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vocabulary
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indecisive
in a sentence
grouped by contextual meaning

show 6 more with this conextual meaning
  • She's best in a situation where it's better to be wrong than indecisive.
  • Meg continued to stand indecisively.   (source)
    indecisively = in the manner of someone who is having a hard time deciding what to do
  • The police helicopters were rising so far away that it seemed someone had blown the grey head off a dry dandelion flower. Two dozen of them flurried, wavering, indecisive, three miles off, like butterflies puzzled by autumn,   (source)
    indecisive = unsure of where to go
  • Some worthless scoundrels gathered around him and opposed Rehoboam son of Solomon when he was young and indecisive and not strong enough to resist them.   (source)
  • Progress was slowed by an indecisive manager.
  • It is the worst evil of too yielding and indecisive a character, that no influence over it can be depended on.   (source)
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show 4 more with this conextual meaning
  • Though casualties were high, the outcome of the battle was indecisive.
    indecisive = without a clear victor or result
  • Finny muttered something which was too indecisive for Leper, who turned with a cleanly energetic gesture toward Brinker.   (source)
    indecisive = leaving an outcome unknown or a question unanswered
  • At the end there was an indecisive, semiserious silence and then Brinker said, "Phineas, if you please."   (source)
    indecisive = where nobody was sure what to do next
  • He was loath to withdraw his faith from the twins, and was resolved not to do it on the present indecisive evidence;   (source)
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show 10 more examples with any meaning
  • —that's a part of what makes me so indecisive.†   (source)
  • The American was indecisive …. hoping for backup most likely …. or perhaps a slip of the tongue that would reveal critical information.†   (source)
  • A woman brushed past him carrying a crying child, then she changed her mind and came back and stood, turning indecisively at the side of the road.†   (source)
  • "Fleur's sister's a bridesmaid, she needs to be here for the rehearsal, and she's too young to come on her own," said Hermione, as she pored indecisively over Break with a Banshee.†   (source)
  • It sounds indecisive, stupid even, I say it without thinking.†   (source)
  • You cannot afford to seem indecisive in front of men like Roose Bolton and Rickard Karstark.†   (source)
  • "Well, Maxon's very indecisive, so you don't have to worry about that just yet."†   (source)
  • REDRUM Wendy Torrance stood indecisive in the middle of the bedroom, looking at her son, who had fallen fast asleep.†   (source)
  • I was indecisive.†   (source)
  • He knows that when he gets to the place on CSV5 where the bottom corner of the billboard is obscured by the pseudo-Gothic stained-glass arches of the local Reverend Wayne's Pearly Gates franchise, it's time for him to get over into the right lanes where the retards and the bimbo boxes poke along, random, indecisive, looking at each passing franchise's driveway like they don't know if it's a promise or a threat.†   (source)
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show 74 more examples with any meaning
  • Not the galling kind that draws frogs out to croak, but an indecisive drizzle that had come and gone all morning.†   (source)
  • It was a thick-tongued noise, the noise she always made to convey my indecisiveness, accompanied by a dazed rolling of the eyes and the dusting off of my legal first name.†   (source)
  • That's not to say we decided to get pregnant, which would have been way too bold a gesture for two people who had dedicated their lives to being as indecisive as possible.†   (source)
  • Oh diary dear, I have been so indecisive about everything all week!†   (source)
  • The sound would jag around in our air for an indecisive second before the balcony's occupants accepted it and sent their own guffaws to riot with it against the walls of the theater.†   (source)
  • They received this with a moment of careful, indecisive silence.†   (source)
  • Vee raised an indecisive shoulder.†   (source)
  • They moved on to a counter displaying women's hosiery, a spell of indecisive quibbling, Perry said, "I'm for it."†   (source)
  • He shifted his weight indecisively.†   (source)
  • He looked at Amaranta, who stood indecisively two steps behind Ursula, and he smiled as he asked her, "What happened to your hand?"†   (source)
  • When he finally stood up he was indecisive.†   (source)
