thorough-paced

I can lie to anyone, pretty well, and usually do, but there are some birds it's safest not to try to deceive-as often as not they're stainless characters who could have been thorough-paced rascals if only they'd felt inclined, and consequently can spot villainy a mile off: Lincoln was like that, and Chinese Gordon, and my late Lord Wellington.

Isabelle Estelle Bruno 2010

Wood's character of him is, that he was an exact mathematician, a curious calculator of nativities, a general read scholar, a thorough-paced philologist, and one that understood the surveying of lands well.

Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

“Of the two,” said Coquart timidly, “the convict is the most thorough-paced.”

Scenes from a Courtesan's Life 2007

You well observe* that you would have made a thorough-paced lawyer.

Clarissa Harlowe 2006

‘A thorough-paced reformer — a thorough-paced reformer —’

Doctor Thorne 2004

‘Gentlemen,’ he began again — ‘you all know that I am a thorough-paced reformer —’

Doctor Thorne 2004

He directed his valet-de-chambre, who was a thorough-paced pimp, to kindle some straw in the yard, and then pass by the door of her apartment, crying with a loud voice that the house was on fire.

The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle 2004

These innovations were not effected without many loud objections on his part; and divers curious dialogues passed between him and his yoke-fellow, who always came off victorious from the dispute; insomuch, that his countenance gradually fell: he began to suppress, and at length entirely devoured, his chagrin; the terrors of superior authority were plainly perceivable in his features; and in less than three months he became a thorough-paced husband.

The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle 2004

And Blount will be at his morning meal of Yarmouth herrings and ale, and Tracy will have his beastly black puddings and Rhenish; those thorough-paced Welshmen, Thomas ap Rice and Evan Evans, will be at work on their leek porridge and toasted cheese; — and she detests, they say, all coarse meats, evil smells, and strong wines.

Kenilworth 2004

For, after the relief of a thorough-paced confession, Mrs. Glendinning had implored her not to breathe a word to him — “I could never look him in the face again, love!”

Australia Felix 2003