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phalanx
in a sentence
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  • His hands were massive enough to juggle cantaloupes, and a single letter was tattooed on the base phalange of each finger, thumbs excluded, to spell out ANABOLIC, as in anabolic steroid.†   (source)
  • The first joint was all right, but the second phalange was cracked, I thought.†   (source)
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show 10 more examples with any meaning
  • Qin Shi Huang glanced over the phalanx with pride in his eyes.†   (source)
  • By the time he was ten, it was perfectly clear that the Count was neither priggish nor regimental (as a phalanx of educators, caretakers, and constables could attest).†   (source)
  • Twelve days later it ended when the last two suspects were apprehended in a house in Philadelphia by a daunting phalanx of police and federal agents.†   (source)
  • The phalanx following carried spears or lances tasseled with ribbons, the long blades hammered out of trucksprings in some crude forge upcountry.†   (source)
  • We approached him in a phalanx.†   (source)
  • Still we were forbidden even to wrap ourselves in our own arms, but had to maintain our erect, hands-at-sides position as we filed slowly past a phalanx of grinning guards.†   (source)
  • He was standing out front, surrounded by a phalanx of reporters.†   (source)
  • That meant a maximum capacity of four hundred demigods—enough for several phalanxes or one really amazing yacht party.†   (source)
  • He looks at the next Phalanx gun and finds himself staring straight down its barrels.†   (source)
  • As they moved through the phalanx of doorways, all of the rooms looked the same, doors ajar, apparently abandoned long ago.†   (source)
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show 87 more examples with any meaning
  • A phalanx of Moloch demons, flames jetting from their empty eyes, blocked their retreat.†   (source)
  • The next afternoon Serena called me and said that a formidable phalanx of radiologists, pediatricians, and cancer doctors had just spent an hour studying John's X rays and bone scans and ct scans.†   (source)
  • Freeze, his speakers cried, and a phalanx of policemen in SWAT jackets stormed onto the screen.†   (source)
  • Each name summons an image in my head—a face, a voice, a form—until it feels as if my fallen comrades are rising up around me, a phalanx of ghosts.†   (source)
  • He lifted her foot, both delicate and swollen inside the light blue sock, and began to massage it gently: the powerful tarsal bone of her heel, the metatarsals and the phalanges, hidden beneath skin and densely layered muscles like a fan about to open.†   (source)
  • When their squabbles reach a certain mother-annoying level, they are called away by their nursemaids, who sit on stools at the far end of the patio, a phalanx of starched white uniforms.†   (source)
  • But this diverse army of experts now marched out a phalanx of hypotheses to explain the drop in crime.†   (source)
  • We were loaded into a passenger van with a bunch of guys and whisked downtown through rush-hour traffic in a phalanx of unmarked and heavily secured white vehicles.†   (source)
  • The camera phalanx in the tunnels.†   (source)
  • Around him, close enough to touch, was a dense phalanx of horses moving at terrific speed: Indian Broom on the rail, Pompoon on the outside, Mandingham right on Fair Knightess's tail.†   (source)
  • Along with more than eighty aircraft, it was armed with two Guided Missile Launching System Mark-29 launchers for Sea Sparrow missiles, two Phalanx close-in weapon systems for attacking incoming missiles, and two Rolling Airframe Missile. launchers that fire infrared homing surface-to-air missiles.†   (source)
  • At the trailhead, a phalanx of arms guided him up into the bed of a pickup and piled in after him.†   (source)
  • A phalanx of official vehicles bore the logo of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.†   (source)
  • Once or twice the travellers heard the rush and whine of swan-wings, and looking up they saw a great phalanx streaming along the sky.†   (source)
  • The charge exploded prematurely, almost as soon as it was thrown, showering the phalanx of Wendigo and Shadow-Born in dirt, but nothing more.†   (source)
  • While Long and his phalanx of dark-suited men are clearly in charge, this is mostly a place for young children and their single mothersthe fierce church-women, who do most of the work around here.†   (source)
  • We heard a rumble that sounded like war drums; a phalanx of eight motorcycles emerged out of the ether, two abreast, the air shimmering around the engine's fins.†   (source)
  • Before her, she could see the armies drawn up as she had expected, the Attolians spread thinly in an indefensible battle line, the Medes forming their phalanxes behind them.†   (source)
