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pique
in a sentence
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pique as in:  pique your interest

show 10 more with this conextual meaning
  • The documentary piqued her interest in environmental activism.
  • This piques her interest.   (source)
    piques = arouses
  • Sofia's interest piqued, the Count launched into a description of the species, animating each of its characteristics with an illustrative flourish of the arms.   (source)
    piqued = aroused
  • This was enough to pique my curiosity: With little religious training, I was desperate for some exposure to a real church.   (source)
    pique = arouse
  • Langdon sensed it was actually something else in the manuscript that had piqued Saunière's interest, but that topic was something he would discuss with Sophie when they were alone.   (source)
    piqued = aroused
  • This piqued Thomas's interest.   (source)
  • The messages were cryptic, meant to pique curiosity and discussion.   (source)
    pique = arouse
  • Unable to deny his piqued curiosity, Kai eyed the queen.   (source)
    piqued = aroused
  • This immediately piqued Peter's curiosity.   (source)
    piqued = excited
  • It had piqued her curiosity yet further.   (source)
    piqued = aroused or excited
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show 21 more with this conextual meaning
  • Dan couldn't help it; his curiosity was piqued.   (source)
    piqued = aroused
  • It wasn't quite the Borely Rectory, a rambling "haunted" Victorian on the north bank of the Stour River in Essex, England, the most famous haunted house in history, where "sightings" included headless horsemen, weird organ chants, and ringing bells, but it was enough to pique his interest.   (source)
    pique = arouse
  • His interest piqued by the similarity of their stories, Adam asked how the pastor's daughter had gotten out of jail and where she was currently.   (source)
    piqued = aroused
  • The crowd is denser, their interest piqued.   (source)
  • Max asked, his interest piqued.   (source)
  • I'm guessing that if there's one thing that might pique an angel's prejudice, it's someone who looks like he should be surrounded by hellfire.   (source)
    pique = arouse
  • Clarke was normally indifferent toward her Earth Literatures tutorial, but this assignment had piqued her interest.   (source)
    piqued = aroused
  • Nonetheless, his scouting report and tip on a story angle did little to pique Frankie's enthusiasm.   (source)
    pique = arouse
  • But the immigration agent's interest was piqued.   (source)
    piqued = aroused
  • Now you've piqued my curiosity.   (source)
  • I can tell her interest is piqued.   (source)
  • I'll admit that my curiosity, at that point, was pretty piqued.   (source)
    piqued = aroused or excited
  • This seemed to pique general curiosity, and quite a number of people began to run.   (source)
    pique = excite
  • Well then, sir, have the goodness to gratify my curiosity, which is much piqued on one point.   (source)
    piqued = excited or interested
  • That piqued Thomas's interest—he had been wanting to do that.   (source)
    piqued = excited or aroused
  • This piqued my interest, but the notion of J.D. the U.S. Marine still inspired disbelief.   (source)
    piqued = aroused
  • She didn't want to think about him, but Doris had said just enough to pique her curiosity.   (source)
    pique = arouse
  • Naturally, when the scene shifted to Rick's Café and the police began closing in on Ugarte, his interest was piqued, because he remembered his conversation with the Count in the railway station café.   (source)
    piqued = aroused
  • My curiosity piqued, I looked closer and counted no fewer than eight pairs of eyes, all looking at me from three windows with an unsettling combination of fear and longing.   (source)
  • Her relatives encouraged me; competitors piqued me; she allured me: a marriage was achieved almost before I knew where I was.   (source)
    piqued = provoked action
  • I exclaimed: and indeed there was something in the hasty and unexplanatory reply which, instead of allaying, piqued my curiosity more than ever.   (source)
    piqued = excited
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pique as in:  in a pique about it

show 10 more with this conextual meaning
  • In a pique, I foolishly resigned.
