Word: skittish
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...plane started up before we were sitting down. A young lieutenant, settled on the benches running fore & aft on both sides of the glider, checking parachutes, barely got out in time. He lit running as the big 15-man glider, suddenly an amazingly skittish, lightfooted creature, lifted off the runway. To a glider novice the take-off was startling; we were airborne and climbing on the rope while the heavier tow plane was still soaring down the runway, picking up speed for its own takeoff. We climbed rapidly to 700 feet, circled to get into formation...
...Skittish civilians are sweeping hock-shop shelves clean of shotguns, rifles, pistols, revolvers...
Rumors of a United Nations thrust in Africa, before the peak heat comes, flew about in Rome last week like leaves in a skittish wind. Some said the offensive had already started with stepped-up R.A.F. activity over the Libyan deserts. Others reported that Anglo-American naval forces had concentrated "in the neighborhood of Tripoli." No Axis nerves were soothed when the Giornale d'ltalia announced that "the Anglo Saxons have succeeded recently in transporting strong reinforcements to their Egyptian bases...
Although the operatic baritone and the contralto (whose first cinemappearance is, nevertheless, impressive) handle the skittish libretto like a pair of pouter pigeons, they are quite at home in their singing roles. The Straus melodies (My Hero, Sympathy, the title song, etc.), written originally for a lyric soprano and a tenor, have been rearranged and somewhat streamlined. Better are some of the picture's other tunes, Moussorgsky's Song Of The Flea (courtesy of Mr. Eddy), Saint-Saens' My Heart at Thy Sweet Voice (Miss Stevens), and Wagner's Evening Star (duet...
Probably the Vichy Government would hesitate to jail or purge 100 elected representatives of the French people from many different parts of France. Although Vichy has abolished Parliament in fact, it has always been skittish about getting rid of the appearance. Parliament's pay was stopped by Vichy's order on Sept. 1, but Marshal Pétain's own acts provide that Parliament shall remain "in existence" until a new Constitution provides for new assemblies. Moreover, the present French Constitution states that the French Parliament shall meet in the capital, and last week this pretense...