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edify
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  • As a journalist, I found it edifying to experience things from the other side of the fence.†   (source)
  • On a walk one day with Our Father he pointed out for his daughters' edification a carburetor air-filter lid boiling a family's dinner over a cookfire, and a jeep muffler being put to use by six boys at once, as a drum.†   (source)
  • I just thought it might be entertaining-as well as edifying and enlightening-if at some point we exchanged lists of all the locations at which we have either robbed or been robbed.†   (source)
  • For the edification of the fence gossipers, he would later describe what he had seen.†   (source)
  • They were labeled with edifying placards that said Traditional Kerala Umbrella and Traditional Bridal Dowry-box.†   (source)
  • What is in mind is a sort of Chautauqua…that's the only name I can think of for it…like the traveling tent-show Chautauquas that used to move across America, this America, the one that we are now in, an old-time series of popular talks intended to edify and entertain, improve the mind and bring culture and enlightenment to the ears and thoughts of the hearer.†   (source)
  • Even then, however, the household's religious edification had not ended.†   (source)
  • They spent that summer reading among the rushes by the river, the pine trees in the forest, and the sprouting stalks of the wheatfields, discussing the virtues of Sinbad and Robin Hood, the bad luck of the Black Pirate, the true and edifying stories from the Treasury of Youth, the worst meanings of the words that did not appear in the dictionary of the Spanish Royal Academy, the cardiovascular system in illustrated plates where you could see a man with no skin and all his veins and…†   (source)
  • The orphans had to listen to someone reading from the Bible or some other edifying book during meals and could not talk with one another.†   (source)
  • Ghosh and Matron had been quick to point out the meaning of his new moniker, but it turned out that W.W. needed no edification.†   (source)
  • There was, as usual, the dissertation upon wines, not very. edifying," John Quincy recorded after another dinner.†   (source)
  • 'Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying.'†   (source)
  • As you were leaving, after your extremely edifying visit in the spring.†   (source)
  • I take it then that you did not find your stay in England altogether edifying.†   (source)
  • Every Friday afternoon, the two thousand members of the Corps of Cadets would march in a full-dress parade for the edification of both the tourists and the natives.†   (source)
  • But it is hardly edifying.†   (source)
  • The infirmary was of course a model of hygiene and efficiency, which I was most willing to maintain for him, despite his sometimes searing criticisms in this very room (and in front of others), which were aimed not at my specific conduct but at the legacies of my "training" and "background"—the ultimate question being of my ethos, as it were, a term (from his brief university schooling in England) that he seemed to employ often, for my edification.†   (source)
  • For your edification I did both.†   (source)
  • "No," said Atticus, "putting his life's history on display for the edification of the neighborhood."   (source)
    edification = instruction
  • I do not suppose the situation my friend Mrs Rooke is in at present, will furnish much either to interest or edify me.   (source)
  • After that, Mrs. E.C.B. composed verse for her private edification.†   (source)
  • I had learned this off many years earlier, long before I knew what "edifying" meant.†   (source)
  • D. Imam of the Mosque of Tucson, Arizona. it was provided for my edification.†   (source)
  • If it is so 'edifying' perhaps I shall come, too."†   (source)
  • It appears that certain periods of history quickly become, both for other . societies and for those that follow them, the stuff of not especially edifying legend and the occasion for a good deal of hypocritical self-congratulation.†   (source)
  • Dr. Jordan, he said, was to be congratulated upon the edifying remarks with which he had honoured them today.†   (source)
  • I want to start a whole new academic field, gumptionology, in which these traps are sorted, classified, structured into hierarchies and interrelated for the edification of future generations and the benefit of all mankind.†   (source)
  • In my confusion I looked at the boy in the white coat but it was like he'd been struck on the head with a hammer, he didn't seem any more amused or edified by any of this than I was.†   (source)
  • Busy yourself with the care of consciences, and with the delivery of edifying sermons for the improvement of public life and private morals, which God knows the country is in need of, and leave the brains of the degenerate to the authorities who specialize in them.†   (source)