    pique = feeling of resentment
  • You want an animal that is piqued, peeved, vexed, bothered, irked, annoyed—but not homicidal.   (source)
    piqued = irritated
  • He was piqued by Ford's skeptical reaction.   (source)
    piqued = irritated or indignant
  • "It's Your Majesty," grumped His Majesty in a rare show of royal pique.   (source)
    pique = indignation
  • Friendship is easier when it has no history, no time for broken promises and all the little piques that fill a running tally sheet.   (source)
    piques = indignations and resentments
  • Besides, even if ancillaries don't beat people, or take bribes, or rape, or shoot people out of pique—those people human troops shot ...a hundred years ago they'd have been stored in suspension for future use as ancillary segments.   (source)
    pique = irritation
  • His absence prompted speculation that he had stayed away out of pique at not being invited to share the podium and because the invitation had identified the major arts only as painting, architecture, and sculpture, with no reference to landscape architecture.   (source)
    pique = a feeling of resentment or indignation
  • Despite his pique, Eragon noticed that she seemed genuinely concerned, which pleased him.   (source)
    pique = feeling of resentment or indignation
  • "Yes, I am—but please, don't do anything you don't want to do," I added, piqued.   (source)
    piqued = feeling indignant or irritated
  • The next one—another roustabout—also leaves in a fit of pique.   (source)
    pique = feelings of resentment or indignation
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show 7 more with this conextual meaning
  • The captain was piqued, but managed to carry on with a pretense of optimism.   (source)
    piqued = irritated
  • We cannot have you revealing your identity in a fit of pique or spite.   (source)
    pique = a feeling of resentment or indignation
  • Beyond the bar and scattered across the rows of ancient wooden pews, there was an impressive crowd, its collective curiosity piqued.   (source)
    piqued = aroused
  • Jefferson was unsparing: "Mr. Adams is vain, irritable, stubborn, endowed with excessive self-love, and still suffering pique at the preference accorded Franklin over him in Paris."   (source)
    pique = feelings of resentment or indignation
  • This defiance was not a fit of pique, but a matter of principle.   (source)
    pique = resentment or indignation
  • Leaving superiority out of the question, then, you must still agree to receive my orders now and then, without being piqued or hurt by the tone of command.   (source)
    piqued = irritated or indignant
  • His outburst sent them all into gales of laughter,
    blithe and oblivious, that dissolved their pique
    against the prince.   (source)
    pique = feelings of resentment
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show 10 more examples with any meaning
  • This piqued my curiosity, so I called her up and asked her to explain it.†   (source)
  • Zeitoun was willing to respect that boundary, but at the same time his interest was piqued.†   (source)
  • The troll paused, some basic curiosity piqued by the lack of fear.†   (source)
  • One of the articles piqued his interest and I guess he wanted to know more, so he drove down.†   (source)
  • I wished I had more to say to keep the conversation going, his interest piqued, but I couldn't think of anything else.†   (source)
  • But El Jefe's interest is piqued.†   (source)
  • "White pique hats with black watered-ribbon bands and a couple of knife feathers set at the side are the latest novelty for women cyclists," the Tribune's society column observed.†   (source)
  • It piqued my curiosity, fueled my sense of wonder, and inspired me to open my mind to the Ancient Mysteries.†   (source)
  • There were new scents here, piquing my interest, increasing my curiosity.†   (source)
  • Natnael's curiosity was piqued now.†   (source)
▲ show less (of above)
show 154 more examples with any meaning
  • He had convinced himself that trashing the Trentons' house had not been an act of half-mad jealous pique but a piece of revolutionary anarchy — offing a couple of fat middle-class pigs, the sort who made it easy for the fascist overlords to remain in power by blindly paying their taxes and their telephone bills.†   (source)
  • Naturally, that piqued your interest.†   (source)
  • It was almost as if Patch knew exactly what to say to pique my curiosity.†   (source)
  • Scott had piqued my interest-more, even, than he probably realized-and he was relentless.†   (source)
  • Mari keeps silent, but her curiosity seems to have been piqued.†   (source)
  • He'd glimpsed a surprising tenderness beneath her rebellious exterior, and it had piqued his curiosity.†   (source)
  • That piqued Brad's interest.†   (source)
  • While the attention of a white listener might be piqued by the idea of half a class of black third graders being held back, Cedric, familiar with such pervasive failure, sees something else.†   (source)
  • Eragon nodded, neither upset nor surprised, although the woman's reticence had piqued his curiosity even more.†   (source)
  • Well, naturally she piqued my curiosity.†   (source)
