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submissive
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  • They would be quiet and submissive, with eyes turned away.†   (source)
  • Relentlessly submissive.†   (source)
  • Was I getting so used to being submissive?†   (source)
  • They assumed, no doubt, that a Muslim woman, presumably submissive and shy with her English, would allow her hijab to be ripped from her head without retaliation.†   (source)
  • You should see her with him, all timid and submissive, like she needs to bow to him and pamper him because of his genius.†   (source)
  • Dependent, submissive, emotionally captive.†   (source)
  • His daughter was studying at the Academy of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin, where for two centuries young ladies of society had learned the art and technique of being diligent and submissive wives.†   (source)
  • He seemed too submissive to Paul, but then the Sardaukar had never been prepared for such happenings as this day.†   (source)
  • Woody always answered softly, respectfully, with a boyish and submissive smile.†   (source)
  • Finally, seeing my plan failing, I struggled to regain my composure, to take the initiative by playing the submissive wife.†   (source)
  • "What is that place?" she inquired in an awestruck whisper, as she fell into step submissively, plodding with bent head at his shoulder.†   (source)
  • The boy looked up at him with dumbly submissive sheep's eyes, his body trembling.†   (source)
  • All you needed was fear, and Yossarian had plenty of that, more fear than Orr or Hungry Joe, more fear than Dunbar, who had resigned himself submissively to the idea that he must die someday.†   (source)
  • My husband would be as strong as a bull tonight, or I would be as submissive as a lamb, or my breasts looked like two peaches ready to burst the fabric of my jacket, or my husband would have as many seeds as a pomegranate, or if we used a particular position we would be guaranteed a first son.†   (source)
  • Marinol is a good choice if he wanted to keep her submissive.†   (source)
  • Some were hostile, some cringing, some horrified; some, who when among themselves were most violent, now appeared as submissive as children.†   (source)
  • Even when I had sat at the bottom of the stairs in the basement, I could distinctively hear Mother's unique way of being both slightly submissive and coldly dispassionate.†   (source)
  • Her head might have been bowed submissively, but her face was full of a white-hot rage.†   (source)
  • His niece had been subdued and submissive since her walk of atonement, thank the gods.†   (source)
  • …to stay alive, they'll never produce so little but that the man with the club won't be able to seize it and leave them still less, provided millions of them are willing to submit-that the harder their work and the less their gain, the more submissive the fiber of their spirit-that men who live by pulling levers at an electric switchboard, are not easily ruled, but men who live by digging the soil with their naked fingers, are-that the feudal baron did not need electronic factories in…†   (source)
  • They never knew what to do with such an assertive statement, but it generally put them in a defensive mind-set so that when he did dominate them, they were not quite so submissive.†   (source)
  • I don't want to witness the submissive dip of his brow or the bend of his knee before me or anyone else.†   (source)
  • I'm beginning to suspect the reason the mother of our faith is never mentioned is because people don't appreciate a woman who is beautiful on the inside, who is quiet, gentle, and submissive.†   (source)
  • By contrast the voice of the female seemed plaintive, defensive, growing shrill at moments as if in fright but generally submissive with an undertone of pleading.†   (source)
  • …dressed, elegant, huge and dangerous and beautiful (to Ben's child-eyes) and fearsome beside that gentleness and softness; but he stretched out his hand toward her as if timidly and touched her shoulder, looking over her head into the mirror at her, and after an instant she turned her head, gracefully, bending forward slightly, the way a blooded mare would turn its head to a groomsman's touch, relinquishing nothing, though submissive, and she brushed his hand with the side of her face.†   (source)
  • Worse, he had renounced sex when he consecrated himself to the Universes and this had a shocking effect on Star; sweet submissiveness wasn't her style.†   (source)
  • All are submissive, all would like to be friends, like to obey, think little.†   (source)
  • If the Kologrivovs' friends were attentive to her she was sure that they regarded her as a submissive "ward" and an easy prey.†   (source)
  • They could hear no words, only the tilt and shape of voices: their mother's, still so curiously shrouded, so submissive, so gentle; it seemed to ask questions and to accept answers.†   (source)
