piquance

“In any case, the covers themselves are pretty enough, and in a nice, sparkly yarn might even add a tantalizing “you can glimpse the zill, but you cannot touch it” piquance to the zill-dancing experience, or perhaps that is only for those who identify too closely with inanimate brass objects, not that we know anyone like that around here.”

finger cymbals too loud? problem solved: crocheted zill covers « raincoaster

“To add a little piquance to the plot, Orion—even as he declared himself “penniless,” as usual, and said he was reading proof for the St. Louis Democrat for $25 a week—had earlier let slip a $30,000 purchase offer from Jervis himself.”

Simon & Schuster: Mark Twain

“A sweet mouth with a sensuous smile at one corner, and a barely perceptible droop of pathos at the other, lent an indescribable piquance to her dimpled smile.”

The Voice on the Wire

“Essence of anchovy, ketchup, cayenne, grated lemon-peel, mace, and other spices are added by those who prefer piquance to the genuine flavor of the oyster.”

A Poetical Cook-Book

“It was sufficiently risky to give a piquance to the experience.”

With The Immortal Seventh Division

“He caught the fineness of her nose, straight as a Grecian's, but with some faint suggestion about the nostrils that hinted at piquance.”

The Blazed Trail

“You belonged in the majority, then!" said Cigarette, with a piquance made a thousand times more piquant by the camp slang she spoke in.”

Under Two Flags

“The last crown to the chorus of applause, and insult to the circle of applauders, was launched with all the piquance of inimitable canteen-slang and camp-assurance, from a speaker who had perched astride on a broken fragment of wall, with her barrel of wine set up on end on the stones in front of her, and her six soldiers, her gros bebees, as she was given maternally to calling them, lounging at their ease on the arid, dusty turf below.”

Under Two Flags