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mercenary
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  • Maybe passersby would think he was a member of the French Foreign Legion or some heroic mercenary.   (source)
    mercenary = someone hired to fight
  • He even considered working as a mercenary bombardier in an attempted coup in a small Caribbean country, and was still thinking it over when the coup was called off.   (source)
    mercenary = a person hired to fight for a country other than their own
  • He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to...   (source)
    mercenaries = people hired to fight for a country other than their own
  • The armies of the French have thus become mixed, partly mercenary and partly national,   (source)
    mercenary = foreigners hired to fight
  • The three mercenaries looked ready to boil someone alive, and then there were the two shackled murderers.†   (source)
  • One of the men told the chief that the only way we could possess such foreign cassettes was either by having looted them or if we were mercenaries.†   (source)
  • But we are refugees and mercenaries and guest workers; you see us sleeping in airport lounges; you watch us unwrapping the last of our native foods, unrolling our prayer rugs, reading our holy books, taking out for the hundredth time an aerogram promising a job or space to sleep, a newspaper in our language, a photo of happier times, a passport, a visa, a laissez-passer.†   (source)
  • Maybe that's what the Silencers are: human mercenaries.†   (source)
  • Shots of a boondocks war in some arid mountain range across the ocean, with close-ups of dead mercenaries, male and female; a bunch of aid workers getting mauled by the starving in one of those dusty famines far away; a row of heads on poles that was in the ex-Argentine, said the CorpSeCorps, though they didn't say whose heads they were or how they'd got onto the poles.†   (source)
  • Not only had Redd been banished from Wonderland years ago, forced to live in a grubby fortress on Mount Isolation in the middle of the Chessboard Desert-acres of icy snow alternating with acres of tar and black rock, forming what looked from the air like a giant chessboard-not only this, but she'd had to piece together a military force out of deserters, mercenaries, cutthroats.†   (source)
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  • Perhaps Galbatorix hired mercenaries to harass us.†   (source)
  • First she read about the mercenaries.†   (source)
  • They even hired mortal mercenaries.†   (source)
  • Neckties had been required six days a week when Langdon attended Phillips Exeter Academy, and despite the headmaster's romantic claims that the origin of the cravat went back to the silk fascalia worn by Roman orators to warm their vocal cords, Langdon knew that, etymologically, cravat actually derived from a ruthless band of "Croat" mercenaries who donned knotted neckerchiefs before they stormed into battle.†   (source)
  • One of the mercenaries spoke up.†   (source)
  • One of the mercenaries we knocked over was trying to get this blade from our dead Fremen friend.†   (source)
  • "For example, why didn't the airplane company that makes money, the mercenaries, why didn't they pay for his flight?†   (source)
  • Plenty of Martials roam the south as merchants, mercenaries, and craftsmen.†   (source)
  • Wendigo, as bad as they are, are little more than mercenaries.†   (source)
  • He had confirmed that he was committing land and sea forces—as well as unnamed foreign mercenaries—sufficient to put an end to that rebellion, and he had denounced the leaders of the uprising for having American independence as their true objective, something those leaders themselves had not as yet openly declared.†   (source)
  • After a lifetime in service to the nation, here we sit like primitive mercenaries.†   (source)
  • Two publications lay beside the computer station at which Blick had been working: one issue each of Wired, featuring yet another major article about the visionary splendiferousness of Bill Gates, and a magazine aimed at former Special Forces officers who wished to make horizontal career moves from military service into jobs as paid mercenaries.†   (source)
  • — The others were as choice a lot of mercenaries as ever graced a dungeon, each uglier than the last.†   (source)
  • A minority of CITIZENS can become a majority of PEOPLE by adding alien residents, mercenaries, or people in the State without voting rights.†   (source)
  • You've made the great startling goddam discovery that the acting profession's loaded with mercenaries and butchers.†   (source)
  • Although banks do not routinely send mercenaries to collect your ship.†   (source)
  • It occurs to me that, just as the Carthaginians hired mercenaries to do their fighting for them, we Americans bring in mercenaries to do our hard and humble work.†   (source)
  • The mercenaries who had restored the authority of the central government had been quartered there; now the palace was an army barracks.†   (source)
  • "Thunder chariot!" cried one of the mercenaries, making a sign with his hand.†   (source)
  • On either side of him stood two armed security guys, some of the mortal mercenaries I'd seen in D.C.   (source)
    mercenaries = people hired to fight for a country other than their own
  • Mostly I saw monsters, but there were some human mercenaries in combat fatigues and demigods in armor, too.   (source)
  • For centuries, mercenaries were Switzerland's chief export good.