  • He wanted to be a dry wise soul (Her-aclitus), less slipshod and indecisive, more willing to see into the core of a complicated matter.†   (source)
  • He was about to accept the presence of the bird as one of those waking dreams he was subject to whenever indecisiveness was confronted with reality, when Guitar opened his eyes and said, "Goddam!†   (source)
  • But what if I didn't use it?" she went on, in the voice I recognized as Lissa entering Prime Indecisive Mode.†   (source)
  • He was frightened by the violent turn the struggle had taken, polarizing everyone into two extremes and leaving the center to a flighty, indecisive group that was waiting to see who the winner might be so they could vote for him.†   (source)
  • Washington had proven indecisive and inept.†   (source)
  • Carlos faced the open door, unsure, indecisive … only seconds to go.†   (source)
  • Wu stood indecisive until she realized that she had to do more to try to end this.†   (source)
  • He stood indecisively for a moment.†   (source)
  • I think she was getting desperate by then—Anna's got to be one of the most indecisive people I've ever met."†   (source)
  • Those who threaten are simply indecisive.†   (source)
  • Kennedy was indecisive at a time when he should have been resolute.†   (source)
  • Conflicted is better than indecisive.†   (source)
  • He looked puzzled and indecisive.†   (source)
  • Ewell indecisive.†   (source)
  • The hall itself had not yet been painted, but newspapers had been strewn the entire length of the hardwood floor, and Zooey's first step—an indecisive, almost dazed one—left the imprint of his rubber heel on a sports-section photograph of Stan Musial holding up a fourteen-inch brook trout.†   (source)
  • Or, well, he would have settled for iced tea, anyway, by a crabgrass-free lawn with a sprinkler leaning one direction, then the other, charmingly indecisive.†   (source)
  • I spent perhaps three or four minutes in this chilly, miserable, indecisive stance.†   (source)
  • KATE stands indecisive, and takes an abrupt step toward her, but ANNIE'S hand is a barrier.†   (source)
  • CATES (Indecisive) What do you think, Mr. Drummond?†   (source)
  • And then again, shall I act by standing indecisive between the two orders--not striking out for the cosmic order because of my human commitment, not striking out for the cultural order because of my divine commitment?†   (source)
  • While Elizabeth stood trembling and indecisive in the hall, two white policemen entered.†   (source)
  • It was then she realized that after all her indecisiveness, she had never really had a choice.†   (source)
  • For a moment he stood indecisively outside the door.†   (source)
  • To some who were closest at hand he seemed a little bewildered and unsuitably indecisive.†   (source)
  • But isn't indecisiveness an early sign of mental illness?†   (source)
  • General, an indecisive mind is one of the greatest misfortunes that can befall an army.†   (source)
  • At several crucial moments he had shown marked indecisiveness.†   (source)
  • THE FACULTY ARE A BUNCH OF TYPICAL TEACHERS—INDECISIVE, WISHY-WASHY, THEY'RE ALWAYS SAYING 'ON THE OTHER HAND.'†   (source)
  • In his faded tartan bathrobe and brown leather slippers with the rundown heels, his hair all in sleep corkscrews and Alfalfa cowlicks, he looked to her like an absurd twentieth-century Hamlet, an indecisive figure so mesmerized by onrushing tragedy that he was helpless to divert its course or alter it in any way.†   (source)
  • As the title implied, No Bad Dogs advanced the same belief that Marley's first instructor, Miss Dominatrix, held so dear—that the only thing standing between an incorrigible canine and greatness was a befuddled, indecisive, weak-willed human master.†   (source)
  • Mr. Early, in his capacity as faculty adviser to The Grave, killed the column; the part about the faculty being "TYPICAL TEACHERS—INDECISIVE, WISHY-WASHY' …. that was what forced Mr. Early's hand.†   (source)
  • Wendy crossed the room, stood indecisively by the door for a moment, then took the knife from the pocket of her robe and curled her right hand around the wooden haft.†   (source)
  • That provoked more laughter from the bidders, and a scowl from the auctioneer, who was fingering his whip indecisively as he tried to puzzle out whether this would work to his benefit.†   (source)
  • Tyrell's reputation rested on one indecisive victory over Robert Baratheon at Ashford, in a battle largely won by Lord Tarly's van before the main host had even arrived.†   (source)
  • That June, when the British chose to evacuate Philadelphia and march back to New York, Washington had hit them at Monmouth, New Jersey, in a major battle which, though indecisive, had proven that his so-called "rabble" were well able to hold their own against the vaunted enemy.†   (source)