  • We had orders to keep our ears open for the end of the meeting, which would be signalled by applause, and a speech to thank Dr. Jordan for his edifying remarks, which is what they say to everyone who speaks on these occasions; and that would be our signal to bring up the refreshments; and so one of the maids was told to listen at the parlour door.†   (source)
  • I continue to sleep in my allotted cell, and I wear the same clothing and eat the same breakfast, in silence if you can call it silence, forty women, most of them in here for nothing worse than stealing, who sit chewing their bread with their mouths open and slurping their tea in order to make a noise of some sort even if not speech, with an edifying Bible passage read out loud.†   (source)
  • Bodies and body parts were carried out in trucks every night and posed throughout the city, a macabre public arts program that served to educate and edify.†   (source)
  • It promises to be most edifying.†   (source)
  • It will be…edifying.†   (source)
  • I started my speech by telling the board I had gotten a haircut for their edification and to ensure that they would listen to what I had to say.†   (source)
  • He has just been on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe and has been much edified.†   (source)
  • He thought he saw pride and wealth confounded as an object lesson to the world, and he thought he saw humility crowned and rewarded for the edification of the city.†   (source)
  • For instance when she decided to change the name of "Kennedy's General Store" to something more edifying, she asked him to think of a title that would include the word "emporium."†   (source)
  • Had Tolstoi lived at the Priory in seclusion with a married lady 'cut off from what is called the world', however edifying the moral lesson, he could scarcely, I thought, have written WAR AND PEACE.†   (source)
  • The "Gospels" come later and were written not to make Christians but to edify Christians already made.†   (source)
  • After that, there were wheezings and moanings for a bit, the chink of metal which I took to be from one of the trumpets, some conversation, not very enlightening or edifying, from Princess Spotted Deer, who was Miss Littlepaugh's control, and some even more unenlightening remarks, given in a husky guttural, from somebody on the Other Side who claimed to be named Jimmy and to have been a friend of my youth.†   (source)
  • As he was not in the least precocious, he read whatever was written up for our edification without any comment, and thought with that magnificent equanimity (Latin words come naturally) that was to preserve him from so many meannesses and humiliations, that Lucy's flaxen pigtails and pink cheeks were the height of female beauty.†   (source)
  • Parsons, his attention caught by the trumpet call, sat listening with a sort of gaping solemnity, a sort of edified boredom.†   (source)
  • When I see one of those sweet and silly Saviors or St. Francises and see how other people find them beautiful and edifying, I feel it is an insult to the real Savior and it makes me think: Why did He live and suffer so terribly if people find a picture as silly as that satisfactory to them!†   (source)
  • Was it very edifying and instructive?" asked Aglaya.†   (source)
  • They dragged Philip into the parlour and made him repeat it for their father's edification.†   (source)
  • His life did not seem edifying nor in any degree amusing.†   (source)
  • You'll no' forget this, my dear, but bear it in mind for your edification and government.†   (source)
  • "After," said the Professor for my edification.†   (source)
  • It is quite edifying to hear women speculate upon the worthlessness and the duration of beauty.†   (source)
  • This edifying spectacle was the final event of the Governor's ball.†   (source)
  • "It will be better if they love each other," she said for edification.†   (source)
  • A most edifying representative I shall make of all the domestic virtues—don't you think so?†   (source)
  • 'I persuaded her,' he said, with an edifying air of superiority.†   (source)
  • You know I'm such a graceless dog that these religious aspects of such subjects don't edify me much.†   (source)
  • Isabel hoped that so fair and smooth a page would be covered with an edifying text.†   (source)
  • He knew very well that he must tell some story this evening for the edification of the company, and led up to it with the inspiration of anticipatory triumph.†   (source)
  • They are not edifying.†   (source)
  • I took a bath and did most of my dressing, splashing, and whistling softly for the steward's edification, while the secret sharer of my life stood drawn up bolt upright in that little space, his face looking very sunken in daylight, his eyelids lowered under the stern, dark line of his eyebrows drawn together by a slight frown.†   (source)