  • When Louis became agitated he used a staccato patter, a kind of hyperdrawl with elements of falsetto pique that he strung throughout at a master pitch.†   (source)
  • It had not been in my plan to listen to him, but my curiosity was piqued and I straightened up to give him my attention.†   (source)
  • But somehow, he'd piqued the interest of Judge Haig, who was no longer dismissing my client outright, but instead tracing the pages of the Bible as if it were written in Braille.†   (source)
  • It was not an enjoyable activity in itself, but my curiosity was piqued as I studied what I could see of the faces of these women.†   (source)
  • What's in there?" asked Max, his interest piqued by glints of gold and the smell of age.†   (source)
  • Inside all that grief she felt when the doctor died, there had been a bit of pique too, as though he had chosen a more interesting subject than life—a more provocative companion than she was—and had deliberately followed death when it beckoned.†   (source)
  • "Gemma," Fee says, curiosity piqued.†   (source)
  • Thomas glance up, her interest piqued for a moment by the sudden silence, then turn back to her screen.†   (source)
  • Panty-Combusting Ken comes complete with Piqued Princess Barbie: unachievable measurements, designer purse, and annoyed scowl included!†   (source)
  • Even the piques of his palate, if they speak to anything.†   (source)
  • NICK (With a little pique) I said I imagined they were.†   (source)
  • It matched my new purple flowered dress, with puffed sleeves and a little white pique bib in front.†   (source)
  • I suggest that the greatest danger to your bears will be pique at being ignored by Charley.†   (source)
  • There were questions of fact—why the fish weren't killed when the other things were in Noah's flood, why Christ prevented the stoning of the adulteress but blasted the barren fig tree in a fit of pique.†   (source)
  • Its curiosity was piqued.†   (source)
  • TYRONE His vanity piqued-testily.†   (source)
  • Mary did not understand why he seemed alien and hostile to her, but she was piqued at this casual summing up of her needs.†   (source)
  • A handful of other progressive texts had also piqued Katherine's interest.†   (source)
  • When she reached the bedroom, her curiosity must have been piqued.†   (source)
  • Of course not, she said, her mind flashing green with pique.†   (source)
  • My questions have definitely piqued her interest.†   (source)
  • She gives a little rebellious toss of her headwith girlish pique.†   (source)
  • Sunny didn't pursue this line, and I was glad, for although my aim was to warn her of the disastrous life that lay ahead if she departed so young and unsupervised, I couldn't bear to revisit the scene of that room at the Gizzi house, with the dull yellow lights and the two men and the piqued want of the faces.†   (source)
  • But whether it was too successful love or whether he left in pique at unsuccessful love, I do not know.†   (source)
  • I understand practically everything, except one thing that piques my curiosity.†   (source)
  • "Goin' someplace," Joad explained, a little piqued.†   (source)
  • 'The cook was got out of the way, I realize that,' I said, slightly piqued.†   (source)
  • A woman's crisp, almost piqued voice sounded above him, followed the next moment by prim tap on the shoulder.†   (source)
  • —at all piqued that he should have learned from others, and so late, what she considers she gave him such good opportunity of learning in childhood?†   (source)
  • Judith, giving implicit trust where she had given love, giving implicit love where she had derived breath and pride: that true pride, not that false kind which transforms what it does not at the moment understand into scorn and outrage and so vents itself in pique and lacerations, but true pride which can say to itself without abasement I love, I will accept no substitute; something has happened between him and my father; if my father was right, I will never see him again, if wrong he will come or send for me; if happy I can be I will, if suffer I must I can.†   (source)
  • When badgered by Helen because of her supposed neglect of the sick man or when the concentration of attention upon the invalid piqued her jealousy, she smiled with white tremulous bitterness, hinting darkly: "He may not be the first to go.†   (source)
  • Often Eliza, in the midst of long, minutely replenished reminiscence, would grow conscious, while she was purse-lipped in revery, of this annihilating mockery, would slap at his hand angrily as he gooched her, and shake a pursed piqued face at him, saying, with a heavy scorn that set him off into fresh "whahwhahs": "I'll declare, boy!†   (source)
  • She looked faintly piqued.†   (source)
  • They ought to be made to think themselves very knowing about food, to pique themselves on having found the only restaurant in the town where steaks are really "properly" cooked.†   (source)
  • But deep below the surface it piqued him.†   (source)
  • She suffered from pique, and sometimes in a curious fashion she desired Philip.†   (source)
  • You brushed three or four ornaments down, and, in a fit of pique, knocked off the rest of them.†   (source)
  • There was something in Clara that Paul disliked, and much that piqued him.†   (source)
