MISCELLANEOUS PHRASES
A
A bewildering labyrinth of facts
A blank absence of interest or sympathy
A bloodless diplomatist
A breach of confidence
A brilliant and paradoxical talker
A burning sense of shame and horror
A century of disillusionment
A certain catholicity of taste [catholicity = universality]
A cheap and coarse cynicism
A civilizing agency of conspicuous value
A cleanness and probity of life [probity = integrity; uprightness]
A commendable restraint
A condescending and patronizing spirit
A confused and troublesome time
A conscientious anxiety to do the right thing
A conspicuous and crowning service
A constant source of surprise and delight
A contemptible species of mockery
A convenient makeshift
A copious torrent of pleasantry
A course of arrogant obstinacy
A crumb of consolation
A crystallized embodiment of the age
A cynical and selfish hedonist
A dangerous varnish of refinement
A dead theological dogma
A decorous and well-intentioned person
A deep and most impressive solemnity
A deep and strange suggestiveness
A deep authentic impression of disinterestedness
A dereliction of duty
A disaster of the first magnitude
A distorted and pessimistic view of life
A dogmatic and self-righteous spirit
A duel of brains
A dull collocation of words
A fastidious sense of fitness
A fatal moral hollowness
A feeling of lofty remoteness
A feminine excess of inconsequence
A final and irrevocable settlement
A firmness tempered by the most scrupulous courtesy
A fitting interval for penitence
A flippant rejoinder
A flood of external impressions
A flourish of rhetoric
A fund of curious information
A furtive groping after knowledge
A gambler's desperate chance
A ghastly mixture of defiance and conceit
A glaring example of rapacity [rapacity = plundering]
A graceful nonentity
A great and many-sided personality
A great capacity for generous indignation
A great source of confusion
A gross piece of stupidity
A habit of riding a theory too hard
A habit of rigorous definition
A happy and compensating experience
A haughty self-assertion of equality
A hideous absurdity
A hideous orgy of massacre and outrage
A high pitch of eloquence
A homelike and festive aspect
A hopeless enigma
A hotbed of disturbance
A hushed rustle of applause testified to a widespread approbation [approbation = warm approval; praise]
A keenly receptive and intensely sensitive temperament
A kind of fantastic patchwork
A kind of surly reluctance
A laudable stimulus
A law of retributive justice
A less revolutionary innovation
A life of studious contemplation
A limpidity and lucidity of style
[limpidity = transparent clearity; easily intelligible]
A lingering tinge of admiration
A lively sense of what is dishonorable
A long accumulating store of discontent and unrest
A long tangle of unavoidable detail
A look threatening and peremptory
[peremptory = ending all debate or action]
A many-sided and far-reaching enthusiasm
A marvelous sharpener of the faculties
A melancholy preponderance of mischief
A memory-haunting phrase
A mercenary marriage
A mere conjectural estimate
A microscopic care in the search of words
A misconception which is singularly prevalent
A mixture of malignancy and madness
A modicum of truth
A monstrous travesty
A mood of hard skepticism
A more than ordinary share of baseness and depravity
A most laudable zeal
A most repulsive and incomprehensible idiom
A most unseasonable piece of impertinence
A multitude of groundless alarms
A murderous tenacity about trifles
A mysterious and an intractable pestilence
A mysterious and inscrutable power
A narrow and superficial survey
A nature somewhat frivolous and irresolute
A needlessly offensive manner
A nimble interchange of uninteresting gossip
A noble and puissant nation [puissant = with power, might]
A novel and perplexing course
A numerous company
A painful and disconcerting deformity
A partial disenchantment
A passage of extraordinary daring
A patchwork of compromises
A permanent and habitual state of mind
A pernicious and growing tendency
A perversion of judgment
A phantom of the brain
A piece of grotesque stupidity
A pleasant flow of appropriate language
A pompous failure
A potential menace to life
A powerful and persuasive orator
A prevalent characteristic of her nature
A prey to the tongue of the public
A pristine vigor of style
A profusion of compliments
A proposition inherently vicious
A puerile illusion [puerile = immature; childish]
A quenchless thirst for expression
A rage akin to frenzy
A rare precision of insight
A rather desperate procedure
A reckless fashion
A recrudescence of superstition
[recrudescence = recurrence of a pathological
symptoms after a period of improvement]
A relish for the sublime
A reversion to the boldest paganism
A rigid avoidance of extravagance and excess
A ripple of applause
A restraining and conservative force
A robust and consistent application
A sacred and indissoluble union
A sane philosophy of life
A secluded dreamer of dreams
A secret and wistful charm
A sense of deepening discouragement
A sense of indescribable reverence
A series of brief and irritating hopes
A settled conviction of success
A sharp difference of opinion
A sharp pang of regretful surprise
A shrewd eye to the main chance
A signal deed of justice
A skeptical suspension of judgment
A slight and superficial tribute
A slowly subsiding frenzy
A snare and a delusion
A somewhat complicated and abstruse calculation
[abstruse = difficult to understand]
A sordid and detestable motive
A sort of incredulous stupefaction
A source of unfailing delight and wonder
A species of moral usurpation
A spirit inimical to learning
