Word Finder - handkerchief

definition

A piece of cloth, usually square and often fine and elegant, carried for wiping the face, eyes, nose or hands.

definition

A piece of cloth shaped like a handkerchief to be worn about the neck; a neckerchief or neckcloth.

She took out her handkerchief and began to cry.

Fred held a large white handkerchief to his face.

I don't know how the others kept a straight face but I pulled out a handkerchief, pretending to blow my nose.

His hands ached and he tried tying a handkerchief to ease the pressure.

There was a handkerchief pressed to her nose and he thought she was crying.

And bursting into tears she hid her face in her handkerchief and rushed from the room.

And the same correspondent must be told that "Ralph's handkerchief which he brought me from Paris is the most successful thing I ever wore."

According to one account, he distinguished himself by stopping the runaway horses of her carriage; according to another, he only picked up her handkerchief; a third and scandalous explanation of his fortune has been given.

The men either cut their hair short or plait it; married women plait their hair and wind round the head a black or parti-coloured silk handkerchief; girls wear their hair short.

The elderly lady was using her handkerchief too.

A coloured handkerchief is twisted around the head or a straw hat is worn.

The corners of the handkerchief were tied to the extremities of the cross, and when the body of the kite was thus formed, a tail, loop and string were added to it.

Finally, he took out a handkerchief and wiped the messy streaks from her cheeks and managed to get a halfhearted smile.

A small tarbush is worn on the back of the head, sometimes having a plate of gold fixed on the crown, and a handkerchief is tastefully bound round the temples.

At that toast, the count took out his handkerchief and, covering his face, wept outright.

After refusing it for manners' sake, he drank it and wiped his mouth with a red silk handkerchief he took out of his cap.

At that moment Berg drew out his handkerchief as if to blow his nose and, seeing the knot in it, pondered, shaking his head sadly and significantly.

He offered an Irish linen handkerchief from his pocket and waited.

He assumed Cynthia Byrne was a few minutes late, but when he descended the stairs, there she sat, opposite Fred O'Connor, who was decked out in an elegant blue pinstripe suit complete with pocket handkerchief and bow tie.

She smiled, hid her face in her handkerchief, and remained with it hidden for awhile; then looking up and seeing Pierre she again began to laugh.

In a flood of tears and half-controlled sobs she got to her feet, and handkerchief to her face, dashed across the room toward the entrance.

A History of the Navy of the United States (1839), supplemented (1846) by a set of Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers, was succeeded by The Pathfinder (1840), a good "Leatherstocking" novel; by Mercedes of Castile (1840); The Deerslayer (1841); by The Two Admirals and by Wing and Wing (1842); by Wyandotte, The History of a Pocket Handkerchief, and Ned Myers (1843); and by Afloat and Ashore, or the Adventures of Miles Wallingford (1844).

She held a handkerchief to her eyes and her face was tearful.

After speaking to the senior French officer, who came out of the house with a white handkerchief tied to his sword and announced that they surrendered, Dolokhov dismounted and went up to Petya, who lay motionless with outstretched arms.

At that moment of emotional tenderness young Nicholas' face, which resembled his father's, affected Pierre so much that when he had kissed the boy he got up quickly, took out his handkerchief, and went to the window.

Fold the handkerchief in half to make a triangle.

The liturgical handkerchief, which in the Greek Church has become the epigonation, has retained its original form in the Armenian.

The Thugs were a well-organized confederacy of professional assassins, who in gangs of whom 10 to 200 travelled in various guises through India, wormed themselves into the confidence of wayfarers of the wealthier class, and, when a favourable opportunity occurred, strangled them by throwing a handkerchief or noose round their necks, and then plundered and buried them.

With this view he made a small cross of two small light strips of cedar, the arms being sufficiently long to reach to the four corners of a large thin silk handkerchief when extended.

From a similar sense comes the phrase "bird's-eye maple," a speckled variety of maple-wood, or the "bird's-eye handkerchief" mentioned in Thackeray's novels.

She is dressed all in black, holding a white handkerchief.

Denisov, flushed after the mazurka and mopping himself with his handkerchief, sat down by Natasha and did not leave her for the rest of the evening.

He caught up with Shipton on the sidewalk where the man was holding a handkerchief to the side of his head while loading gear to his vehicle and chuckling to himself.

He asked why I was wearing a spotted handkerchief.

He produces a large colored handkerchief which he uses to mop his brow.

After Anna Mikhaylovna had driven off with her son to visit Count Cyril Vladimirovich Bezukhov, Countess Rostova sat for a long time all alone applying her handkerchief to her eyes.

I want five hundred rubles, and taking out her cambric handkerchief she began wiping her husband's waistcoat.

When Anna Mikhaylovna returned from Count Bezukhov's the money, all in clean notes, was lying ready under a handkerchief on the countess' little table, and Anna Mikhaylovna noticed that something was agitating her.

But Dolokhov did not go away; he untied the handkerchief around his head, pulled it off, and showed the blood congealed on his hair.

Anna Mikhaylovna sat down beside him, with her own handkerchief wiped the tears from his eyes and from the letter, then having dried her own eyes she comforted the count, and decided that at dinner and till teatime she would prepare the countess, and after tea, with God's help, would inform her.

And the talkative Dolgorukov, turning now to Boris, now to Prince Andrew, told how Bonaparte wishing to test Markov, our ambassador, purposely dropped a handkerchief in front of him and stood looking at Markov, probably expecting Markov to pick it up for him, and how Markov immediately dropped his own beside it and picked it up without touching Bonaparte's.

His brother and sisters struggled for the places nearest to him and disputed with one another who should bring him his tea, handkerchief, and pipe.

Ahead of the rest and nearer to him ran a dark- haired, remarkably slim, pretty girl in a yellow chintz dress, with a white handkerchief on her head from under which loose locks of hair escaped.

Sometimes, as she looked at the strange but amusing capers cut by the dancers, who--having decided once for all that being disguised, no one would recognize them--were not at all shy, Pelageya Danilovna hid her face in her handkerchief, and her whole stout body shook with irrepressible, kindly, elderly laughter.

At last he borrowed sixpence from the stage-manager and returned home, carrying all his property tied up in a handkerchief.

Officer Quint unfolded his body and wiped vomit from his lips with a handkerchief.

Of special interest is Davidia involucrata, which produces handkerchief bracts in early summer.

Even the elaboration of detail in Othello's account of the handkerchief may be regarded as a baroque extravagance.

A coin vanishes and then audibly reappears in a folded handkerchief held by a spectator.

Much of the rest I stopped by tying a handkerchief over my head.