Briarean

Because these men were mere clods, bold enough and clever enough in their own rude way, but no match for the law, with its Argus eyes and its Briarean hands.

For the term of his natural life 2004

Even the chronic and pamphlet-producing quarrel between the managers of our telegraphic system and their Briarean antagonist, the daily-newspaper-press, fails to convey to our general sense anything beyond the impression that the most gigantic benefits may be so abused as to tempt us into an occasional wish that they had never existed.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 08, No. 47, September, 1861 Various

This is to be brought about only by the application, at any cost, of the most immediate methods of communication with the city; and behold our railroad system, -- the Briarean shaking of hands which the country gives the city!

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 07, No. 42, April, 1861 Various

Notions, worthy only of the dark ages, spring up in the glare of the supposed illumination of the present day, and resist all the efforts of the Briarean press itself to dispel them.

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 20, No. 564, September 1, 1832 Various

With her iron and coal, she fashions and propels the winged Mercuries of her commerce; with these and the clay that underlies her soil, she erects her factories and workshops; these form the Briarean arms by which she fabricates her tissues.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 08, No. 46, August, 1861 Various

There was more to do than a first look had led them to suppose, and their schemes grew ambitious, besides, as they advanced with them, so that, for all the Briarean prodigies of Bill, the odd-job man, they went to bed dog tired at nine o'clock that night with their labors not more than half complete.

Mary Wollaston Henry Kitchell Webster 1903

Compelling the National Government to stretch its Briarean arms into the free States for the sake of Slavery, you show openly how it may stretch these same hundred giant arms into the slave States for the sake of Freedom.

American Eloquence, Volume 2 Studies In American Political History (1896) Various 1899

He was the great virtuoso on the orchestra, and on this Briarean instrument he played with the most amazing skill.

The Great Italian and French Composers Ferris, George T 1878

I must say they have very tenderly, very perfectly imagined us, all those hotel people and railroad folk, and fold us, anxious and bewildered exiles, in a reassuring and consoling embrace which leaves all their hands -- they are Briarean -- free for the acceptance of our wide, wild tips.

Seven English Cities William Dean Howells 1878

We brought off enough treasure in our lifeboat to give every ass in the nation a pair of gold ears, which, in the present condition of affairs, would require more of the precious metal than a Briarean Midas could ever touch into existence with all his hands.

Sea-Gift. A Novel. Edwin Wiley 1873