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lenient
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  • She most often got them leniency, and they always brought in the vote.   (source)
  • That he would be leniently treated, I could not hope.   (source)
    leniently = with a lack of strictness
  • But in other points, as well as this, I was growing very lenient to my master: I was forgetting all his faults, for which I had once kept a sharp look-out.   (source)
    lenient = tolerant or forgiving
  • 'His father died in debt,' he said; 'the whole property is mortgaged, and the sole chance for the natural heir is to allow him an opportunity of creating some interest in the creditor's heart, that he may be inclined to deal leniently towards him.'   (source)
    leniently = without strictness
  • Roy thought it was a good opportunity to renew his plea for leniency.†   (source)
  • But my mother would tell me that people are flawed and I should be lenient with them.†   (source)
  • Fudge had been lenient with him because he was so relieved to find him alive.†   (source)
  • I just can't believe how lenient they are."†   (source)
  • Yet Owen was not grateful for the leniency shown to him by the school; he was outraged that he had been punished at all.†   (source)
  • Leniency for confession, severity for resistance!†   (source)
  • I have been lenient in the past, allowing our Red brothers a good life full of prosperity, of dignity.†   (source)
  • I was watching a beg for leniency on my mother's part.†   (source)
  • The substitute teacher was younger than most of the other staff, and she seemed more lenient.†   (source)
  • Yet, she's extremely lenient in other regards.†   (source)
  • The police show leniency toward anyone at the camp.†   (source)
  • Is that the kind of leniency you show your boys on their math and French in school?†   (source)
  • I'm not asking for acquittal, or even leniency, but I am asking for fairness.†   (source)
  • In my estimation — and I was at the Asylum for more years than he has yet been there — his policies of leniency have led him to undertake a fool's errand, namely the transforming of sows' ears into silk purses.†   (source)
  • No reports, even from Idris, so the Clave is feeling lenient.†   (source)
  • The Duke is a man of much leniency, but brooks little familiarity.†   (source)
  • He could very likely have appealed for leniency.†   (source)
  • After each session, Santiclo is supposed to collect them, but he's pretty lenient with us.†   (source)
  • Furthermore, before they adjourned, Mr. Tuffett would say he knew who did it, and if the party wished leniency he would appear at his office not later than two o'clock with a statement in writing.†   (source)
  • The judges of the dead wouldn't be lenient to her a second time.†   (source)
  • When the weather was cold the guards were fairly lenient in the morning, though not in the evening.†   (source)
  • Assuming an aggressive, sneering manner that seemed forced, for really he is a mild and lenient man, Smith asked the witness if he had a nickname.†   (source)
  • An appellate court might decide that de Wet had been too lenient and that we deserved the death penalty.†   (source)
  • And so-called honor killings were still viewed leniently in Sharia courts.†   (source)
  • If we become outspoken in our opposition to the Empire, Galbatorix won't be so lenient again.†   (source)
  • For instance: a study of California auto mechanics found they often passed up a small repair bill by letting failing cars pass emissions inspections—the reason being that lenient mechanics are rewarded with repeat business.†   (source)
  • To prepare for my sentencing, I wrote a personal statement to the court and broke my silence with more friends and coworkers, asking them to write letters vouching for my character and asking the judge for leniency.†   (source)
  • I've been far too lenient with the two of you.†   (source)
  • July was prepared to accept a certain rowdiness on the part of the cowboys as they passed through, but he felt no leniency at all for men like Jake Spoon.†   (source)
  • The bird promised him that she would return his leniency by finding food for him once she could fly again.†   (source)
  • If I find out you're hassling Otis or snooping around where you shouldn't, I'll be forced to take further action and I won't have the option of being so lenient."†   (source)
  • He knew that Major — de Coverley was his executive officer, but he did not know what that meant, and he could not decide whether in Major — de Coverley he was blessed with a lenient superior or cursed with a delinquent subordinate.†   (source)
