All 25 Uses of
resolve
in
The House of Mirth
- She came forward smiling, eager almost, in her resolve to intercept him.
Chpt 1.1 (definition 1) *resolve = firmness of purpose
- She remembered that her cousin Jack Stepney had once defined Mr. Gryce as the young man who had promised his mother never to go out in the rain without his overshoes; and acting on this hint, she resolved to impart a gently domestic air to the scene, in the hope that her companion, instead of feeling that he was doing something reckless or unusual, would merely be led to dwell on the advantage of always having a companion to make one's tea in the train.†
Chpt 1.2 (definition 2)
- She knew that this generosity to self is one of the forms of meanness, and she resolved so to identify herself with her husband's vanity that to gratify her wishes would be to him the most exquisite form of self-indulgence.†
Chpt 1.4 (definition 2)
- She had an idea that the sight of her in a grey gown of devotional cut, with her famous lashes drooped above a prayer-book, would put the finishing touch to Mr. Gryce's subjugation, and render inevitable a certain incident which she had resolved should form a part of the walk they were to take together after luncheon.†
Chpt 1.5 (definition 2)
- Exactly; and it is my business to prevent your doing so; in which case the other person, piqued by your absence, will form the desperate resolve of driving back in the omnibus.†
Chpt 1.5 (definition 2)
- Her immediate worries conjured, it was easy to resolve that she would never again find herself in such straits, and as the need of economy and self-denial receded from her foreground she felt herself ready to meet any other demand which life might make.
Chpt 1.7 (definition 2)resolve = decide; or decision
- She knew the pleasantries made at the expense of young girls who have been too long before the public, and she was resolved to avoid such assumptions of youthfulness as might lead people to think her older than she really was.†
Chpt 1.8 (definition 2)
- It was the kind of scene in which Lily had often pictured herself as taking the principal part, and on this occasion the fact that she was once more merely a casual spectator, instead of the mystically veiled figure occupying the centre of attention, strengthened her resolve to assume the latter part before the year was over.
Chpt 1.8 (definition 1)resolve = firmness of purpose
- Chance, or perhaps his own resolve, had kept them apart since his hasty withdrawal from Bellomont; but Miss Bart was an expert in making the most of the unexpected, and the distasteful incidents of the last few minutes—the revelation to Selden of precisely that part of her life which she most wished him to ignore—increased her longing for shelter, for escape from such humiliating contingencies.†
Chpt 1.8 (definition 2)
- It was insufferable that Mrs. Peniston should have such creatures about the house; and Lily entered her room resolved that the woman should be dismissed that evening.†
Chpt 1.9 (definition 2)
- She had decided to defer the purchase of the dressing-case till she should receive the bill for her new opera-cloak, and the resolve made her feel much richer than when she had entered the shop.
Chpt 1.10 (definition 2) *resolve = decision
- She wanted to write at once, while she could trust to the strength of her resolve.
Chpt 1.13 (definition 1)resolve = firmness of purpose
- The ringing of the door-bell a few minutes after five confirmed this supposition, and made Lily hastily resolve to write more legibly in future.†
Chpt 1.15 (definition 2)
- The stroll soon resolved itself into a tranquil session on a bench overhung with laurel and Banksian roses, from which they caught a dazzle of blue sea between marble balusters, and the fiery shafts of cactus-blossoms shooting meteor-like from the rock.†
Chpt 2.1 (definition 2)
- Mrs. Bry pressed on, evidently animated by the resolve to reach a certain point in the rooms; but Mrs. Fisher, as she passed Lily, broke from her towing-line, and let herself float to the girl's side.†
Chpt 2.2 (definition 2)
- "Don't—don't——!" he broke out, with the hurt cry of a child; and while she tried to merge her sympathy, and her resolve to ignore any cause for it, in one ambiguous murmur of deprecation, he dropped down on the bench near which they had paused, and poured out the wretchedness of his soul.†
Chpt 2.2 (definition 2)
- Still, Dorset's spasmodic temper, and his wife's reckless disregard of appearances, gave the situation a peculiar insecurity; and it was less from the sense of any special relation to the case than from a purely professional zeal, that Selden resolved to guide the pair to safety.†
Chpt 2.3 (definition 2)
- The immediate result of these conclusions was the passionate resolve to pay back her debt to Trenor.†
Chpt 2.4 (definition 2)
- Bewildered and indignant, Lily resolved to try the effect of a personal appeal; but she returned from her expedition with a sense of the powerlessness of beauty and charm against the unfeeling processes of the law.†
Chpt 2.4 (definition 2)
- She continued to look at him with a deepening bewilderment: her only clear impression resolved itself into a scared sense of his power.†
Chpt 2.7 (definition 2)
- When at length, one afternoon, she put into execution the belated resolve to visit her friend, this sense of shrunken opportunities possessed her with unusual intensity.†
Chpt 2.8 (definition 2)
- To Gerty herself it would once have seemed impossible that she should ever again talk freely with him of Lily Bart; but what had passed in the secrecy of her own breast seemed to resolve itself, when the mist of the struggle cleared, into a breaking down of the bounds of self, a deflecting of the wasted personal emotion into the general current of human understanding.†
Chpt 2.8 (definition 2)
- There was as yet nothing definable in the situation, which might well resolve itself into a huge joke on the part of the other two; but Lily had a vague sense that the subject of their experiment was too young, too rich and too credulous.†
Chpt 2.9 (definition 2)
- The conviction that he had been sent by Gerty, and that, whatever straits he conceived her to be in, he would never voluntarily have come to her aid, strengthened her resolve not to admit him a hair's breadth farther into her confidence.†
Chpt 2.9 (definition 2)
- The delay did not perceptibly weaken her resolve.†
Chpt 2.11 (definition 2)
Definitions:
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(1) (resolve as in: Her resolve weakened.) firmness of purpose (strong determination to do something)
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(2) (resolve as in: I resolved to stop drinking.) to decide -- typically a firm or formal decisioneditor's notes: In modern writing resolve is typically used to emphasize a firm or formal decision. In classic literature, it is used more frequently and often simply replaces decide or determine.