All 40 Uses of
content
in
The Mill on the Floss
- …that she might if possible shrink away from the prickliest of tuckers, while her mother was remonstrating, "Don't, Maggie, my dear; don't make yourself so ugly!" and Tom's cheeks were looking particularly brilliant as a relief to his best blue suit, which he wore with becoming calmness, having, after a little wrangling, effected what was always the one point of interest to him in his toilet: he had transferred all the contents of his every-day pockets to those actually in wear.†
Chpt 1.9 (definition 1)
- "I've no objections," said Mr. Pullet, who was perfectly contented with any course the quarrel might take, so that Mr. Tulliver did not apply to him for money.†
Chpt 1.9 (definition 1)
- The gypsies themselves were not without amazement at this talk, though their attention was divided by the contents of Maggie's pocket, which the friend at her right hand had by this time emptied without attracting her notice.†
Chpt 1.11 (definition 1)
- He returned them all except the thimble to the younger woman, with some observation, and she immediately restored them to Maggie's pocket, while the men seated themselves, and began to attack the contents of the kettle,—a stew of meat and potatoes,—which had been taken off the fire and turned out into a yellow platter.†
Chpt 1.11 (definition 1)
- …in a growing boy entirely coincided with her own; moreover, that Mrs. Stelling, though so young a woman, and only anticipating her second confinement, had gone through very nearly the same experience as herself with regard to the behavior and fundamental character of the monthly nurse,—she expressed great contentment to her husband, when they drove away, at leaving Tom with a woman who, in spite of her youth, seemed quite sensible and motherly, and asked advice as prettily as could be.†
Chpt 2.1 (definition 1)
- He thought school much more bearable under this modification of circumstances; and he went on contentedly enough, picking up a promiscuous education chiefly from things that were not intended as education at all.†
Chpt 2.4 (definition 1)
- Tom was hanging over his Latin grammar, moving his lips inaudibly like a strict but impatient Catholic repeating his tale of paternosters; and Philip, at the other end of the room, was busy with two volumes, with a look of contented diligence that excited Maggie's curiosity; he did not look at all as if he were learning a lesson.†
Chpt 2.5 (definition 1)
- …and leaves no record,—such tragedy, perhaps, as lies in the conflicts of young souls, hungry for joy, under a lot made suddenly hard to them, under the dreariness of a home where the morning brings no promise with it, and where the unexpectant discontent of worn and disappointed parents weighs on the children like a damp, thick air, in which all the functions of life are depressed; or such tragedy as lies in the slow or sudden death that follows on a bruised passion, though it may be a…†
Chpt 3.1 (definition 1)
- But then, you see, he's made good use of his time,—a first-rate calculator,— can tell you the cubic contents of anything in no time, and put me up the other day to a new market for Swedish bark; he's uncommonly knowing in manufactures, that young fellow."†
Chpt 3.5 (definition 1)
- Who was that enviable young man that could tell the cubic contents of things in no time, and make suggestions about Swedish bark!†
Chpt 3.5 (definition 1)
- "It's like as if I'd come out o' make believe, o' purpose to show 'em you," said Bob, with an air of discontent, as Maggie gave him the bag again, "a-taking 'em back i' this way.†
Chpt 3.6 (definition 1)
- …withdraw their business from him; and if, when Wakem himself happened to be present, some jocose cattle-feeder, stimulated by opportunity and brandy, made a thrust at him by alluding to old ladies' wills, he maintained perfect sang froid, and knew quite well that the majority of substantial men then present were perfectly contented with the fact that "Wakem was Wakem"; that is to say, a man who always knew the stepping-stones that would carry him through very muddy bits of practice.†
Chpt 3.7 (definition 1)
- To see an enemy humiliated gives a certain contentment, but this is jejune compared with the highly blent satisfaction of seeing him humiliated by your benevolent action or concession on his behalf.†
Chpt 3.7 (definition 1)
- Good Luke felt, after the manner of contented hard-working men whose lives have been spent in servitude, that sense of natural fitness in rank which made his master's downfall a tragedy to him.†
Chpt 3.8 (definition 1)
- It is something cruelly incomprehensible to youthful natures, this sombre sameness in middle-aged and elderly people, whose life has resulted in disappointment and discontent, to whose faces a smile becomes so strange that the sad lines all about the lips and brow seem to take no notice of it, and it hurries away again for want of a welcome.†
Chpt 4.2 (definition 1)
- Sometimes Maggie thought she could have been contented with absorbing fancies; if she could have had all Scott's novels and all Byron's poems!†
Chpt 4.3 (definition 1)