  • In the hope of being thus asked he had to tag along, patient and submissive.†   (source)
  • He might have continued for a long time in this unfamiliar attitude; he had never been a patient man, but when he was sick he had learned to sink submissively into the pillows, to wait for his medicine.†   (source)
  • When he took her hand endearingly, and kissed it submissively, and said pleadingly, "Darling, do you hate me for bringing you here?" she replied, "No dear, you know I don't."†   (source)
  • The archdeacon had in Quasimodo the most submissive slave, the most docile lackey, the most vigilant of dogs.   (source)
  • Harriet kissed her hand in silent and submissive gratitude.   (source)
  • So I sat submissively, allowing Moody to vent his insane anger.†   (source)
  • Yossarian ate the banana submissively and closed his eyes after telling Milo it was good, but Milo shook him awake again and instructed him to get dressed as quickly as he could, because they were leaving at once for Pianosa.†   (source)
  • Amaranta felt upset by the perseverance, the loyalty, the submissiveness of that man who was invested with so much authority and who nevertheless took off his sidearm in the living room so that he could go into the sewing room without weapons, But for four years he kept repeating his love and she would always find a way to reject him without hurting him, for even though she had not succeeded in loving him she could no longer live without him.†   (source)
  • Yes'm," returned Johnnie submissively.†   (source)
  • Sighing, but submissively, she moved to follow her guide, a reluctant glance across her shoulder, when there came a cry something like that which the wild geese make when they come over in the spring; and a thing with two shining, fiery eyes, a thing that purred like a giant cat, rounded a curve in the road and came to a sudden jolting halt beside them.†   (source)
  • Having made her decision moments before, Sophie was not about to resist or protest—in a kind of headlong autohypnosis she had placed herself beyond revulsion, realizing in any case that she was as helpless as a crippled moth—and let her thighs, submissively, be spread apart as the brutish muzzle and the bullethead of a tongue probed into what, with some dull distant satisfaction, she realized was her obdurate dryness, as parched and without juice as desert sand.†   (source)
  • Only once, when he had really forgotten to do something and was in the wrong, had he worn his old attitude of blank submissiveness.†   (source)
  • After many seconds Lola said in the same weak, submissive voice, "Yes.†   (source)
  • Nor can your submissive features Ever be burnished off.†   (source)
  • Miss Eckhart sat on, perfectly still and submissive.†   (source)
  • Both of them said in substance what had been said in the first, and were conceived in the same submissive spirit, but underneath their propriety one could begin to detect an impatience that was never evident in the parsimonious letters of Florentino Ariza.†   (source)
  • She had been with him until a very few hours before his death, as she had been with him for half his life, with a devotion and submissive tenderness that bore too close a resemblance to love, and without anyone knowing anything about it in this sleepy provincial capital where even state secrets were common knowledge.†   (source)
  • But when he came to know him better and realized his true character was the opposite of his submissive conduct, he conceived the malicious suspicion that even the wait for the airplane was an act.†   (source)
  • Usually he walked around threatening the men with a strait jacket which he always carried over his arm, and usually they were quiet and submissive in his presence.†   (source)
  • You expect Oriental countries to submit to your guns, and you expect Oriental women to be submissive to your men.†   (source)
  • …been said, to see her wiggle her mare's behind in order to guess that she was a, that she was a, just the opposite of her, who was a lady in a palace or a pigsty, at the table or in bed, a lady of breeding, God-fearing, obeying His laws and submissive to His wishes, and with whom he could not perform, naturally, the acrobatics and trampish antics that he did with the other one, who, of course, was ready for anything like the French matrons, and even worse, if one considers well,…†   (source)
  • After a few minutes Nasserine tiptoed into the room, the picture of a submissive Iranian woman, her left hand clutching the chad or about her head.†   (source)
  • And, although she uttered that submissive "Yes'm," her high-couraged young heart registered a vow to achieve its own slice of these things as well as of daily bread.†   (source)
  • He was angry; he did not feel submissive and in the wrong; and when she went on: "I told him how to lay this table," speaking in a hot, blind, tired voice, he got up from the meal and went outside; and she could see the spurt of a match and the rapid glowing of a cigarette.†   (source)
