to take out immediate injunction against the publication in both England and America, and this information, at once cabled across, warning all publishers in the United States, exploded the plot, effectually frustrating the elaborate ...
— The Gentle Art of Making Enemies • James McNeill Whistler

... savage criticism on his Endymion which appeared in the Quarterly Review produced the 35 most violent effect on his susceptible mind. The agitation thus originated ended in the rupture of a blood-vessel in the lungs; a rapid consumption ensued; and the succeeding acknowledgments, from more candid critics, of the true greatness of his powers, were ineffectual to heal ...
— Adonais • Shelley

... whenever and wherever it is adopted, will have to begin by fighting the bourgeoisie, is highly probable. The important question is not whether there is to be fighting, but how long and severe it is to be. A short war, in which Communism won a rapid and easy victory, would do little harm. It is long, bitter and doubtful wars that must be avoided if anything of what makes Communism ...
— The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism • Bertrand Russell

... loaded with chains. Consulting his ring, and finding that this was an enchantment, he burst his chains, seized his armor in spite of the visionary monsters who attempted to defend it, broke open the gates of the tower, and continued his journey. At length his progress was checked by a wide and rapid torrent, which could only be passed on a narrow bridge, on which a false step would prove his destruction. Launcelot, leading his horse by the bridle, and making him swim by his side, passed over the bridge, and was attacked as soon as he ...
— Bulfinch's Mythology • Thomas Bulfinch

... Meanwhile, rapid concentrations of reserves were taking place behind the line, the most famous instance of which was the Reserve Army moved out of Paris by General Gallieni in taxis, fiacres, and any vehicle the authorities could commandeer to ensure that the Army should be in its ...
— "Contemptible" • "Casualty"

... re-reading books which have uncommonly interested me on first perusal, I have recently read again "A Man of Property." Well, it stands the test. It is certainly the most perfect of Mr. Galsworthy's novels up to now. Except for the confused impression caused by the too rapid presentation of all the numerous members of the Forsyte family at the opening, it has practically no faults. In construction it is unlike any other novel that I know, but that is not to say it has no constructive design—as some critics have said. It is merely to say that it is original. There ...
— Books and Persons - Being Comments on a Past Epoch 1908-1911 • Arnold Bennett

... in his glittering hands, with rapid touch he gave the lovely face an expression of tender innocence, of virgin purity, of maternal love and adoration, which will never cease to thrill ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. IV. October, 1863, No. IV. - Devoted to Literature and National Policy. • Various

... before we should sleep with rifles at our bedsides, and never move without one in our hands? This work once begun, let the story of our British ancestors and the aborigines of this country tell the sequel. Far more rapid, however, would be the catastrophe. "Ere many moons went by," the African race would be exterminated, or reduced again to slavery, their ranks recruited, after your example, by fresh "emigrants" ...
— Cotton is King and The Pro-Slavery Arguments • Various

... unlocked the door, and pushed it ponderously open. The lantern showed it to be built like the door of a safe, but unlike that of a safe it opened inwards. As soon as the door came ajar Lermontoff heard the sound of flowing water, and when the three entered, he noticed a rapid little stream sparkling in the rays of the lantern at the further end of the cell. He saw a shelf of rock and a stone bench before it. The gaoler placed his hands on a black loaf, while the other held ...
— A Rock in the Baltic • Robert Barr

... with an effort; "it is late. Blakeman will be here in a moment to turn on the lights." She stretched forth her hands to him. For a second he held them warm and trembling in his own, then Blakeman's rapid step in ...
— The Lady of Big Shanty • Frank Berkeley Smith

... station to meet her, with Viva and Inda clinging together on the front seat, ready to pour breathless confidences into her ear the moment she appeared. They spoke with a curious mingling of tongues, but had apparently no difficulty in understanding her when she replied in rapid, colloquial French, so that it was evident that the hours of play had not been wasted, but had ...
— More about Pixie • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... half an hour a folding door opened at the bottom of the hall, and the Professor was surprised to see a Highlander advance playing on a bagpipe, and dressed in the ancient kilt and plaid of his country. "He walked up and down the vacant space in the middle of the hall with rapid steps and a martial air playing his noisy instrument, the discordant sounds of which were sufficient to rend the ear. The tune was a kind of sonata divided into three periods. Smith requested me to pay my whole attention to ...
— Life of Adam Smith • John Rae

... with her face to the window when he entered, and he had one moment in which to look round the room—one moment in which to control the rapid beating of his heart; then she turned suddenly, and once more ...
— A Mad Love • Bertha M. Clay

... came inside of the house and saw only three men in place of the girls of her acquaintance she expected to meet, she cast a rapid, surprised glance all round, blushed, asked, 'where are the girls?'—all in the most natural manner. There was positively nothing in her deportment to betray a guilty conscience. I recognized that, and so, I could see, did Darling. He made haste to hand her a chair, which she declined, ...
— The New Penelope and Other Stories and Poems • Frances Fuller Victor

... The rapid and abrupt descent, The stain'd and ruffled plume, Would seem as if they were not meant Their ardour ...
— Vignettes in Verse • Matilda Betham

... remembered the fourth, the central character, who had not tarried for the end of it: the man was rare who did not spend a thought on the bright girl, whose face was so familiar in these walls, and who must be dragged into it. Where was she? asked one. She was gone. Norburn, with rapid instinct, as soon as he had read, had run to her and forced her to go home. He was back from escorting her now, and walked up and down with hands behind him, speaking to no one among all ...
— Half a Hero - A Novel • Anthony Hope