  • Leaking word prematurely, at a time when he doesn't have answers to the many questions the press will ask, will make him appear weak and indecisive.†   (source)
  • Six members of the cadre formed a loose, indecisive semicircle around Poteete, who was hanging off the railing with one hand and foot suspended over the hundred-foot drop to the concrete quadrangle.†   (source)
  • Khrushchev has watched Kennedy closely since the Bay of Pigs, searching for signs of the same weakness and indecisiveness that defined the U.S. president's handling of that crisis.†   (source)
  • And I cursed myself for the weakness or indecisiveness or spinelessness, or whatever it was, that still prevented my dealing more firmly with Sophie at such moments.†   (source)
  • He looked in at the boy holding the candle with a look of indecisive recognition.†   (source)
  • Indecisively, he sat in the rocker and drew her down clumsily on his knee.†   (source)
  • The tier balanced itself on its edge for an indecisive moment, then toppled.†   (source)
  • Indecisively, after a moment, they went downstairs, still listening for sounds in the sick-room.†   (source)
  • They had reached the corner by the Bank, and now halted, indecisively, looking up the cool gulch of afternoon.†   (source)
  • Indecisively she stopped, peered down at him with white pursed face, and in that silence, behind the trivial arras of her talk, he heard the bitter song of all her life.†   (source)
  • The indecisiveness, or feebleness, of his movements was more pronounced.†   (source)
  • "Ay, ay," responded the dairyman indecisively.†   (source)
  • He stood leaning over the palings in an indecisive mood for nearly a quarter of an hour.†   (source)
  • He still indecisively lingered beside the body.†   (source)
  • "A second honeymoon?" indecisively.†   (source)
  • K. went back to the main entrance, stood there indecisively for a while, and then walked round the cathedral in the rain in case the Italian was waiting at another entrance.†   (source)
  • Six months ago Babbitt had learned that one Archibald Purdy, a grocer in the indecisive residential district known as Linton, was talking of opening a butcher shop beside his grocery.†   (source)
  • We hadn't reached West Egg village before Gatsby began leaving his elegant sentences unfinished and slapping himself indecisively on the knee of his caramel-colored suit.†   (source)
  • …dispassionate talent for mathematics helped him move ahead; and after receiving his report card in his freshman year, he concluded he would finish school—primarily, truth to tell, because that allowed him to extend a familiar, provisional, indecisive state of affairs and to win time for reflection as to what Hans Castorp would most like to do, because he was not even close to deciding that, not even as a senior, and when it finally was decided (to say he decided would be saying almost…†   (source)
  • He quartered the office, a grayhound on the scent; a grayhound with glasses tilted forward on his thin nose, and a silky indecisive brown mustache.†   (source)
  • "On the contrary, your Highness, in indecisive actions it is always the most stubborn who remain victors," replied Raevski, "and in my opinion…."†   (source)
  • Admiral de Chateau–Renault was so indecisive as to obey this directive, and the galleons entered the Bay of Vigo.†   (source)
  • It is the worst evil of too yielding and indecisive a character, that no influence over it can be depended on.†   (source)
  • He was loath to withdraw his faith from the twins, and was resolved not to do it on the present indecisive evidence; but—well, he would think, and then decide how to act.†   (source)
  • …a chosen and entrenched position with forces only slightly weaker than those of the enemy, but, as a result of the loss of the Shevardino Redoubt, the Russians fought the battle of Borodino on an open and almost unentrenched position, with forces only half as numerous as the French; that is to say, under conditions in which it was not merely unthinkable to fight for ten hours and secure an indecisive result, but unthinkable to keep an army even from complete disintegration and flight.†   (source)
  • So they lodged a complaint in Madrid, and they obtained an order from the indecisive King Philip V: without unloading, the convoy would stay in custody at the offshore mooring of Vigo until the enemy fleets had retreated.†   (source)
  • Amaranthine glosses came over them then, and the unresting world wheeled her round to a contrasting prospect eastward, in the shape of indecisive and palpitating stars.†   (source)
  • He looked indecisively for a moment at their faces.†   (source)
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