  • The servant would call her at dinnertime, and she would obey; but it was not until it was completely dark that she would truthfully give up her labor and with a drooping, submissive walk appear at the house, slowly opening the small low door at the back.†   (source)
  • She whirled on the glowering golem and I was surprised and considerably relieved to see how readily she was able to discard her wounded, submissive role and actually stand up to Nathan in a frisky way, beginning to manipulate him out of sheer charm, beauty and brio.†   (source)
  • A sweet, unthinking, submissive woman, she had retained a faithful love for her husband to the very end; through the dumb-show of the sorrow Sophie simulated for her benefit she could not help but grieve for her mother's grief.†   (source)
  • Flatboats and rafts continued to float downstream, but with unsignalling passengers submissive and huddled, mere bundles of sticks; bets were laid on shore as to whether they were alive or dead, but it was impossible to prove it either way.†   (source)
  • In fact, said Wanda, Sophie would soon discover that Bronek was so secure in his role as the submissive, harmless drudge that from Hoss's viewpoint he could only be beyond suspicion—and therein lay both the beauty and the crucial nature of his function as an underground operative and go-between.†   (source)
  • Her submissive labor, which she had executed patiently, like practically all dutiful Polish daughters trapped in a tradition of absolute obeisance to Daddy-hood, culminated one week in the winter of 1938 with the typing and editing of the manuscript of Poland's Jewish Problem: Does National Socialism Have the Answer?†   (source)
  • This bitter submissiveness made the man ugly and brutal.†   (source)
  • "Yes, Ancient Mistress," said the woman submissively.†   (source)
  • She sat submissively, touching her eyes and nose with her little lace handkerchief, and clearly not even trying to understand a word of what he said to her.†   (source)
  • She didn't put up any protest when I did, just letting her arms hang limp, but she didn't return the kiss, just taking it submissively like a good little girl doing what she's told.†   (source)
  • Soon after breakfast Father Vaillant departed, riding Contento, with Angelica trotting submissively behind, and from his gate Señor Lujon watched them disconsolately until they disappeared.†   (source)
  • He went down on his knees, lay for dead, and, aping the lord of creation, carried a loaf, an egg, a piece of meat, a basket in his mouth with cheerful obedience; and he even had to pick up the whip that the tamer had let fall and carry it after him in his teeth while he wagged his tail with an unbearable submissiveness.†   (source)
  • "Yes, yes," echoed Raoul submissively, "it's quite natural."†   (source)
  • Some went submissively; others with shrieks and protests as they were dragged away.†   (source)
  • Stephen submissively walks to the settee and sits down.†   (source)
  • "Yes, sir," the mate acknowledged submissively.†   (source)
  • Helen sat down submissively at the table.†   (source)
  • "It was yesterday it began," she answered submissively.†   (source)
  • UNDERSHAFT [submissively] Yes, my dear: I daresay that will be best.†   (source)
  • 'Perhaps you are right, uncle,' replied Mrs Kenwigs, submissively.†   (source)
  • And she stood there submissively, the image, in advance, of a dutiful and responsible wife.†   (source)
  • "Spirit," said Scrooge submissively, "conduct me where you will.†   (source)
  • Marmeladov submissively and obediently held up both arms to facilitate the search.†   (source)
  • "Yes, Mas'r," said Dodo, submissively; "he got that dust on his own self."†   (source)
  • 'But not mine,' said the Jew, submissively.†   (source)
  • Like an ox with head bent, submissively he awaited the blow which he felt was lifted over him.†   (source)
  • She lay back submissively, and looked before her with beaming eyes.†   (source)
  • 'Humbly and submissively,' returned the tragedian, scowling upwards.†   (source)
  • In his mood of doglike submissiveness all feeling of rivalry had died away.†   (source)
  • "Maybe, my dear," said Mrs. Tulliver, submissively.†   (source)
  • Anatole glanced round at his sister and rose submissively, ready to follow Pierre.†   (source)
  • "Which of these will be mine?" said he, to Sambo, submissively.†   (source)
  • 'Don't be out of temper, my dear,' urged Fagin, submissively.†   (source)
  • 'Humbly and submissively?' said Nicholas.†   (source)
  • He got up and submissively followed her to the schoolroom.†   (source)
  • 'Why, my dear—' urged Mr. Bumble submissively.†   (source)
  • The plump officer rose submissively, and they moved towards the door.†   (source)
  • And Clyde, who himself had been surprised and afterwards a little startled, and hence reduced by his own boldness, now pleaded rather weakly, and yet submissively.†   (source)
