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effusive
in a sentence

show 88 more with this conextual meaning
  • He saw her just as he had seen her in history class, a pencil between her teeth, one hand laid against the nape of her neck, lost behind her effusive hair.†   (source)
  • Sure, Sal sounded talkative on his website, but would he be so effusive in person?†   (source)
  • "Is this the right road for Dictionopolis?" asked Milo, a little bowled over by the effusive greeting.†   (source)
  • The mouse recognized him and sat up, washing his face with his front paws and chattering effusively.†   (source)
  • My mom and I just weren't that effusive.†   (source)
  • I thanked him effusively, waving with giddy affection as I sailed through one of the unmanned doors into the terminal, where I spotted my friend Billy waiting for me.†   (source)
  • The expert was effusive.†   (source)
  • Maybe I slapped her thigh in my effusiveness, I don't know.†   (source)
  • Clara thanked me effusively and found it ever so lovely, but she never put it on.†   (source)
  • Milo's office was a barbershop, and his deputy mayor was a pudgy barber from whose obsequious lips cordial greetings foamed as effusively as the lather he began whipping up in Milo's shaving cup.†   (source)
  • "Looks like you just lost your best friend," says Mr. Dorosti, a youthful, effusive man, folding his arms across his linebacker-wide chest.†   (source)
  • Father Walter and I had an unwritten policy to rescue each other from her effusive praise after Mass.†   (source)
  • Clarence belted out his high-energy sermon from the pulpit, and his flock responded with even more effusive outcries of their own.†   (source)
  • The welcome was more effusive even than it had been on Staten Island.†   (source)
  • The man was packing his bag as Mary and her husband thanked him effusively.†   (source)
  • Young Griff's greeting was less effusive.†   (source)
  • The effusive applause competed with the growing murmurs of two hundred people in a closed room.†   (source)
  • Soon afterward a man wearing a suit came in, speaking effusively in Korean.†   (source)
  • For Claude Oreale, who had been so effusive with Jacqueline Javier on another staircase in Saint-Honore, had been told by a toothless landlady over the phone to get his sale gueule back to rue Racine and put a stop to the screaming and smashing of furniture that was taking place in his fifth-floor flat.†   (source)
  • The cabinet, to a man, is effusive in praise of the general and begs to hear details of the Appomattox surrender.†   (source)
  • However, whenever Lou had asked him about her namesake, Jack Cardinal had been effusive in his answer.†   (source)
  • His answer would be effusive.†   (source)
  • Making a pot of coffee was the automatic reaction to every event at New Street, and after effusive greetings and cries of "Good Lord, it's Hal!" and handshakes and embraces and kisses, somebody went off to fire up the pot.†   (source)
  • When Top Cat finally subsided and sank back into his desk, Prophet of the unknown tongue continued the interrupted marathon of Oz, an untranslatable potpourri of grunts and monosyllables, punctuated only by Prophet's beautifully effusive smiles.†   (source)
  • Rabbit greeted Cal effusively, as a country man always greets an acquaintance in a strange place.†   (source)
  • Whatever it was, he was evidently keeping to himself some important secret that burdened him, while pouring out his heart all the more effusively on every other subject.†   (source)
  • Her manner is unnaturally effusive.†   (source)
  • Jordan shook Powell's hand effusively.†   (source)
  • He was received effusively, because he was one of the undisputed leaders of the right and because, having prepared for what might happen, he had made the necessary contacts months in advance.†   (source)
  • Bennington greeted me effusively when I came in, grinning his cunning, endearing grin and asking me how I had withstood the cold that week.†   (source)
  • The Hunters were effusive people, or so I'd noticed while letting them in and taking their coats.†   (source)
  • She had been carefully trained by her upbringing, she said, to avoid effusive displays of feeling, but this did not mean her heart was shallow.†   (source)
  • "It is impossible to exceed this," Adams continued in an effusive account in his diary that he was to regret having written.†   (source)
  • 'Ah, Marchese Milo,' he declared with effusive pleasure, pushing the fat, disgruntled woman out the door without even looking toward her.†   (source)
  • They're effusive in their praise.†   (source)
  • General Peckem welcomed Colonel Scheisskopf with effusive charm and said he was delighted to have him.†   (source)
  • It's her day, too, she resolves, looking across a dining hall filled with effusive, chatty parents and freshmen, though her song is flat and elemental-an old, familiar harmony, really, about sacrifice and denial and a child venturing where the parent never could.†   (source)