A spirit of complacent pessimism
A startling and unfortunate digression
A state of scarcely veiled insurrection
A state of urgent necessity
A stern decree of fate
A stern foe of snobbishness
A storm of public indignation
A strange mixture of carelessness, generosity, and caprice
A strangely perverse and poverty stricken imagination
A strong assumption of superiority
A subjugated and sullen population
A sudden revulsion
A supposed ground of affinity
A synonym for retrogression
A taunting accusation of falsehood
A tedious and needless drudgery
A temper which brooked no resistance
A temporary expedient
A tender tone of remonstrance
A theme of endless meditation
A thing of moods and moments
A thoroughly sincere and unaffected effort
A thousand mangled delusions
A tissue of dull excuses
A tone of exaggerated solicitude
A touch of exquisite pathos
A trace of obvious sarcasm
A transcript of the common conscience
A trifle prim and puritanic
A truth begirt with fire
A unique and overwhelming charm
A vague aversion
A variety of conflicting and profound emotions
A variety of enfeebling amendments
A vast multitude of facts
A vastly extended vision of opportunity
A vehement and direct attack
A very elusive and delicate thought
A very formidable problem
A vigilant reserve
A violent and base calumniator
[calumniator = makes malicious or knowingly false statements]
A voice of matchless compass and eloquence
A warmth of seemingly generous indignations
A wealth of resource that seemed inexhaustible
A welcome release from besetting difficulties
A whole catalog of disastrous blunders
A whole whirlpool of various emotions
Abounding bodily vigor
Above and beyond and before all else
Absurd and inconsequential career
Abundant and congenial employment
Accidental rather than intentional
Accustomed to ascribe to chance
Acquired sentiments of propriety
Activities of the discursive intellect
Actuated by an unduly anxious desire
Acute sensibility coupled with quickness of intellect
Adhere too tenaciously to forms and modes
Admirable mastery of technique
Admit the soft impeachment
Admitted with a childlike cheerfulness
Advance by leaps and bounds
Advancing to dignity and honor
Adventitious aids to memory
[adventitious = Not inherent; added extrinsically]
Affectation and superfluous ornament
Aggravated to an unspeakable degree
Agitated and perplexed by a dozen cross-currents of conflicting tendency
Agreeable and humanizing intercourse
Aided by strong mental endowments
Airy swiftness of treatment
Alien to the purpose
All sorts of petty tyrannies
All the resources of a burnished rhetoric
Allied by taste and circumstances
Allied with a marked imperiousness [imperious = arrogantly overbearing]
Almost incredible obtuseness
Altogether monstrous and unnatural
Always observant and discriminating
Amaze and confound the imagination
Amiable and indulgent hostess
Amid many and pressing avocations
Amid the homeliest details of daily life
Amid the rush and roar of life
Ample scope for the exercise of his astonishing gifts
An abandoned and exaggerated grief
An accidental encounter
An act of folly amounting to wickedness
An afternoon of painfully constrained behavior
An agreeable image of serene dignity
An air of artificial constraint
An air of round-eyed profundity
An alarmed sense of strange responsibilities
An almost excessive exactness
An almost sepulchral regularity and seclusion
An ample and imposing structure
An apostle of unworldly ardor
An appreciable menace
An ardent and gifted youth
An arid dictum
An artful and malignant enemy
An assumption entirely gratuitous
An assumption which proved erroneous
An atmosphere of sunny gaiety
An attitude of passive impartiality
An authoritative and conclusive inquiry
An egregious assumption [egregious = outrageously reprehensible]
An elaborate assumption of indifference
An endless field for discussion
An enervating and emasculating form of indulgence
An ennobling and invigorating influence
An entirely negligible quantity
An essentially grotesque and commonplace thing
An eternal and imperishable example
An exalted and chimerical sense of honor
[chimerical = highly improbable]
An excess of unadulterated praise
An excessive refinement of feeling
An expression at once confident and appealing
An extensive and populous country
An habitual steadiness and coolness of reflection
An honest and unquestioning pride
An icy indifference
An idle and unworthy action
An ill-assorted vocabulary
An immeasurable advantage
An imminent and overmastering peril
An imperturbable demeanor and steadiness of mind
An implacable foe
An inborn and irresistible impulse
An incongruous spectacle
An incredible mental agility
An indefinable taint of priggishness
[priggishness = exaggerated propriety]
An indescribable frankness and simplicity of character
An indolent surrender to mere sensuous experience
An indomitable and unselfish soul
An ineradicable love of fun and mystification
An inevitable factor of human conduct
An inexhaustible copiousness and readiness of speech
An insatiable appetite for trifles
An insatiable voracity
An inscrutable mystery
An intentional breach of politeness
An interchange of civilities
An intolerable deal of guesswork
An involuntary gesture of remonstrance
An irrelevant bit of magniloquence
[magniloquence = extravagant in speech]
An irrepressible and impassioned hopefulness
An irritating and dangerous treatment
An itching propensity for argument
An object of indestructible interest
An obnoxious member of society
An ominous lull and silence
An open and violent rupture
An outburst of impassioned eloquence
An unaccountable feeling of antipathy