... revisit Charles's court. She consented with reluctance, and with her own hands helped to reinvest him with his armor. Papillon was led forth, Ogier mounted him, and, taking a tender adieu of the tearful Morgana, crossed at rapid speed the rocky belt which separated Morgana's palace from the borders of the sea. The sea-goblins which had received him at his coming awaited him on the shore. One of them took Ogier on his back, and the other placing himself ...
— Bulfinch's Mythology • Thomas Bulfinch

... an old weir, or erection for catching fish as they ascend the river, where lies one of our favourite pools. The water was running down it like a mill-race. Pent up by the artificial dike, the whole river in this place gushes down in a turbulent rapid. There was one comparatively smooth bit of water, which looked unpromising enough, but being in hopeful spirits now, I resolved on a final cast. About the third cast a small trout rose at the fly. The greedy little monsters have a tendency to do this. Many a small trout have ...
— Freaks on the Fells - Three Months' Rustication • R.M. Ballantyne

... devotee—M. de Pontverre's "worthy lady" could, in my opinion, be none other. But lo, a countenance beaming with charms, beautiful, mild blue eyes, a complexion of dazzling fairness, the outline of an enchanting neck! Nothing escaped the rapid glance of the young proselyte; for that instant I was hers, sure that a religion preached by such missionaries could not fail to lead ...
— Classic French Course in English • William Cleaver Wilkinson

... pale," &c.—DR. JOHNSON: Murray's Sequel, p. 4. "I looked up, and beheld an inclosure, beautiful as the gardens of paradise, but of a small extent."—HAWKESWORTH: ib., p. 20. "A is an article, indefinite, and belongs to 'book.'"—Bullions cor. "The first expresses the rapid movement of a troop of horse over the plain, eager for the combat."—Id. "He [, the Indian chieftain, King Philip,] was a patriot, attached to his native soil; a prince, true to his subjects, and indignant of their wrongs; a soldier, daring in battle, firm in ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown

... fervent heat. The strain is now pitched in a lower key than in the 'Tale of Troy divine': we begin to miss that high and equable sublimity which never flags or sinks, that continuous current of moving incidents, those rapid transitions, that force of eloquence, that opulence of imagery which is ever true to nature. Like the sea when it retires upon itself and leaves its shores waste and bare, henceforth the tide of sublimity begins to ebb, and draws us away into the ...
— Stories from the Odyssey • H. L. Havell

... the water at a rather rapid rate, but little by little a speed gauge was falling. Soon they would be lying motionless beneath the Arctic floe, as helpless as a dead whale; and should no dark water-hole appear before that time came, ...
— Lost In The Air • Roy J. Snell

... and the friendship then begun lasted for life. To Mary herself, however, this year was full and fertile. It was devoted to study and work. Hers was the only true genius,—the genius for industry. She never relaxed in the task she had set for herself, and her progress was rapid. The signs she soon manifested of her mental power added to the respect with which her family now treated her. Realizing that the assistance she could give by remaining at home was but little compared to that which ...
— Mary Wollstonecraft • Elizabeth Robins Pennell

... World the rapid depletion of nonrenewable mineral resources, the depletion of forest areas and wetlands, the extinction of animal and plant species, and the deterioration in air and water quality (especially in Eastern Europe, the former USSR, and China) pose serious long-term ...
— The 2005 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... dangers, and of consequences; and having no preference for right or wrong, he weighed with an equal and dispassionate mind whether it was better to spare a man or to cut his throat. As he did not attempt more than he could perform, his rapid success awakened aspirations for a possible future. He was odious to Venice, but a Venetian, who watched his meteoric course, wonders, in his secret diary, whether this unerring schemer was to be the appointed deliverer. He was a terror to Florence, yet ...
— Lectures on Modern history • Baron John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton

... A rapid walk round the interior of the Priory Church shows that it practically consists of three main portions, almost entirely divided from each other—the Nave, the Choir, and the Lady Chapel. The solid rood screen, pierced by one narrow doorway, ...
— Bell's Cathedrals: Wimborne Minster and Christchurch Priory • Thomas Perkins

... occurred till, as they drew near the ships, Frank waved his handkerchief and the others fired their revolvers in token of the fact that they had been successful in their quest. In reply to these joyous signals the rapid-fire gun of the Southern Cross was fired and the air was so full of noise that any Patagonians within twenty miles must have ...
— The Boy Aviators' Polar Dash - Or - Facing Death in the Antarctic • Captain Wilbur Lawton

... sluiceway and gate far enough down to assure a good head in the pond above. Other dam owners farther down the stream also signed agreements having to do with supplying water over and above what the law required of them. Above one particularly shallow rapid Orde built a ...
— The Riverman • Stewart Edward White

... have noticed this change. She was little more inclined to assert herself than before, but was ready to accompany him whenever he wished her to do so, or to see him go away without complaint, when it so pleased him; but the last week had made a rapid change in their position. Millicent had sprung almost at a bound into a young woman. She had come to think and resolve for herself; she was becoming wayward and fanciful; she no longer deferred to Mark's opinion, but held her own, and was capable of being vexed at his decisions. ...
— Colonel Thorndyke's Secret • G. A. Henty

... to extort a sum from his unfortunate wife, whom he had driven to prostitution. Accordingly, at about eight o'clock in the evening, he left the Vaults by means of the secret outlet before alluded to and gaining the street, proceeded at a rapid pace towards the Bowery. In the breast of his coat he carried a huge Bowie knife, with which to defend himself in case any attempt should ...
— City Crimes - or Life in New York and Boston • Greenhorn

