Pump Handle

There was the pump-handle gesture; the wringing-wet - clothes gesture; and then the voice, oddly detached from the little figure and tremendously magnified by the loudspeaker, went booming and bawling round the hall: Justice! ❋ Unknown (2004)

Her wet pocket-handkerchief, and the sight of her little back heaving up and down like a pump-handle, sobbing for what was denied her, screwed my nerves up. ❋ Unknown (2003)

In fact he worked it up and down like a pump-handle. ❋ Edith (2003)

The rusty, iron-bound wood gritted against her hands as she worked the pump-handle up and down, wondering how long it had been since water had flowed through these underground pipes. ❋ Edghill, Rosemary (2002)

He worked the pump-handle vigorously, letting the first rusty half-bucketful drain away, catching the clear, cold flood that followed in a tumbler, and presenting it to Cassava. ❋ Wolfe, Gene (1994)

The organ was blown by an ordinary pump-handle which made the process equally rowdy; and Rex Brown, the blower, hidden away in his box - and only visible to us in the choir - enlivened the service by parodying it in mime or by carving girls 'names on the woodwork. ❋ Lee, Laurie (1959)

This time he wouldn't let her hand go, but went on shaking it up and down as if he was pumping water with a pump-handle. ❋ Blyton, Enid, 1898?-1968 (1951)

But he shut the door tight, and the cats sat waiting and mewing on the back porch, and I held on to the pump-handle and waited too. ❋ Margaret Turnbull (N/A)

But when I tried to pump, the pump-handle just went up in the air, and wouldn't pump up any water! ❋ Margaret Turnbull (N/A)

There was Sid on the platform with his beloved, waving his arms back and forth in fervid, pump-handle motions which Louise seemed to mind not a bit. ❋ Herman Gastrell Seely (N/A)

He worked his arm in the gestures with all the grace and agility of a pump-handle. ❋ Maud Wilder Goodwin (N/A)

He gave one glance, saw his chum leap through the big opening, with the curtain of fire, and then, murmuring a hope that he was safe, he began to work the pump-handle. ❋ Frank V. Webster (N/A)

When Charles Dickens visited America, our people testified their admiration of his homely genius by going mad, receiving him with frantic acclamations of delight, dining him, and suppering him, and going through the 'pump-handle movement' with him. ❋ Various (N/A)

Electric Monarch has to do is to pump a little pump-handle or press a little button and he's off without it costing him a cent. ❋ Richard Bonner (N/A)

Where would you grasp the pump-handle when you wish to pump (1) easily, (2) quickly? ❋ Ontario. Ministry Of Education (N/A)

She has been trained in the old Kemble tragic pump-handle style of elocution, that runs talk on stilts. ❋ J. M. Farrar (N/A)

"Shake!" was the general command, and Andy's arm ached from the pump-handle process. ❋ Roy Eliot Stokes (N/A)

I stepped out of the line in my turn and grasped the pump-handle. ❋ Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot (N/A)

I always love giving little kids generous [doses] of periodic pump-handle pacification as a way to keep them satisfied and entertained while I'm engaged in other activities... it's totally fulfilling and attention-giving for them, it's a great way of [bonding] with them, and it's 100% calorie-free --- i.e, I never get in trouble with their parents for giving them candy or for "feeding them rich snacks before supper" which would make them less hungry for whatever blander-tasking health-food that their parents want them to [chow down] on instead. ❋ QuacksO (2019)

Huge-statured marshmallow-hearted guy, joyfully playing pump-handle with a cute [fluffy] [little thing] whom he hasn't seen for ages: URuh-URuh-URuh-URuh-URuh-URuh-URuh-URuh...! Cutie: Hey --- don't [wear out] my arms, Mr. "URuh-URuh-URuh-URuh"!! ❋ QuacksO (2016)

She [gave] him a [rusty pump handle] [last night]. ❋ DunchyMcButterstien (2013)