  • Whereupon the cub covered its fangs, and sank down submissively, while the hand, returning, rubbed behind his ears, and up and down his back.†   (source)
  • Stephen felt the skin tingle and glow slightly and almost painlessly; and, bowing submissively, as if to meet his companion's jesting mood, began to recite the CONFITEOR.†   (source)
  • At Hyde Park Corner on a tub she stands preaching; shrouds herself in white and walks penitentially disguised as brotherly love through factories and parliaments; offers help, but desires power; smites out of her way roughly the dissentient, or dissatisfied; bestows her blessing on those who, looking upward, catch submissively from her eyes the light of their own.†   (source)
  • She questioned him intelligently, she heard him submissively; and, prepared for the look of lassitude which usually crept over his listeners' faces, he grew eloquent under her receptive gaze.†   (source)
  • No, it was just submissiveness—to the importunities, to the tempestuous forces that pushed that miserable fellow on to ruin.†   (source)
  • The wind pulled out sideways the wild grass that grew in the wall, and the chicken's downy feathers, both of which things let themselves float upon the wind's breath to their full extent, with the unresisting submissiveness of light and lifeless matter.†   (source)
  • Mr. Pontellier had been a rather courteous husband so long as he met a certain tacit submissiveness in his wife.†   (source)
  • As he was about to pull the trigger, the man threw away with force a short heavy spear, and squatted submissively on his hams, his back to the wall and his clasped hands between his legs.†   (source)
  • And she, in turn sensing his submissiveness, that of the slave for the master, and in part liking and in part resenting it, since like Roberta and Hortense, even she preferred to be mastered rather than to master, shook her head negatively and a little sadly.†   (source)
  • …papa had tranquillized his mind by becoming this shorn lamb, and they had removed to a furnished lodging in Hatton Garden (where I found the children, when I afterwards went there, cutting the horse hair out of the seats of the chairs and choking themselves with it), Caddy had brought about a meeting between him and old Mr. Turveydrop; and poor Mr. Jellyby, being very humble and meek, had deferred to Mr. Turveydrop's deportment so submissively that they had become excellent friends.†   (source)
  • Pierre sighed, rose submissively, emptied his glass, and, waiting till all were seated again, turned with his kindly smile to Rostov.†   (source)
  • This power he could exert but vaguely; the best exercise of it was to accept her decisions submissively which indeed there was already an emotion in doing.†   (source)
  • To all appearance Molly had got through her after-dinner work in an exemplary manner, had "cleaned herself" with great dispatch, and now came to ask, submissively, if she should sit down to her spinning till milking time.†   (source)
  • My mother glances submissively at them, shuts the book, and lays it by as an arrear to be worked out when my other tasks are done.†   (source)
  • "We made the money up this morning, sir," said one of the men, submissively, while the other perused Mr. Jaggers's face.†   (source)
  • Lydgate relied much on the psychological difference between what for the sake of variety I will call goose and gander: especially on the innate submissiveness of the goose as beautifully corresponding to the strength of the gander.†   (source)
  • She went up to her father, stretching out her hands for the little dog, which he submissively placed in them, and she began to kiss it and murmur over it: "To think of leaving him all alone,—what a wicked, abominable creature he must believe me!†   (source)
  • Harriet listened submissively, and said "it was very true—it was just as Miss Woodhouse described—it was not worth while to think about them—and she would not think about them any longer" but no change of subject could avail, and the next half-hour saw her as anxious and restless about the Eltons as before.†   (source)
  • Yet till that moment she had fancied that she might escape misfortune by care, gentleness and submissiveness before everyone.†   (source)
  • But, I am not in a very agreeable state, I tell you plainly: not relishing this business, even as it is, and not considering that I am at any time as dutifully and submissively treated by your daughter, as Josiah Bounderby of Coketown ought to be treated by his wife.†   (source)
  • And so he went on riding with her, and copying music and verses into her albums, and playing at chess with her very submissively; for it is with these simple amusements that some officers in India are accustomed to while away their leisure moments, while others of a less domestic turn hunt hogs, and shoot snipes, or gamble and smoke cheroots, and betake themselves to brandy-and-water.†   (source)