  • I thought they were lenient with Snow Flower because they knew she would have servants one day and would never have to do these things herself.†   (source)
  • But you didn't even stand up and ask us for a lenient sentence.†   (source)
  • The next day, some said it was God, punishing the town for its leniency.†   (source)
  • Just now, though, you are in need of some of that leniency, it seems to me.†   (source)
  • It is the opinion of this court that the facts presented by the prosecution seem to warrant no leniency.†   (source)
  • Your case is cut and dried and there is no question of leniency.†   (source)
  • It was a move of convenience rather than leniency as the deck of the barge could barely hold all of them.†   (source)
  • He is so eager to see America healed that he has instructed Grant to offer Lee the most lenient surrender terms possible.†   (source)
  • I will, however, recommend leniency on the charges of possession and intent to distribute.†   (source)
  • Moreover, recent disorders showed that Authority had been too lenient.†   (source)
  • Leniency, a pardon—†   (source)
  • "Forget about a job," she said, which was very lenient of her.†   (source)
  • Can the law be as lenient as that?†   (source)
  • But before long now they too will leave and the house will become almost silent and before long the darkness, for all its leniency, will take my father and my mother and will bring them, even as I have been brought, to bed and to sleep.†   (source)
  • He has given us two weeks' time in which to go, which is lenient.†   (source)
  • Loch gave the sailor time, for it was he, Loch, who was in command of leniency here; he was giving him day after day.†   (source)
  • I grant you a leniency that others don't enjoy.   (source)
    leniency = less strictness or more tolerance than might be expected
  • Half an hour for breakfast, and no shower after a battle--it was still stingy, but it would look lenient compared to fifteen minutes.   (source)
    lenient = not strict
  • This way, if the districts lose, there's still a chance of leniency for you.†   (source)
  • 'Leniency to those who confess, and severity to those who resist.'†   (source)
  • If he had, why hadn't he been treated with leniency?†   (source)
  • Leniency for those who confess, severity for those who resist.†   (source)
  • She had offered them rewards, promised leniency, honors, gold, positions at court.†   (source)
  • The Russian prime minister, Leonid Brezhnev, wrote to Dr. Verwoerd asking for leniency.†   (source)
  • It would be nice if you composed a letter of thanks for his leniency" He glanced at me and Mate, resting his eyes on Patria last.†   (source)
  • "And you would be very grateful for the captain's leniency in allowing you to go," Patria reminded me, embedding my request in her scold.†   (source)
  • He had made up the story about the foreign radio, thinking that if he confessed to something, he would be treated with leniency.†   (source)
  • If he continued to hold back, they would have to name him publicly, and he would lose his chance at leniency.†   (source)
  • Confess and I'll show you leniency.†   (source)
  • "Leniency," said Magnus.†   (source)
  • We screamed so loud that some of our neighbors came and knocked on our door, begging for leniency, but my niang explained what had happened and our neighbors finally left the matter to our parents.†   (source)
  • Coupled with the above-cited leniency in the other half of the criminal justice system, the courtrooms, this decrease in policing created a strong positive incentive for criminals.†   (source)
  • When the Lightwoods and the other Circle members were tried for treason against the Clave, the Penhallows voted for leniency.†   (source)
  • I ask leniency only for my friends.†   (source)
  • Bearing this in mind and giving the matter very serious consideration I have decided not to impose the supreme penalty which in a case like this would usually be the proper penalty for the crime, but consistent with my duty that is the only leniency which I can show.†   (source)
  • Break curfew again and we won't be so lenient!†   (source)
  • She's either extremely lenient or extremely strict.†   (source)
  • They would be lenient— "I can never come back to the Clave," he said with a hard satisfaction.†   (source)
  • But cross me, and I will not be as lenient as Reyna.†   (source)
  • He should have died for what he did, but the Clave was lenient—and where did it get them?†   (source)
  • I am too meek and weak and cautious, too lenient to our enemies.†   (source)
  • What happened to make them so lenient?†   (source)
  • It seems they made a deal with the Clave, after the Uprising, to ensure some kind of lenient treatment for themselves, while Hodge—well, we know what happened to him.†   (source)