  • There's something so edifying about funerals—I've sometimes thought that when we need a little spiritual uplift, we should attend funerals rather than church.†   (source)
  • "Umph!" grunted the studious audience, doubtful whether it was fitting to be amused, offended, bored, or edified.†   (source)
  • No matter what the subject might be, a brain-racking effort was made to squirm it into some aspect or other that the moral and religious mind could contemplate with edification.†   (source)
  • He drank off the spirits in his tumbler, rapped with it on the counter, and announced, "The gentleman in the corner is going to rehearse the Articles of his Belief, in the Latin tongue, for the edification of the company."†   (source)
  • I didn't hope to be very much impressed or edified, or interested or even frightened—though, as long as there is any life before one, a jolly good fright now and then is a salutary discipline.†   (source)
  • He was edified to learn that the selling of Bibles was a hustling and strictly competitive industry, and as an expert on hygiene he was pleased by the Sanitary Communion Outfit Company's announcement of "an improved and satisfactory outfit throughout, including highly polished beautiful mahogany tray.†   (source)
  • It was with a sudden flush that she read and realized what was to be the inscription he was now halfway through— THOU, SHALT, NOT, COMMIT— Her cheerful friend saw her looking, stopped his brush, and shouted— "If you want to ask for edification on these things of moment, there's a very earnest good man going to preach a charity-sermon to-day in the parish you are going to—Mr Clare of Emminster.†   (source)
  • I not only tell you that my hero wrote a revolutionists' handbook: I give you the handbook at full length for your edification if you care to read it.†   (source)
  • Coming downstairs to meet my colleague in the hall, I remembered a pair of gloves that had required three stitches and that had received them—with a publicity perhaps not edifying—while I sat with the children at their tea, served on Sundays, by exception, in that cold, clean temple of mahogany and brass, the "grown-up" dining room.†   (source)
  • He began to describe in detail the beauties of the picture, but at this table at Gravier's they who spoke at length spoke for their own edification.†   (source)
  • He was there below me, and, upon my word, to look at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a parody of breeches and a feather hat, walking on his hind-legs.†   (source)
  • I'm talking about a mystery that extends beyond stupidity and cleverness, and that is what we need to concern ourselves with—partly to get to the bottom of it, if possible, and partly, to the extent that it is not possible, to edify ourselves.†   (source)
  • This, let me remind you again, is a love story; you can see it by the imbecility, not a repulsive imbecility, the exalted imbecility of these proceedings, this station in torchlight, as if they had come there on purpose to have it out for the edification of concealed murderers.†   (source)
  • …and the woman than about the relations between both and our courts of law and private juries of matrons, produces that sensation of evasion, of dissatisfaction, of fundamental irrelevance, of shallowness, of useless disagreeableness, of total failure to edify and partial failure to interest, which is as familiar to you in the theatres as it was to me when I, too, frequented those uncomfortable buildings, and found our popular playwrights in the mind to (as they thought) emulate Ibsen.†   (source)
  • He rehearsed all the afternoon how he should play the heavy father for the young man's edification till he reduced his children to helpless giggling.†   (source)
  • And the ordinary citizen, knowing that an author who is well spoken of by a respectable newspaper must be all right, reads me, as he reads Micah, with undisturbed edification from his own point of view.†   (source)
  • Without exchanging a word or a sign, Joachim and Hans Castorp were in complete agreement about this little speech: they found it petulant and unsettlingly seditious—but entertaining as well, of course, indeed edifying in its brazen rebelliousness.†   (source)
  • He had edified the National Interurban Trolley Council, meeting at Wichita, on "Health Maxims for Trolley Folks."†   (source)
  • Their children are sometimes congenital idiots, like the hero of our story; sometimes they are found in the dock at the Assizes, where they are generally acquitted by the jury for edifying motives; sometimes they distinguish themselves by one of those burning scandals that amaze the public and add another blot to the stained record of our age.†   (source)
  • We were speaking about the same thing here not long ago, about how I've sometimes almost wished I had become a clergyman, what with my interest in sad, edifying things—you know, like a black funeral pall with a silver cross and R.I.P, on it.†   (source)