... reached the scene of his preceding contest; he, looked around, but saw no one save the keeper of the tavern. Fearing that the others had escaped, or were about to escape, he hastened out of the house, and proceeded with rapid strides in pursuit of a constable. He soon found one and entreated his assistance. But the officer refused, unless Mr. Tyson would give him a bond of indemnity against all loss which he might suffer by his interference. Mr. Tyson complied without hesitation. The officer, after summoning assistance, ...
— A Visit To The United States In 1841 • Joseph Sturge

... lord Antonio say when he shall hear of his Tasso's death? The news, as I incline to think, will not be long in coming; for I feel that I have reached the end of life, being unable to discover any remedy for this tedious indisposition which has supervened on the many others I am used to—like a rapid torrent resistlessly sweeping me away. The time is past when I should speak of my stubborn fate, to mention not the world's ingratitude, which, however, has willed to gain the victory of bearing me to the grave a pauper; the while I kept on thinking that the glory which, despite ...
— Renaissance in Italy, Volumes 1 and 2 - The Catholic Reaction • John Addington Symonds

... Accordingly, with a rapid order to Mr Shrapnell, or 'Gunnery Jack,' who had accompanied the column from the ship, but had remained behind with his little battery of field-pieces on their becoming bogged in the bush, trying all he could to extricate them so as to get up with ...
— Young Tom Bowling - The Boys of the British Navy • J.C. Hutcheson

... pleasant frolic. So gentle he was, that when I got off and walked he followed me without being led, and without needing any one to hold him he allowed me to mount on either side. In addition to the charm of his movements he has the catlike sure-footedness of a Hawaiian horse, and fords rapid and rough-bottomed rivers, and gallops among stones and stumps, and down steep hills, with equal security. I could have ridden him a hundred miles as easily as thirty. We have only been together two days, yet we are firm friends, and thoroughly understand each other. I should not ...
— A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains • Isabella L. Bird

... see. It will make an end forever of Spain in this hemisphere. It will certainly secure to Cuba and Porto Rico better government. It will furnish an enormous outlet for the energy of our citizens, and give another example of the rapid development to which our system leads. It has already brought North and South together as nothing could but a foreign war in which both offered their blood for the cause of their reunited country—a result of incalculable advantage both at home and abroad. It has brought England ...
— Problems of Expansion - As Considered In Papers and Addresses • Whitelaw Reid

... of sentiment by a masterly plunge of his fat fingers into his precious mamma's curls, which entanglement caused a rapid "change to come o'er the spirit of ...
— Hubert's Wife - A Story for You • Minnie Mary Lee

... high fever & akeing in all my bones. my fever &c. continus, deturmind to prosue my intended rout to the middle fork, accordingly Set out in great pain across a Prarie 8 miles to the Middle this fork is nearly as large as the North fork & appears to be more rapid, we examined and found no fresh Sign of Indians, and after resting about an hour, proceeded down to the junction thro a wide bottom which appears to be overflown every year, & maney parts Stoney this river has Several Islands ...
— The Journals of Lewis and Clark • Meriwether Lewis et al

... when the Germans made a tremendous effort to pierce the Russian lines on the Bzura and Rawka front, with Warsaw as their objective point, an American correspondent, Mr. John F. Bass, said: "The fighting was terrific. The detonations of the cannon came in such rapid succession that they sounded like giant machine guns and the windows of the dressing stations for the wounded shook as if from an earthquake. It was not possible to distinguish individual gun explosions from the Battle of the infantry fire. All were mingled in one inarticulate ...
— America's War for Humanity • Thomas Herbert Russell

... extremely rapid among those islands, and the navigation is thereby rendered very dangerous and uncertain. Gow was an able seaman, but was no pilot for that place, and which was worse, he had no boat to assist in case of extremity, to ware the ship, ...
— Lives Of The Most Remarkable Criminals Who have been Condemned and Executed for Murder, the Highway, Housebreaking, Street Robberies, Coining or other offences • Arthur L. Hayward

... what passed between the two minstrels, when Homer, leaving his couch, crossed the circle at once, flung himself on the ground by David's side, gave him his hand; when they looked each other in the face, and sank down into the rapid murmuring of talk, which constant gesture illustrated, but did not fully explain to the rough men around them? They respected the poets' colloquy for a while; but then, eager again to hear one harp or the other, they persuaded one of the Ionian sailors to ask Homer ...
— If, Yes and Perhaps - Four Possibilities and Six Exaggerations with Some Bits of Fact • Edward Everett Hale

... manger lay; The promise trusted to a mortal tongue Found listening ears before the angels sung. So while his load the creeping pack-horse galled, While inch by inch the dull canal-boat crawled, Darwin beheld a Titan from "afar Drag the slow barge or drive the rapid car," That panting giant fed by air and flame, The mightiest forges task their strength ...
— The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Complete • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... rapid and resistless current was carrying them both to destruction she saw for the first time that he ...
— The Happiest Time of Their Lives • Alice Duer Miller

... Lorenzo Vitelli commanded, to lead a force against that place, with the view of driving out his adversary and withdrawing it from obedience to the pope. At the beginning of the campaign, fortune seemed to favor the Florentines; for Count Carlo made rapid advances in the Perugino, and Niccolo Vitelli, though unable to enter Castello, was superior in the field, and plundered the surrounding country without opposition. The forces also, at Poggibonzi, constantly ...
— History Of Florence And Of The Affairs Of Italy - From The Earliest Times To The Death Of Lorenzo The Magnificent • Niccolo Machiavelli

