To Make Someone Out To Be Something

"'Make me out, if you please, to be a villain.'" --Arthur Mervyn (Charles Brockden Brown, 1799), Chapter XXV

To Buy Someone Off

"In every argument with her mother, Susan had in point of reason the advantage, and never was there any maternal tenderness to buy her off." --Mansfield Park (Jane Austen, 1814), Chapter 40

Many thanks to Shayne Parkinson, of New Zealand, for this entry!

Totally

He was totally careless of his person and health, and, by repeated negligences of this kind, at last contracted a fever of which he speedily died. --Arthur Mervyn (Charles Brockden Brown, 1799), Chapter III

"He would answer, but in such a way as to show him totally unaware of your true meaning." --Arthur Mervyn (Charles Brockden Brown, 1799), Chapter XXV

Scarcely

I could scarcely recognize any lineaments of my own. --Arthur Mervyn (Charles Brockden Brown, 1799), Chapter V

At a Loss

I was at a loss in what manner to regard this sacrifice. --Arthur Mervyn (Charles Brockden Brown, 1799), Chapter XXXI

Total as Adjective

Eliza's mind was quick, active, and sagacious; but her total inexperience gave her sometimes the appearance of folly. --Arthur Mervyn (Charles Brockden Brown, 1799), Chapter XXXI

Something "Happening"

"What has happened?" --Arthur Mervyn (Charles Brockden Brown, 1799), Chapter XXXVII

Addicted to Something

"Persons of his age are rarely fond of work, but then they are addicted to company, and sports, and exercises." --Arthur Mervyn (Charles Brockden Brown, 1799), Chapter XXV

"Pretty" as Adverb

"You must confess that his appearance here is a pretty strong proof of the father's assertions." --Arthur Mervyn (Charles Brockden Brown, 1799), Chapter XXV

To Have Something Occur to Someone

At length, it occurred to me to search out the house in which I had lately been immured. --Arthur Mervyn (Charles Brockden Brown; 1799), Chapter VI

To Be in the Dumps

"They lost a child lately. The young woman was in a huge taking about it. They say she was quite crazy some days for the death of the child; and she is not quite out of the dumps yet." -- Arthur Mervyn (Charles Brockden Brown; 1799), Chapter VI

Everyday

"I cannot imagine what could prompt him to so wearisome an undertaking; but he says that adventures and a destiny so singular as mine ought not to be abandoned to forgetfulness like any vulgar and everyday existence." -- Arthur Mervyn (Charles Brockden Brown, 1799), Chapter XLV

To Turn a Deaf Ear to Something

I did not turn a deaf ear to these censurers.

Surprise! A break from Jane Austen territory. Some of the expressions you'll find here are from American literature of the same period. This expression, to "turn a deaf ear" to something, is in Chapter I of Arthur Mervyn, or Memoirs of the Year 1793, by Charles Brockden Brown, printed in Philadelphia in 1799.