  • Martin was edified by an item which showed that among all families divorced in Ontario, Tennessee, and Southern Wyoming in 1912, the appalling number of fifty-three per cent of the husbands drank at least one glass of whisky daily.†   (source)
  • English life seems to him to suffer from a lack of edifying rhetoric (which he calls moral tone); English behavior to show a want of respect for womanhood; English pronunciation to fail very vulgarly in tackling such words as world, girl, bird, etc.; English society to be plain spoken to an extent which stretches occasionally to intolerable coarseness; and English intercourse to need enlivening by games and stories and other pastimes; so he does not feel called upon to acquire these…†   (source)
  • For festering sores were not only conspicuous reminders of the body's sunken state, but also, in reflecting the venomous corruption of the soul, they awakened a desire for edifying spiritual compensation; whereas the bloom of health was a deceptive phenomenon, an offense to the conscience that it was best to disavow by bowing low in profound humility before human frailty.†   (source)
  • In novels, these truth-seekers quested the "secret of life" in laboratories which did not seem to be provided with Bunsen flames or reagents; or they went, at great expense and much discomfort from hot trains and undesirable snakes, to Himalayan monasteries, to learn from unaseptic sages that the Mind can do all sorts of edifying things if one will but spend thirty or forty years in eating rice and gazing on one's navel.†   (source)
  • After four o'clock tea in the dining hall—at which Frau Chauchat had appeared alone, as she had at all three previous meals that day, and then set off at once for a shopping trip down in Platz— Hans Castorp had asked to be admitted for his usual sick call on the Dutchman, partly to show the old man some attention and entertain him a little, partly to be edified by his personality: in short, for reasons both life-affirming and irresolute.†   (source)
  • In his cups, though he severely retained his moral and elegant vocabulary, Clif chronicled the jest of selling oil-wells unprovided with oil and of escaping before the law closed in; the cleverness of joining churches for the purpose of selling stock to the members; and the edifying experience of assisting Dr. Benoni Carr to capture a rich and senile widow for his sanitarium by promising to provide medical consultation from the spirit-world.†   (source)
  • For scores of years gone by, Monseigneur had squeezed it and wrung it, and had seldom graced it with his presence except for the pleasures of the chase—now, found in hunting the people; now, found in hunting the beasts, for whose preservation Monseigneur made edifying spaces of barbarous and barren wilderness.†   (source)
  • Her guests stepped out at the wide entrance, and the stout porter, who used to read the newspapers in the mornings behind the glass door, to the edification of the passers-by, noiselessly opened the immense door, letting the visitors pass by him into the house.†   (source)
  • Claude had confided him to that same college of Torchi where he had passed his early years in study and meditation; and it was a grief to him that this sanctuary, formerly edified by the name of Frollo, should to-day be scandalized by it.†   (source)
  • …on the aristocratic or Pump side, for the Father made it a point of his state to be chary of going among his children on the Poor side, except on Sunday mornings, Christmas Days, and other occasions of ceremony, in the observance whereof he was very punctual, and at which times he laid his hand upon the heads of their infants, and blessed those young insolvents with a benignity that was highly edifying—the brothers, walking up and down the College-yard together, were a memorable sight.†   (source)
  • The only perceptible eminence in M. Nioche's horizon is Montmartre, which is not an edifying quarter.†   (source)
  • I have composed many a homily on her back, to the edification of my brethren of the convent, and many poor Christian souls.†   (source)
  • 'Yer don't know who I am, I suppose, Work'us?' said the charity-boy, in continuation: descending from the top of the post, meanwhile, with edifying gravity.†   (source)
  • After manoeuvring for some time in this manner, greatly to the edification of a party of birds resembling him but without any ruff, who, assembled round the stump, were enjoying his performances, he spread out his tail like a fan, stiffened his wings, and began to strike with them in short, rapid beats, faster and faster, until a rumbling sound like very distant thunder was produced, and the whirring wings enveloped him as in a cloud.†   (source)
  • " 'tis remarkable! wonderful! edifying!" returned the lover of nature, good-humouredly recovering his wig, with twinkling eyes and a husky voice.†   (source)