An unbecoming vehemence
An undisciplined state of feeling
An unerring sense of humor
An unparalleled and almost miraculous growth
An unparalleled atrocity
An unpatriotic and ignoble act
An unreasoning form of coercion
An utterly vile and detestable spirit
And now I address myself to my task
And the like
Announced in a tone of pious satisfaction
Another thought importuned him
[importuned = insistent or repeated requests]
Anticipated with lively expectation
Apparent rather than real
Appeal to a tardy justice
Appreciably above the level of mediocrity
Arbitrary assumption of power
Ardently and enthusiastically convinced
Argued with immense force and feeling
Arrayed with scrupulous neatness
Arrogance and untutored haughtiness
As an impartial bystander
As belated as they are fallacious
As by a secret of freemasonry
As odious as it is absurd
As ridiculous as it was unnecessary
As we scan the vague unknown
Assailed by poignant doubts
Assume a menacing attitude
Assumed almost heroic proportions
At once epigrammatic and arresting [epigrammatic = terse and witty]
At once misleading and infelicitous
At the mercy of small prejudices
Attained by rigorous self-restraint
Attended by insuperable difficulties
Averted by some happy stroke of fortune
Await the sentence of impartial posterity
Awaited with feverish anxiety
B
Bandied to and fro
Based on a fundamental error
Beguile the tedium of the journey
Bemoaning and bewailing his sad fortune
Beset with external dangers
Betrayed into deplorable error
Bewildering multiplication of details
Beyond the dreams of avarice
Blended with courage and devotion
Blind leaders of the blind
Blunt the finer sensibilities
Blustering desire for publicity
Bound up with impossibilities and absurdities
Breathed an almost exaggerated humility
Bred in the tepid reticence of propriety
Brief ventures of kindliness
Brilliant display of ingenious argument
Bring odium upon the individual
Brisk directness of speech
Brutal recognition of failure
Bursts of unpremeditated frankness
But delusions and phantasmagoria
But that is beside the mark
But this is a digression
By a curious perversity of fate
By a happy turn of thinking
By a whimsical diversion
By common consent
By means of crafty insinuations
By no means inconsolable
By temperament incompatible
By the common judgment of the thinking world
By the sheer centripetal force of sympathy
By virtue of a common understanding
By way of rejoinder
C
Calculated to create disgust
Calm strength and constancy
Capable of a severe scientific treatment
Capacity for urbanity and moderation
Carried into port by fair winds
Caught unawares by a base impulse
Ceaseless tramp of humanity
Censured for his negligence
Championing the cause of religious education
Chastened and refined by experience
Checked by the voice of authority
Cherished the amiable illusion
Cherishing a huge fallacy
Childishly inaccurate and absurd
Chivalrous loyalty and high forbearance
Clever and captivating eloquence
Coarse and glittering ostentation
Coherent and continuous trend of thought
Commended by perfect suavity
Common ground of agreement
Complicated and infinitely embittered
Conceded from a sense of justice
Conceived with imperfect knowledge
Concentrated and implacable resolve
Conditions of unspeakable humiliation
Conducive to well-being and efficiency
Confused rumblings presaging a different epoch
Constrained by the sober exercise of judgment
Consumed by a demon of activity
Continuous and stubborn disregard
Contrary to the clearest conviction of his judgment
Couched in terms of feigned devotion
Credulous and emotionally extravagant
Creed of incredulity and derision
Criticized with unsparing vigor
Crude undigested masses of suggestion
Cruel and baseless calumnies
[calumnies = maliciously false statements; slander]
Cynically repudiate all obligations
D
Daily usages and modes of thinking
Dangerously near snobbery
Darkly insinuating what may possibly happen
Dazzled by their novelty and brilliance
Debased by common use
Deep essentials of moral grandeur
Deeply engrossed in congenial work
Deeply moved as well as keenly stung
Deeply rooted in the heart of humanity
Defiant of analysis and rule
Degenerate into comparative feebleness
Degenerated into deadness and formality
Degrading and debasing curiosity
Deliberate and cautious reflection
Delicacy of perception and quick tact
Delude many minds into acquiescence
Dense to the point of stupidity
Descanting on them cursorily [descanting = discussion or discourse]
Devices generally held to be discreditable
Devious and perilous ways
Devoid of hysteria and extravagance
Dexterous modes of concealment
Dictated by an overweening partiality
Differ in degree only and not in kind
Difficult and abstruse questions [abstruse = incomprehensible ]
Diffidence overwhelmed him
Diffusing beneficent results
Dignified by deliberation and privacy
Dimly implying some sort of jest
Discreditable and insincere support
Disdaining the guidance of reason
Disenchanting effect of time and experience
Disfigured by glaring faults
Disguised in sentimental frippery
Dispel all anxious concern
Displayed enormous power and splendor
Distinguish themselves by their eccentricities
Distracted by contending desires
Diversity of mind and temperament
Divested of all personal feelings
Dogged and shameless beyond all precedent
Dominated by no prevailing taste or fashion
Doomed by inexorable fate
Doomed to impermanence and transiency
Draw back in distrust and misgiving
Dreaded and detested rival
Driven towards disaffection and violence
Due to historical perspective
Dull and trite commonplaces