  • HOPE—(calls to them effusively) Come on and join the party, you broads!†   (source)
  • HOPE—(calls effusively) Hey there, Larry!†   (source)
  • I sympathize effusively; I also sit, like a toad in a hole, receiving with perfect coldness whatever comes.†   (source)
  • He passed the stewed apricots effusively.†   (source)
  • Yet White Fang was never effusively affectionate.†   (source)
  • "How can I thank you, Kuzma Kuzmitch?" cried Mitya effusively.†   (source)
  • George Willard, who had been sitting for an hour idly playing with a lead pencil, greeted him effusively.†   (source)
  • He tried to get right by inquiring effusively after Mr. Beebe's mother, an old lady for whom he had no particular regard.†   (source)
  • He however was not troubled by obscure meanings; he thanked me effusively and bolted out, calling Good-bye over his shoulder.†   (source)
  • And so, after this dinner, drawing her aside, he took care to thank her effusively, seeking to indicate to her by the extent of his gratitude the corresponding intensity of the pleasures which it was in her power to bestow on him, the supreme pleasure being to guarantee him immunity, for as long as his love should last and he remain vulnerable, from the assaults of jealousy.†   (source)
  • They were met at the door of the hotel by the manager, a stout, pleasant man, who spoke tolerable English; Mr. Goodworthy was an old friend and he greeted them effusively; they dined in his private room with his wife, and to Philip it seemed that he had never eaten anything so delicious as the beefsteak aux pommes, nor drunk such nectar as the vin ordinaire, which were set before them.†   (source)
  • She was made happy by the sight, and when George Willard came to the door she greeted him effusively and hurriedly put on her hat.†   (source)
  • Welcome to old England!" said Lord Antony, effusively, as he came eagerly forward with both hands outstretched towards the newcomers.†   (source)
  • She looked up at the stranger, and this time, with a cry of unfeigned pleasure, she put out both her hands effusively towards him.†   (source)
  • Little Suzanne caught that look; the child's sweet nature went out to the beautiful woman, scarcely older than herself; filial obedience vanished before girlish sympathy; at the door she turned, ran back to Marguerite, and putting her arms round her, kissed her effusively; then only did she follow her mother, Sally bringing up the rear, with a final curtsey to my lady.†   (source)
  • He had worn in his young manhood a waistcoat of Nain-Londrin, which he was fond of talking about effusively.†   (source)
  • "Thank you so very much," I said at last, effusively, as I put the pipe in my pocket, not without a qualm of doubt as to whether I shouldn't find myself before a magistrate presently.†   (source)
  • Mitya spoke much and quickly, nervously and effusively, as though he positively took his listeners to be his best friends.†   (source)
  • Writing to Fyodor Pavlovitch, and discerning at once that he could extract nothing from him for his children's education (though the latter never directly refused but only procrastinated as he always did in such cases, and was, indeed, at times effusively sentimental), Yefim Petrovitch took a personal interest in the orphans.†   (source)
  • [Suddenly his effusive manner collapses, as she stares at him gravely.†   (source)
  • She stopped Alvah Scarret's effusive greetings.†   (source)
  • Sister Veve had a narrow discontented face, a metallic vivacity, an effusive cordiality.†   (source)
  • He doffed his hat without effusiveness, as did his companion, Coston Smathers, the furniture man (you furnish the girl, we furnish the house).†   (source)
  • The D.H.C. had at that moment sat down on one of the steel and rubber benches conveniently scattered through the gardens; but at the sight of the stranger, he sprang to his feet and darted forward, his hand outstretched, smiling with all his teeth, effusive.†   (source)
  • …separate but all marvellously controlled in an invisible elastic net—danced up and down in Lily's mind, in and about the branches of the pear tree, where still hung in effigy the scrubbed kitchen table, symbol of her profound respect for Mr. Ramsay's mind, until her thought which had spun quicker and quicker exploded of its own intensity; she felt released; a shot went off close at hand, and there came, flying from its fragments, frightened, effusive, tumultuous, a flock of starlings.†   (source)
  • 'Yet when six o'clock comes and I touch my hat to the commissionaire, being always too effusive in ceremony since I desire so much to be accepted; and struggle, leaning against the wind, buttoned up, with my jaws blue and my eyes running water, I wish that a little typist would cuddle on my knees; I think that my favourite dish is liver and bacon; and so am apt to wander to the river, to the narrow streets where there are frequent public-houses, and the shadows of ships passing at the…†   (source)