  • Presently, he proceeded as before: 'It only remains for me, to bear the knowledge of the unhappiness I have occasioned, as submissively as I can.†   (source)
  • The herald communicated the words of the Grand Master to Rebecca, who bowed her head submissively, folded her arms, and, looking up towards heaven, seemed to expect that aid from above which she could scarce promise herself from man.†   (source)
  • His brother Frederick of the dim eye, palsied hand, bent form, and groping mind, submissively shuffled at his side, accepting his patronage as he accepted every incident of the labyrinthian world in which he had got lost.†   (source)
  • I submissively expressed, by my silence, my acquiescence in all I had heard from my superior in years and knowledge; and we talked about The Stranger and the Drama, and the pairs of horses, until we came to Mr. Spenlow's gate.†   (source)
  • And do you suppose that that woman, of that family, who are as proud as the Bourbons, and to whom the Steynes are but lackeys, mushrooms of yesterday (for after all, they are not of the Old Gaunts, but of a minor and doubtful branch of the house); do you suppose, I say (the reader must bear in mind that it is always Tom Eaves who speaks) that the Marchioness of Steyne, the haughtiest woman in England, would bend down to her husband so submissively if there were not some cause?†   (source)
  • Strange as it always is to consider any assembly in the act of submissively resigning itself to the dreariness of some complacent person, lord or commoner, whom three-fourths of it could, by no human means, raise out of the slough of inanity to their own intellectual level, it was particularly strange, and it was even particularly affecting, to see this crowd of earnest faces, whose honesty in the main no competent observer free from bias could doubt, so agitated by such a leader.†   (source)
  • Princess Mary shrugged her shoulders but took the glass submissively and calling the nurse began giving the medicine.†   (source)
  • His native coolness, shrewdness, and deliberateness, his life-long submissiveness to the sentiment that words were acts and acts were steps in life, and that in this matter of taking steps curveting and prancing were exclusively reserved for quadrupeds and foreigners—all this admonished him that rightful wrath had no connection with being a fool and indulging in spectacular violence.†   (source)
  • Making her feel that she had "wronged" him, he took advantage of her phenomenal meekness and submissiveness to trample on the elementary decencies of marriage.†   (source)
  • "But won't that mar the charming effect of my consistent shabbiness?" said Maggie, seating herself submissively, while Lucy knelt again and unfastened the contemptible butterfly.†   (source)
  • For accepting the love of the righteous together with the impossibility of repaying it, by this submissiveness and the effect of this humility, they will attain at last, as it were, to a certain semblance of that active love which they scorned in life, to something like its outward expression….†   (source)
  • Poor Mrs. Tulliver went submissively downstairs; to be ordered about by a servant was the last remnant of her household dignities,—she would soon have no servant to scold her.†   (source)
  • Rostov submissively unbent the corner of his card and, instead of the six thousand he had intended, carefully wrote twenty-one.†   (source)
  • Being always on the defensive toward her own sisters, it was natural that she should be keenly conscious of her superiority, even as the weakest Dodson, over a husband's sister, who, besides being poorly off, and inclined to "hang on" her brother, had the good-natured submissiveness of a large, easy-tempered, untidy, prolific woman, with affection enough in her not only for her own husband and abundant children, but for any number of collateral relations.†   (source)
  • Anna looked about her in a frightened way, got up submissively, and laid her hand on her husband's arm.†   (source)
  • The young man in his clattering chains stepped clumsily to the spot indicated, holding away with one finger the coat collar which chafed his neck, turned his long neck twice this way and that, sighed, and submissively folded before him his thin hands, unused to work.†   (source)
  • And on Vronsky's face, always so firm and independent, she saw that look that had struck her, of bewilderment and humble submissiveness, like the expression of an intelligent dog when it has done wrong.†   (source)
  • And he fell back into that artificial realm of imaginary greatness, and again—as a horse walking a treadmill thinks it is doing something for itself—he submissively fulfilled the cruel, sad, gloomy, and inhuman role predestined for him.†   (source)
  • Inside stood the shadowy and submissive horse, the shadowy smith.†   (source)
  • Then he climbed to the solar, which was his special chamber, and sat down heavily to write a submissive message to King Uther in the two or three hours which remained to him before the meal.†   (source)
