All 25 Uses of
consequence
in
The Mill on the Floss
- She began to dislike Mr. Riley; it was evident he thought her silly and of no consequence.
Chpt 1.3 *consequence = importance
- Maggie took the opposite view very strongly, and it was a direct consequence of this difference of opinion that when her mother was in the act of brushing out the reluctant black crop Maggie suddenly rushed from under her hands and dipped her head in a basin of water standing near, in the vindictive determination that there should be no more chance of curls that day.†
Chpt 1.4consequence = result
- It was the plunging of some small body in the water from among the neighboring bulrushes; if it was not a water-rat, Bob intimated that he was ready to undergo the most unpleasant consequences.†
Chpt 1.6consequences = results
- She could see clearly enough, now the thing was done, that it was very foolish, and that she should have to hear and think more about her hair than ever; for Maggie rushed to her deeds with passionate impulse, and then saw not only their consequences, but what would have happened if they had not been done, with all the detail and exaggerated circumstance of an active imagination.†
Chpt 1.7
- Tom's imagination had not been rapid and capacious enough to include this question among the foreseen consequences, but it was no sooner put than he foresaw whither it tended, and that Maggie would not be considered the only culprit in the case.†
Chpt 1.10
- Mrs. Glegg did not alter her will in consequence of this letter, and cut off the Tulliver children from their sixth and seventh share in her thousand pounds; for she had her principles.
Chpt 1.13consequence = result
- He had to accept eau-de-Cologne and to refuse creosote in consequence; but that was easy.
Chpt 2.4
- A vague idea of going to prison, as a consequence of debt, was the shape his fears had begun to take.
Chpt 2.7 *
- But now the consequences of this bill of sale occurred to him in a new light, and he remembered that the time was close at hand when it would be enforced unless the money were repaid.†
Chpt 3.1consequences = results
- Maggie, having hurled her defiance at aunts and uncles in this way, stood still, with her large dark eyes glaring at them, as if she were ready to await all consequences.†
Chpt 3.3
- Since these were the consequences of going to law, his father was really blamable, as his aunts and uncles had always said he was; and it was a significant indication of Tom's character, that though he thought his aunts ought to do something more for his mother, he felt nothing like Maggie's violent resentment against them for showing no eager tenderness and generosity.†
Chpt 3.5
- I used to think I could never bear life if it kept on being the same every day, and I must always be doing things of no consequence, and never know anything greater.
Chpt 5.3consequence = importance
- If we only look far enough off for the consequence of our actions, we can always find some point in the combination of results by which those actions can be justified; by adopting the point of view of a Providence who arranges results, or of a philosopher who traces them, we shall find it possible to obtain perfect complacency in choosing to do what is most agreeable to us in the present moment.†
Chpt 5.3consequence = result
- Ugly and deformed people have great need of unusual virtues, because they are likely to be extremely uncomfortable without them; but the theory that unusual virtues spring by a direct consequence out of personal disadvantages, as animals get thicker wool in severe climates, is perhaps a little overstrained.†
Chpt 5.3
- But now Tom could only spend the evening in gloomy expectation of the unpleasant consequences that must follow on this mad outbreak of his father's long-smothered hate.†
Chpt 5.7consequences = results
- Not one of the three felt any particular alarm about Mr. Tulliver's health; the symptoms did not recall his former dangerous attack, and it seemed only a necessary consequence that his violent passion and effort of strength, after many hours of unusual excitement, should have made him feel ill.†
Chpt 5.7consequence = result
- It is of no consequence; I have said everything in my note.
Chpt 6.1consequence = importance
- But you, who have a higher logic than the verbal to guide you, have already foreseen, as the direct sequence to that unfavorable opinion of Stephen's, that he walked down to the boathouse calculating, by the aid of a vivid imagination, that Maggie must give him her hand at least twice in consequence of this pleasant boating plan, and that a gentleman who wishes ladies to look at him is advantageously situated when he is rowing them in a boat.†
Chpt 6.2consequence = result
- Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, was speculative and irresolute, and we have a great tragedy in consequence.
Chpt 6.6
- But you seem to have made up your mind; you have counted the consequences, I suppose.†
Chpt 6.8consequences = results
- Of course it is of no consequence what a man has to suffer; it is only your woman's dignity that you care about.
Chpt 6.11consequence = importance
- She felt it now,—now that the consequences of such a fall had come before the outward act was completed.†
Chpt 6.14consequences = results
- On the other hand, he entered with all the comprehension of a man who had known spiritual conflict, and lived through years of devoted service to his fellow-men, into that state of Maggie's heart and conscience which made the consent to the marriage a desecration to her; her conscience must not be tampered with; the principle on which she had acted was a safer guide than any balancing of consequences.†
Chpt 7.2
- It was not until the evening before Tom went to school, at the beginning of August, that Mrs. Glegg paid a visit to her sister Tulliver, sitting in her gig all the while, and showing her displeasure by markedly abstaining from all advice and criticism; for, as she observed to her sister Deane, "Bessy must bear the consequence o' having such a husband, though I'm sorry for her," and Mrs. Deane agreed that Bessy was pitiable.†
Chpt 1.13
- Even now, that she is walking up and down with a little triumphant flutter of her girlish heart at the sense that she is loved by the person of chief consequence in her small world, you may see in her hazel eyes an ever-present sunny benignity, in which the momentary harmless flashes of personal vanity are quite lost; and if she is happy in thinking of her lover, it is because the thought of him mingles readily with all the gentle affections and good-natured offices with which she fills her peaceful days.†
Chpt 6.1
Definitions:
-
(1)
(consequence as in: a direct consequence of) a result of something (often an undesired side effect)
-
(2)
(consequence as in: of little consequence) importance or relevance
-
(3)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
In classic literature, consequential may refer to someone with too much feeling of self-importance as when Dickens wrote "Because he's a proud, haughty, consequential, turned-up-nosed peacock."
Self-consequence was used in a similar manner, but is more easily understood by modern readers since important is one of the modern senses of consequence.
Another classic sense of consequent that is similar to importance or significance refers to "material wealth or prominence" as when Jane Austen wrote: "They had each had money, but their marriages had made a material difference in their degree of consequence."