  • One of these mercenaries, responsible to no one, had shot Zeitoun.†   (source)
  • The two mercenaries turned and raised eyebrows at each other.†   (source)
  • These boys are no mercenaries, look at them.†   (source)
  • This the mercenaries did with rough efficiency.†   (source)
  • Roent and the mercenaries were willing to leave me alone.†   (source)
  • The Justice motioned to the mercenaries.†   (source)
  • I was riding with one of the mercenaries, absently peeling the bark from a willow switch.†   (source)
  • The exception to the metaphor is that we never really used mercenaries.†   (source)
  • But I don't want Terrans as mercenaries any more than the Council does.†   (source)
  • Idaho looked down the length of the table, said: "We've taken a force of Harkonnen mercenaries disguised as Fremen.†   (source)
  • "Mercenaries," Zoe said bitterly.†   (source)
  • But he took one final look around through the telescope — studying the plain with its tall ships, the gleaming metal hutment, the silent city, the frigates of the Harkonnen mercenaries.†   (source)
  • At least five different organizations had sent soldiers-for-hire into the city, including Israeli mercenaries from a firm called Instinctive Shooting International.†   (source)
  • His mother, he knew, had turned, expected to meet a lasgun in the hands of Harkonnen mercenaries, and had recognized Duncan Idaho leaning out the 'thopter's open door shouting: "Hurry!†   (source)
  • If all the Blackwater mercenaries were carrying at least two guns each, that would mean hundreds of 9mm Heckler and Koch sidearms, hundreds of M-16 rifles and M-4 machine guns.†   (source)
  • A vast British armada was reported under way across the Atlantic and there were ominous rumors of the King hiring an army of German mercenaries.†   (source)
  • Mercenaries?†   (source)
  • Someone suggested that mercenaries be sent over to the Howard barn to forcibly haul Smith into the office.†   (source)
  • Remember how your courage and spirit have been despised and traduced by your cruel invaders, though they have found by dear experience at Boston, Charlestown, and other places, what a few brave men contending in their own land, and in the best of causes can do, against base hirelings and mercenaries.†   (source)
  • Nor was there to be any mention of Scottish mercenaries, James Wilson and John Witherspoon both being Scots.†   (source)
  • …of his crown; and whereas, no answer whatever to the humble petitions ofthe colonies for redress of grievances and reconciliation with Great Britain has been or is likely to be given; but the whole force of that kingdom, aided by foreign mercenaries, is to be exerted for the destruction of the good people of these colonies; and whereas it appears absolutely irreconcilable to reason and good conscience, for people of these colonies to take the oaths and affirmations necessary for the…†   (source)
  • You want us as mercenaries?†   (source)
  • To the long list of indictments against the King, he had added oneassailing the English people, "our British brethren," as a further oppressor, for allowing their Parliament and their King "to send over not only soldiers of our common blood, but Scotch and foreign mercenaries to invade and destroy us."†   (source)
  • Beyond its stirring preamble, most of the document before Congress was taken up with a list of grievances, specific charges against the King—"He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns…… He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny…… " And it was the King, "the Christian King of Great Britain," Jefferson had emphasized, who was responsible for the horrors of the slave trade.†   (source)
  • He sent a message to Colonel Yenyi telling him to stay at the barracks and to welcome the commander of the mercenaries.†   (source)
  • From Mahesh and Shoba I had heard dreadful stories of that time, of casual killings over many months by soldiers and rebels and mercenaries, of people trussed up in disgusting ways and being made to sing certain songs while they were beaten to death in the streets.†   (source)
  • …a nickering which, in extreme cases, was attended by such a shower of sparks as to make the struggling knights seem perfectly incandescent Wherever you went, during the first years, every vista had been terminated by a marching column of mercenaries, robbing and piling from the Marches—or by a knight of the new order exchanging buffets with a conservative baron whom he was trying to restrain from murdering serfs—or by a golden-haired maiden being rescued out of some lofty keep by means…†   (source)
  • The mercenaries of the Herods I do not count, for they are kept to crush us.†   (source)
  • …in ambush behind the gate;—whether Miss Havisham, preferring to take personal vengeance for an outrage done to her house, might rise in those grave-clothes of hers, draw a pistol, and shoot me dead:—whether suborned boys—a numerous band of mercenaries—might be engaged to fall upon me in the brewery, and cuff me until I was no more;—it was high testimony to my confidence in the spirit of the pale young gentleman, that I never imagined him accessory to these retaliations; they always…†   (source)
  • The leaders of the mercenaries received a donation in gold; an argument the most persuasive to their minds, and without which all others would have proved in vain.†   (source)
  • And thus it happened, that when the alarm of danger approached, and that which Isaac feared was likely to come upon him, he was deserted by the discontented mercenaries on whose protection he had relied, without using the means necessary to secure their attachment.†   (source)
  • Such annotations as may be useful to assist the reader in comprehending the characters of the Jew, the Templar, the Captain of the mercenaries, or Free Companions, as they were called, and others proper to the period, are added, but with a sparing hand, since sufficient information on these subjects is to be found in general history.†   (source)
  • They had come thus far in safety; but having received information from a wood-cutter that there was a strong band of outlaws lying in wait in the woods before them, Isaac's mercenaries had not only taken flight, but had carried off with them the horses which bore the litter and left the Jew and his daughter without the means either of defence or of retreat, to be plundered, and probably murdered, by the banditti, who they expected every moment would bring down upon them.†   (source)