  • When their paths did cross, she muttered "Hello" and hurried off, usually flanked by a protective phalanx of girlfriends.†   (source)
  • The seniors of R Company had gathered around me in a protective phalanx, enveloped me in the heart of the company, bantered with me all the way out to the field, and, in the way of the Corps, tried to make me forget for a time the events that had led to my imminent expulsion.†   (source)
  • Everywhere he went, what the staffers called a "mini-rally" seemed to develop, impromptu phalanges of citizens and reporters gathering about him on three sides, the fourth always kept open and clear for what the staffers called the "visuals."†   (source)
  • No one was able to resist the overturned truck, and as the sentries ran to it, holding their rifles by the throat and swinging the butts like pendula, Alessandro walked past a phalanx of cooks who had gathered to watch the catastrophe.†   (source)
  • Everybody sat around stupidly for a few minutes until finally the bailiffs, now in a tight phalanx, dragged Johnny Wayne back into the room.†   (source)
  • I know, to my certain knowledge, that two phalanges were sent to the Moon less than a year ago to serve as policemen.†   (source)
  • As Marie heard the words, she was confronted by a phalanx of women shoppers.†   (source)
  • All this Leslie pours out to me in a terrible rush as if I too were momentarily only another in that ever-changing phalanx of practitioners which has attended her woes and wretchednesses for over four years.†   (source)
  • The Rakasha assembled then about the cavern, standing in great phalanxes of flame, and their cries all came together into one steady, ringing note which rolled and rolled and beat within his head, until he realized, startled at the thought, that they were singing.†   (source)
  • The Ares cabin was on the front line, drilling in phalanx formation with Clarisse calling orders.†   (source)
  • Bull Number One crashed into her shield, and the phalanx broke.†   (source)
  • On the ground below, colors in the phalanx began to shift and move.†   (source)
  • Below them, al magnificent phalanx of thirty million Qin soldiers was arrayed on the ground.†   (source)
  • Though it was powerful, the phalanx also revealed the fragility of civilization.†   (source)
  • A growing phalanx of other strange creatures followed.†   (source)
  • A phalanx of Roman demigods marched through a moonlit vineyard.†   (source)
  • An entire phalanx of Cyclopes charged forward, knocking smaller monsters out of the way.†   (source)
  • Tyson tried to protest, but I was already running up the hill toward Clarisse, who was yelling at her patrol, trying to get them into phalanx formation.†   (source)
  • On parents' weekend he and his friends would dress up in black and stride around the campus, a phalanx of about thirty African American and Hispanic students, and one Korean, sometimes chanting, sometimes maintaining a threatening silence, and noting with pleasure the double takes and frightened looks on the faces of some of the parents.†   (source)
  • The radar gear thoughtfully identifies these, onscreen, as the radar antennas of Phalanx antimissile guns.†   (source)
  • One of the giants bellowed at the Ares phalanx, smashed it sideways with his club, and the entire cabin was thrown aside, a dozen warriors tossed to the wind like rag dolls.†   (source)
  • In the stairwell, several departing passengers leaped out of the way, plastering themselves to the walls as the phalanx of armed men in black thundered past them.†   (source)
  • He gets it settled down in the middle, right on one of those Phalanx guns, and perks the trigger for half a second.†   (source)
  • At the same time, a dozen or so other men are standing up from their tables, forming up behind the first one in a grinning, Sunburned phalanx of Confederate flags and sideburns.†   (source)
  • Uncle Enzo holding up one hand to stop an Uzi-toting Hispanic scumbag; behind him stands a pan-ethnic phalanx of kids and grannies, resolutely gripping baseball bats and frying pans.†   (source)
  • But when a flock of birds wandered above the phalanx, the birds immediately felt the potential for death from below and scattered anxiously in chaos.†   (source)
  • Hiro runs for a few seconds, finds a pontoon where he can steady himself and opens up again with a long burst; when he's finished, the edge of the Enterprise has a jagged semicircular bite taken out of it where the Phalanx gun used to be.†   (source)
  • As the sun rose, the phalanx remained still like a giant carpet made of thirty million terra-cotta warriors.†   (source)
  • Compared to the training they went through to learn how to break the Macedonian Phalanx, this is nothing.†   (source)
  • A group of soldiers standing on the sloping side of the pyramid facing the phalanx chanted in unison: "Computer Formation!"†   (source)