... man from Texas, met him on the street, and they walked to Stewart's apartment together. The frosty air and the rapid exercise combined to drive away Byrne's irritation; that, and the recollection that it was Saturday night and that to-morrow there would be no clinics, no lectures, no operations; that the great shambles would be closed ...
— The Street of Seven Stars • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... more fevered than hungry, I determined on spending the time in combing my hair and washing my face and hands with vinegar. In the midst of this solacing operation I heard what seemed to be the Mail running its rapid course, and quick as lightning it flashed on me, 'There it goes! and my luggage is on the top of it, and my purse is in the pocket of it, and here am I stranded on an unknown beach, without so much as a sixpence in my pocket to pay for the vinegar ...
— A Letter Book - Selected with an Introduction on the History and Art of Letter-Writing • George Saintsbury

... sapping the allegiance of these troops. Later events have left little doubt that such a conspiracy did exist, and that its aim was the total subversion of British power. Our advance in Hindostan had been rapid, the changes following on it many, and not always such as the Oriental mind could understand or approve. Early in the reign, in 1847, an energetic Governor-General, Lord Dalhousie, went out to India, ...
— Great Britain and Her Queen • Anne E. Keeling

... the fireside, raised above the vulgarities of common life, by a purifying spirit of expression and the exalting fervour of inspiration: and there was such a brilliant and graceful mixture of the elegant and the homely, the lofty and the low, the familiar and the elevated—such a rapid succession of scenes which moved to tenderness or tears; or to subdued mirth or open laughter—unlooked for allusions to scripture, or touches of sarcasm and scandal—of superstitions to scare, and of humour to delight—while through the whole was diffused, as the scent of flowers through ...
— The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. • Robert Burns and Allan Cunningham

... canister can be plainly seen in the heaps of dead and dying that strew the ground. But the check is only momentary. As the next line advances they move forward in serried ranks, and soon the fort is canopied in smoke. We can see the artillery as it fires in rapid succession, and the small arms pop and crack in a ceaseless rattle. The conflict elsewhere ceases, and both sides are silent and anxious witnesses of the struggle at the fort. Thus the fight continues for half hour. The Federals have reached the ditch. They climb up the sides of the works, ...
— Lee's Last Campaign • John C. Gorman

... to the great qualities whence that authority arose. The subject is instructive to those who wish to form themselves on whatever of excellence has gone before them. There are many young members in the House (such of late has been the rapid succession of public men) who never saw that prodigy, Charles Townshend, nor of course know what a ferment he was able to excite in everything by the violent ebullition of his mixed virtues and failings. ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. II. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... Captain mistook him probably for some rustic servant of the place, for he continued his agreeable remarks up to the very moment when Dudley, whose face was pale with anger, and whose rapid advance had not served to cool him, without recollecting to salute either Milly or me, accosted our ...
— Uncle Silas - A Tale of Bartram-Haugh • J.S. Le Fanu

... tolerably steep, about eight or ten feet high, hollowed out here and there, and covered with a thick network of wild vines. The Salado at this spot describes a sort of bow-shaped curve, with a ford at either end, by which alone the river can be passed, for although not very broad, it is rapid and deep. We resolved to take up a position within this bow, calculating that we might manage to defend the two fords, which were not above a quarter of ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV. • Various

... castle of Pudgla, the 30th day mensis Augusti, anno Salutis 1630." [Footnote: Readers who are unacquainted with the atrocious administration of justice in those days, will be surprised at this rapid and arbitrary mode of proceeding. But I have seen authentic witch-trials wherein a mere notary condemned the accused to the torture and to death without the smallest hesitation; and it may be considered as a mark of humanity whenever ...
— Sidonia The Sorceress V2 • William Mienhold

... far above the French soldiers, and above most even of the lofty-statured Spahis, and her rapid glance flashed over him at once. "Did he hear?" she wondered; the scarlet flush of exercise and excitement deepened on her clear brown cheek, that had never blushed at the coarsest jests or the broadest love words of the barrack-life that had been about her ever since her eyes first ...
— Under Two Flags • Ouida [Louise de la Ramee]

... hoped that what they lost in foreign commerce would be made up to them in increased commerce with other parts of the empire. One reason for the great development of Germany's foreign trade in late years is found in the facilities that it possesses for rapid transit to and from Italy by means ...
— Up To Date Business - Home Study Circle Library Series (Volume II.) • Various

... to become a great empire, by the rapid increase of population:—JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, I see no prospect of their propagating more. They can have no more children than they can get. I know of no way to make them breed more than they do. It is not from reason and prudence that people marry, but from ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 2 • Boswell

... proceed at the same quick pace; but before they have made another mile the wounded man feels his weakness sensibly overcoming him. Then the rapid run is succeeded by a slow dog-trot, soon decreasing to a walk, at length ending ...
— The Lone Ranche • Captain Mayne Reid

... country, or of the world, so great call for the means of education, as in these new States, owing to the vast numbers of persons within those ages in which education and instruction are usually received, if received at all. This is the natural consequence of recency of settlement and rapid increase. The census of these States shows how great a proportion of the whole population occupies the classes between infancy and manhood. These are the wide fields, and here is the deep and quick soil for the seeds of knowledge and ...
— The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster • Daniel Webster