  • In conclusion, in mercenaries dastardy is most dangerous; in auxiliaries, valour.†   (source)
  • And one's own forces are those which are composed either of subjects, citizens, or dependents; all others are mercenaries or auxiliaries.†   (source)
  • I say, therefore, that the arms with which a prince defends his state are either his own, or they are mercenaries, auxiliaries, or mixed.†   (source)
  • The armies of the French have thus become mixed, partly mercenary and partly national, both of which arms together are much better than mercenaries alone or auxiliaries alone, but much inferior to one's own forces.†   (source)
  • Of ancient mercenaries, for example, there are the Carthaginians, who were oppressed by their mercenary soldiers after the first war with the Romans, although the Carthaginians had their own citizens for captains.†   (source)
  • And because you cannot remain unarmed, it follows that you turn to mercenaries, which are of the character already shown; even if they should be good they would not be sufficient to defend you against powerful enemies and distrusted subjects.†   (source)
  • And experience has shown princes and republics, single-handed, making the greatest progress, and mercenaries doing nothing except damage; and it is more difficult to bring a republic, armed with its own arms, under the sway of one of its citizens than it is to bring one armed with foreign arms.†   (source)
  • And as with these examples I have reached Italy, which has been ruled for many years by mercenaries, I wish to discuss them more seriously, in order that, having seen their rise and progress, one may be better prepared to counteract them.†   (source)
  • They are ready enough to be your soldiers whilst you do not make war, but if war comes they take themselves off or run from the foe; which I should have little trouble to prove, for the ruin of Italy has been caused by nothing else than by resting all her hopes for many years on mercenaries, and although they formerly made some display and appeared valiant amongst themselves, yet when the foreigners came they showed what they were.†   (source)
  • This duke entered the Romagna with auxiliaries, taking there only French soldiers, and with them he captured Imola and Forli; but afterwards, such forces not appearing to him reliable, he turned to mercenaries, discerning less danger in them, and enlisted the Orsini and Vitelli; whom presently, on handling and finding them doubtful, unfaithful, and dangerous, he destroyed and turned to his own men.†   (source)
  • CHAPTER XII — HOW MANY KINDS OF SOLDIERY THERE ARE, AND CONCERNING MERCENARIES Having discoursed particularly on the characteristics of such principalities as in the beginning I proposed to discuss, and having considered in some degree the causes of their being good or bad, and having shown the methods by which many have sought to acquire them and to hold them, it now remains for me to discuss generally the means of offence and defence which belong to each of them.†   (source)
  • Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous; and if one holds his state based on these arms, he will stand neither firm nor safe; for they are disunited, ambitious, and without discipline, unfaithful, valiant before friends, cowardly before enemies; they have neither the fear of God nor fidelity to men, and destruction is deferred only so long as the attack is; for in peace one is robbed by them, and in war by the enemy.†   (source)
  • CHAPTER XIII — CONCERNING AUXILIARIES, MIXED SOLDIERY, AND ONE'S OWN Auxiliaries, which are the other useless arm, are employed when a prince is called in with his forces to aid and defend, as was done by Pope Julius in the most recent times; for he, having, in the enterprise against Ferrara, had poor proof of his mercenaries, turned to auxiliaries, and stipulated with Ferdinand, King of Spain,(*) for his assistance with men and arms.†   (source)
  • Therefore, let him who has no desire to conquer make use of these arms, for they are much more hazardous than mercenaries, because with them the ruin is ready made; they are all united, all yield obedience to others; but with mercenaries, when they have conquered, more time and better opportunities are needed to injure you; they are not all of one community, they are found and paid by you, and a third party, which you have made their head, is not able all at once to assume enough…†   (source)
  • …tumbling body, the rush of friend and foe thither, The siege of revolted lieges determin'd for liberty, The summons to surrender, the battering at castle gates, the truce and parley, The sack of an old city in its time, The bursting in of mercenaries and bigots tumultuously and disorderly, Roar, flames, blood, drunkenness, madness, Goods freely rifled from houses and temples, screams of women in the gripe of brigands, Craft and thievery of camp-followers, men running, old persons…†   (source)
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  • But I do not approve of mercenary marriages.   (source)
    mercenary = made due to considerations of wealth
  • I figure to myself that the task of attending on your sickbed has devolved on some mercenary old nurse, who could never guess your wishes nor minister to them with the care and affection of your poor cousin.   (source)
    mercenary = working for and concerned with money
  • She is a cold-hearted, vain woman, who has married entirely from convenience, and though evidently unhappy in her marriage, places her disappointment not to faults of judgment, or temper, or disproportion of age, but to her being, after all, less affluent than many of her acquaintance, especially than her sister, Lady Stornaway, and is the determined supporter of everything mercenary and ambitious,   (source)
    mercenary = concerned with wealth
  • Sick of ambitious and mercenary connexions, prizing more and more the sterling good of principle and temper, and chiefly anxious to bind by the strongest securities all that remained to him of domestic felicity, he had pondered with genuine satisfaction on the more than possibility of the two young friends finding their natural consolation in each other for all that had occurred of disappointment to either; and the joyful consent which met Edmund's application, the high sense of having…   (source)
    mercenary = concerned with money