  • She was at her worst—effusive, insincere.†   (source)
  • But she had only been a vain, worldly, complacent, effusive little fool.†   (source)
  • At the Jolly Seventeen, two days after, she was effusive to Maud Dyer, to Juanita Haydock.†   (source)
  • What is all this growing love of pageantry, this effusive loyalty, this officious rising and uncovering at a wave from a flag or a blast from a brass band?†   (source)
  • They all received Evgenie Pavlovitch with effusive delight; Adelaida and Alexandra were deeply grateful to him for his "angelic kindness to the unhappy prince."†   (source)
  • The quality of Mrs. Bry's hospitality, and of the tips her husband had presumably imparted, lent to the manner of the English ladies a general effusiveness which shed the rosiest light over their hostess's future.†   (source)
  • She went up effusive to them both, with not a single touch of embarrassment in her manner or in her smile.†   (source)
  • He sprung his secret about Huck's share in the adventure in the finest dramatic manner he was master of, but the surprise it occasioned was largely counterfeit and not as clamorous and effusive as it might have been under happier circumstances.†   (source)
  • Each one emerged taut, neat, and brand-new from his mobile lips; he savored every educated, biting, nimble turn of phrase that he used, taking obvious, effusive, and exhilarating enjoyment even in grammatical inflections and conjugations, and seemed to have far too much clear presence of mind ever to misspeak himself.†   (source)
  • Presently, with an odour of cooking, the Frau Professor came in, a short, very stout woman with tightly dressed hair and a red face; she had little eyes, sparkling like beads, and an effusive manner.†   (source)
  • Her older sister, Margaret, was matronly and dignified, probably from having assumed matronly and housewifely responsibilities too early in life, their mother having died when they were quite young, Margaret was not effusive; she was practical.†   (source)
  • His manner was not effusive.†   (source)
  • As he shook the young man's hand, an effusive smile revealed yellowish teeth under his beard, and in a baritone voice betraying the drawl of a foreign accent, he said, "We bid you welcome, Herr Castorp.†   (source)
  • Her eyes beamed an effusive welcome.†   (source)
  • Yet, said Sally, in her emotional way, with a rush of that enthusiasm which Peter used to love her for, yet dreaded a little now, so effusive she might become—how generous to her friends Clarissa was! and what a rare quality one found it, and how sometimes at night or on Christmas Day, when she counted up her blessings, she put that friendship first.†   (source)
  • He galloped to the station, brought home railway maps, and traced motor-routes from Gopher Prairie to Winnipeg or Des Moines or Grand Marais, thinking aloud and expecting her to be effusive about such academic questions as "Now I wonder if we could stop at Baraboo and break the jump from La Crosse to Chicago?"†   (source)
  • The world he was addressing was not one with a tradition of humanistic rhetoric; the answers he received were no more effusive than his postcards and usually accompanied the monies needed for his maintenance here—interest on his paternal inheritance, the conversion of which into Swiss currency worked so much to his advantage that he never used up one installment before the next arrived from home.†   (source)
  • She thanked him with just so much effusiveness as was seemly in presence of the grief he might be supposed to feel, and left him.†   (source)
  • He was silent and rather awkward, but sometimes, when he was alone with any one, he became talkative and effusive, and would laugh at anything or nothing.†   (source)
  • There was an entire absence of effusive benevolence in his manner; there was something almost cold in the gravity of his look and voice.†   (source)
  • The Hurree Babu of his knowledge—oily, effusive, and nervous—was gone; gone, too, was the brazen drug-vendor of overnight.†   (source)
  • Her experience had been of a kind to teach her, rightly or wrongly, that the doubtful honour of a brief transmit through a sorry world hardly called for effusiveness, even when the path was suddenly irradiated at some half-way point by daybeams rich as hers.†   (source)
  • They ate, thanked Roxy and her man Zack in the simple uneffusive mountain fashion, and started away in the twilight of dawn.†   (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in uneffusive means not and reverses the meaning of effusive. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
  • His initial impression was he was a shade standoffish or not over effusive but it grew on him someway.†   (source)
  • A more prudent course, as Bloom said to the not over effusive, in fact like the distinguished personage under discussion beside him, would have been to sound the lie of the land first.†   (source)
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