... lay anchored in the shelter of the Golden Horn, protected by a boom of chains and logs. As the Saracen ships came up to occupy the straits above the city they fell into confusion in trying to stem the rapid current. Seeing his opportunity, the emperor ordered the boom opened, and leading the way in his flagship, he fell upon the huddle of Saracen vessels in the channel. The latter could make little resistance, ...
— A History of Sea Power • William Oliver Stevens and Allan Westcott

... delightful it would be if he might shy his books over the hedge and strike off across the meadows to join Percy, who had gone out fishing, when he heard steps behind him, and turning, saw the tall curate running along with rapid strides. His first impression was that something had happened at the Rectory since he started, and that Mr. Yorke was come to take him back; but ...
— Holiday Tales • Florence Wilford

... the pomegranate in the hedge; but his eyes were fascinated by the crouching passion of the figure before him and the dissonance of the low, unhuman voice. There was no pause in the broken, turgid torrent, which was like a muddy flood pouring over the boulders of a rapid. ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... of elections, Freedom of speech, legislation relating to, does not extend to anarchistic statements, Freedom of the press, limitations of, meaning of, Freedom of trade, Freehold land, common in United States, Freemen (see Liberty), made up Witenagemot, rights of under Magna Charta, rapid increase of after the conquest, French, language, first law in A.D. 1266, customs and law of in force in England, language not to be used in England, coat of arms not to be used in England, language declared to be unknown in England in 1360, Fuel, Assize of, modern ...
— Popular Law-making • Frederic Jesup Stimson

... Though, from the rapid action of the eye and the mind, grouping and counting by groups appear to be a single operation, yet, as things can be seen in succession only, however rapidly, the counting of things, whether ideal ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 5, No. 28, February, 1860 • Various

... while was left alone near the card table, where the unsnuffed candles began smouldering in their sockets. He had risen to his feet, somewhat bewildered at the rapid turn of events. His dark, restless eyes wandered for a moment round the room, as if in ...
— I Will Repay • Baroness Emmuska Orczy

... need of repairs. The roof let in the rain upon the congregation, and the parish vestry met to settle the plans for mending it; but they could not agree about the mode of procedure. In this emergency Telford was sent for, and requested to advise what was best to he done. After a rapid glance at the interior, which was in an exceedingly dangerous state, he said to the churchwardens, "Gentlemen, we'll consult together on the outside, if you please." He found that not only the roof but the walls of the church were in a most decayed state. It appeared that, in consequence of graves ...
— The Life of Thomas Telford by Smiles • Samuel Smiles

... the camp had reached her, she could look calmly and clearly at the position of affairs, and reflect on the measures which Ani must take in the immediate future. She told herself that all was well, and that the time for prompt and rapid action was now come. ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... scorched with heat, and would fain, if it were possible, have plunged into the water; and the Serpent which lies coiled round the north pole, torpid and harmless, grew warm, and with warmth felt its rage revive. Booetes, they say, fled away, though encumbered with his plow and unused to rapid motion. ...
— Children's Literature - A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes • Charles Madison Curry

... returned; and she who had first welcomed him to their abode, and had ever since retained for Mazin the purest affection, ran with eagerness to inquire after his health. Great was her affliction on beholding him upon his bed, pale, and apparently in a state of rapid decay. After many kind questions, to which he returned no answers, she entreated earnestly, by the vow of brotherly and sisterly adoption which had past between them, that he would inform her of the cause of his unhappy dejection; assuring him that she would use every exertion to remove it, and gratify ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments Complete • Anonymous

... we arrived at the lawn in front of the palace, when a cloud of dust was observed to rise in the direction of the road to Palmyra, as if caused by a body of horse in rapid movement. 'What may this mean?' said Zenobia: 'orders were strict, that our brief retirement should not be disturbed. This indicates an errand ...
— Zenobia - or, The Fall of Palmyra • William Ware

... "With a rapid pass of his sword, he struck Fulke across the arm, and as the weapon dropped from the old soldier's hand, Morgan rushed past, on towards the ...
— Boycotted - And Other Stories • Talbot Baines Reed

... music rose loud and rapid, and then languished to almost dying away; but whatever its movement or time, it was embodied and realized by the beautiful pair, in their sweeping, graceful motions. The maiden's face was wrapt with a sweet, joyous light in ...
— Bart Ridgeley - A Story of Northern Ohio • A. G. Riddle

... verdant slopes mottled with snowy streaks, Where homes the forest-haunting doe, where roams the wildling boar? Now, now I rue my deed foredone, now, now it irks me sore!" Whenas from out those roseate lips these accents rapid flew, Bore them to ears divine consigned a Nuncio true and new; 75 Then Cybebe her lions twain disjoining from their yoke The left-hand enemy of the herds a-goading thus bespoke:— "Up feral fell! up, hie with him, see rage his footsteps urge, See that his fury smite him till he seek the forest ...
— The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus • Caius Valerius Catullus

... shinin' so smooth and level, not hintin' of the rocks and depths below, I methought, "Here we be all on us, men and wimmen, fishin' on the broad sea of life, and who knows what will tackle the lines we drop down into the mysterious depths? We sail along careless and onthinkin' over rush and rapid, depth and shallow, the line draggin' along. Who knows what we may feel all of a sudden on the end of the line? Who knows what we may be ketchin' ontirely onbeknown to us? We may be ketchin' happiness, and we may be layin' holt of sorrow. A bliss may be jerked up by us out of the ...
— Samantha at Coney Island - and a Thousand Other Islands • Marietta Holley