  • She is a cold-hearted, vain woman, who has married entirely from convenience, and though evidently unhappy in her marriage, places her disappointment not to faults of judgment, or temper, or disproportion of age, but to her being, after all, less affluent than many of her acquaintance, especially than her sister, Lady Stornaway, and is the determined supporter of everything mercenary and ambitious, provided it be only mercenary and ambitious enough.   (source)
    mercenary = concerned with wealth
  • My mind was never yet more mercenary.   (source)
    mercenary = concerned with money
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  • "Touch this rope and I'll gut you," she warned the mercenary, and readied herself.†   (source)
  • Besides, Day wasn't a mercenary in any of his past crimes.†   (source)
  • She could have stepped in front of a truck, drowned in a puddle, been seized by a mercenary with foulness on his mind.†   (source)
  • Mercenary marriage, if ever I saw one.†   (source)
  • She says he's a mercenary killer working for the Americans.†   (source)
  • Soon my shirt would be soaked and Mautz, a true psychological mercenary, would have me.†   (source)
  • On that night, in a ritual similar to this one, the Worshipful Master had blindfolded him with a velvet hoodwink and pressed a ceremonial dagger to his bare chest, demanding: "Do you seriously declare on your honor, uninfluenced by mercenary or any other unworthy motive, that you freely and voluntarily offer yourself as a candidate for the mysteries and privileges of this brotherhood?"†   (source)
  • The mercenary looked down at the heavy, notched blade, his forehead furrowing in confusion.†   (source)
  • The mercenary says there's a Harkonnen reward of a million Solaris for anyone who'll bring in a single crysknife.†   (source)
  • Peck had accumulated a personal mythology that included Indian wars, gold mining, and mercenary executions, and was known to carry a derringer pistol in a hidden shoulder holster.†   (source)
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  • If so, you are a most incompetent mercenary; you don't even have a weapon.†   (source)
  • I fling my scim to the sky, watching with mercenary satisfaction as Helene's eyes flick up to follow the weapon's path.†   (source)
  • Mercenary fighters were nonmembers hired on short-term contracts to help the gang fight turf wars.†   (source)
  • One of the hijackers, the mercenary called Antibbe, was shot and killed.†   (source)
  • Switched on the TV and called the superstation in Atlanta and touched things with a hanky and placed the voice device on the phone that he'd ordered from the back pages of a mercenary magazine.†   (source)
  • Two houses down from Pasha was a Russian military veteran with some intelligence background, now a mercenary.†   (source)
  • She's really small and fragile-looking, and at the same time, it's like she's some exotic teenage mercenary, all rock solid, dressed in black, ready to take somebody down.†   (source)
  • I had been advised to have massages, but I never liked them: I hate to be touched by mercenary hands.†   (source)
  • You bloody mercenary.†   (source)
  • A "dirty, mercenary spirit pervades the whole," he wrote.†   (source)
  • I'm afraid to say that at Millennium we simply can't afford to be associated with that sort of mercenary journalism.†   (source)
  • The voice of a mercenary.†   (source)
  • Yes, a most efficient mercenary.†   (source)
  • But I don't mind even this, and perhaps it's right that Liv Crawford should be the bearer of these tidings, the mercenary angel who has saved my life.†   (source)
  • Many people with either mercenary or friendly motives would rely on the secrecy of the President.†   (source)
  • That very night, Wulfgar's mercenary army charged out of their encampment and thundered across the open plain.†   (source)
  • She could and had faced an armed laser in the hands of a mad mutant mercenary with less fear than she faced such unswerving emotion.†   (source)
  • Later, it would be said, they turned into the band of swordswomen who were a mercenary army.†   (source)
  • A mercenary father forced him into medicine.†   (source)
  • Mercenary!†   (source)
  • She is the mercenary goddess, remember that!†   (source)
  • Ashe the mercenary, Kiever the fellow traveler, and now Peters, for whom the end and the means were identical.†   (source)
  • He sure ain't mercenary, money don't mean a thing to him.†   (source)
  • Cain grunted and pressed Renault's blade, forcing the mercenary to take a step back.†   (source)
  • Somewhere deep in that crowd was a South African mercenary pilot who owned a radio.†   (source)
  • When the mercenary's hands touched him, Bast's face became a tight mask of pain.†   (source)
  • Moise Tshombe has Belgians and mercenary soldiers working for him.†   (source)
  • Clutching his nose, the mercenary slunk away.†   (source)
  • The priest took the mercenary's remains off to the church.†   (source)
  • The mercenary's eyes sharpened again, focusing on Kvothe.†   (source)
  • The mercenary's bloody face went white, and he bared his teeth as he stared up at his conqueror.†   (source)
  • Before the mercenary could get a grip on Kvothe's arm, he staggered as Bast tackled him from behind.†   (source)
  • Taking a step back, Chronicler regained his composure and leveled the sword at the mercenary.†   (source)
  • The mercenary reached across the bar, catching hold of Kvothe's sleeve.†   (source)
  • When the iron bar struck him, the mercenary's smile fell away.†   (source)
  • The mercenary looked up, his eyes meeting Kvothe's then sweeping back and forth behind the bar.†   (source)
  • Finally, the mercenary's gaze came to rest on the red-haired man behind the bar.†   (source)
  • The mercenary reached up and curiously touched the handle of the knife lodged in his own neck.†   (source)
  • The boy swung the iron rod again, striking the mercenary squarely in the ribs.†   (source)
  • Teeth bared, he clawed wildly at the mercenary's eyes with his free hand.†   (source)
  • What's more, it was obvious this mercenary had fallen on hard times.†   (source)
  • Turning, the mercenary saw the tall boy charging.†   (source)
  • The mercenary stared vaguely at Chronicler, but made no attempt to stop him.†   (source)
  • The mercenary absentmindedly lifted a hand.†   (source)
  • When nothing was forthcoming from the mercenary, he looked around at the other men at the bar.†   (source)
  • Bast managed to get one arm around the mercenary's neck while the other raked at the man's face.†   (source)
  • "Looking …." the mercenary echoed vaguely.†   (source)