  • Miss Van Osburgh's vague feeling of pique was struggling for appropriate expression.†   (source)
  • He spoke gently, and resisted his impulse to pique her on to tears.†   (source)
  • For all his willingness to play there was over him a melancholy which piqued her.†   (source)
  • Moreover, Sergey Ivanovitch's attitude to the peasants rather piqued Konstantin.†   (source)
  • "O no," said the netted lion, anxious not to pique her in the least.†   (source)
  • "And mine," added the maiden, with an air that strangely blended pique with satisfaction.†   (source)
  • This piqued Javert's curiosity in a decided manner.†   (source)
  • "Oh no, not at all," said Lucy, with a little air of pique.†   (source)
  • "Rail on, rail on at your ease, gentlemen," said Morcerf, somewhat piqued.†   (source)
  • that's nothing—that's nothing!" she exclaimed, in incipient accents of pique.†   (source)
  • "You may both be mistaken about Rodya," Pulcheria Alexandrovna remarked, slightly piqued.†   (source)
  • "Come now," said Theodule, leaping down from the coupe, "this piques my curiosity.†   (source)
  • "Then why do you live in it?" asked Phoebe, a little piqued.†   (source)
  • Maggie, rather piqued, turned to the bookcases to amuse herself with puzzling out the titles.†   (source)
  • "Must Aramis do as much as I, madame?" said d'Artagnan, deeply piqued.†   (source)
  • —that Will exaggerated his admiration for Mrs. Casaubon in order to pique herself.†   (source)
  • "No," replied d'Artagnan, piqued, "and thanks to my eyes, I can see what other people cannot see."†   (source)
  • The younger sister was piqued, and in turn disparaged the life of a tradesman, and stood up for that of a peasant.†   (source)
  • It may have been pique and it may have been relief that he was licensed to be alone with Orchid, but he ceased to speak to her as though she were a child and he a person laden with wisdom; ceased to speak to her as though he were looking over his shoulder.†   (source)
  • He became aware that he had not an ounce of real affection for Isabelle, but her coldness piqued him.†   (source)
  • He rode for her, but he did not seek her except on business; and Jane had to acknowledge in pique that her overtures had been made in vain.†   (source)
  • Grace's own reputation, as well as the fact that she knew Clyde was not interested in her, piqued her.†   (source)
  • He had never said as much before, and I must admit that his words gave me keen pleasure, for I had often been piqued by his indifference to my admiration and to the attempts which I had made to give publicity to his methods.†   (source)
  • It was very perplexing to her lover that she should be piqued at his honest acquiescence in his rival, if Jude's feelings of love were deprecated by her.†   (source)
  • Exactly; and it is my business to prevent your doing so; in which case the other person, piqued by your absence, will form the desperate resolve of driving back in the omnibus.†   (source)
  • One window of excellent clothes for men, interspersed with collars of floral pique which showed mauve daisies on a saffron ground.†   (source)
  • "Well, what if I did say it?" replied Roberta defiantly and even bitterly, but without a word in extenuation, for her thought was now that unquestionably Grace was pretending to catechize her on moral grounds, whereas in reality the real source of her anger and pique was that Roberta was slipping away from and hence neglecting her.†   (source)
  • But he was piqued.†   (source)
  • Expansive persons found him a little dry, and very young girls thought him sarcastic; but this air of friendly aloofness, as far removed as possible from any assertion of personal advantage, was the quality which piqued Lily's interest.†   (source)
  • To be sure, there seemed to exist these other and sufficient reasons, practical and social, for her decision; but Sue was not a very practical or calculating person; and he was compelled to think that a pique at having his secret sprung upon her had moved her to give way to Phillotson's probable representations, that the best course to prove how unfounded were the suspicions of the school authorities would be to marry him off-hand, as in fulfilment of an ordinary engagement.†   (source)
  • He talks so refined, and oh, the lugs he puts on—belted coat, and pique collar with a gold pin, and socks to match his necktie, and honest—you won't believe this, but I got it straight—this fellow, you know he's staying at Mrs. Gurrey's punk old boarding-house, and they say he asked Mrs. Gurrey if he ought to put on a dress-suit for supper!†   (source)
  • The mountain-weight of material under which the ideas lay in those dusty volumes called the classics piqued him into a dogged, mouselike subtlety of attempt to move it piecemeal.†   (source)
  • She was piqued.†   (source)
  • I was thinking, sir, that very few masters would trouble themselves to inquire whether or not their paid subordinates were piqued and hurt by their orders.†   (source)
  • Also he was piqued that he had been what he called such a stupid lout as to ask that intervention from Mr. Farebrother.†   (source)
  • "I am compelled to keep a business engagement, and so I shall not be in your way," he added with an air of some pique and he began getting up.†   (source)
