All 9 Uses of
cynical
in
Babbitt
- He was supple and swift and flushed; his eyes (which he believed to be cynical) were candidly eager.†
Chpt 2 *
- As the door closed he yawned voluptuously, chest out, shoulders wriggling, and turned cynically to his wife.†
Chpt 9
- There were workmen who jeered—young cynical workmen, for the most part foreigners, Jews, Swedes, Irishmen, Italians—but the older men, the patient, bleached, stooped carpenters and mechanics, cheered him; and when he worked up to his anecdote of Lincoln their eyes were wet.†
Chpt 14
- And when it comes to these blab-mouth, fault-finding, pessimistic, cynical University teachers, let me tell you that during this golden coming year it's just as much our duty to bring influence to have those cusses fired as it is to sell all the real estate and gather in all the good shekels we can.†
Chpt 14
- Like many of the cocksure young men who forage about cities in apparent contentment and who express their cynicism in supercilious slang, Escott was shy and lonely.†
Chpt 17
- More than mountains or the shore-devouring sea, a city retains its character, imperturbable, cynical, holding behind apparent changes its essential purpose.†
Chpt 26
- They were the Bunch, wise and beautiful and amusing; they were Bohemians and urbanites, accustomed to all the luxuries of Zenith: dance-halls, movie-theaters, and roadhouses; and in a cynical superiority to people who were "slow" or "tightwad" they cackled: "Oh, Pete, did I tell you what that dub of a cashier said when I came in late yesterday?†
Chpt 29
- "Yes, you do!" cynically.†
Chpt 31
- The independence seeped out of him and he walked the streets alone, afraid of men's cynical eyes and the incessant hiss of whispering.†
Chpt 32
Definition:
-
(cynical) someone who expects the worst -- especially of people (such as expecting them to be selfish and lie)