short commons

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The snow has laid an embargo on the usual slight supplies brought to market, and all who had made no provision for such a contingency are subsisting on very short-commons.

From A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital by Jones, John Beauchamp

But after it was at last surely lodged in the pillar-box, all these doubts came back upon him with tenfold force, and his sleep that night would have been short-commons for a nightingale.

From Pearl of Pearl Island by Oxenham, John

There was much movement going on in those early centuries of the Christian era, the main tendency being from north-east to south-west, from cold, damp and short-commons to warmth and plenty.

From From a Terrace in Prague by Baker, Lieut.-Col. B. Granville