  • Perhaps he confided it to my hands for you, perhaps it was locked and my curiosity was piqued, perhaps I suppressed it.†   (source)
  • With a well-feigned show of reluctance, and not until after my repeated refusal had seduced him into some angry words which gave a color of pique to my compliance, did I finally comply.†   (source)
  • "A drama in which friend Arthur piques himself on having a pretty part to play," said Mr. Irwine, smiling.†   (source)
  • Is it not the desire of seeing a husband again from whom you have been separated for a week?" asked the mercer, piqued to the quick.†   (source)
  • This contemptuous tranquillity on the part of an occupant of the house, in response to the butcher's indefatigable efforts to attract notice, so piqued the man of flesh that he determined to withdraw.†   (source)
  • During his present short stay, Emma had barely seen him; but just enough to feel that the first meeting was over, and to give her the impression of his not being improved by the mixture of pique and pretension, now spread over his air.†   (source)
  • The information was put in this form that Liddy might not for a moment suppose her mistress was at all piqued.†   (source)
  • Had Hawkeye been aware of the low estimation in which the skillful Uncas held his representations, he would probably have prolonged the entertainment a little in pique.†   (source)
  • The other appointments of the mansion partook of the rude simplicity of the Saxon period, which Cedric piqued himself upon maintaining.†   (source)
  • Danglars was a coward, but did not wish to appear so; he was piqued at the tone which Morcerf had just assumed.†   (source)
  • I was the truest wife that ever lived, though I married my husband out of pique, because somebody else—but never mind that.†   (source)
  • Deerslayer, on the other hand, had a window in his breast through which the light of his honesty was ever shining; and even his indifference to charms that so rarely failed to produce a sensation, piqued the pride of the girl, and gave him an interest that another, seemingly more favored by nature, might have failed to excite.†   (source)
  • Ashamed of his momentary pique, Laurie squeezed the kind little hand, and said frankly, "I'm the one to be forgiven.†   (source)
  • I should like you to have a dark blue velvet coat, a white pique waistcoat, and a soft gray felt hat....Tell me, did you believe that I didn't care for you when I said I didn't mean what I wrote?†   (source)
  • That great defying eye, that scornful beauty of his mien and action, do not pique yourself on reducing, but rather fortify and enhance.†   (source)
  • As soon as the white-haired man had vanished she said in a tone of pique to the child, "Ungrateful little boy, how can you contradict me?†   (source)
  • "Pride," observed Mary, who piqued herself upon the solidity of her reflections, "is a very common failing, I believe.†   (source)
  • He was satisfied with his wealth, but not proud of it; and piqued himself upon the hearty abundance, rather than the style in which he lived.†   (source)
  • Before Ben-Hur could test the oracle, some other visitors were seen approaching across the meadow, and their appearance piqued the curiosity of the company, his not less than theirs.†   (source)
  • In his rivalry he might have been supposed actuated solely by a whimsical desire to thwart, astonish, or mortify myself; although there were times when I could not help observing, with a feeling made up of wonder, abasement, and pique, that he mingled with his injuries, his insults, or his contradictions, a certain most inappropriate, and assuredly most unwelcome affectionateness of manner.†   (source)
  • "I know not what you call my bass," said Heyward, piqued at her remark, "but I know that your safety, and that of Cora, is far dearer to me than could be any orchestra of Handel's music."†   (source)
  • What piqued him most was that these boys of fifteen turned up their noses at him too superciliously, and were at first disposed to treat him as "a small boy," not fit to associate with them, and that was an unendurable insult.†   (source)
  • That will pique her into accepting him.†   (source)
  • I pique myself on my wisdom there, Arthur, and as an old fellow to whom wisdom had become cheap, I bestow it upon you.†   (source)
  • The occasion of this interruption we can only explain by resuming the adventures of another set of our characters; for, like old Ariosto, we do not pique ourselves upon continuing uniformly to keep company with any one personage of our drama.†   (source)
  • He found a pleasure in setting up Blandois as the type of elegance, and making him a satire upon others who piqued themselves on personal graces.†   (source)
  • Friendship requires that rare mean betwixt likeness and unlikeness, that piques each with the presence of power and of consent in the other party.†   (source)
  • Sallie Gardiner was absorbed in keeping her white pique dress clean and chattering with the ubiquitous Fred, who kept Beth in constant terror by his pranks.†   (source)
