All 18 Uses of
decisive
in
War and Peace
- Anna Mikhaylovna's face expressed a consciousness that the decisive moment had arrived.†
Chpt 1
- "But that is my conviction, and judging by the last letter with which His Highness the Archduke Ferdinand has honored me, I imagine that the Austrian troops, under the direction of so skillful a leader as General Mack, have by now already gained a decisive victory and no longer need our aid," said Kutuzov.†
Chpt 2
- You say the affair was decisive?†
Chpt 2 *
- All are struck by the justness of his views, but no one undertakes to carry them out, so he takes a regiment, a division-stipulates that no one is to interfere with his arrangements—leads his division to the decisive point, and gains the victory alone.†
Chpt 3
- The sailor rarely cares to know the latitude in which his ship is sailing, but on the day of battle—heaven knows how and whence—a stern note of which all are conscious sounds in the moral atmosphere of an army, announcing the approach of something decisive and solemn, and awakening in the men an unusual curiosity.†
Chpt 3
- The decisive moment has arrived.†
Chpt 3
- As it was considered that the Austerlitz success might have been more decisive had the commander in chief not been so young, all our octogenarians were reviewed, and of Prozorovski and Kamenski the latter was preferred.†
Chpt 5
- Prince Andrew suddenly decided finally and decisively.†
Chpt 6
- I shall certainly go," said Natasha decisively.†
Chpt 7 *
- But he had no time to utter the decisive word which the expression of his face caused his mother to await with terror, and which would perhaps have forever remained a cruel memory to them both.†
Chpt 7
- The count was more perturbed than ever by the condition of his affairs, which called for some decisive action.†
Chpt 7
- But in Julie's presence, looking at her red face and chin (nearly always powdered), her moist eyes, and her expression of continual readiness to pass at once from melancholy to an unnatural rapture of married bliss, Boris could not utter the decisive words, though in imagination he had long regarded himself as the possessor of those Penza and Nizhegorod estates and had apportioned the use of the income from them.†
Chpt 8
- He left in order not to obstruct the commander in chief's undivided control of the army, and hoping that more decisive action would then be taken, but the command of the armies became still more confused and enfeebled.†
Chpt 10
- Bennigsen, the Tsarevich, and a swarm of adjutants general remained with the army to keep the commander in chief under observation and arouse his energy, and Barclay, feeling less free than ever under the observation of all these "eyes of the Emperor," became still more cautious of undertaking any decisive action and avoided giving battle.†
Chpt 10
- Now the decisive moment of battle had come when Kutuzov would be destroyed and the power pass to Bennigsen, or even if Kutuzov won the battle it would be felt that everything was done by Bennigsen.†
Chpt 10
- But Pierre did not know this; he was entirely absorbed in what lay before him, and was tortured—as those are who obstinately undertake a task that is impossible for them not because of its difficulty but because of its incompatibility with their natures—by the fear of weakening at the decisive moment and so losing his self-esteem.†
Chpt 11
- This procrastinator Kutuzov, whose motto was "Patience and Time," this enemy of decisive action, gave battle at Borodino, investing the preparations for it with unparalleled solemnity.†
Chpt 15
- The French army melted away at the uniform rate of a mathematical progression; and that crossing of the Berezina about which so much has been written was only one intermediate stage in its destruction, and not at all the decisive episode of the campaign.†
Chpt 15
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