  • The man of power is ruined by power, the man of money by money, the submissive man by subservience, the pleasure seeker by pleasure.†   (source)
  • "Please," she said, though the word was by no means submissive, "will you tell us about the monastery?"†   (source)
  • Years before, a young girl had lain there naked on the iron bed in my room with her eyes closed and her hands folded over her breast, and I had been so struck by the pathos of her submissive-ness and her trust in me and of the moment which would plunge her into the full, dark stream of the world that I had hesitated before laying my hands upon her and had, without understanding myself, called out her name.†   (source)
  • Then Wang Lung was humbled and anxious and he was submissive and he was sorry and he said, "Let it be only as you wish and forever."†   (source)
  • And it seemed to him that with this thing and that he had been busy and without time to spare, and only now, when his children were settled and his fields cared for and quiet under the coming of winter, and now, when his life with Lotus was regulated and she was submissive to him since he had beat her, now it seemed to him he had time to think of what he would and he thought of O-lan.†   (source)
  • There is much to be said for contentment and painlessness, for these bearable and submissive days, on which neither pain nor pleasure is audible, but pass by whispering and on tip-toe.†   (source)
  • Her voice was subdued, almost submissive.†   (source)
  • I do not mean to say that she was submissive—that she deferred, in her judgements, to his.†   (source)
  • Instead of speaking, I smiled; and not a very complacent or submissive smile either.†   (source)
  • "Pardon, Monsieur the Marquis!" said a ragged and submissive man, "it is a child."†   (source)
  • 'He too,' repeated Bazarov, with a submissive bow.†   (source)
  • And Laurie sat down with a submissive expression delightful to behold.†   (source)
  • She was the daughter of an official, a sweet, gentle, submissive creature.†   (source)
  • Yet the Roman Catholics of America are very submissive and very sincere.†   (source)
  • Is it possible to find a more submissive slave than myself?†   (source)
  • I did not even touch your hand, and you pardoned me on seeing me so submissive and so repentant.†   (source)
  • He obeyed, in the old mechanically submissive manner, without pausing in his work.†   (source)
  • Eugenie bowed, not as a submissive daughter, but as an adversary prepared for a discussion.†   (source)
  • Harriet kissed her hand in silent and submissive gratitude.†   (source)
  • She spoke as a rule little and, as we have said already, she was very submissive and timid.†   (source)
  • But I will not be quite tamed, and made submissive.†   (source)
  • The voice of the submissive man who had spoken, was flat and tame in its extreme submission.†   (source)
  • Mr Pancks, crushed and submissive, obeyed.†   (source)
  • 'Well, well!' returned Mr. Gradgrind, with a patient, even a submissive, air.†   (source)
  • If he shows his face near it, mine assumes an imploring and submissive expression.†   (source)
  • But I am not so submissive, let me tell you!†   (source)
  • She was a single woman of about thirty-five, tall, clumsy, timid, submissive and almost idiotic.†   (source)
  • 'What would you advise me to think about it?' returned his submissive brother.†   (source)
  • 'Bitzer,' said Mr. Gradgrind, broken down, and miserably submissive to him, 'have you a heart?'†   (source)
  • When he saw that smile, submissive and humble, Levin felt something clutching at his throat.†   (source)
  • A submissive orchestra dictated to by a spectacled man with frowsy hair and a dress suit, industriously followed the bobs of his head and the waves of his baton.†   (source)
  • Then, with that perversity of character of which she was wholly conscious, she was humble, submissive, reverent, and fearful even while she gloried in the grandeur of the dark, cloud-shadowed crags and canyons, the stupendous strife of sound, the wonderful driving lances of white fire.†   (source)
  • It seemed to Milly as she revolved in mind plan after plan that the wisest thing to do would be to play submissive slave to Jett until he reached the end of the drive south; and there to persuade Catlee to take her at once to Hudnall's camp, where she would betray Jett.†   (source)
  • "Come along, Captain Robinson," he shouted, with a sort of bullying deference under the rim of the old man's hat; the Holy Terror gave a submissive little jump.†   (source)
  • Her mother's voice brought her back to reality once more, and with a submissive "Yes, Mama," she took her place at the supper table.†   (source)
  • And I watched her, as she returned from some walk along a road where she had known that he would not appear, drawing from her submissive fingers long gloves of a precious, useless charm.†   (source)