Dwindled to alarmingly small dimensions
E
Easy-going to the point of lethargy
Elementary principles of right and wrong
Embittered and fanatical agitation
Encrusted with pedantry and prejudice [pedantry = attention to detail]
Endless and intricate technicalities
Endowed with undreamed-of powers
Enforced by coercive measures
Enormities of crime and anomalies of law
Entangled in theological controversy
Entirely futile and negligible
Erroneous assumptions and sophistries
Espoused with extraordinary ardor
Essentially one-sided and incomplete
Eternally fruitful and stimulating
Evidently malicious and adroit
Evinces a hardened conscience and an insensibility to shame
Exact and resolute allegiance
Examples of terrific and explosive energy
Exasperating to the last degree
Excruciating cruelty and injustice
Exposed to damaging criticism
Exposing his arrogance and folly to merited contempt
Expressions of unrestrained grief
Exquisite lucidity of statement
Extraordinarily subtle and penetrating analysis
Exuberant rush of words
F
Facile and fertile literary brains
Faithfully and religiously eschewed [eschew = avoid; shun]
Fallen into the convenient oblivion of the waste-basket
Fanatical and dangerous excesses
Far off and incredibly remote
Fastidious correctness of form
Fate had turned and twisted a thousand ways
Fed by many currents from the long stream of human experience
Feigning a virtuous indignation
Fertility of argumentative resource
Fictitious and adventitious aid
Finely touched to the fine issues
Fit to stand the gaze of millions
Fits and starts of generosity
Fixed convictions of mankind
Flouted as unpractical
Foolish and inflexible superstition
Fostering and preserving order
Free from all controversial pettifogging
[pettifogging = quibbling over insignificant details]
Freighted with the most precious cargoes
Frequently recurring forms of awkwardness
Fresh and unsuspected loveliness
From the standpoint of expediency and effectiveness
Full and tuneful diction
Full of ardent affection and gratitude
Full of presentiments of some evil
Full of singular freshness, insight and power
Full of speculation and a deep restrained excitement
Fumble and stumble in helpless incapacity
G
Gain the applause of future ages
Generous to a pathetic and touching degree
Give vent to his indignation
Giving an ear to a little neighborly gossip
Glances and smiles of tacit contempt
Gnawing at the vitals of society
Grace and gentleness of manner
Graceful succession of sentences
Gratuitous and arbitrary meddling
Greeted with unalloyed satisfaction
Grooves of intellectual habit
Growing sense of bewilderment and dismay
Guilty and baffled antagonists
H
Habits of unintelligent routine
Habitual self-possession and self-respect
Happy and gracious willingness
Hard-souled and joyously joyous
Haunted by blank misgivings
He affected neither pomp nor grandeur
He became more blandly garrulous [garrulous = excessive and trivial talk]
He declined the proffered hospitality
He dropped into an eloquent silence
He eludes analysis and baffles description
He glanced at her indulgently
He had the habit of self-engrossed silences
He harbored his misgivings in silence
He poured bitter and biting ridicule on his discomfited opponents
He spoke with sledgehammer directness
He suffers nothing to draw him aside
He took his courage in both hands
He turned on me a glance of stored intelligence
He was disheveled and untidy
He was inexhaustibly voluble
Heavily freighted with erudition [erudition = extensive learning]
Heights of serene contemplation
Her voice had a wooden resonance and a ghost of a lisp
Hidebound in official pedantry [pedantry = attention to detail]
High and undiscouraged hope
High-handed indifference to all restraint
His chin had too vanishing an aspect
His first zeal was flagging
His general attitude suggested an idea that he had an oration for you
His gestures and his gait were untidy
His mood was one of pure exaltation
His plea was irresistible
His tone verged on the ironical
His work was ludicrously perfunctory
Hopelessly belated in its appearance
I
I adjured him [adjured = command or enjoin solemnly, as under oath]
I am not without a lurking suspicion
I bemoaned my unlucky fate
I could almost allege it as a supreme example
I have somewhat overshot the mark
I lost myself in a reverie of gratitude
I made bold to retort
I must hazard the story
I was extremely perplexed
I will permit myself the liberty of saying
I would fain believe [fain = happily; gladly]
Illuminate with sinister effect
Immediate and effectual steps
Immense capacity for ceaseless progress
Immunity from criticism and control
Impartial and exacting judgment
Impatience of despotic influence
Impelled by strong conviction
Imperiled in a restless age
Imperious in its demands [imperious = arrogantly domineering]
Impotent outbreaks of unreasoning rage
Impromptu parades of noisy patriotism
In a diversity of application
In a fever of apprehension
In a frenzy of fussy excitement
In a frowning abstraction
In a great and fruitful way
In a high degree culpable
In a kind of confused astonishment
In a most commendable fashion
In a most impressive vein
In a position of undisputed supremacy
In a rapture of imagined ecstasy
In a secret and surreptitious way
[surreptitious = done by clandestine or stealthy means]
In a spirit of friendliness and conciliation
In a state of mulish reluctance [mulish = stubborn and intractable]
In a state of nervous exacerbation
In a state of virtuous complacency
In a tone of uneasy interrogation
In a transport of ambitious vanity
In a whirlwind of feeling and memory
In accents embarrassed and hesitating
