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
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The disguised ladies take the handsel from them, without knowing that they are bound by it, until the sheriff arrives to confirm the bargain.
From The Standard Operaglass Detailed Plots of One Hundred and Fifty-one Celebrated Operas by Annesley, Charles, pseud.
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
But the devil a sou the devils took; far from taking handsel, they were flouted and jeered by the country louts.
From Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 4 by Motteux, Peter Anthony
And, as I trow, said Sir Sagramore, ye shall have the same handsel that he had.
From Le Mort d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Malory, Thomas, Sir