  • "Just a moment, Bast," Kvothe said as he tried to catch the stupefied mercenary's attention.†   (source)
  • The mercenary came to his feet, blood flowing freely down the left-hand side of his face.†   (source)
  • The mercenary's eyes rested momentarily on the innkeeper.†   (source)
  • Finally the boy landed a blow to the head and the mercenary went limp.†   (source)
  • It struck the mercenary in the mouth and shattered.†   (source)
  • The scribe's stare was intense, but the mercenary didn't seem to notice.†   (source)
  • The mercenary's head tilted to the side.†   (source)
  • A lone mercenary was never reassuring, even in the best of times.†   (source)
  • The mercenary looked at the point of the sword where it swayed unsteadily in front of his chest.†   (source)
  • This fear effects people whether they have mercenary or friendly motives.†   (source)
  • He seemed to take far more exception to "bloody" than "mercenary."†   (source)
  • Whether you are a thief, a traitor, a mercenary, or merely a fool, your fate will be the same.†   (source)
  • And she says, 'Child, you ought to be glad you didn't git him, because he's so mercenary.'†   (source)
  • He's never taken jobs for hire as far as I know, and it's unlikely he'd start now Who would hire an untested mercenary?†   (source)
  • Two of his brothers became mercenary soldiers, one died of malaria on the Panama Canal, one became a surveyor in Burma and India, and the last made tracks for the eastern seaboard at seventeen, never to be heard from again.†   (source)
  • Rachel I could only despise more if I knew for sure which way to direct my ire, presumably South Africa, where I guess she's finally hit paydirt with her exceeding whiteness and mercenary husband.†   (source)
  • The mercenary had already tied one end of his climbing rope around the gargoyle's neck; now she seized it and tied the other around her own waist.†   (source)
  • As she reached for her last arrow, she heard one of the competitors, a red-haired mercenary named Renault, snigger.†   (source)
  • Fifteen feet below her pipe, a mercenary was clutching the horns of a gargoyle as he set about fastening his rope around its head.†   (source)
  • The mercenary on the gargoyle below only had time to lean into the wall as she slammed onto the creature's head, gripping its horns to steady herself.†   (source)
  • Chaol shook his head, looking at Grave, and at Renault—the mercenary from Skull's Bay, who, to her satisfaction, also seemed fairly miserable in the cold.†   (source)
  • There were only six of them left now: Cain, Grave, Nox, a soldier, and Renault, a vicious mercenary who'd stepped up to replace Verin as Cain's right-hand man.†   (source)
  • He swung the broken sword wildly, knocking the hand away and notching it deep into the meat of the mercenary's arm.†   (source)
  • Then, moving so quickly it was little more than a twitch, the mercenary brought the piece of metal back around, burying it in the farmer's chest.†   (source)
  • The mercenary brought up his injured hand and grabbed the tip of the sword, moving with such sudden speed that the metal rang dully with the contact.†   (source)
  • When the mercenary made no reply, he added, "None of us would blame you if you wanted to catch a bit of sleep first, either.†   (source)
  • Jake and Carter made a point of the mercenary's smile, and while denner addiction was a city problem, folk had still heard of sweet-eaters here.†   (source)
  • Chronicler was looking the mercenary over, eyeing the man's armor, the empty quiver of arrows, his fine blue linen shirt.†   (source)
  • The smith's prentice grabbed the bar with both hands and brought it down across the mercenary's back like a man splitting wood.†   (source)
  • The only sound was the faint grating of the mercenary's finger bones grinding against the bare edges of the blade.†   (source)
  • Instead of collapsing, the mercenary spun around and lashed Shep across the face with the jagged edge of the sword.†   (source)
  • As the farmer lay gasping and bleeding on the floor, the mercenary's attention seemed to wander, as if he had forgotten what he was doing.†   (source)
  • Still clinging to the mercenary, Bast's eyes grew wide with sudden panic as he saw the smith's prentice approaching.†   (source)
  • Quick as a blink, Bast grabbed the mercenary's head with both hands and slammed it into the edge of the bar.†   (source)
  • Still holding the broken tip of the sword in his bloody hand, the mercenary took another step toward Chronicler.†   (source)
  • The mercenary drew a deep breath through his nose, and his glassy sunken eyes came into sudden, sharp focus.†   (source)
  • Bast made a frantic, covert gesture from where he stood near the door, but Kvothe was busy trying to catch the mercenary's eye.†   (source)
  • Everyone knew that the difference between an unemployed mercenary and a highwayman was mostly one of timing.†   (source)
  • There was a moment of perfect quiet, then the mercenary made a deep, wet, coughing sound and vomited up a foul fluid, thick as pitch and black as ink.†   (source)
  • Looking Chronicler full in the face, the mercenary twisted his hand sharply and the sword broke with a sound like a shattered bell.†   (source)
  • As Chronicler stared dumbly at the ruined weapon, the mercenary took a step forward and laid his empty hand lightly on the scribe's shoulder.†   (source)
  • After slowly looking over everyone sitting at the bar, the mercenary moved to the empty space between Chronicler and Old Cob.†   (source)
  • Still the mercenary continued to claw his way toward the door, shrieking and moaning, sounding more animal than human.†   (source)
  • The mercenary let go of Kvothe and laid both hands on the arm that circled his neck, trying to twist away.†   (source)
  • Kvothe gave his best innkeeper's smile as the mercenary leaned heavily against the bar and mumbled something.†   (source)
  • Face grim, the farmer stepped close behind the mercenary and stabbed down hard, driving the whole of the short blade deep into the mercenary's body where the shoulder meets the neck.†   (source)
  • The man stepped into the light and the farmers' excitement was smothered by the sight of the piecemeal leather armor and heavy sword that marked a mercenary.†   (source)
  • Then Bast was there, barreling into the mercenary with one shoulder, striking him with such force that the man's body shattered one of the heavy barstools before slamming into the mahogany bar.†   (source)
