Of.
323. The original meaning of of was separation or source, like from. The various uses are shown in the following examples:—
I. The From Relation.
(1) Origin or source.
The king holds his authority of the people.—Milton.
Thomas à Becket was born of reputable parents in the city of London.—Hume.
(2) Separation: (a) After certain verbs, such as ease, demand, rob, divest, free, clear, purge, disarm, deprive, relieve, cure, rid, beg, ask, etc.
Two old Indians cleared the spot of brambles, weeds, and grass.—Parkman.
Asked no odds of, acquitted them of, etc.—Aldrich.
(b) After some adjectives,—clear of, free of, wide of, bare of, etc.; especially adjectives and adverbs of direction, as north of, south of, etc.
The hills were bare of trees.—Bayard Taylor.
Back of that tree, he had raised a little Gothic chapel. —Gavarre.
(c) After nouns expressing lack, deprivation, etc.
A singular want of all human relation.—Higginson.
(d) With words expressing distance.
Until he had come within a staff's length of the old dame. —Hawthorne
Within a few yards of the young man's hiding place.—Id.
(3) With expressions of material, especially out of.
White shirt with diamond studs, or breastpin of native gold.—Bancroft.
Sandals, bound with thongs of boar's hide.—Scott
Who formed, out of the most unpromising materials, the finest army that Europe had yet seen.—Macaulay
(4) Expressing cause, reason, motive.
The author died of a fit of apoplexy.—Boswell.
More than one altar was richer of his vows.—Lew Wallace.
"Good for him!" cried Nolan. "I am glad of that."—E. E. Hale.
(5) Expressing agency.
You cannot make a boy know, of his own knowledge, that Cromwell once ruled England.—Huxley.
He is away of his own free will.—Dickens
II. Other Relations expressed by Of.
(6) Partitive, expressing a part of a number or quantity.
Of the Forty, there were only twenty-one members present. —Parton.
He washed out some of the dirt, separating thereby as much of the dust as a ten-cent piece would hold.—Bancroft.
(7) Possessive, standing, with its object, for the possessive, or being used with the possessive case to form the double possessive.
Not even woman's love, and the dignity of a queen, could give shelter from his contumely.—W. E. Channing.
And the mighty secret of the Sierra stood revealed.—Bancroft.
(8) Appositional, which may be in the case of—
(a) Nouns.
Such a book as that of Job.—Froude.
The fair city of Mexico.—Prescott.
The nation of Lilliput.—Swift.
(b) Noun and gerund, being equivalent to an infinitive.
In the vain hope of appeasing the savages.—Cooper.
Few people take the trouble of finding out what democracy really is.—Lowell.
(c) Two nouns, when the first is descriptive of the second.
This crampfish of a Socrates has so bewitched him.—Emerson
A sorry antediluvian makeshift of a building you may think it.—Lamb.
An inexhaustible bottle of a shop.—Aldrich.
(9) Of time. Besides the phrases of old, of late, of a sudden, etc., of is used in the sense of during.
I used often to linger of a morning by the high gate.—Aldrich
I delighted to loll over the quarter railing of a calm day. —Irving.
(10) Of reference, equal to about, concerning, with regard to.
The Turk lay dreaming of the hour.—Halleck.
Boasted of his prowess as a scalp hunter and duelist.—Bancroft.
Sank into reverie of home and boyhood scenes.—Id.
Idiomatic use with verbs.
Of is also used as an appendage of certain verbs, such as admit, accept, allow, approve, disapprove, permit, without adding to their meaning. It also accompanies the verbs tire, complain, repent, consist, avail (one's self), and others.
Exercise.—Find sentences with six uses of of.