Both Uses of
cynical
in
Middlemarch
- Mary might have become cynical if she had not had parents whom she honored, and a well of affectionate gratitude within her, which was all the fuller because she had learned to make no unreasonable claims.†
Chpt 3 *
- His flushed effort while talking to Mr. Farebrother—his effort after the cynical pretence that all ways of getting money are essentially the same, and that chance has an empire which reduces choice to a fool's illusion—was but the symptom of a wavering resolve, a benumbed response to the old stimuli of enthusiasm.†
Chpt 7
Definition:
-
(cynical) someone who expects the worst -- especially of people (such as expecting them to be selfish and lie)