  • Wang stood with them, silently gazing, until the phalanx of a thousand stars shrank into a single star, and until that star disappeared in the western night sky.†   (source)
  • Wang performed some computations in his head and realized that even if the entire population of Earth were arranged into such a phalanx, the whole formation would fit inside the Huangpu District of Shanghai.†   (source)
  • An entire phalanx of dracaenae marched in the lead, their shields locked together, spear tips bristling over the top.†   (source)
  • As Shay Bourne was escorted in by a phalanx of six correctional officers wearing helmets and flak jackets and face shields, we all came forward in our cells.†   (source)
  • We're going to take my tunnel," David explained, standing aside as a phalanx of anxious-looking First Years trudged past.†   (source)
  • On the opposite side of the temple, Frank Zhang and the god Ares smashed through an entire phalanx of giants—Ares with his spear and shield, Frank (as an African elephant) with his trunk and feet.†   (source)
  • Another phalanx of masked men ran past them to the crashing accompaniment of a round, jolly man playing cymbals down at the corner.†   (source)
  • Mortenson watched, with increasing satisfaction, as each of the forty-two different purchases he and Abdul had haggled for were neatly stowed, axes nestling against mason's trowels, tucked together by a phalanx of shovels.†   (source)
  • As the Mede soldiers reached the first of the Eddisians, the Eddisians threw themselves onto their knees, leaving their backs unprotected as they cut the legs out from under the men at the front edge of the phalanx.†   (source)
  • Atop their heads, they wore tall, spade-shaped hats that rose and fell as the frightening figures ran like a phalanx through the crowds.†   (source)
  • He sees Thomson carried by a phalanx of men, players and others, mostly others—the players have run for it, the players are dashing for the clubhouse—and he sees Thomson riding off-balance on the shoulders of men who might take him right out of the ballpark and into the streets for a block party.†   (source)
  • So we tried to plan to cover possibility of having to cope with ten more phalanges, that being Mike's estimate of what cubic being cleared would hold.†   (source)
  • Beyond the guards a phalanx of young women in uniform stood smiling behind several long tables stacked with pamphlets extolling the beauty and virtues of their land and its system.†   (source)
  • There were fountains of butterflies that flew glittering into the trees; there were pillars of coloured fires that rose and turned into eagles, or sailing ships, or a phalanx of flying swans; there was a red thunderstorm and a shower of yellow rain; there was a forest of silver spears that sprang suddenly into the air with a yell like an embattled army, and came down again into the Water with a hiss like a hundred hot snakes.†   (source)
  • He reported subversive activities still going on despite two phalanges of Peace Dragoons and demanded enough troops to station guards in all key spots inside all warrens.†   (source)
  • The impostor has good luck — good joss — as they say, doesn't he?' said d'Anjou as he and Bourne in their uniforms marched with a phalanx of police through a covered walkway made of corrugated tin to one of the huge repair hangars.†   (source)
  • The sweat poured forth, he pushed his hand to the side of his brow in a helpless fluttering little ballet of white-knuckled fingers, and his lips curled outward to reveal a phalanx of teeth grinding together in a fugue of pain.†   (source)
  • They had always been a clannish tribe, presenting an unbroken phalanx of overlapping shields to the world in time of stress, no matter what their private opinions of the conduct of individual kinsmen might be.†   (source)
  • It is the impetus of that shattering phalanx of iron—spread across the battlefront, inescapable, pulverizing, louder than drums, beating the earth.†   (source)
  • His brain swarmed with pictures—Cyrus directing the charge, the spear-forest of the Macedonian phalanx, the splintered oars, the numberless huddle of the ships at Salamis, the feasts of Alexander, the terrific melee of the knights, the shattered lances, the axe and the sword, the massed pikemen, the beleaguered walls, the scaling ladders heavy with climbing men hurled backward, the Swiss who flung his body on the lances, the press of horse and foot, the gloomy forests of Gaul and…†   (source)
  • He saw the phalanx of arrows gleam like an eyeflick in the moonlight All his life up to then he had been shooting into straw targets which made a noise like Phutt!†   (source)
  • The knights were to band themselves into a single phalanx to resist the charges, and any man who ran away thereafter was to be shot at once for cowardice.†   (source)