  • In his view, the prosecutor general was too lenient with cases concerning what were, in his view, direct crimes against the Swedish constitution.†   (source)
  • Given your newness to this community, your ignorance of the master plan, and your genetic deficiency, we are inclined to be lenient.†   (source)
  • The procedures of this dinner out with the important Fannings had been explained to the girls so many times in the last few days and particularly today that there really was no point in clowning around to get their mother to be more lenient.†   (source)
  • I promise Kronos will be lenient.†   (source)
  • Mr. Ruiz and Mr. Montes also received a very lenient form of incarceration, of which Mr. Montes took advantage and appears to have left the country.†   (source)
  • At the same time, they extolled my virtues and repeated phrases such as If only we could persuade that worthy family to wait a few years before taking you, or It is sad we are now separated, while entreating my in-laws to be lenient and teach me their family customs with patience.†   (source)
  • I only wish Cromwell had been less lenient and humane in his dealings with these pitiful, contemptible brutes.†   (source)
  • But Lincoln's lenient plan for the South is not borne solely out of kindness nor with just the simple goal of healing the nation.†   (source)
  • I promise Kronos will be lenient.†   (source)
  • Much to the distress of psychiatrists and liberal jurists, the Rule prevails in the courts of the British Commonwealth and, in the United States, in the courts of all but half a dozen or so of the states and the District of Columbia, which abide by the more lenient, though to some minds impractical, Durham Rule, which is simply that an accused is not criminally responsible if his unlawful act is the product of mental disease or mental defect.†   (source)
  • Explaining why he had not applied for a change of venue, he said, "I felt that since the Reverend Cowan, the minister of the Methodist church, and a man of substance here, a man of high standing, as well as many other ministers here, had expressed themselves against capital punishment, that at least the leaven had been cast in the area, and there were likely more people here inclined to be lenient in the matter of the penalty than perhaps in other parts of the state.†   (source)
  • In retrospect, it is clear that one of the major factors pushing this trend was WHERE HAVE ALL THE CRIMINALS GONE? a more lenient justice system.†   (source)
  • Worse still, the liberal Progressive Federal Party had been replaced as the official opposition by the Conservative Party, which was to the right of the Nationalists and campaigned on the theme that the government was too lenient with the black opposition.†   (source)
  • I never appreciated what a high art the fan dance can be until the first time I watched a French girl get out of her clothes and into her bikini in plain sight of citizens, tourists, gendarmes, dogs—and me—all without quite violating the lenient French mores concerning "indecent exposure."†   (source)
  • He pleaded with the judge for leniency; he explained that he had no desire to see Mallory's future and career destroyed.†   (source)
  • A gift of pointers meant a certain amount of leniency on the rabbi's part, a certain amount of preference.†   (source)
  • Poirot gazed at them more leniently than I did, and straightened one or two that were hanging a shade askew.†   (source)
  • And the Old Man--he did correspondence courses in philosophy at a bunch of universities, it was his hobby, and was forever writing out assignments--he took to me too, though he didn't approve of my leniency.†   (source)
  • LOMAX [leniently] Well, the more destructive war becomes, the sooner it will be abolished, eh?†   (source)
  • Her leniency had, in a way, inflamed his regard.†   (source)
  • When Mr. Roach heard his name he smiled quite leniently.†   (source)
  • At worst, they were gilded affairs, and with what leniency are gilded errors viewed.†   (source)
  • There was one person among his new acquaintance in Surry, not so leniently disposed.†   (source)
  • It matters little now, except as it may dispose you to think more leniently of his errors.'†   (source)
  • Don Carlos was either a capital actor and gratefully relieved at Stewart's leniency or else he was thoroughly cowed by references to the troops.†   (source)
  • More than once, when some great dignitary, some gilded vassal of the crown, made argument against his leniency, and urged that some law which he was bent upon amending was gentle enough for its purpose, and wrought no suffering or oppression which any one need mightily mind, the young King turned the mournful eloquence of his great compassionate eyes upon him and answered— "What dost THOU know of suffering and oppression?†   (source)