  • I was begging in Merchant's Circle and so far the day had profited me two kicks (one guard, one mercenary), three shoves (two wagoneers, one sailor), one new curse concerning an unlikely anatomical configuration (also from the sailor), and a spray of spittle from a rather unendearing elderly man of indeterminate occupation.†   (source)
  • As for criticism of his own vanity or of his "militia diplomacy," he wrote: "The charge of vanity is the last resort of little wits and mercenary quacks, the vainest men alive, against me and measures that they can find no other objection to…… I have long since learned that a man may give offense and yet succeed."†   (source)
  • Behind the scenes, Lord North had quietly begun negotiations with several German princes of Hesse and Brunswick to hire mercenary troops.†   (source)
  • Morning also revealed to us the small bundle on the top of the van: the body of the child, still unidentified, who had been murdered in retaliation for the mercenary's death.†   (source)
  • In retrospect, on the first day at Pasha, we should've flexicuffed the Italians and taken them out of the area, and we should've assassinated the Russian mercenary.†   (source)
  • And if that were not sufficient, there was the outright bribery that had become standard in a blatantly mercenary system not of his making, but that he readily employed to get his way.†   (source)
  • And the most terrible thing of all is that she had to keep looking, frozen; she couldn't tear her eyes away from the sight of Artkiri, Artkin and the child, Artkin in the mask and the child held aloft, above his head, as if the child were a sacrificial lamb being offered to a mercenary god.†   (source)
  • Two others identified as likely participants were a man called Antibbe, who also used many other aliases, familiar to authorities in the Middle East and Europe as a mercenary, and a black named Stroll, known primarily as a technician, expert with explosives, machinery, etc. There was one other, whose identity was not known to us at that time.†   (source)
  • Also there are a few acres planted in soybeans and cotton, both still profitable crops, and so as you can see there are totally mercenary aspects of the situation—aside from the aesthetic and recreative—that tempt me into lending my hand to agrarian pursuits after 40-odd years' absence from the barn and the field.†   (source)
  • I think you're a mercenary rascal—just like the Yankees.†   (source)
  • "I think you are vile and mercenary," said Scarlett, but her remark was automatic.†   (source)
  • Though perhaps that is merely a synonym for mercenary.†   (source)
  • Mercenary?†   (source)
  • I'm going to be a rich man when this war is over, Scarlett, because I was farsighted—pardon me, mercenary.†   (source)
  • Any loyal Confederate who had a thousand dollars in cash in 1861 could have done what I did, but how few were mercenary enough to take advantage of their opportunities!†   (source)
  • I should think you are the least mercenary of men.†   (source)
  • I consider that notion to be a mercenary notion.†   (source)
  • There is a phenomenal pride in it that excludes them from anything mercenary or avaricious.†   (source)
  • Yes, you can say that—as a mercenary, someone whose life is pure form.†   (source)
  • Your standard soldier is the mercenary who can be hired for one cause or another.†   (source)
  • I should be sorry to think our friend mercenary.†   (source)
  • Well then, on that mercenary ground, will you agree to let me hector a little?†   (source)
  • You may fancy there can be no MERCENARY motives in those whose DISAPPOINTMENTS are well known.†   (source)
  • FRANK [plaintively] This is ever so mercenary.†   (source)
  • "You don't really think I am such a mercenary creature as I tried to be once, do you?†   (source)
  • Oh, what a detestable crew they are, these mercenary speculators!†   (source)
  • Pray, would you wish me to make a mercenary marriage—what they call a marriage of ambition?†   (source)
  • He is, I say again without disguise, a low mercenary wretch.†   (source)
  • She's the most mercenary little jade in Europe.†   (source)
  • Now I know Mother will shake her head, and the girls say, "Oh, the mercenary little wretch!†   (source)
  • There is nothing mercenary in that with him.†   (source)
  • He shall be mercenary, and she shall be foolish.†   (source)
  • And therefore, you mean, I am mercenary—I only want your daughter's money."†   (source)
  • Mercenary creatures ask, 'What is the use of a man's going to the North Pole?†   (source)
  • I may be mercenary, but I hate poverty, and don't mean to bear it a minute longer than I can help.†   (source)
  • He thought of the stray amours to which he had been introduced by Flanagan, the sly visits to houses in a cul-de-sac, with the drawing-room in Utrecht velvet, and the mercenary graces of painted women.†   (source)
  • He chilled, though for a moment only, on meeting Dr. Cottard; for seeing him close one eye with an ambiguous smile, before they had yet spoken to one another (a grimace which Cottard styled "letting 'em all come"), Swann supposed that the Doctor recognised him from having met him already somewhere, probably in some house of 'ill-fame,' though these he himself very rarely visited, never having made a habit of indulging in the mercenary sort of love.†   (source)
  • To make matters worse, she was quite impervious to mercenary considerations, and could not be bribed in any way.†   (source)
  • Hutter growled out his dissatisfaction, for the act led to no advantage, while it threatened to render the warfare more vindictive than ever, and none censure motiveless departures from the right more severely than the mercenary and unprincipled.†   (source)
  • That devilish Iron Horse, whose ear-rending neigh is heard throughout the town, has muddied the Boiling Spring with his foot, and he it is that has browsed off all the woods on Walden shore, that Trojan horse, with a thousand men in his belly, introduced by mercenary Greeks!†   (source)
  • "Well!" said his friend Stryver, "you take it more easily than I fancied you would, and are less mercenary on my behalf than I thought you would be; though, to be sure, you know well enough by this time that your ancient chum is a man of a pretty strong will.†   (source)
  • The gold-headed cane is farcical considered as an acknowledgment to me; but happily I am above mercenary considerations.†   (source)