- Still, Latin, Euclid, and Logic would surely be a considerable step in masculine wisdom,—in that knowledge which made men contented, and even glad to live.†
Chpt 4.3 (definition 1)
- This afternoon, the sight of Bob's cheerful freckled face had given her discontent a new direction.†
Chpt 4.3 (definition 1)
- Tom was very hard to her, she used to think, in her long night-watchings,—to her who had always loved him so; and then she strove to be contented with that hardness, and to require nothing.†
Chpt 4.3 (definition 1)
- Often, when I have been angry and discontented, it has seemed to me that I was not bound to give up anything; and I have gone on thinking till it has seemed to me that I could think away all my duty.†
Chpt 5.1 (definition 1)
- "I've been a great deal happier," she said at last, timidly, "since I have given up thinking about what is easy and pleasant, and being discontented because I couldn't have my own will.†
Chpt 5.1 (definition 1)
- But her heart began to beat with something of Philip's discontent.†
Chpt 5.1 (definition 1)
- "Well, then," said he, turning quickly round and fixing his gray eyes entreatingly on her face, "I should be contented to live, if you would let me see you sometimes."†
Chpt 5.1 (definition 1)
- "If you would let me see you here sometimes,—walk with you here,—I would be contented if it were only once or twice in a month.†
Chpt 5.1 (definition 1)
- It seemed to her inclination, that to see Philip now and then, and keep up the bond of friendship with him, was something not only innocent, but good; perhaps she might really help him to find contentment as she had found it.†
Chpt 5.1 (definition 1)
- I might get some power and distinction by mere mediocrity, as they do; at least I should get those middling satisfactions which make men contented to do without great ones.†
Chpt 5.3 (definition 1)
- Maggie did not hear the last words; she was struggling against the consciousness that Philip's words had set her own discontent vibrating again as it used to do.†
Chpt 5.3 (definition 1)
- I shall be contented if things can be as they were.†
Chpt 5.4 (definition 1)
- Philip's eyes flashed with delight, but his next words were words of discontent.†
Chpt 5.4 (definition 1)
- He spoke with rather timid discontent.†
Chpt 5.6 (definition 1) *
- Mr. Tulliver threw himself back in his chair; his mind, which had so long been the home of nothing but bitter discontent and foreboding, suddenly filled, by the magic of joy, with visions of good fortune.†
Chpt 5.6 (definition 1)
- "No, Lucy," said Maggie, shaking her head slowly, "I don't enjoy their happiness as you do, else I should be more contented.†
Chpt 6.2 (definition 1)
- Her future, she thought, was likely to be worse than her past, for after her years of contented renunciation, she had slipped back into desire and longing; she found joyless days of distasteful occupation harder and harder; she found the image of the intense and varied life she yearned for, and despaired of, becoming more and more importunate.†
Chpt 6.2 (definition 1)
- But he's the only man I ever knew personally who seems to me to have anything of the real apostle in him,—a man who has eight hundred a-year and is contented with deal furniture and boiled beef because he gives away two-thirds of his income.†
Chpt 6.2 (definition 1)
- "Good-bye," said Stephen, in a tone that had the same beseeching discontent as his eyes.†
Chpt 6.6 (definition 1)
- In a moment Maggie and Philip leaned forward, and the hands were clasped again, with a look of sad contentment, like that of friends who meet in the memory of recent sorrow.†
Chpt 6.7 (definition 1)
- For a long while Maggie contented herself with assuring him that she had had a good night's rest, and that she didn't mind about being on the vessel,—it was not like being on the open sea, it was only a little less pleasant than being in a boat on the Floss.†
Chpt 6.14 (definition 1)
- Only the day before, Dr. Kenn had been made acquainted with the contents of Stephen's letter, and he had believed them at once, without the confirmation of Maggie's statement.†
Chpt 7.2 (definition 1)
Uses with a very common or rare meaning:
- It was the Normans who began to build that fine old hall, which is, like the town, telling of the thoughts and hands of widely sundered generations; but it is all so old that we look with loving pardon at its inconsistencies, and are well content that they who built the stone oriel, and they who built the Gothic facade and towers of finest small brickwork with the trefoil ornament, and the windows and battlements defined with stone, did not sacreligiously pull down the ancient…†
Chpt 1.12 (definition 2)
- Lucy had arranged a charming plan, which had made her quite content with Stephen's refusal to go in the boat.†
Chpt 6.13 (definition 2) *
Definitions:
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(1) (content as in: content with how things are) satisfied
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(2) (meaning too common or rare to warrant focus) The word forms content and contents are also commonly used to refer to what is inside something else.