All 16 Uses of
decisive
in
Middlemarch
- Dorothea had never hinted this before, waiting, from a certain shyness on such subjects which was mutual between the sisters, until it should be introduced by some decisive event.†
Chpt 1
- …impression of your eminent and perhaps exclusive fitness to supply that need (connected, I may say, with such activity of the affections as even the preoccupations of a work too special to be abdicated could not uninterruptedly dissimulate); and each succeeding opportunity for observation has given the impression an added depth by convincing me more emphatically of that fitness which I had preconceived, and thus evoking more decisively those affections to which I have but now referred.†
Chpt 1
- Mr. Vincy rose, began to button his great-coat, and looked steadily at his brother-in-law, meaning to imply a demand for a decisive answer.†
Chpt 2
- Happily she never attempted to joke, and this perhaps was the most decisive mark of her cleverness.†
Chpt 2
- "A man might see good arguments for changing once, and not see them for changing again," said Lydgate, amused with the decisive old lady.†
Chpt 2
- "I must give you the ninety-two pounds that I have put by for Alfred's premium," said Mrs. Garth, gravely and decisively, though a nice ear might have discerned a slight tremor in some of the words.†
Chpt 3
- Papa was not a rock: he had no other fixity than that fixity of alternating impulses sometimes called habit, and this was altogether unfavorable to his taking the only decisive line of conduct in relation to his daughter's engagement—namely, to inquire thoroughly into Lydgate's circumstances, declare his own inability to furnish money, and forbid alike either a speedy marriage or an engagement which must be too lengthy.†
Chpt 4
- But Mr. Mawmsey answered in a tone of decisive check.†
Chpt 5 *
- His mother left her tea and toast untouched, but sat with her usual pretty primness, only showing her emotion by that flush in the cheeks and brightness in the eyes which give an old woman a touching momentary identity with her far-off youthful self, and saying decisively— "The greatest comfort, Camden, is that you have deserved it."†
Chpt 5
- "However, you have come back safely," he said, at last, in a decisive tone.†
Chpt 6
- "No, Rosy," said Lydgate, decisively.†
Chpt 6 *
- She had already secretly disobeyed him by asking her father to help them, and he had ended decisively by saying, "I am more likely to want help myself."†
Chpt 6
- "Not a bit!" said he, tossing his head decisively "She was a little too honorable to like her friends—that was it!"†
Chpt 6
- "I cannot say that," said Mrs. Farebrother, decisively.†
Chpt 7
- Lydgate still waited, but at last turned to speak in his most decisive tones.†
Chpt 8
- He was fuming under a repressive law which he was forced to acknowledge: he was dangerously poised, and Rosamond's voice now brought the decisive vibration.†
Chpt 8
Definitions:
-
(decisive as in: a decisive defeat) determining an outcome; or ending question
-
(decisive as in: a decisive decision maker) making quick decisions and sticking by them; or describing an action as firm or without hesitation