In alliance with steady clearness of intellect
In amazed ejaculation
In an eminent and unique sense
In an eminent degree
In deference to a unanimous sentiment
In extenuation of the past
In high good humor
In his customary sententious fashion
[sententious = terse and energetic; pithy]
In its most odious and intolerable shape
In language terse yet familiar
In moments of the most imminent peril
In quite incredible confusion
In seasons of difficulty and trial
In spite of plausible arguments
In terms of imperishable beauty
In the dim procession of years
In the highest conceivable degree
In the local phrase
In the nature of things
In the ordinarily accepted sense
In the realm of conjecture
In the scheme of things
In the tone of one who moralizes
In the twinkling of an eye
In the world of letters
In tones of genuine admiration
Incapable of flashy make-believe
Incited by a lust for gain
Incomparable lucidity and penetrativeness
Inconceivable clumsiness of organization
Indulge a train of gentle recollection
Indulging a sickly and nauseating petulance
Ineffably dreary and unpicturesque
Infected with a feverish dissatisfaction
Infuse a wholesome terror
Inimical to true and determined principle [Inimical = harmful; adverse]
Inimitable grace and felicity [inimitable = defying imitation; matchless]
Injudicious and inelegant ostentation
Innumerable and incessant creations
Inordinate greed and love of wealth
Insatiably greedy of recognition
Insensibility to moral perspective and proportion
Insolent and riotous excess
Inspired by a vague malevolence
Inspirited by approval and applause
Instances might be multiplied indefinitely
Instantly alive to the slightest breach of decorum
Insufferable violence to the feelings
Intense and stubborn dogmatism
Intense sensitiveness to injustice
Intercourse with polished society
Intervals of respite and repose
Inveigh against established customs
[inveigh = angry disapproval; protest vehemently]
Invested with a partial authority
Inveterate forces of opposition
Invincible jealousy and hate
Involuntary thrill of gratified vanity
Involved in profound uncertainty
Involving ourselves in embarrassments
Inward appraisal and self-renouncement
Irregulated and desultory education [desultory = haphazard; random]
Irrelevant to the main issue
Irresistibly impelled by conscience
Irritable bitterness and angry suspicion
It assumes the shape of malignity
It betrays a great want of prudence and discernment
It defies description
It dissipates every doubt and scruple
It enslaves the imagination
It extorted from him expressions of irritability
It gives one a little grip at the throat
It has been stigmatized as irrelevant
It has more than passing interest
It has seldom been surpassed
It imposes no constraint
It is a capital blunder
It is a common error among ignorant people
It is a consoling reflection
It is a mark of great instability
It is a staggering thought
It is always something vicious
It is an odd jealousy
It is an intolerable idea
It is impossible to resist acknowledging this
It is little more than a platitude
It is not consistent with elevated and dignified character
It is not wholly insignificant
It is notoriously easy to exaggerate
It is the common consent of men
It is unnecessary to multiply instances
It makes life insupportable
It must be a matter of conjecture
It occasions suspicion and discontent
It runs counter to all established customs
It was a matter of notoriety
It wears a ragged and dangerous front
It would be a fruitless and unthankful task
It would be superfluous to say
It would not seem an improbable conclusion
Its dominating and inspiring influence
J
Jealous and formidable foes
Justifiable in certain exigencies [exigencies = urgent situations]
K
Keen power of calculation and unhesitating audacity
Kindle the flames of genuine oratory
Knotty and subtle disquisitions [disquisitions = formal discourse]
L
Labored and far-fetched elocution
Laid down in a most unflinching and vigorous fashion
Lamentable instances of extravagance
Lash themselves into fury
Lax theories and corresponding practises
Lay hold of the affections
Leaden mood of dulness
Lend a critical ear
Lest the requirements of courtesy be disregarded
Links in the chain of reasoning
Little less than scandalous
Lofty and distinguished simplicity
Long-sighted continuity of thought and plan
Looking at the matter by and large
Looming large and ugly in the public view
Loose and otiose statement [otiose = lazy; indolent; of no use]
Lost in indolent content
Lovely beyond all words
Lucidity and argumentative vigor
Lulled into a sense of false satisfaction
M
Maddened by a jealous hate
Maintained with ingenuity and vigor
Manifestly harsh and barbarous
Marvelous copiousness of illustration
Marvelously suggestive and inspiring
Men of profound erudition [erudition = extensive learning]
Mere effects of negligence
Microscopic analysis of character
Mingled distrust and fear
Ministering to mere pleasure and indulgence
Minutely and rationally exposing their imperfections
Morbid and subjective brooding
More or less severe and prolonged
Moved to unaccustomed tears
My worst suspicions were confirmed
Mysterious and invincible darkness
N
Naked vigor of resolution
Naturally prone to believe
Necessity thus imposed by prudence
Nerveless and faithless folly
No more than brief palliatives or mitigations
Noble and sublime patience
Noisy torrent of talk
Not averse to a little gossip
Not so much polished as varnished
Noted for their quixotic love of adventure
Nothing could be more captious or unfair
[captious = disposition to find and point out trivial faults]
Nothing remained but a graceful acquiescence
