All 24 Uses of
principal
in
Bleak House
- She carries some small litter in a reticule which she calls her documents, principally consisting of paper matches and dry lavender.†
Chpt 1-3 *
- There was a confused little crowd of people, principally children, gathered about the house at which we stopped, which had a tarnished brass plate on the door with the inscription JELLYBY.†
Chpt 4-6
- But what principally struck us was a jaded and unhealthy-looking though by no means plain girl at the writing-table, who sat biting the feather of her pen and staring at us.†
Chpt 4-6
- This seemed to have been her principal inducement, originally, for taking up her residence there.†
Chpt 4-6
- With a buoyancy and hopefulness and a gaiety that hardly ever flagged, Richard had a carelessness in his character that quite perplexed me, principally because he mistook it, in such a very odd way, for prudence.†
Chpt 7-9
- Groups of its inhabitants assemble to discuss the thing, and the outposts of the army of observation (principally boys) are pushed forward to Mr. Krook's window, which they closely invest.†
Chpt 10-12
- It is considered not unlikely that he will get up an imitation of the coroner and make it the principal feature of the Harmonic Meeting in the evening.†
Chpt 10-12
- We made the round of the principal theatres, too, with great delight, and saw all the plays that were worth seeing.†
Chpt 13-15
- He admired her exceedingly, but principally, and to begin with, on the curious ground (as it seemed to us) of her having had three husbands.†
Chpt 13-15
- "Ha'n't you no relations, now," asks Grandfather Smallweed with a twinkle in his eyes, "who would pay off this little principal or who would lend you a good name or two that I could persuade my friend in the city to make you a further advance upon?†
Chpt 19-21
- Bucket stealthily tells the coins from one hand into the other like counters—which is a way he has, his principal use of them being in these games of skill—and then puts them, in a little pile, into the boy's hand and takes him out to the door, leaving Mr. Snagsby, not by any means comfortable under these mysterious circumstances, alone with the veiled figure.†
Chpt 22-24
- She gave me a gracious welcome to her domain and indicated, with much gratification and pride, its principal attractions.†
Chpt 22-24
- …your ladyship," says Mr. Guppy, "though one of those circumstances that do fall in the way of us professional men—which I may call myself, for though not admitted, yet I have had a present of my articles made to me by Kenge and Carboy, on my mother's advancing from the principal of her little income the money for the stamp, which comes heavy—that I have encountered the person who lived as servant with the lady who brought Miss Summerson up before Mr. Jarndyce took charge of her.†
Chpt 28-30
- First and last, I have paid, I may say, half as much again as this principal in interest and one thing and another.†
Chpt 34-36
- Thence the path wound underneath a gateway, and through a court-yard where the principal entrance was (I hurried quickly on), and by the stables where none but deep voices seemed to be, whether in the murmuring of the wind through the strong mass of ivy holding to a high red wall, or in the low complaining of the weathercock, or in the barking of the dogs, or in the slow striking of a clock.†
Chpt 34-36
- Principally rags and rubbish, my dear friend!†
Chpt 37-39
- The same wan day peeps in at Sir Leicester pardoning the repentant country in a majestically condescending dream; and at the cousins entering on various public employments, principally receipt of salary; and at the chaste Volumnia, bestowing a dower of fifty thousand pounds upon a hideous old general with a mouth of false teeth like a pianoforte too full of keys, long the admiration of Bath and the terror of every other community.†
Chpt 40-42
- Mr. Bucket does not claim to be a scientific judge of horses, but he lays out a little money on the principal events in that line, and generally sums up his knowledge of the subject in the remark that when he sees a horse as can go, he knows him.†
Chpt 55-57
- One of the peachy-cheeked charmers with the skeleton throats is already apprised of all the principal circumstances that will come out before the Lords on Sir Leicester's application for a bill of divorce.†
Chpt 58-60
- The more he suffers, the more averse he will be to me, having made me the principal representative of the great occasion of his suffering.†
Chpt 58-60
- A coolness arose between him and my guardian, based principally on the foregoing grounds and on his having heartlessly disregarded my guardian's entreaties (as we afterwards learned from Ada) in reference to Richard.†
Chpt 61-63
- The discounting line is his line principally, and he's what you may call a dealer in bills.†
Chpt 61-63
- When I mention my friends, I refer principally to my friend Jobling, who I believe has known me," Mr. Guppy looked at him with a sentimental air, "from boyhood's hour."†
Chpt 64-65
- Some of her old friends, principally to be found among the peachy-cheeked charmers with the skeleton throats, did once occasionally say, as they toyed in a ghastly manner with large fans—like charmers reduced to flirting with grim death, after losing all their other beaux—did once occasionally say, when the world assembled together, that they wondered the ashes of the Dedlocks, entombed in the mausoleum, never rose against the profanation of her company.†
Chpt 66-67
Definition:
-
(principal) most important; or person who is most importantThe exact meaning of principal can depend upon its context. For example:
- "the principal idea" or "the principal performer" -- the most important
- "the principal of the school" -- the person in charge
- "a principal of a company" -- an owner or person with controlling authority
- "the principal in a transaction" (as contrasted to the agent) -- the person on whose behalf an agent acts