  • In motley pictures little light, Much error, and of truth a glimmering mite, Thus the best beverage is supplied, Whence all the world is cheered and edified.†   (source)
  • They will impose various public acts of penitence upon themselves with a beautiful and edifying effect; in fact you've nothing to be uneasy about….†   (source)
  • Boy put aside, to the great edification of the audience, especially of Little Swills, the comic vocalist.†   (source)
  • 'tis the six-and-twentieth edition, promulgated at Boston, Anno Domini 1744; and is entitled, 'The Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of the Old and New Testaments; faithfully translated into English Metre, for the Use, Edification, and Comfort of the Saints, in Public and Private, especially in New England'."†   (source)
  • Next comes an enormous quantity of religious works, Bibles, sermons, edifying anecdotes, controversial divinity, and reports of charitable societies; lastly, appears the long catalogue of political pamphlets.†   (source)
  • The sound of our pens going refreshed us exceedingly, insomuch that I sometimes found it difficult to distinguish between this edifying business proceeding and actually paying the money.†   (source)
  • There were occasional gatherings of long-coated theatrical natives who discussed metaphysics in English and Bengali, to Mr Lurgan's great edification.†   (source)
  • The servants are summoned for their edification, and in front of them all stands the mother of the child.†   (source)
  • She said the count had died as she would herself wish to die, that his end was not only touching but edifying.†   (source)
  • All human actions will then, of course, be tabulated according to these laws, mathematically, like tables of logarithms up to 108,000, and entered in an index; or, better still, there would be published certain edifying works of the nature of encyclopaedic lexicons, in which everything will be so clearly calculated and explained that there will be no more incidents or adventures in the world.†   (source)
  • There was, so to speak, silence in her speech; she said just what was necessary, and she possessed a tone of voice which would have equally edified a confessional or enchanted a drawing-room.†   (source)
  • Among the sights of Europe, that of Rome has ever been held one of the most striking and in some respects edifying.†   (source)
  • It was but a passing emotion however with Mrs Smith; she shook it off, and soon added in a different tone— "I do not suppose the situation my friend Mrs Rooke is in at present, will furnish much either to interest or edify me.†   (source)
  • He regarded its complications as more curious than edifying, and he had an idea of the beauty of REASON, which was, on the whole, meagrely gratified by what he observed in his female patients.†   (source)
  • I was chiefly edified, I am afraid, by the pictures, which were numerous, and represented all kinds of dismal horrors; but the Martyrs and Peggotty's house have been inseparable in my mind ever since, and are now.†   (source)
  • As Squeers spoke, he caught up the boy's hand by the cuff of his jacket, and surveyed it with an edifying aspect of horror and disgust.†   (source)
  • —I had found small edification, mostly, in a critical pretension that had neglected from the first all delimitation of ground and all definition of terms.†   (source)
  • I grieve to add that the second performance, given for the edification of the London Press and of those members of the Stage Society who cannot attend the Sunday performances, was a less inspiriting one than the first.†   (source)
  • How much more edifying it would have been if you had made him give Arthur some truly spiritual advice!†   (source)
  • But all I can learn of their conclusions amounts to just this, that "Cato and Brister pulled wool"; which is about as edifying as the history of more famous schools of philosophy.†   (source)
  • There are a perfect host of Clarksons and Wilberforces* risen up among us on that subject, most edifying to hear and behold.†   (source)
  • The following day the youth appeared in the street, as the highway was called, and the neighborhood was much edified by the additional gravity of his air.†   (source)
  • Should any little accidental disappointment of the appetite occur, such as the spoiling of a meal, the under or the over dressing of a dish, the incident ought not to be neutralised by replacing with something more delicate the comfort lost, thus pampering the body and obviating the aim of this institution; it ought to be improved to the spiritual edification of the pupils, by encouraging them to evince fortitude under temporary privation.†   (source)
  • I pressed Traddles into the service without his knowledge; and whenever he came to see us, exploded my mines upon him for the edification of Dora at second hand.†   (source)