Notoriously distracted by internecine jealousies
O
Objects of general censure
Obscured beneath the rubbish of the age
Obsessed with an overweening pride
Obstacles that are difficult but not insuperable
Obviously at variance with facts
Occasioned by direct moral turpitude [turpitude = depravity; baseness]
Oddly amenable to the proposed innovations
Often employed promiscuously
Ominous and swift days
Omitting all compliments and commonplaces
On a noble and commanding scale
On sure ground of fact
On the edge of great irritability
On the horns of a dilemma
One of life's ironical adjustments
One of the foreseen and inevitable results
One tissue of rashness, folly, ingratitude, and injustice
Openly flouted and disavowed
Oppressed by some vague dread
Organs of party rage and popular frenzy
Our opinions were diametrically opposed
Our vaunted civilization
Outward mark of obeisance and humiliation
[obeisance = attitude of deference]
Overcome by an access of misery
Overshadowed by a fretful anxiety
Overwhelmed with reproach and popular indignation
P
Painful and lamentable indifference
Palpably and unmistakably commonplace
Parading an exception to prove a rule
Paralyzed by infirmity of purpose
Paralyzing doubts and scruples
Paramount obligation and righteousness
Partial and fragmentary evidence
Passionately addicted to pleasure
Patently inimical to liberty
Patience under continual provocation
Peculiarly liable to misinterpretation
Peddling and pitiful compromises
Pelting one another with catchwords
Perfectly illustrated and exemplified
Perpetually excite our curiosity
Pierced to the quick
Pitiful shifts of policy
Plainly dictated by a lofty purpose
Pleading the exigencies of strategical interest
[exigencies = urgent situations]
Plunged into tumultuous preoccupation
Pointed out with triumphant malice
Polished beauty of diction
Political storm and stress.
Position of titular command
Preached with a fierce unction [unction = exaggerated earnestness]
Precipitate and arbitrary changes
Predict the gloomiest consequences
Pregnant with a lesson of the deepest import
Presented with matchless vigor and courage
Princely generosity of praise
Prodigious and portentous events
Protracted to a vexatious length
Proud schemes for aggrandizement
Provocative of bitter hostility
Pruned of their excrescences and grotesque extremes [excrescences = abnormal growth, such as a wart]
Purged of glaringly offensive features
Pursued to a vicious extent
Q
Questioned and tested in the crucible of experience
Quickened into a stabbing suspicion
Quickness to conceive and courage to execute
Quite destitute of resources
Quixotically generous about money
R
Radiantly and transparently happy
Railed at the world
Rare candor and flexibility of mind
Rare fidelity of purpose and achievement
Rarely brought to pass
Reeling headlong in luxury and sensuality
Regarded with sincere abhorrence
Regulated by the fixed rules of good-breeding
Religious rights and ceremonies
Reluctant to appear in so equivocal a character
Render null and void
Rent by internal contentions
Repugnant alike to reason and conscience
Resigned to growing infirmities
Resist a common adversary
Resting on some collateral circumstance
Rhetorical and ambitious diction
Rich and exuberant complexities
Rigid and exact boundaries
Rooted in immeasurable error and falsity
Roused to tumultuous activity
Rude and blind criticism
S
Sadly counterbalanced by numerous faults
Said with epigrammatic point [epigrammatic = terse and witty]
Salutary in the extreme
Salutary tonic of a free current of public criticism
Sanity and quietness of soul
Scorned as an impracticable theory
Scornful of petty calculations
Screen themselves from punishment
Scrupulous and chivalrous loyalty
See with eagle glance through conventionalisms
Seem to savor of paradox
Seize the auspicious moment
Self-centered anxiety and preoccupation
Self-command born of varied intercourse
Self-interest of the most compelling character
Selfish and uselessly recondite [recondite = not easily understood]
Selfishness pampered by abundance
Senses of marvelous acuteness
Sensible diminution of our comfort
Sensitive and apprehensive temperament
Sentimental wailings for the past
Serve the innocent purposes of life
Set down with meticulous care
Shames us out of our nonsense
Sharp outbursts of hatred and bitterness
Sharp restrictions of duty and opportunity
Sharply and definitely conceived
She had lost her way in a labyrinth of conjecture
She took refuge in a passionate exaggeration of her own insufficiency
Sheer midsummer madness
Silly displays of cheap animosity
Simple and obvious to a plain understanding
Sinister and fatal augury [augury = sign of something coming; omen]
Skulking beneath a high-sounding benevolence
Slack-minded skimming of newspapers
Slavish doctrines of sectarianism
Slow and resistless forces of conviction
Smug respectability and self-content
Snatch some advantage
Socialized and exacting studies
Some very undignified disclosures
Something essentially inexpressible
Something stifling and over-perfumed
Spinning a network of falsehoods
Spiritual and moral significance
Staring in helpless bewilderment
Stealthily escaping observation
Stern determination to inflict summary justice
Stigmatized as moral cowards
Stimulated to profitable industry
Stopped as if on the verge of profundities
Strange frankness of cynical brutality
Strange streak of melancholy
Strangled by a snare of words
Strenuous and conscientious endeavor
Stretched out in dreary monotony
Strict and unalloyed veracity
Struck incessantly and remorselessly
Stupendous and awe-inspiring spectacle