... friends and foes. If a king becomes mild, he is disregarded. If he becomes fierce, he inspires people with dread. Therefore, do not be fierce. Do not, again, be mild. But be both fierce and mild. As a rapid current ceaselessly eats away the high bank and causes large landslips, even so heedlessness and error cause a kingdom to be ruined. Never attack many foes at the same time. By applying the arts of conciliation, or gift, or production of disunion, O Purandara, they should be ground one by ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 - Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 • Unknown

... her mother's four-room flat on the top floor of a dingy brick building she was almost out of breath from indignation and rapid walking. ...
— For Gold or Soul? - The Story of a Great Department Store • Lurana W. Sheldon

... would divide the support of their father's friends. That alone would have been victory to the Mussulmans; and, in the case of the British army leaving the land, (which then was looked for, at any rate, after one campaign,) the three Shahzades would, by their fraternal feuds, ensure rapid defeat to each other. Under this state of expectations, there was a bounty on regicide. All Ghazees carried the word assassin written on their foreheads. To shoot the Shah in battle was their right; but they had no thought of waiting for battle: they meant to watch his privacy; and some, ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Vol. 56, No. 346, August, 1844 • Various

... comes an uncanny sound from the orchestra that is positively blood-curdling. The multitude of instruments are silent—all but the string basses. Some of them maintain a tremolo on the deep E flat. Suddenly there comes a short, high B flat. Again and again with more rapid iteration. Such a voice was never heard in the orchestra before. What Strauss designed it to express does not matter. It accomplishes a fearful accentuation of the awful situation. Strauss got the hint from Berlioz, who never used the device (which he heard from ...
— Chapters of Opera • Henry Edward Krehbiel

... The rapid action and variety of the next few days were ever after like a dream to Bessie Fairfax. A tiring day in Hampton town, a hurried walk to the docks in the sunset, the gorgeous autumnal sunset that flushed the water like fire; a splendid hour in the ...
— The Vicissitudes of Bessie Fairfax • Harriet Parr

... the entrance which opens heaven, at thy rising 4 in the bar of the door of the shining heavens, in ...[1] at thy rising, 5 in the great door of the shining heavens, when thou openest it. 6 in the highest (summits) of the shining heavens, at the time of thy rapid course, 7 the celestial archangels with respect and joy press around thee; 8 the servants of the Lady of crowns[2] lead thee in a festive manner; 9 the ...[3] for the repose of thy heart fix thy days; 10 the multitudes of the crowds on ...
— Babylonian and Assyrian Literature • Anonymous

... as essential to the true interest of the nation; that on the navy he had fully expressed his opinions in his Notes on Virginia; that he adhered still to his ideas then given; that he believed our growing commerce would call for protection; that he had been averse to a too rapid increase of our navy; that he believed a navy must naturally grow out of our commerce, but thought prudence would advise its increase to progress with the increase of the nation, and that in this way he was friendly to the establishment. ...
— Memoirs of Aaron Burr, Complete • Matthew L. Davis

... only from above, and with any lateral currents of air [page 243] excluded. The apex sometimes crossed one or two divisions of the micrometer at an imperceptibly slow rate, but generally it moved onwards by rapid starts or jerks of 2/1000 or 3/1000, and in one instance of 4/1000 of an inch. After each jerk forwards, the apex drew itself backwards with comparative slowness for part of the distance which had just been gained; and then after a very ...
— The Power of Movement in Plants • Charles Darwin

... moment or two when the two parties met in the lobby and were introduced before going in to breakfast. There was a little putting up of guards on the part of the ladies. Between Irene and Marion passed that rapid glance of inspection, that one glance which includes a study and the passing of judgment upon family, manners, and dress, down to the least detail. It seemed to be satisfactory, for after a few words of civility the two girls walked in together, ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner

... lower limbs will look like the desolate stems of a frozen geranium. Eccentricities of limb will be handed over like baldness from father to son among the dwellers in the cities, where every advantage in the way of rapid transit is to be had, until a metropolitan will be instantly picked out by his able digestion and rudimentary legs, just as we now detect the gentleman from the interior by his wild endeavors to overtake ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume VII. (of X.) • Various

... over-estimate the harm that has been done to public policy by this same Malthusian theory. It has opposed to every proposal of social reform an obstacle that seemed insuperable,—the danger of a rapid overincrease of population that would pauperize the community. Population, it was said, tends always to press upon the heels of subsistence. If the poor are pampered, they will breed fast: the time will come ...
— The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice • Stephen Leacock

... in vain to worry At the rapid race of Time— And he flies in such a flurry When I trip him with a rhyme, I'll bother him no longer Than to thank you for the thought That "my fame is growing stronger As you really ...
— The Complete Works • James Whitcomb Riley

... beginning of my reign, when I observed that many young girls, who at first seemed to suffer only from debility and lowness of spirits, soon afterwards withered, and died of what was then called by a term answering to your expression of "rapid consumption." This often happened where the patients had been previously pronounced ...
— Another World - Fragments from the Star City of Montalluyah • Benjamin Lumley (AKA Hermes)

... of rock and pile and board A modern miracle, My neighbor's dwelling, roofed and floored, That rapid grew as Jonah's gourd, ...
— Poems - Vol. IV • Hattie Howard

... slightly. Now you will notice a throbbing, beating sound, very unlike the tone produced when the strings were in exact unison. See if you can count the beats. If you have lowered the tension too much, the beats will be too rapid to permit counting. Now with a steady and gradual pull, with the heel of the hand against some stationary part, bring the string up slowly. You will notice these waves become slower and slower. When they ...
— Piano Tuning - A Simple and Accurate Method for Amateurs • J. Cree Fischer