  • Its hint of future leniency made Rosedale rise in obedience to it, a little flushed with his unhoped-for success, and disciplined by the tradition of his blood to accept what was conceded, without undue haste to press for more.†   (source)
  • I had leisure to think, before the kitchen fire, of pretty little Emily's dread of death — which, added to what Mr. Omer had told me, I took to be the cause of her being so unlike herself — and I had leisure, before Peggotty came down, even to think more leniently of the weakness of it: as I sat counting the ticking of the clock, and deepening my sense of the solemn hush around me.†   (source)
  • He thought he had the demonstration of facts observed through years by his own eyes, which gave no warning of their imperfection, that Maggie's nature was utterly untrustworthy, and too strongly marked with evil tendencies to be safely treated with leniency.†   (source)
  • Thus grew up a double system of justice, which erred on the white side by undue leniency and the practical immunity of red-handed criminals, and erred on the black side by undue severity, injustice, and lack of discrimination.†   (source)
  • I sit on a public body which prosecutes Mrs Warren zealously; and I can assure Mr Grein that she is often leniently dealt with because she has conducted her business "respectably" and held herself above its vilest branches.†   (source)
  • With many interruptions, and repeated insults, Mr. Brownlow contrived to state his case; observing that, in the surprise of the moment, he had run after the boy because he had saw him running away; and expressing his hope that, if the magistrate should believe him, although not actually the thief, to be connected with the thieves, he would deal as leniently with him as justice would allow.†   (source)
  • A new searching light had fallen on her husband's character, and she could not judge him leniently: the twenty years in which she had believed in him and venerated him by virtue of his concealments came back with particulars that made them seem an odious deceit.†   (source)
  • "A lady so graceful and accomplished," he said, kissing his right glove and afterwards extending it towards the pupils, "will look leniently on the deficiencies here.†   (source)
  • I will appeal to the law too; but when you have gone too far to recede, do not sue to me for leniency, when the power will have passed into other hands; and do not say I plunged you down the gulf into which you rushed, yourself.'†   (source)
  • He was lenient about my greenness, and I had some support from him and Jimmy when I took sick with love, with classic symptoms of choked appetite and utter absorption, hankering, great refinements of respect in looks, incompetent, and full of movie-born ideas and phrases of popular songs.†   (source)
  • In these parts, where Wang Lung had lived all his life and his father and his father's father had lived upon the land, there were famines once in five years or so, or if the gods were lenient, once in seven or eight or even ten years.†   (source)
  • Then the merchant, being a lenient and kindly man, replied, "Well, and if this is how it is, let the maid come and I will speak to my son's mother, and she can come and be safe here in the courts with her mother-in-law, and after the next harvest or so, she can be wed.†   (source)
  • …and the benefit of the doubt even to a man charged with an outrageous crime… "…but after conscientious investigation and in the light of new evidence placed before us, we find ourselves obliged honestly to admit that we might have been too lenient… "…A society awakened to a new sense of responsibility toward the underprivileged…"…We join the voice of public opinion…"…The past, the career, the personality of Howard Roark seem to support the widespread impression that he is a…†   (source)
  • "You are too lenient, too lenient by far, Leonce," asserted the Colonel.†   (source)
  • You take a very lenient view, Mr Ramsden.†   (source)
  • He'll be more lenient to a special case."†   (source)
  • The pain and the yearning in Shefford's heart made him lenient.†   (source)
  • ' "I am glad to see you taking a lenient view," I said.†   (source)
  • In as lenient a manner as I possibly could.†   (source)
  • Ona was quite certain that she would find her place gone, and was all unnerved when she finally got to Brown's, and found that the forelady herself had failed to come, and was therefore compelled to be lenient.†   (source)
  • Vida was lenient to Carol at the surgical-dressing class; Mrs. Dave Dyer flattered her with questions about her health, baby, cook, and opinions on the war.†   (source)