Subject to the vicissitudes of fortune
[vicissitudes = sudden or unexpected changes]
Subjected to the grossest cruelties
Subordination to the common weal
Subservient to the ends of religion
Sudden and inexplicable changes of mood
Suddenly and imperatively summoned
Suddenly swelled to unprecedented magnitude
Sufficient to repel vulgar curiosity
Suggestive sagacity and penetration [sagacity = farsighted; wise]
Suit the means to the end
Sullen and widespread discontent
Superior in strength and prowess
Supported by a splendid fearlessness
Supremely and undeniably great
Susceptible to every impulse and stimulus
Sustained dignity and mellifluous precision
[mellifluous = flowing with honey; smooth and sweet]
Swamping every aspiration and ambition
Swift and vehement outbursts of feeling
T
Take root in the heart
Take vengeance upon arrogant self-assertion
Taken in their totality
Tamed and wonted to a settled existence
Tempered by the emotional warmth of high moral ideals
That way madness lies
The abysmal depths of despair
The accumulated bitterness of failure
The agonies of conscious failure
The air was full of the cry and clamor
The animadversions of critics [animadversions = Strong criticism]
The applause was unbounded
The best proof of its timeliness and salutariness
[salutariness = favorable]
The bewildered and tumultuous world
The blackest abyss of despair
The blemishes of an extraordinary reputation
The bluntness of a provincial
The bogey of bad luck [bogey = evil or mischievous spirit; hobgoblin]
The bounding pulse of youth
The brunt of life
The capacity for refined pursuits
The charming omniscience of youth
The cloak of cowardice
The collective life of humanity
The combined dictates of reason and experience
The companion of a noble and elevated spirit
The complaining gate swung open
The complex phenomena of life
The consequence of an agitated mind
The consequence of ignorance and childish assumption
The constant pressure of anxieties
The creature and tool of a party
The critical eyes of posterity
The dead and dusty past
The delimitation is sufficiently definite
The dictates of plain reason
The disjointed babble of the chronicler
The dull derision of the world
The dullest and most vacant minds
The dumb forces of brute nature
The dupe of some imposture
The eager pretentiousness of youth
The ebb and flow of events
The everlasting deluge of books
The evil was irremediable
The exchange of harmless amenities
The exertion of an inherent power
The expression was keenly intellectual
The facile conjectures of ignorant onlookers
The facts took him by the throat
The fitful swerving of passion
The flabbiness of our culture
The flaccid moods of prose
The flame of discord raged with redoubled fury
The flattest and most obvious truisms
The flippant insolence of a decadent skepticism
The foe of excess and immoderation
The fog of prejudice and ill-feeling
The frustration of their dearest hopes
The garb of civilization
The general infusion of wit
The gift of prophecy
The golden years of youth and maturity
The gratification of ambition
The grim reality of defeat
The hall-mark of a healthy humanity
The handmaid of tyranny
The hint of tranquillity and self-poise
The hints of an imaginable alliance
The hobgoblin of little minds
The holiest and most ennobling sensations of the soul
The hollowest of hollow shams
The homely virtue of practical utility
The hubbub and turmoil of the great world
The huge and thoughtful night
The hurly-burly of events
The idea was utterly hateful and repugnant
The idle of all hobbledehoys [hobbledehoys = gawky adolescent boy]
The ignoble exploitation of public interests
The imminent fatality awaiting him
The impulse of prejudice or caprice
The incorrigibility of perverse human nature
The incursions of a venomous rabble
The indulgence of an overweening self-conceit
The inevitable climax and culmination
The inference is inescapable
The infirmity and fallibility of human nature
The inflexible serenity of the wheeling sun
The ingenuities of legal verbiage
The inmost recesses of the human heart
The insipidity of indifference
The insolence of power
The irony of circumstances
The jaded weariness of overstrained living
The jargon of well-handled and voice-worn phrases
The jostling and ugliness of life
The lawyer's habit of circumspection and delay
The long-delayed hour of retribution
The lowest grade of precarious mendacity [mendacity = untruthfulness]
The makeshifts of mediocrity
The malarious air of after-dinner gossip
The mazes of conflicting testimony
The mean and frivolous affections of the idle
The menacing shadow of want
The mere fruit of his distempered imagination
The mere reversal of the wheel of fortune
The merest smattering of knowledge
The meticulous preciosity of the lawyer and the logician [preciosity = extreme overrefinement]
The most absurd elementary questions
The most amazing impudence
The most exacting and exciting business
The most fallacious of all fallacies
The most implacable logic
The most preposterous pride
The multitudinous tongue of the people
The outcome of unerring observation
The outraged conscience of mankind
The overpowering force of circumstances and necessity
The overweening exercise of power
The panacea for the evils of society
The panorama of history
The pernicious doctrines of skeptics
The perpetrator of clumsy witticisms
The precarious tenure of fame
The precursor of violence
The pretty and delicate game of talk
The primitive instinct of self-preservation
The property of little minds
The prophecies of visionaries and enthusiasts
The proprieties of etiquette
The purse-proud inflation of the moneyed man