  • This body of soldiery—which still sustains a corporate existence, and marches down from past ages with an ancient and honourable fame—was composed of no mercenary materials.†   (source)
  • The rest of Prince John's retinue consisted of the favourite leaders of his mercenary troops, some marauding barons and profligate attendants upon the court, with several Knights Templars and Knights of St John.†   (source)
  • We are not so mercenary as that, sir.†   (source)
  • Mercenary?†   (source)
  • It was no mercenary hankering after her fortune that moved him, though that fortune had been the means of making her so much the more desired by giving her the air of independence and sauciness which attracts men of his composition.†   (source)
  • 'It would be better for yourself, and all of us, if you WERE mercenary, Mr. Copperfield — I mean, if you were more discreet and less influenced by all this youthful nonsense.†   (source)
  • It was tempting to think of that expensive Mercenary publicly airing his boots in the archway of the Blue Boar's posting-yard; it was almost solemn to imagine him casually produced in the tailor's shop, and confounding the disrespectful senses of Trabb's boy.†   (source)
  • And as he held this science of inventing and putting together engines, and all arts generally speaking which tended to any useful end in practice, to be vile, low, and mercenary, he spent his talents and his studious hours in writing of those things only whose beauty and subtilty had in them no admixture of necessity.†   (source)
  • 'Who is not mercenary?†   (source)
  • There were little faces which should have been handsome, darkened with the scowl of sullen, dogged suffering; there was childhood with the light of its eye quenched, its beauty gone, and its helplessness alone remaining; there were vicious-faced boys, brooding, with leaden eyes, like malefactors in a jail; and there were young creatures on whom the sins of their frail parents had descended, weeping even for the mercenary nurses they had known, and lonesome even in their loneliness.†   (source)
  • I hurriedly made him a reply to the effect, that I hoped the error into which I had been betrayed by the desperate nature of my love, did not induce him to think me mercenary too?†   (source)
  • I set the two stories one against the other, so that you may see that it is not from mere mercenary motives that the present performer is desirous to show up and trounce his villains; but because he has a sincere hatred of them, which he cannot keep down, and which must find a vent in suitable abuse and bad language.†   (source)
  • He knew enough of the world to know that there is nothing in it better than the faithful service of the heart; so rendered and so free from any mercenary taint, he had such an exalted respect for it, that in the retributive arrangements made by his own mind—we all make such arrangements, more or less— he stationed Miss Pross much nearer to the lower Angels than many ladies immeasurably better got up both by Nature and Art, who had balances at Tellson's.†   (source)
  • Think no unfair evil of her, pray: she had no wicked plots, nothing sordid or mercenary; in fact, she never thought of money except as something necessary which other people would always provide.†   (source)
  • …continued Malvoisin, coolly, "that you love this captive Jewess to distraction; and the more thou dost enlarge on thy passion, the greater will be his haste to end it by the death of the fair enchantress; while thou, taken in flagrant delict by the avowal of a crime contrary to thine oath, canst hope no aid of thy brethren, and must exchange all thy brilliant visions of ambition and power, to lift perhaps a mercenary spear in some of the petty quarrels between Flanders and Burgundy."†   (source)
  • 'I am afraid you are mercenary, Tom.'†   (source)
  • 'Sounds mercenary to ask what the gentleman is to get with the lady,' said Mrs Merdle; 'but Society is perhaps a little mercenary, you know, my dear.'†   (source)
  • They began to talk; their conversation eased me completely: frivolous, mercenary, heartless, and senseless, it was rather calculated to weary than enrage a listener.†   (source)
  • It was famous, too, for the pillory, a wise old institution, that inflicted a punishment of which no one could foresee the extent; also, for the whipping-post, another dear old institution, very humanising and softening to behold in action; also, for extensive transactions in blood-money, another fragment of ancestral wisdom, systematically leading to the most frightful mercenary crimes that could be committed under Heaven.†   (source)
  • Pray, my dear aunt, what is the difference in matrimonial affairs, between the mercenary and the prudent motive?†   (source)
  • 'Further, I am a gentleman to whom mere mercenary trade-bargains are unknown, but to whom money is always acceptable as the means of pursuing his pleasures.†   (source)
  • 'As I have mentioned to Miss Trotwood, I am actuated by no mercenary considerations; few men are less so, I believe; but Mr. Jorkins has his opinions on these subjects, and I am bound to respect Mr. Jorkins's opinions.†   (source)
  • He will tell you I am mercenary.†   (source)
  • 'At all events, Mr. Harthouse,' said Tom, softening in his admiration of his patron, but shaking his head sullenly too, 'you can't tell her that I ever praised her for being mercenary.†   (source)
  • 'Mercenary,' repeated Tom.†   (source)
  • The word of a gentleman that I am not mercenary; that my affection for Miss Sloper is as pure and disinterested a sentiment as was ever lodged in a human breast!†   (source)
  • Then she tried a child's story, which she could easily have disposed of if she had not been mercenary enough to demand filthy lucre for it.†   (source)
  • Next, our young friends begin to think, becoming mercenary, 'This is the man who HAD pounds, who borrowed them,' which I did.†   (source)
  • 'That he is a low, mercenary wretch; that I first saw him prowling about Italy (where I was, not long ago), and that I hired him there, as the suitable instrument of a purpose I happened to have; I have no objection to tell you.†   (source)
  • 'When he was waiting to be the object of your munificence, so freely bestowed for my sake, and when I was unhappy in the mercenary shape I was made to wear, I thought it would have become him better to have worked his own way on.†   (source)
