torpids

Above me, far out from the cliff, a wide-winged Thomas Hawk circles above the lagoon on rising thermals and scans the shifting bluekelp beds with its infrared vi­sion, seeking out harpseals or torpids.

Prayers To Broken Stones Simmons, Dan 1990

It is no easy matter to get a crew to back her an inch just now, particularly as there are in her two men who have never rowed a race before, except in the torpids, and one who has never rowed a race in his life.

The Ontario Readers: Fourth Book Ontario. Ministry of Education

One of the "brightest minds" in his class, he was one of the laziest; one of the quickest and most agile when aroused, he was one of the torpids as a rule: One of the kind who should have "gone in for honors," as the faculty said, he came nearer going out for devilment.

Found in the Philippines The Story of a Woman's Letters Charles King 1888

The torpids, being filled with the refuse of the rowing men -- generally awkward or very young oarsmen -- find some difficulty in the act of tossing -- no safe operation for an unsteady crew.

Tom Brown at Oxford Thomas Hughes 1859

Then the boats passed up one by one; and, as each came opposite to the St. Ambrose boat, the crews tossed their oars and cheered, and the St. Ambrose crew tossed their oars and cheered in return; and the whole ceremony went off in triumph, notwithstanding the casualty which occurred to one of the torpids.

Tom Brown at Oxford Thomas Hughes 1859

It is no easy matter to get a crew to back her an inch just now, particularly as there are in her two men who have never rowed a race before, except in the torpids, and one who has never rowed a race in his life.

Tom Brown at Oxford Thomas Hughes 1859

Was it as painful an effort to Hardy, he wondered, as to him to go on speaking, as if nothing had happened, when they met at the boats, as they did now again almost daily (for Diogenes was bent on training some of the torpids for next year), and yet never to look one another in the face; to live together as usual during part of every day, and yet to feel all the time that a great wall had risen between them, more hopelessly dividing them for the time than thousands of miles of ocean or continent?

Tom Brown at Oxford Thomas Hughes 1859

Didn't you see him on the bank when you torpids made your bump the other night? "

Tom Brown at Oxford Thomas Hughes 1859