  • Mrs. Bute certainly thought herself one of the most virtuous women in England, and the sight of her happy family was an edifying one to strangers.†   (source)
  • "All this as rational and edifying," said my antagonist, "and in any case you are an original person."†   (source)
  • When she made remarks to this edifying effect, she had a firm little frown on her brow, which yet did not hinder her face from looking benevolent, and her words which came forth like a procession were uttered in a fervid agreeable contralto.†   (source)
  • "It is possible," said Morcerf; "my father has in his study a genealogical tree which will tell you all that, and on which I made commentaries that would have greatly edified Hozier and Jaucourt.†   (source)
  • MEPHISTOPHELES Then bagged the spangles, chains, and rings, As if but toadstools were the things, And thanked no less, and thanked no more Than if a sack of nuts he bore,— Promised them fullest heavenly pay, And deeply edified were they.†   (source)
  • " "Aye, aye," said Martin Poyser, listening with an air of much intelligence and edification, "they ne'er ate a bit o' beef i' their lives.†   (source)
  • He is very much embarrassed about the arms, as if they were inconvenient to him and he wanted to grovel, is very much in a perspiration about the head, and never speaks without first putting up his great hand, as delivering a token to his hearers that he is going to edify them.†   (source)
  • The former were never very numerous; though the sounds of "nominative, pennaa—genitive, penny," were soon heard to issue from the windows of the room, to the great delight and manifest edification of the passenger.†   (source)
  • He imagined men such as he had himself been a fortnight ago, and he addressed an edifying exhortation to them.†   (source)
  • But peasants from the neighbouring country were not refused admittance; for it was the pride of Beaumanoir to render the edifying spectacle of the justice which he administered as public as possible.†   (source)
  • All these details which we here lay bare for the edification of the reader, were so covered by the general uproar, that they were lost in it before reaching the reserved platforms; moreover, they would have moved the cardinal but little, so much a part of the customs were the liberties of that day.†   (source)
  • "I tell you, trapper," said Paul, who was very little edified by the morality with which his associate saw fit to season their repast, "that, every day while we are in this place, and they are likely to be many, I will shoot a buffaloe and you shall cook his hump!"†   (source)
  • 'Who do you suppose, my dear?' replied Mrs Nickleby, bending towards Mrs Wititterly, and speaking a little louder for that lady's edification.†   (source)
  • In consequence of Mrs. Snagsby looking deeply edified, Mr. Snagsby thinks it expedient on the whole to say amen, which is well received.†   (source)
  • He had been used every day to taste the flavor of supremacy and the tribute of complete deference: and the certainty that he was watched or measured with a hidden suspicion of his having some discreditable secret, made his voice totter when he was speaking to edification.†   (source)
  • When the nature of Mr. Osborne's will became known to the world, it was edifying to remark how Mrs. George Osborne rose in the estimation of the people forming her circle of acquaintance.†   (source)
  • …where, roosted on some rail fence, or perched aloft in some tree, he would sit watching the orators, with the greatest apparent gusto, and then, descending among the various brethren of his own color, assembled on the same errand, he would edify and delight them with the most ludicrous burlesques and imitations, all delivered with the most imperturbable earnestness and solemnity; and though the auditors immediately about him were generally of his own color, it not infrequently happened…†   (source)
  • For ten or fifteen minutes the different individuals, who intended either to bestow or receive edification before the fires of the "Bold Dragoon" on that evening, were collecting, until the benches were nearly filled with men of different occupations.†   (source)
  • She did what she could to erect it into a law—a much more edifying aspect of it—by going to live in Florence, where she bought a house and established herself; and by leaving her husband to take care of the English branch of his bank.†   (source)
  • Squeers shaking his head, Ralph accompanied him to the streetdoor, and audibly wondering, for the edification of Newman, why it was fastened as if it were night, let him in and Squeers out, and returned to his own room.†   (source)
  • Yet, in spite of these edifying memories, it would be difficult to explain the frivolity, absurdity and malice that were manifested beside the coffin of Father Zossima.†   (source)