  • They had audience with the Emperor himself, and from Ravenna there go to-day a hundred galleys, and from Misenum"—he paused as if to pique the curiosity of his friends, and ended with an emphatic—"one."†   (source)
  • You are lying and slandering from some spite against me, simply from pique, because I did not agree with your free-thinking, godless, social propositions!†   (source)
  • Among the friends of Mrs Gowan (who piqued herself at once on being Society, and on maintaining intimate and easy relations with that Power), Mrs Merdle occupied a front row.†   (source)
  • Watch yourself, be the first to ask pardon if you both err, and guard against the little piques, misunderstandings, and hasty words that often pave the way for bitter sorrow and regret.†   (source)
  • To believe that the letter was not the result of some momentary pique, to infer that she really gave him up to Thomasin, would have required previous knowledge of her transfiguration by that man's influence.†   (source)
  • Elated with success, and piqued by the growing interest of the problem, they have left no book-stall unsearched, no chest in a garret unopened, no file of old yellow accounts to decompose in damp and worms, so keen was the hope to discover whether the boy Shakspeare poached[598] or not, whether he held horses at the theater-door, whether he kept school, and why he left in his will only his second-best bed to Ann Hathaway, his wife.†   (source)
  • Almost any other man than Caleb Garth might have been tempted to linger on the spot for the sake of hearing all he could about a man whose acquaintance with Bulstrode seemed to imply passages in the banker's life so unlike anything that was known of him in Middlemarch that they must have the nature of a secret to pique curiosity.†   (source)
  • The merchant who says: "Montpellier not active, Marseilles fine quality," the broker on 'change who says: "Assets at end of current month," the gambler who says: "Tiers et tout, refait de pique," the sheriff of the Norman Isles who says: The holder in fee reverting to his landed estate cannot claim the fruits of that estate during the hereditary seizure of the real estate by the mortgagor," the playwright who says: "The piece was hissed," the comedian who says: "I've made a hit," the philosopher who says: "Phenomenal triplicity," th†   (source)
  • It must be, after all, that she had set her heart on Adam at last, and her sudden freak of wanting to be a lady's maid must have been caused by some little pique or misunderstanding between them, which had passed by.†   (source)
  • Hepzibah, piquing herself on a woman's accuracy in such matters, held it to be slightly different from what Clifford described; but, producing the very gown from an old trunk, it proved to be identical with his remembrance of it.†   (source)
  • This was a triumph; and had it come naturally, such a triumph would have been the sweeter to her for this piquing delay.†   (source)
  • For the Normans being a mixed race, and better informed according to the information of the times, had lost most of the superstitious prejudices which their ancestors had brought from Scandinavia, and piqued themselves upon thinking freely on such topics.†   (source)
  • It had very often occurred in her experience that Mr. Tulliver had done something because other people had said he was not able to do it, or had pitied him for his supposed inability, or in any other way piqued his pride; still, she thought to-day, if she told him when he came in to tea that sister Pullet was gone to try and make everything up with sister Glegg, so that he needn't think about paying in the money, it would give a cheerful effect to the meal.†   (source)
  • "That is what all the French say," returned Signor Pastrini, somewhat piqued; "for that reason, I do not understand why they travel."†   (source)
  • Gabriel, perhaps a little piqued by the comely traveller's indifference, glanced back to where he had witnessed her performance over the hedge, and said, "Vanity."†   (source)
  • A layman who pried into the professional conduct of medical men, and was always obtruding his reforms,—though he was less directly embarrassing to the two physicians than to the surgeon-apothecaries who attended paupers by contract, was nevertheless offensive to the professional nostril as such; and Dr. Minchin shared fully in the new pique against Bulstrode, excited by his apparent determination to patronize Lydgate.†   (source)
  • These verses were not excellent—very far from it; but as it is well known, the Puritans did not pique themselves upon their poetry.†   (source)
  • The small effect which he produced no doubt piqued the lounger; and taking advantage of a moment when her back was turned, he crept up behind her with the gait of a wolf, and stifling his laugh, bent down, picked up a handful of snow from the pavement, and thrust it abruptly into her back, between her bare shoulders.†   (source)
  • Everything went on smoothly till the day before the fair opened, then there occurred one of the little skirmishes which it is almost impossible to avoid, when some five-and-twenty women, old and young, with all their private piques and prejudices, try to work together.†   (source)
  • Mr. Craig was not above talking politics occasionally, though he piqued himself rather on a wise insight than on specific information.†   (source)
