handsel

Example Sentences

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Aleman, Cervantes, Lesage, Defoe and Fielding were inspired to imitation, and today Lazarillo is acclaimed as the prototype of the picaresque novel, as a handsel of the arriving era of realism in European literature.

From Time Magazine Archive

The carpenter of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, likewise, as Pepys said of a new pair of stocks in his neighborhood, took handsel of the stocks of his own making.

From Curious Punishments of Bygone Days by Earle, Alice Morse

The village where thou livedst was all apprised of the fact; and neighbour after neighbour kissed thy pudding-cheek, and gave thee, as handsel, silver or copper coins, on that the first gala-day of thy existence.

From Sartor Resartus, and On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Carlyle, Thomas

"But these gentlemen," said Trois Eschelles, looking towards the chimney, "do not these help, and so take a handsel of our vocation?"

From Quentin Durward by Scott, Walter, Sir

And now by such illumination, jubilee, dancing and fire-working, do we joyously handsel the new Social Edifice, and first raise heat and reek there, in the name of Hope.

From The French Revolution by Carlyle, Thomas