Only a word was needed to bring his card-house down.    From Wordnik.com.  [Maurice Guest] Reference

She was a trimmer craft than our floating card-house of river travel, built for a little outside work in case of necessity, or the chances of a norther.    From Wordnik.com.  [Four Years in Rebel Capitals An Inside View of Life in the Southern Confederacy from Birth to Death] Reference

Yes, that was true, admitted Mahony with a sigh; and being this morning in a stale mood, he forthwith knocked flat the card-house it had amused him to build.    From Wordnik.com.  [Australia Felix] Reference

Then she closed on the "Congress," and one terrific broadside after another raked the frigate; till, trembling like a card-house, she hauled down her colors and raised the white flag.    From Wordnik.com.  [Four Years in Rebel Capitals An Inside View of Life in the Southern Confederacy from Birth to Death] Reference

Of course, with solidity and strength sacrificed to this extreme lightness, when the powerful engines are put to any strain, the high, thin fabric thrills from stem to stern with their every puff, like a huge card-house.    From Wordnik.com.  [Four Years in Rebel Capitals An Inside View of Life in the Southern Confederacy from Birth to Death] Reference

But for those who like myself can hardly build a card-house of more than two or three stories without developing insuperable mechanical problems, it is worth continually reminding ourselves that the machinery that put two Americans on the moon had literally millions of moving parts.    From Wordnik.com.  [The moon landing: 40 years on] Reference

Bank-Montreal & Boston outfit, whose scheme went down like a card-house in the blow.    From Wordnik.com.  [Frenzied Finance Vol. 1: The Crime of Amalgamated] Reference

I shrieked, with my card-house beginning to collapse, while the Eau de Cologne lost its savor in my nostrils.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Chauffeur and the Chaperon] Reference

He must surely have imagined the mystery, for it all collapsed like a card-house, if the Princess was coming back.    From Wordnik.com.  [Queen Lucia] Reference

Clubs -- the card-house of British supremacy will tumble of itself; there will be no conflict, but simply submission. '.    From Wordnik.com.  [Lord Kilgobbin] Reference

The whole card-house of his ill-founded life was trembling under the breath of fate, and its near fall seemed to threaten its existence.    From Wordnik.com.  [Taquisara] Reference

'Alas! like a pack of cards built in a card-house, my happiness, my pride, my triumph, my joy in my new palace, come falling about my head!.    From Wordnik.com.  [A German Pompadour Being the Extraordinary History of Wilhelmine van Grävenitz, Landhofmeisterin of Wirtemberg] Reference

Both of them expected nothing but that the entire structure would collapse like a card-house and shatter down in ruins that would be their death.    From Wordnik.com.  [Darkness and Dawn] Reference

And a man of character and spirit could topple down the card-house to-morrow, pick out what he liked, and create for himself a new edifice -- and a stronger one.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Port of Missing Men] Reference

"I should not call it enjoyment to be built up every day by one's valet, like a card-house, merely to tumble to pieces again when the pins are taken out," said Giovanni.    From Wordnik.com.  [Saracinesca] Reference

No attempt was made to find another player, and after the young man had built three stories of a card-house, which fell down, the players strolled off in different directions.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Voyage Out] Reference

And now that our card-house of high finance has gone to smash, I realize more than ever that I've got to be at peace with my own soul and on speaking terms with my own husband.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Prairie Mother] Reference

Doing so is rewarded with an initially dizzying array of stylus-based diversions ranging from old staples such as Serpent (snake), to card-house challenges, simple shoot-'em-ups and shuriken-throwing.    From Wordnik.com.  [Eurogamer] Reference

It is, in short, as pretty a toy penitentiary as you could see anywhere, and looks more like an Isle of Wight gentleman's fortress, copied after the most approved Wyattville pattern of baronial mansion, with a little touch of the card-house.    From Wordnik.com.  [Canada and the Canadians Volume I] Reference

A card-house for the Lamb -- 'mixing up what you're saying, I mean.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Phoenix and the Carpet] Reference

Build a card-house till noon.    From Wordnik.com.  [St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, V. 5, Nov 1877-Nov 1878 Scribner's Illustrated] Reference

The Italian card-house can never last.    From Wordnik.com.  [Cavour]

Thus a card-house each builds of medium height.    From Wordnik.com.  [The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 01 Masterpieces of German Literature Translated into English.] Reference