All 22 Uses of

contrary

in

Bleak House

On the contrary, it seems to do you good, miss, judging from your appearance.†
Chpt 4-6 (definition 1) *

If he were to make a discovery to the contrary, he would be simply stunned—would never recover himself, most likely, except to gasp and die.†
Chpt 7-9 (definition 2) *

But the doomed young rebel (otherwise a mild youth, and very persevering), showing no sign of grace as he got older but, on the contrary, constructing a model of a power-loom, she was fain, with many tears, to mention his backslidings to the baronet.†
Chpt 7-9 (definition 1)

On the contrary, I was so demure and used to seem so unconscious that sometimes I considered within myself while I was sitting at work whether I was not growing quite deceitful.†
Chpt 7-9 (definition 1)

All the Dedlocks, in the direct male line, through a course of time during and beyond which the memory of man goeth not to the contrary, have had the gout.†
Chpt 16-18 (definition 2)

I do know something of this lad, and in what I know of him, I can't say that there's any harm; perhaps on the contrary, constable."†
Chpt 19-21 (definition 1)

But William Buffy somehow discovered, contrary to all expectation, that these were not the times when it could be done, and this was the first clear indication Sir Leicester Dedlock had conveyed to him that the country was going to pieces.†
Chpt 28-30 (definition 3)

After waiting for a moment to receive some assurance to the contrary, and not receiving any, Mr. Guppy proceeds, "If it had been Jarndyce and Jarndyce, I should have gone at once to your ladyship's solicitor, Mr. Tulkinghorn, of the Fields.†
Chpt 28-30 (definition 2)

I was far from being incurious or uninterested about the building; on the contrary, I often sat in this place wondering how the rooms ranged and whether any echo like a footstep really did resound at times, as the story said, upon the lonely Ghost's Walk.†
Chpt 34-36 (definition 1)

I also want Ada to know that if I see her seldom just now, I am looking after her interests as well as my own—we two being in the same boat exactly—and that I hope she will not suppose from any flying rumours she may hear that I am at all light-headed or imprudent; on the contrary, I am always looking forward to the termination of the suit, and always planning in that direction.†
Chpt 37-39 (definition 1)

Not that I complain, sir, of the eye of business being distrustful; quite the contrary.†
Chpt 37-39

But being contrary to the court's expectation admitted, they immediately become unpopular and are considered to mean no good.†
Chpt 37-39 (definition 3) *

They, on the contrary, are much obliged to him for the pleasure he has given them in his company; and so they part with many expressions of goodwill on both sides.†
Chpt 49-51 (definition 1)

I felt obliged to confess that I knew nothing to the contrary but that Prince and I had agreed only that evening that we would like his opinion to be confirmed by some one.†
Chpt 49-51 (definition 2)

That party certainly did from that time apply himself to cutting in against me in a way that I will call sharp practice, and did make it, at every turn and point, extremely difficult for me to be sure that I hadn't inadvertently led up to something contrary to Miss Summerson's wishes.†
Chpt 55-57 (definition 3)

A most contrary circumstance it is, for I want certain information out of that girl, and she must be brought to reason somehow.†
Chpt 58-60

He knows of no direct bodily illness that he has; on the contrary, he believes that he has none.†
Chpt 58-60 (definition 1)

"On the contrary," said Mr. Skimpole, "I am exactly the man to be placed in a superior position in such a case as that.†
Chpt 61-63 (definition 1)

"Circumstances," pursued Mr. Guppy, "over which I had no control, but quite the contrary, weakened the impression of that image for a time.†
Chpt 64-65

Definitions:

(1) (on the contrary as in: on the contrary)
an expression used to intensify denial of an idea

editor's notes: More rarely, on the contrary is used to oppose an idea contained in what was just said rather than to oppose what was literally said. Here is an example: "I will not pay you for the work. On the contrary, I may sue you for damages." Suing for damages does not oppose not paying, but it does oppose the idea of paying.

(2) (to the contrary as in: to the contrary)
with an opposite or different effect; or something with an opposite or different effect

(3) (contrary to as in: contrary to)
in opposition to

editor's notes: You could also think of this as meaning, despite, or in spite of, or in conflict with; but since a common meaning of contrary is opposite, you many find it easiest to think of contrary to as in opposition to.

(contrary as in: a contrary idea)
different (perhaps opposite or mutually exclusive)

editor's notes: In formal logic, contrary propositions or contrary arguments describe two things that cannot both be true. They might be described as mutually exclusive. For example, a pet cannot be both a cat and a dog. It doesn't need to be either, but if it is one, it cannot be the other. So the statement that a pet is a cat and the statement that the same pet is a dog, are contrary statements.