  • 'Because,' said the milkman, going on as if he had received no answer, and speaking, as I judged from his tone, rather for the edification of somebody within the house, than of the youthful servant — an impression which was strengthened by his manner of glaring down the passage — 'because that there little bill has been running so long, that I begin to believe it's run away altogether, and never won't be heerd of.†   (source)
  • A stout countess of sixty, decolletee, painted, wrinkled with rouge up to her drooping eyelids, and diamonds twinkling in her wig, is a wholesome and edifying, but not a pleasant sight.†   (source)
  • …the tyrant, and walked, as majestically as he could, upstairs: not a little nettled, however, to observe that Miss Squeers and Master Squeers, and the servant girl, were enjoying the scene from a snug corner; the two former indulging in many edifying remarks about the presumption of poor upstarts, which occasioned a vast deal of laughter, in which even the most miserable of all miserable servant girls joined: while Nicholas, stung to the quick, drew over his head such bedclothes as he…†   (source)
  • In Victor Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris an edifying and gratuitous spectacle was provided for the people in the Hotel de Ville of Paris in the reign of Louis XI. in honor of the birth of the dauphin.†   (source)
  • "Selina" received her with a pathetic affectionateness and a disposition to give edifying answers on the commonest topics, which could hardly have reference to an ordinary quarrel of which the most important consequence was a perturbation of Mr. Bulstrode's health.†   (source)
  • Some time elapses in the present instance before the old gentleman is sufficiently cool to resume his discourse, and even then he mixes it up with several edifying expletives addressed to the unconscious partner of his bosom, who holds communication with nothing on earth but the trivets.†   (source)
  • Topsy was cited, and had up before all the domestic judicatories, time and again; but always sustained her examinations with most edifying innocence and gravity of appearance.†   (source)
  • Comes Mr. Snagsby in his black coat; come the Chadbands; come (when the gorging vessel is replete) the 'prentices and Guster, to be edified; comes at last, with his slouching head, and his shuffle backward, and his shuffle forward, and his shuffle to the right, and his shuffle to the left, and his bit of fur cap in his muddy hand, which he picks as if it were some mangy bird he had caught and was plucking before eating raw, Jo, the very, very tough subject Mr. Chadband is to improve.†   (source)
  • Becky went regularly to church now; it was edifying to see her enter there with Rawdon by her side, carrying a couple of large gilt prayer-books, and afterwards going through the ceremony with the gravest resignation.†   (source)
  • "La sakes, now, does it?" said Uncle Tom, looking with a respectful, admiring air, as his young teacher flourishingly scrawled q's and g's innumerable for his edification; and then, taking the pencil in his big, heavy fingers, he patiently recommenced.†   (source)
  • …of the Guard, Excellenz and Governor of an island, only separated from his lady by one of those trifling differences which are of little account in a country where Werther is still read and the Wahlverwandtschaften of Goethe is considered an edifying moral book, nobody thought of refusing to receive her in the very highest society of the little Duchy; and the ladies were even more ready to call her du and to swear eternal friendship for her than they had been to bestow the same…†   (source)
  • …proceed, in a moment of profound reflection on the changes wrought by time, to examine him in the catechism, accomplishing with extreme accuracy the questions number one and two, "What is your name?" and "Who gave you that name?" but there failing in the exact precision of his memory and substituting for number three the question "And how do you like that name?" which he propounded with a sense of its importance, in itself so edifying and improving as to give it quite an orthodox air.†   (source)
  • Topsy, with great gravity and adroitness, went through the exercise completely to Miss Ophelia's satisfaction; smoothing the sheets, patting out every wrinkle, and exhibiting, through the whole process, a gravity and seriousness with which her instructress was greatly edified.†   (source)
  • Having, naturally, an organization in which the morale was strongly predominant, together with a greater breadth and cultivation of mind than obtained among his companions, he was looked up to with great respect, as a sort of minister among them; and the simple, hearty, sincere style of his exhortations might have edified even better educated persons.†   (source)
  • On the appointed day, Sir Pitt and his lady, in their great family carriage (just newly built, and ready for the Baronet's assumption of the office of High Sheriff of his county), drove up to the little house in Curzon Street, to the edification of Raggles, who was watching from his greengrocer's shop, and saw fine plumes within, and enormous bunches of flowers in the breasts of the new livery-coats of the footmen.†   (source)