  • She gave him a little, lenient smile.†   (source)
  • If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here who may be more successful.†   (source)
  • That's why he's lenient.†   (source)
  • Too lenient to my mind.†   (source)
  • And you, being a good man, can pass it as such, and forgive and pity the dreamer, and be lenient and encouraging when he wakes?†   (source)
  • He did not distinguish what sort of love his might be, big or little, passionate or passionless, lasting or passing (he kept a ballet girl himself, though he was the father of a family, so he was lenient in these matters), but he knew that this love affair was viewed with displeasure by those whom it was necessary to please, and therefore he did not approve of his brother's conduct.†   (source)
  • I would ask you, dearest, to be very generous with him always, and very lenient on his faults when he is not by.†   (source)
  • And strange to say, though he was firmly persuaded of his guilt, yet after Mitya was once in prison, the old man came to take a more and more lenient view of him.†   (source)
  • Those whose extensive researches have given them the means of judging my backslidings with more severity, will probably be lenient in proportion to their knowledge of the difficulty of my task.†   (source)
  • I set myself above him and so become much worse than he, for he is lenient to my rudeness while I on the contrary nourish contempt for him.†   (source)
  • He asked his partner to explain the invention to him; 'having a lenient consideration,' he stipulated, 'for my being no workman, Doyce.'†   (source)
  • Henrietta proved an indestructible sight-seer and a more lenient judge than Ralph had ventured to hope.†   (source)
  • The same perplexity will invariably haunt us with regard to natures that tend to feed exclusively upon the Beautiful, let their earthly fate be as lenient as it may.†   (source)
  • I have wanted to make you happy, and I have been repaid with the basest ingratitude; but though you have proved yourself incapable of appreciating my kindness, I will be lenient towards you, Linda.†   (source)
  • The masculine mind of St. Ogg's smiled pleasantly, and did not wonder that Kenn liked to see a fine pair of eyes daily, or that he was inclined to take so lenient a view of the past; the feminine mind, regarded at that period as less powerful, took a more melancholy view of the case.†   (source)
  • Her mind made up on these several points, and her resolution formed, of always judging and acting in future with the greatest good sense, she had nothing to do but to forgive herself and be happier than ever; and the lenient hand of time did much for her by insensible gradations in the course of another day.†   (source)
  • [26] Gould also protested against /to jeopardize/, /leniency/ and /to demean/, and Richard Grant White joined him in an onslaught upon /to donate/.†   (source)
  • Speak to your husband, I mean; ask him to be, er, lenient?†   (source)
  • I began to think that Geilie perhaps had been right in considering this a fairly lenient sentence, given the overall state of current Scottish jurisprudence, though this didn't alter by one whit my opinion as to the barbarity of it.†   (source)
  • *alike* And shortly, when his ire is thus agone, He gan to look on them with eyen light*, *gentle, lenient* And spake these same wordes *all on height.†   (source)
  • Be not always strict, nor yet always lenient, but observe a mean between these two extremes, for in that is the aim of wisdom.†   (source)
  • In short it was with just cause that we were visited with the penalty of banishment, a mild and lenient one in the eyes of some, but to us the most terrible that could be inflicted upon us.†   (source)
  • "All that is true, Senor Don Quixote," said Carrasco; "but I wish such fault-finders were more lenient and less exacting, and did not pay so much attention to the spots on the bright sun of the work they grumble at; for if aliquando bonus dormitat Homerus, they should remember how long he remained awake to shed the light of his work with as little shade as possible; and perhaps it may be that what they find fault with may be moles, that sometimes heighten the beauty of the face that…†   (source)
  • Bear in mind that the culprit who comes under thy jurisdiction is but a miserable man subject to all the propensities of our depraved nature, and so far as may be in thy power show thyself lenient and forbearing; for though the attributes of God are all equal, to our eyes that of mercy is brighter and loftier than that of justice.†   (source)
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