The question was disconcertingly frank
The ravening wolves of brute instinct
The remark was sternly uncompromising
The result of caprice
The rigor of the law
The sanction and authority of a great name
The severest shocks of adverse fate
The sharp and vehement assertion of authority
The sinister influence of unprincipled men
The speaker drew an indignant breath
The springs of human action
The staple of conversation
The stillness of finality
The stings of self-reproach
The straightforward path of inexorable logic
The strong hand of executive authority
The sum and fruit of experience
The sum total of her impressions was negative
The summit of excellence
The supernatural prescience of prophecy
The sweet indulgence of good-nature
The sycophants of the rich
[sycophant = servile self-seeker attempting to win favor by flattery]
The taint of fretful ingratitude
The talk flowed
The target for ill-informed criticism
The tears welled up and flowed abundantly
The tediousness of inactivity
The tendency to evade implicit obligations
The ties of a common cause
The tranquil aspects of society
The tribute of affectionate applause
The ultimate verdict of mankind
The unbroken habit of a lifetime
The unimpeachable correctness of his demeanor
The unlicensed indulgence of curiosity
The unsophisticated period of youth
The utmost excitement and agitation
The vanishing thoughtlessness of youth
The vanity and conceit of insular self-satisfaction
The very texture of man's soul and life
The victim of an increasing irritability
The victorious assertion of personality
The virtue of taciturnity [taciturnity = habitually untalkative]
The voice was sharp and peremptory
[peremptory = ending all debate or action]
The want of serious and sustained thinking
The widest compass of human life
The wonderful pageant of consciousness
The words stabbed him
Their authenticity may be greatly questioned
Their indignation waxed fast and furious
Themes of perennial interest
There was a blank silence
There was no sense of diminution
They affected the tone of an impartial observer
They rent the air with shouts and acclamations
Thoughts which mock at human life
Through ever-widening circles of devastation
Through the distortions of prejudice
Thwarted by seeming insuperable obstacles
Time was dissolving the circle of his friends
Times of unexampled difficulty
Tinseled over with a gaudy embellishment of words
To a practised eye
To be sedulously avoided [sedulously = persevering]
To prosecute a scheme of personal ambition
To state the case is to prove it
Too preposterous for belief
Too puerile to notice
Too sanguine a forecast [sanguine = cheerfully confident; optimistic]
Torn asunder by eternal strife
Totally detached from all factions
Touched with a sort of reverential gratitude
Transcend the bounds of human credulity
Transitory in its nature
Transparent and ridiculous self-importance
Treasured up with a timid and niggardly thrift
Treated the idea with lofty scorn
Tremendous exploits and thrilling escapades
True incentives to knowledge
U
Unamiable and envious attributes
Unbounded devotion and indulgence
Uncharted oceans of thought
Unconquerable fidelity to duty
Under all conceivable circumstances
Under the sway of arbitrary opinions
Undertaken under propitious circumstances
[propitious = auspicious, favorable; kindly]
Uneasy sense of impending change
Unequaled simplicity and directness of purpose
Unexceptional in point of breeding
Unexpected obstacles and inextricable difficulties
Unfailing and miraculous foresight
Unfeigned astonishment and indignation
Unfounded and incredible calumnies
[calumnies = maliciously false statements]
Unhampered by binding alliances
Universal in their signification
Unjust and unrighteous persecution
Unreasoning and unquestioning attachment
Unrivaled beauty and excellence
Unrivaled gift of succinct and trenchant speech
[trenchant = forceful, effective, vigorous; incisive; distinct]
Unsparing industry and attention
Unspeakably alluring and satisfying
Unsurpassed in force and fitness
Unswerving and unselfish fidelity
Untiring enunciation of platitudes and fallacies
Unutterably trivial and paltry
Unwavering and unquestioning approbation
[approbation = warm approval; praise]
Unworthy and ungenerous treatment
Upbraid ourselves with folly
Urgent warning and admonition
Utterly and essentially irreverent
V
Vast and vague aspirations
Vastly complex and far-reaching problems
Vehemently and indignantly repudiated
Venerable and dignified conservatism
Versatile and essentially original
Versed in the arts of exciting tumult and sedition
[sedition = insurrection; rebellion]
Viewed in its general tenor and substance
Vigorous and well compacted
Violating all decency
Violent and unforeseen vicissitudes
[vicissitudes = sudden or unexpected changes]
Vitiated by intolerance and shortsightedness
[vitiated = reduce the value; corrupt morally; debase]
Vivid even to oppressiveness
Voracious and insatiable appetite
Vulgar eagerness for place
W
Warnings too pregnant to be disregarded
Warped by personal pretensions and self-consequence
We may parenthetically note
We must profoundly revere it
Weigh the merits and demerits
Welcomed at first with skeptical contempt
Well-concerted and well-timed stratagems
Whirled into rapid and ceaseless motion
Wholesale friction and discontent
Wholly devoid of public interest
Widely divergent social traits
Wield an unequaled and paramount authority
Wiser counsels prevailed
Withal decidedly handsome
Written in indelible characters upon his heart
Y
Yield to urgent representations
Z
Zealous in the cause he affected to serve