  • Had he only known that Margaret was awaiting him—Margaret, so lively and intelligent, and yet so submissive—he would have kept himself worthier of her.†   (source)
  • "And to probe that love, you demanded that I should forfeit mine honour," he said, whilst gradually his impassiveness seemed to leave him, his rigidity to relax; "that I should accept without murmur or question, as a dumb and submissive slave, every action of my mistress.†   (source)
  • So, too, Odette, certain of seeing him come to her in a few days, as tender and submissive as before, and plead with her for a reconciliation, became inured, was no longer afraid of displeasing him, or even of making him angry, and refused him, whenever it suited her, the favours by which he set most store.†   (source)
  • Why, even to me she had the air of being submissive—to me that not the youngest child will ever pay heed to.†   (source)
  • I imagined, like everyone else, that the brains of other people were lifeless and submissive receptacles with no power of specific reaction to any stimulus which might be applied to them; and I had not the least doubt that when I deposited in the minds of my parents the news of the acquaintance I had made at my uncle's I should at the same time transmit to them the kindly judgment I myself had based on the introduction.†   (source)
  • It might have been a relief from Edward's sentimental gurglings over the lady and from the lady's submissive acceptance of those sounds.†   (source)
  • She was so—so submissive.†   (source)
  • The rain fell, and the Smoke-serpents, submissive to the curse of all that tribe, trailed themselves upon the earth.†   (source)
  • Unwelcome as it was, Mr. Woodhouse could only give a submissive sigh; and as Emma saw his spirits affected by the idea of his daughter's attachment to her husband, she immediately led to such a branch of the subject as must raise them.†   (source)
  • As this simple and yet terrible annunciation stole on the ears of the multitude, a stillness as deep and awful succeeded as if the venerated spirit they worshiped had uttered the words without the aid of human organs; and even the inanimate Uncas appeared a being of life, compared with the humbled and submissive throng by whom he was surrounded.†   (source)
  • She was anxious, she knew—more anxious perhaps than she ought to be—for what was it after all whether she went or staid? but if her uncle were to be a great while considering and deciding, and with very grave looks, and those grave looks directed to her, and at last decide against her, she might not be able to appear properly submissive and indifferent.†   (source)
  • He was a plain rough man; and he made no scruple to speak his doubts of her surviving this second attack; unless she were more submissive to his directions than she had shown herself before.†   (source)
  • Such is not the case in America; as long as the majority is still undecided, discussion is carried on; but as soon as its decision is irrevocably pronounced, a submissive silence is observed, and the friends, as well as the opponents, of the measure unite in assenting to its propriety.†   (source)
  • Wah-ta-Wah saw the departure of her warrior on this occasion with the submissive silence of an Indian girl, but with most of the misgivings and apprehensions of her sex.†   (source)
  • Few wives were more submissive than Mrs. Tulliver on all points unconnected with her family relations; but she had been a Miss Dodson, and the Dodsons were a very respectable family indeed,—as much looked up to as any in their own parish, or the next to it.†   (source)
  • Isabel was touched with wonder at the depths of perception of which this submissive little person was capable; she felt afraid of Pansy's wisdom—began almost to retreat before it.†   (source)
  • He was not shy, and so far as awkwardness proceeds from a struggle with shyness, he was not awkward; grave, attentive, submissive, often silent, he was simply swimming in a sort of rapture of respect.†   (source)
  • The Tuscarora assented without difficulty, and again he directed his patient and submissive little wife, who seldom turned her full rich black eye on him but to express equally her respect, her dread, and her love, to proceed to the boat.†   (source)
  • Nevertheless, he observed with pleasure that Miss Brooke showed an ardent submissive affection which promised to fulfil his most agreeable previsions of marriage.†   (source)
  • A submissive spirit might be patient, a strong understanding would supply resolution, but here was something more; here was that elasticity of mind, that disposition to be comforted, that power of turning readily from evil to good, and of finding employment which carried her out of herself, which was from nature alone.†   (source)
  • But when the ruthless hand of man strikes the blow, regardless of the misery he causes, it is hard to be submissive.†   (source)
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