... "What thou sayest, thou dost impose it, thou shinest in thy impetuous clan, and rapid chamois." By M. Maurice Schwab (1857): "The chief of emigration who reached these places, has fixed these statutes forever." By M. Oppert: "The grave of one who was assassinated here. May God, to revenge him, strike his murderer, cutting off the hand of his existence." We can only say of these ...
— Mound-Builders • William J. Smyth

... destination point to virtues than by those who have no rule and direction in the expenditure of their estates but their own will and appetite? Nor are these estates held altogether in the character or with the evils supposed inherent in mortmain. They pass from hand to hand with a more rapid circulation than any other. No excess is good, and therefore too great a proportion of landed property may be held officially for life; but it does not seem to me of material injury to any common wealth that there should ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. III. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... agree with Dr. Sack that the valuable changes, which occur during fermentation, continue during drying, especially those in which oxygen assists. The full advantage of these is lost if the temperature used is high enough to kill the enzymes, or if the drying is too rapid, both of which may occur with ...
— Cocoa and Chocolate - Their History from Plantation to Consumer • Arthur W. Knapp

... in the course of conversation, I made a statement bearing upon the subject under discussion—and I made it with due modesty, for there was nothing extraordinary about it, and it was only put forth in illustration of a point at issue. I had barely finished when this person spoke out with rapid utterance ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... time, meeting our infantry slowly falling back, before the enemy, fighting as they retreated. We rushed "into battery," on a hill at edge of open field, with the Federal infantry already past the way across the field and opened on them with our usual rapid fire. In ten minutes not a Federal could be seen except the few ...
— A History of Lumsden's Battery, C.S.A. • George Little

... though disagreeable as a needless proclamation of independence which nobody is disputing, leaves, however, no lasting bad effect. For the domestic 'helps' are pretty generally in a state of transition so sure and so rapid to the headship of domestic establishments belonging to themselves, that in effect they are but ignoring, for the present moment, a relation which would at any rate dissolve itself in a year or two. But in ...
— The Notebook of an English Opium-Eater • Thomas de Quincey

... end of summer. Or, with England critically situated, and with them made desperate as wild beasts are made desperate, they may become a menace and go "swelling" down to the West End to return the "slumming" the West End has done in the East. In which case, before rapid-fire guns and the modern machinery of warfare, they will perish the more ...
— The People of the Abyss • Jack London

... added, addressing his friend, "I'm going down to Benton. Tell John I couldn't come back. I've got something to do." And, to the surprise of his companions, Henry Burns left them abruptly, and went down the road at a rapid pace. ...
— The Rival Campers Ashore - The Mystery of the Mill • Ruel Perley Smith

... Francisco, several Mexicans offered him large sums of money; nothing, however, could shake him in his resolution. In those countries, though horses will often be purchased at the low price of one dollar, it often happens that a steed, well known as a good hunter or a rapid pacer, will bring sums equal to those paid in ...
— Monsieur Violet • Frederick Marryat

... of encouragement the composition of my Liebesverbot made rapid strides towards completion. I intended the presentation of this piece for the benefit performance which had been promised me as a means of defraying my expenses, and I worked hard in the hope of improving my reputation, and at the same time of accomplishing ...
— My Life, Volume I • Richard Wagner

... feel that Philip was slipping away from her. He loved her, she was sure of that, but something was dragging them apart Her great enemy was Philip's success. This was rapid and constant. She wanted to rejoice in it; she struggled to feel glad and happy, and even proud. But that was impossible. It was ungenerous, it was mean, but she could not help it—she resented every fresh mark of ...
— The Manxman - A Novel - 1895 • Hall Caine

... wisely observed by the greatest of modern thinkers that mankind has progressed more rapidly in every other respect than in morality. Moral progress has not been rapid simply because the moral ideal has always been kept a little in advance of the humanly possible. Thousands of years ago the principles of morality were exactly the same as those which rule our lives to-day. We can ...
— Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn • Lafcadio Hearn

... millions; in advances to workmen, a half million; for the circulation of funds to the farmers, merchants and small manufactures, two millions; under the heading of reconstruction of buildings or the rapid reinstallation of the evacuated ...
— Fighting France • Stephane Lauzanne

... death; and between them they did the distance in some seconds under the record, and ran a clean half-mile on the level at the foot of the hill before they could bring one of the most famous runs of the season to a standstill. Thanks to this rapid performance they were only about a quarter of an hour after ...
— The Master of the Shell • Talbot Baines Reed

... races perhaps the most fitted of any two in the world to be the completing counterpart of one another. The consciousness of being at last treated not only with equal justice, but with equal consideration, is making such rapid way in the Irish nation as to be wearing off all feelings that could make them insensible to the benefits which the less numerous and less wealthy people must necessarily derive from being fellow-citizens instead of foreigners ...
— Considerations on Representative Government • John Stuart Mill

... whistling, from the silver bell, to fall, broken and limping from the bell of wood; you admire in their midst the rich gamut which incessantly ascends and re-ascends the seven bells of Saint-Eustache; you see light and rapid notes running across it, executing three or four luminous zigzags, and vanishing like flashes of lightning. Yonder is the Abbey of Saint-Martin, a shrill, cracked singer; here the gruff and gloomy voice of the Bastille; ...
— Notre-Dame de Paris - The Hunchback of Notre Dame • Victor Hugo