  • Sometimes Albert would affect to make a joke of his want of success; but internally he was deeply wounded, and his self-love immensely piqued, to think that Albert de Morcerf, the most admired and most sought after of any young person of his day, should thus be passed over, and merely have his labor for his pains.†   (source)
  • "There are a great many celebrated people writing in the 'Keepsake,' at all events," he said, in a tone at once piqued and timid.†   (source)
  • The procurator's wife was piqued.†   (source)
  • Mary was wondering at Fred's piqued tone, when Mr. Farebrother came in and had to hear the news about the engagement under Mr. Garth.†   (source)
  • It was plain that this mode of proceeding piqued the lady in the black hood, for she bit her lips till they bled, scratched the end of her nose, and could not sit still in her seat.†   (source)
  • She piqued herself on writing a hand in which each letter was distinguishable without any large range of conjecture, and she meant to make much use of this accomplishment, to save Mr. Casaubon's eyes.†   (source)
  • Now Fred piqued himself on keeping clear of lies, and even fibs; he often shrugged his shoulders and made a significant grimace at what he called Rosamond's fibs (it is only brothers who can associate such ideas with a lovely girl); and rather than incur the accusation of falsehood he would even incur some trouble and self-restraint.†   (source)
  • "'Tis because you are an indifferent person," said Lucy, with some pique, and laying a particular stress on those words, "that your judgment might justly have such weight with me.†   (source)
  • These opposed it, and held out, since Ilion and Priam and his people had incurred their hatred first, the day Alexandras made his mad choice and piqued two goddesses, visitors in his sheepfold: he praised a third, who offered ruinous lust.†   (source)
  • These opposed it, and held put, since Ilion and Priam and his people had incurred their hatred first, the day Alexandras made his mad choice and piqued two goddesses, visitors in his sheepfold: he praised a third, who offered ruinous lust.†   (source)
  • Lady Middleton piqued herself upon the elegance of her table, and of all her domestic arrangements; and from this kind of vanity was her greatest enjoyment in any of their parties.†   (source)
  • Thinking I would give Jamie time to recover, both from pique and indigestion, I stayed in my own room most of the next day, reading an herbal Brother Ambrose had provided me.†   (source)
  • —You pique my curiosity, Haines said amiably.†   (source)
  • Is it for you to pique yourself upon inviolable fidelity?†   (source)
  • I perceived presently that though she thought herself very ill used, yet she had no power to resent it, and was exceedingly piqued that she had lost him, and particularly that another of less fortune had gained him.†   (source)
  • I would never even have spoken to you of my misfortunes, had you not piqued me a little, and if it were not customary to tell stories on board a ship in order to pass away the time.†   (source)
  • It is true that the Senate would, in that case, have the option of employing him in this capacity, but they would also have the option of letting it alone, and pique or cabal might induce the latter rather than the former.†   (source)
  • I, sirs, for my sins have studied canon law at Salamanca, and I rather pique myself on expressing my meaning in clear, plain, and intelligible language.†   (source)
  • "If you did not pique yourself more on your dexterity with those foils you carry than on dexterity of tongue," said the other student, "you would have been head of the degrees, where you are now tail."†   (source)
  • The same man, stimulated by private pique against the MEGARENSIANS,2 another nation of Greece, or to avoid a prosecution with which he was threatened as an accomplice of a supposed theft of the statuary Phidias,3 or to get rid of the accusations prepared to be brought against him for dissipating the funds of the state in the purchase of popularity,4 or from a combination of all these causes, was the primitive author of that famous and fatal war, distinguished in the Grecian annals by the name of the PELOPONNESIAN war; which, after various vicissitudes, intermissions, and renewals, terminated in the ruin of the Athenian commonwealth.†   (source)
  • I added, for I confess I was heartily piqued at the rogue, as I called him, that I had heard a rumour, too, that he had a wife alive at Plymouth, and another in the West Indies, a thing which they all knew was not very uncommon for such kind of gentlemen.†   (source)
  • As our fate was now determined, and we were both on board, actually bound to Virginia, in the despicable quality of transported convicts destined to be sold for slaves, I for five years, and he under bonds and security not to return to England any more, as long as he lived, he was very much dejected and cast down; the mortification of being brought on board, as he was, like a prisoner, piqued him very much, since it was first told him he should transport himself, and so that he might go as a gentleman at liberty.†   (source)
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