  • Last Christmas you were afraid of his marrying me, because it would be imprudent; and now, because he is trying to get a girl with only ten thousand pounds, you want to find out that he is mercenary.†   (source)
  • Let it be, in justice, merely said of me, as of a gallant and eminent naval Hero, with whom I have no pretensions to cope, that what I have done, I did, in despite of mercenary and selfish objects, For England, home, and Beauty.†   (source)
  • The more spirit there is in it, the better for mankind and the worse for those mercenary task-masters and low tricksters who delight in putting that illustrious art at a disadvantage in the world.†   (source)
  • …determined on, until he should have had the privilege of holding some correspondence with Mr Merdle; and of ascertaining it to be so far accordant with the views of that eminent gentleman as that his (Mr Dorrit's) daughter would be received on that footing which her station in life and her dowry and expectations warranted him in requiring that she should maintain in what he trusted he might be allowed, without the appearance of being mercenary, to call the Eye of the Great World.†   (source)
  • You mean that he is mercenary.†   (source)
  • I felt sure then that something better than what you call the 'mercenary spirit' had come over her, and a hint here and there in her letters made me suspect that love and Laurie would win the day."†   (source)
  • His attentions to Miss King were now the consequence of views solely and hatefully mercenary; and the mediocrity of her fortune proved no longer the moderation of his wishes, but his eagerness to grasp at anything.†   (source)
  • The Doctor thought it very vulgar to be precipitate in accusing people of mercenary motives, inasmuch as his door had as yet not been in the least besieged by fortune-hunters; and, lastly, he was very curious to see whether Catherine might really be loved for her moral worth.†   (source)
  • 'And when I came to you, that night, to lay down all my load of shame and grief, and knew that I had to tell that, underneath your roof, one of my own kindred, to whom you had been a benefactor, for the love of me, had spoken to me words that should have found no utterance, even if I had been the weak and mercenary wretch he thought me — my mind revolted from the taint the very tale conveyed.†   (source)
  • …for three whole centuries, should be an accidental building, never designed for the purpose, leased by the registrars for their Own private emolument, unsafe, not even ascertained to be fire-proof, choked with the important documents it held, and positively, from the roof to the basement, a mercenary speculation of the registrars, who took great fees from the public, and crammed the public's wills away anyhow and anywhere, having no other object than to get rid of them cheaply.†   (source)
  • Of ancient mercenaries, for example, there are the Carthaginians, who were oppressed by their mercenary soldiers after the first war with the Romans, although the Carthaginians had their own citizens for captains.†   (source)
  • And if it be urged that whoever is armed will act in the same way, whether mercenary or not, I reply that when arms have to be resorted to, either by a prince or a republic, then the prince ought to go in person and perform the duty of a captain; the republic has to send its citizens, and when one is sent who does not turn out satisfactorily, it ought to recall him, and when one is worthy, to hold him by the laws so that he does not leave the command.†   (source)
  • This man, as I have said, made head of the army by the Syracusans, soon found out that a mercenary soldiery, constituted like our Italian condottieri, was of no use; and it appearing to him that he could neither keep them not let them go, he had them all cut to pieces, and afterwards made war with his own forces and not with aliens.†   (source)
  • The mercenary captains are either capable men or they are not; if they are, you cannot trust them, because they always aspire to their own greatness, either by oppressing you, who are their master, or others contrary to your intentions; but if the captain is not skilful, you are ruined in the usual way.†   (source)
  • The possibility of exercising virile power of fascination in the not immediate future after an expensive repast in a private apartment in the company of an elegant courtesan, of corporal beauty, moderately mercenary, variously instructed, a lady by origin.†   (source)
  • BON: Most honoured fathers, I humbly crave there be no credit given To this man's mercenary tongue.†   (source)
  • Callicrates and other popular leaders became mercenary instruments for inveigling their countrymen.†   (source)
  • He was a shepherd, and no mercenary.†   (source)
  • Above all, he was amazed to hear me talk of a mercenary standing army, in the midst of peace, and among a free people.†   (source)
  • I am sorry to make any reflection upon Christians; but indeed, in Italy the Roman religion seems the most cruel and mercenary upon earth; and a very judicious person, who travelled through Italy from Turkey, tells, _That there is only the face and outward pomp of religion there; that the church protects murderers and assassins; and then delivers the civil magistrate over to Satan for doing justice; interdicts whole kingdoms, and shuts up the churches for want of paying a few…†   (source)
  • The improbability of such a mercenary and perfidious combination of the several members of government, standing on as different foundations as republican principles will well admit, and at the same time accountable to the society over which they are placed, ought alone to quiet this apprehension.†   (source)
  • …the Senate, or a want of integrity in the conduct of the negotiations committed to him; they might also have had in view the punishment of a few leading individuals in the Senate, who should have prostituted their influence in that body as the mercenary instruments of foreign corruption: but they could not, with more or with equal propriety, have contemplated the impeachment and punishment of two thirds of the Senate, consenting to an improper treaty, than of a majority of that or of…†   (source)
  • Those apprehensions will operate on those persons whether they are actuated by mercenary or friendly motives; and there doubtless are many of both descriptions, who would rely on the secrecy of the President, but who would not confide in that of the Senate, and still less in that of a large popular Assembly.†   (source)
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