... characteristic styles of the period. In these Pyreieus was pre-eminent; he was termed rhyparographos, on account of the mean quality of his subjects. After the destruction of Corinth by Mummius and the spoliation of Athens by Sylla the art of painting experienced a rapid and total decay. ...
— Museum of Antiquity - A Description of Ancient Life • L. W. Yaggy

... Roger looked at his daughter in deep concern. Awkwardly his heavy hand touched her small plump shoulder, and he felt the constant quivering there. "Now, now," he muttered, uneasily, "it's going to be all right, you know—" And at that she gave him a rapid glance out of those warm hunted eyes, as though to ask, "What do you know of this?" And Roger flinched ...
— His Family • Ernest Poole

... have swung pretty far away from that first chapter of the Genesis revelation. No; you are mistaken there. We have been walking, with rapid stride, by the shortest road, straight into its inner heart. Let us look a bit at the picture of God sketched for us in this earliest page ...
— Quiet Talks with World Winners • S. D. Gordon

... the other was that his solitary house was in the hands of a self-invited, large-limbed, illiterate, but rather comely young woman. These facts he could not gallop away from, but to his credit be it recorded that he fulfilled his mission zealously, if not coherently, to the doctor, who during the rapid ride gathered the idea that North had rescued a young married woman from drowning, who had since given ...
— Drift from Two Shores • Bret Harte

... the Oobleck'] n. A bizarre semi-liquid sludge made from cornstarch and water. Enjoyed among hackers who make batches during playtime at parties for its amusing and extremely non-Newtonian behavior; it pours and splatters, but resists rapid motion like a solid and will even crack when hit by a hammer. ...
— THE JARGON FILE, VERSION 2.9.10

... Aikin, of Baltimore, wrote to me on the subject; and showed, by calculations, that the mere gradual expansion of the water of the blood was not sufficient, of itself, to produce a current as rapid as that of the blood was proved to be, even on the lowest estimate of its velocity. This did not shake my faith in the great fact that circulation was created by respiration. It must be so; for in life, such respiration as produces heat is the invariable antecedent of circulation, ...
— Theory of Circulation by Respiration - Synopsis of its Principles and History • Emma Willard

... And Andy, whose rapid flow of words had been suddenly stopped, looked once at the tall, bronzed lad, and then followed the instructions to the letter. So, whether he wanted it or not, Professor Snodgrass had the assistance of ...
— Ned, Bob and Jerry on the Firing Line - The Motor Boys Fighting for Uncle Sam • Clarence Young

... rupees [40,000l.]." The territorial revenue at that time possessed by these gentlemen, without the knowledge or consent of their masters, amounted to three hundred and sixty thousand pounds sterling annually. They were making rapid strides to the entire possession of the country, when the Directors, whom the right honorable gentleman states as having authorized these proceedings, were kept in such profound ignorance of this royal acquisition of territorial revenue by their servants, that in the same letter they ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. III. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... from the place which gave them birth, growing bigger and stronger, finally fulfilling the task which they were sent out to perform—the production of eggs from which new colonies are to be started. These eggs grow into a little slipper-shaped creature which swims by means of the rapid waving motion of hair-like elastic rods which cover the whole body. At last, tired out, it settles down, grows into an animal resembling its cousins of the fresh water, and then starts branching out to form a colony like ...
— Chatterbox, 1906 • Various

... perversities of this mysterious organisation; we have over-loaded it with all the facts which seem to throw any light upon this sombre character. But now, after these long preparations, the drama opens, the scenes become rapid and lifelike; events, long impeded, accumulate and pass quickly before us, the action is connected and hastens to an end. We shall see Derues like an unwearied Proteus, changing names, costumes, language, multiplying himself in many forms, scattering deceptions and lies from one end of France ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - DERUES • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE

... of the work dealt with his life, or rather with those two or three years known to the world, from his rapid rise in American politics and his mediation in the East down to the event of five months ago, when in swift succession he had been hailed Messiah in Damascus, had been formally adored in London, and finally elected by ...
— Lord of the World • Robert Hugh Benson

... poetry is broken. His words are gone. His emotion is paralyzed, but his mind is alert. He seems suddenly to be grown up,—a man, and not a boy,—and a man of action. "Is it even so?" is all he says. He orders post-horses, ink and paper, in a few rapid sentences; it is evident that before speaking at all he has determined what he will do, and from now on to the end of the play Romeo is different from his old self, for a new Romeo has appeared. He is in a state of intense and calm exultation. All his fluctuating emotions have been stilled or ...
— Emerson and Other Essays • John Jay Chapman

... with pleasure, Alders skip about the heather, And the aspen sways in concord. All the daughters of Wainola Straightway leave their shining needles, Hasten forward like the current, Speed along like rapid rivers, That they may enjoy and wonder. Laugh the younger men and maidens, Happy-hearted are the matrons Flying swift to bear the playing, To enjoy the common pleasure, Hear the harp of Wainamoinen. Aged men and bearded seniors, Gray-haired mothers with their daughters Stop in wonderment ...
— The Kalevala (complete) • John Martin Crawford, trans.

... them. He was baptized almost immediately by an English clergyman then passing through the place, and received the name of Brian. He was a delicate-looking baby, but seemed likely to live and do well. Mrs. Luttrell's recovery was unusually rapid; the soft Italian air suited her constitution, and she declared her intention of nursing ...
— Under False Pretences - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant



Words linked to "Rapid" :   river, rapid transit, waterway, fast



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