  • Now in Martin Arrowsmith there were no decorative heroisms, no genius for amours, no exotic wit, no edifyingly borne misfortunes.†   (source)
  • It is not certain that, in attaching himself to Doc Vickerson, Martin was entirely and edifyingly controlled by a desire to become a Great Healer.†   (source)
  • Can you inquire him out, and be edified by report?   (source)
    edified = instructed
  • I knew you must be edified by the margent ere you had done.   (source)
  • Byron was as little of a philosopher as Peter the Great: both were instances of that rare and useful, but unedifying variation, an energetic genius born without the prejudices or superstitions of his contemporaries.†   (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unedifying means not and reverses the meaning of edifying. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
  • Two ladies from the lower common lounging area, Frau Redisch, the wife of a Polish industrialist, and a certain widow Hessenfeld from Berlin, both of them recent October arrivals, became involved in a rather unedifying scene after supper; indeed they came to blows and one of them began screaming hysterically (it might have been Redisch, but could just as easily have been Hessenfeld), and finally, simply sick with rage, had to be taken to her room—all because each claimed she was first…†   (source)
  • Had he been in my opinion a good preacher, perhaps I might have continued, notwithstanding the occasion I had for the Sunday's leisure in my course of study; but his discourses were chiefly either polemic arguments, or explications of the peculiar doctrines of our sect, and were all to me very dry, uninteresting, and unedifying, since not a single moral principle was inculcated or enforc'd, their aim seeming to be rather to make us Presbyterians than good citizens.†   (source)
  • "Unless you're contemplating an encore performance for the edification of Mrs. Baird," I suggested, "you'd better get dressed.†   (source)
  • They were there gathered together without distinction of social class (and a most edifying spectacle it was to see) in that simple fane beside the waves, after the storms of this weary world, kneeling before the feet of the immaculate, reciting the litany of Our Lady of Loreto, beseeching her to intercede for them, the old familiar words, holy Mary, holy virgin of virgins.†   (source)
  • Look then to be well edified when the fool delivers the madman:—'By the Lord, madam,—'†   (source)
  • He did, my gracious lord, begin that place; Which, since, succeeding ages have re-edified.†   (source)
  • Having at length finished his laboured harangue, with which the audience, though it had greatly raised their attention and admiration, were not much edified, as they really understood not a single syllable of all he had said, he proceeded to business, which he was more expeditious in finishing, than he had been in beginning.†   (source)
  • Returned from Babylon by leave of kings Their lords, whom God disposed, the house of God They first re-edify; and for a while In mean estate live moderate; till, grown In wealth and multitude, factious they grow; But first among the priests dissention springs, Men who attend the altar, and should most Endeavour peace: their strife pollution brings Upon the temple itself: at last they seise The scepter, and regard not David's sons; Then lose it to a stranger, that the true Anointed King…†   (source)
  • They must either do as the Jewes did after their return from captivity, in re-edifying the Temple, build with one hand, and hold the Sword in the other; or else they must hire others to fight for them.†   (source)
  • Ezra And Nehemiah The Books of Esdras and Nehemiah were written certainly after their return from captivity; because their return, the re-edification of the walls and houses of Jerusalem, the renovation of the Covenant, and ordination of their policy are therein contained.†   (source)
  • Therefore when a Rod seemeth a Serpent, or the Water Bloud, or any other Miracle seemeth done by Enchantment; if it be not to the edification of Gods people, not the Rod, nor the Water, nor any other thing is enchanted; that is to say, wrought upon by the Words, but the Spectator.†   (source)
  • Therefore the safest way is to beleeve, that by the Descending of the Dove upon the Apostles; and by Christs Breathing on them, when hee gave them the Holy Ghost; and by the giving of it by Imposition of Hands, are understood the signes which God hath been pleased to use, or ordain to be used, of his promise to assist those persons in their study to Preach his Kingdome, and in their Conversation, that it might not be Scandalous, but Edifying to others.†   (source)
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