  • There were masked men all around the platform—a solid phalanx of them on the slope above.†   (source)
  • To whom did this anarchical scoffer unite himself in this phalanx of absolute minds?†   (source)
  • Keep your fingers from that bitter phalanx of vials.†   (source)
  • It was not only the brilliant phalanx of virtuous dowagers, generals and academicians, to whom he was bound by such close ties, that Swann compelled with so much cynicism to serve him as panders.†   (source)
  • This generous phalanx of supporters, and a few others of independent judgment, whose own domestic experiences had been not without vicissitude, came up and warmly shook hands with Phillotson; after which they expressed their thoughts so strongly to the meeting that issue was joined, the result being a general scuffle, wherein a black board was split, three panes of the school windows were broken, an inkbottle was spilled over a town-councillor's shirt front, a churchwarden was dealt…†   (source)
  • Now, far down the shadowy line of University Place a white-clad phalanx broke the gloom, and marching figures, white-shirted, white-trousered, swung rhythmically up the street, with linked arms and heads thrown back: "Going back—going back, Going—back—to—Nas-sau—Hall, Going back—going back— To the—Best—Old—Place—of—All.†   (source)
  • They plunged into the rear of the moving buffalo, to make no impression otherwise than to split the phalanx for a few rods and be kicked from all sides.†   (source)
  • And he saw Giuseppe Settembrini—the tricolor in one hand, a swinging saber in the other, black eyes turned heavenward to seal his vow—at the head of a troop of revolutionaries storming the phalanx of despotism.†   (source)
  • "If your holy scruples can dispense with using the Jew's tablets, for the pen I can find a remedy," said the yeoman; and, bending his bow, he aimed his shaft at a wild-goose which was soaring over their heads, the advanced-guard of a phalanx of his tribe, which were winging their way to the distant and solitary fens of Holderness.†   (source)
  • Then touching on the entry of the councillor, he did not forget "the martial air of our militia;" nor "our most merry village maidens;" nor the "bald-headed old men like patriarchs who were there, and of whom some, the remnants of our phalanxes, still felt their hearts beat at the manly sound of the drums."†   (source)
  • " 'Charge, Chester, charge!' is the motto for that table, but do your duty like men, and you'll get your money's worth of art in every sense of the word," said the irrepressible Jo, as the devoted phalanx prepared to take the field.†   (source)
  • A solid phalanx of theatre-weary journalists in an afternoon humor, most of them committed to irreconcilable disparagement of problem plays, and all of them bound by etiquette to be as undemonstrative as possible, is not exactly the sort of audience that rises at the performers and cures them of the inevitable reaction after an excitingly successful first night.†   (source)
  • Several other women worked there regularly, with an attending phalanx of lads in varying sizes, who came and went, hauling rubbish, tools, and loads of manure.†   (source)
  • The village square (which, like all village squares I had ever seen, was not square at all, but roughly oblong) formed the carpals and metacarpals of the hand, while the several lanes of cottages made up the phalangeal joints of the fingers.†   (source)
  • While thus he spake, the angelick squadron bright Turned fiery red, sharpening in mooned horns Their phalanx, and began to hem him round With ported spears, as thick as when a field Of Ceres ripe for harvest waving bends Her bearded grove of ears, which way the wind Sways them; the careful plowman doubting stands, Left on the threshing floor his hopeless sheaves Prove chaff.†   (source)
  • Anon they move In perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood Of flutes and soft recorders—such as raised To height of noblest temper heroes old Arming to battle, and instead of rage Deliberate valour breathed, firm, and unmoved With dread of death to flight or foul retreat; Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage With solemn touches troubled thoughts, and chase Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain From mortal or immortal minds.†   (source)
  • Far otherwise the inviolable Saints, In cubick phalanx firm, advanced entire, Invulnerable, impenetrably armed; Such high advantages their innocence Gave them above their foes; not to have sinned, Not to have disobeyed; in fight they stood Unwearied, unobnoxious to be pained By wound, though from their place by violence moved, Now Night her course began, and, over Heaven Inducing darkness, grateful truce imposed, And silence on the odious din of war: Under her cloudy covert both…†   (source)
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