fisted

Updated: May 9, 2025

They are like fifteenth-century houses which have been continuously occupied by a succession of enterprising but short-sighted and close- fisted owners, and which have now been, with the very slightest use of lath-and-plaster partitions and geyser hot-water apparatus, converted into modern residential flats.

H. G. (Herbert George) Wells - Mankind in the Making

Since the termination of the war with England, which guaranteed our independence, the British never pretended to impress American citizens; but pretended to the right of entering our vessels, and taking from them the natives of Britain or Ireland, and this was their general rule of conduct; they would forcibly board our vessels, and the boarding-officer, who was commonly a lieutenant, completely armed with sword, dirk, and loaded pistols, would muster the crew, and examine the persons of the sailors, as a planter examines a lot of negroes exposed for sale; and all the thin, puny, or sickly men, he allowed to be Americans but all the stout, hearty, red cheeked, iron fisted, chestnut colored, crispy haired fellows, were declared to be British; and if such men showed their certificates of citizenship, and place of birth, they were pronounced forgeries, and the unfortunate men were dragged over the side into the boat, and forced on board his floating hell!

Benjamin Waterhouse - A Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts, 2nd ed.: Late A Surgeon On Board An American Privateer, Who Was: Captured At Sea By The British, In May, Eighteen Hundred: And Thirteen, And Was Confined First, At Melville Island,: Halifax, Then At Chatham, In England ... And Last, At: Dartmoor Prison. Interspersed With Observations, Anecdotes: And Remarks, Tending To Illustrate The Moral And Political: Characters Of Three Nations. To Which Is Added, A Correct: Engraving Of Dartmoor Prison, Representing The Massacre: Of American Prisoners, Written By Himself.

The shrewd close fisted Auvergnat! A girl without a fortune! Cayrol Silex as he was called in the commercial world on account of his hardness. This living money-bag had a heart then! It was necessary to believe it since both money-bag and heart had been placed at Mademoiselle de Cernay's feet. This strange girl was certainly destined to millions.

Georges Ohnet - Serge Panine — Complete

"That started me fighting, and I fought daily without provocation. Dirty, scaly fisted little rat, whose stockings sagged around his shoes, fighting for money in the saloons! The men liked me, too. All of them called me their kid. I used to stand big-eyed and watch the faro-table stacked with gold. There were days, too, when I went out alone over the hills.

Leslie Burton Blades - Claire: The Blind Love of a Blind Hero, By a Blind Author

But I despise, too, or I pity, the poor spendthrift who canna say "No!" when it wad be folly for him to spend his siller. Sicca one can ne'er meet the real call when it comes; he's bankrupt in the emergency. And that's as true of a nation as of a man by himsel'. In the wartime men everywhere came to learn the value o' saving o' being close fisted.

Sir Harry Lauder - Between You and Me

Or," he added, "There is a harder punishment." "What is it?" "To give her up." "Yes," said Drene, "that is harder. But I can make it even harder than that. I can make it as hard for you as you made it for me. I can let you live through it." He laughed, fisted in his pocket, drew out the lumpy automatic and leisurely pushed the lever to "safe."

Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers - Between Friends

I have, at times, wondered that the hard fisted Yankee did not revenge impositions on the skulls of some of these blue-skinned sons of the old continent. Is there not a country, where there is one series or chain of impositions, from the Pope downwards? There is no such thing in the United States.

Benjamin Waterhouse - A Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts, 2nd ed.: Late A Surgeon On Board An American Privateer, Who Was: Captured At Sea By The British, In May, Eighteen Hundred: And Thirteen, And Was Confined First, At Melville Island,: Halifax, Then At Chatham, In England ... And Last, At: Dartmoor Prison. Interspersed With Observations, Anecdotes: And Remarks, Tending To Illustrate The Moral And Political: Characters Of Three Nations. To Which Is Added, A Correct: Engraving Of Dartmoor Prison, Representing The Massacre: Of American Prisoners, Written By Himself.

We fisted the sail together, and after six or eight minutes of hard hauling and pulling and beating down the sail, which was as stiff as sheet iron, we managed to get it furled; and snugly furled it must be, for we knew the mate well enough to be certain that if it got adrift again, we should be called up from our watch below, at any hour of the night, to furl it.

Richard Henry Dana - Two Years Before the Mast

Until the boy grew up an' took hold of things, the Revercombs warn't nothin' mo' than slack fisted, out-at-heel po' white trash, as the niggers say, though the old man, Abel's grandfather, al'ays lays claim to bein' connected with the real Revercombs, higher up in the State However that may be, befo' the war thar warn't no place for sech as them, an' 'tis only since times have changed an' the bottom begun to press up to the top that anybody has heerd of 'em.

Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow - The Miller Of Old Church

I have never before known you open your purse strings one inch wider than was necessary. Have I not always had to ask, until I am verily ashamed, before I can get a new gown for myself, or a decent cloak for the girls? You have ever been hard fisted with your money, and never disposed to spend a groat, save on good occasion.

G. A. (George Alfred) Henty - By Right of Conquest: Or, With Cortez in Mexico