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compelling
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  • Even though it was very late in the process, I was hoping that we might win a stay when I saw some of the compelling issues in Herbert's case.†   (source)
  • And then, most compellingly for Laila, there is Mariam.†   (source)
  • But what surrounds the model is not something her father conveyed to her; what's beyond the model is the most compelling thing.†   (source)
  • I could probably dismantle it and bring it in a piece at a time, but there's a pretty compelling reason not to.†   (source)
  • More compelling than their testimony, however, is the casual shoptalk they engage in while waiting in the corridor to take the stand.†   (source)
  • "Mom can be very compelling," I said pointedly, though Mom was obviously not ashamed at all of her bribery.†   (source)
  • Today, I prepared a defense so compelling for my client, he actually offered to pay me more money.†   (source)
  • He understood what his father was trying to say: The mystery of the rifle-the very thing that had sparked him to steal the key to the cabinet from his father's underwear drawer and show Josie-was no longer quite as compelling.†   (source)
  • Since her death, Owen had hinted that the strongest force compelling him to attend Gravesend Academy—namely, my mother's insistence—was gone.†   (source)
  • They—particularly my mother—had many compelling reasons why this was a wretched idea, including the cost, the fact that I was supposed to spend the summer with Uncle Bobby learning how to run a drug empire, and that I had no one to accompany me, since neither of my parents had any interest in going and I certainly couldn't go alone.†   (source)
  • The camerlegno's voice plunged to a compelling hush.†   (source)
  • His eyes gave their wider, magical gleam and his voice continued on a more compelling level, "Although I have to admit I didn't think of that when I put it on this morning.†   (source)
  • He turned to her, compelling her to look, but she continued to stare at the house.†   (source)
  • It was an obvious trick, but her voice was so compelling, even Jason bought it.†   (source)
  • Not for laughing and falling off the log"—the group of littluns on the twister giggled and looked at each other—"not for making jokes, or for"—he lifted the conch in an effort to find the compelling word—"for cleverness.†   (source)
  • To Len Fenerman especially, George Harvey's seemed a compelling one.†   (source)
  • The problem (as I'd learned, repeatedly) was that thirty-six hours in, with your body in full revolt, and the remainder of your un-opiated life stretching out bleakly ahead of you like a prison corridor, you needed some fairly compelling reason to keep moving forward into darkness, rather than falling straight back into the gorgeous feather mattress you'd so foolishly abandoned.†   (source)
  • I guess my concern for my own survival isn't compelling enough.†   (source)
  • Though I knew the history behind his and my father's rise to power, the dream he had painted for me was too compelling, too seductive to ignore.†   (source)
  • In my case, though I didn't know how to write or paint, I had a great need to conceive and imagine, so compelling, so encompassing, I had to do it even when I knew my works would be subject to ridicule, would be called stupid and naive.†   (source)
  • She said she would teach us how to tell our stories in a more compelling way.†   (source)
  • "It would seem that our reasons for returning to Hyperion are so compelling that even the Shrike Church and the Hegemony probability intelligences agree that we deserve to return," he said.†   (source)
  • But you of all people should realize how thin the line is between the truth and a compelling lie.†   (source)
  • But she leaves behind as well a record of herself that is far more complete, more accurate, and more compelling than the lengthy chapter examining her life in the book Glittering Jewels of Japan, or in the various magazine articles about her that have appeared over the years.†   (source)
  • His velvety voice was compelling.†   (source)
  • The stories are great, the characters compelling, the language fabulous.†   (source)
  • I know it's a compelling story, and the pitch-perfect headline, written by copy editor Saji Mathai, has helped draw attention to it: HE'S GOT THE WORLD ON TWO STRINGS.†   (source)
  • But Ellsworth's vision was compelling.†   (source)
  • A dry, bitter taste, but a compelling one.†   (source)
  • Hands grabbed my wrists and pried my hands from my face, compelling me to bend over.†   (source)
  • Somehow that represents a more compelling recommendation than the opinion of an expert whose job it is to rate restaurants.†   (source)
  • But he was unaware of her compelling desire.†   (source)
  • It is clear to anyone who watches him recruit or is around him for any period of time that his charisma around others is attractive, sincere, and compelling.†   (source)
  • But the Bene Gesserit ways were devious and compelling.†   (source)
  • And he had a compelling case, too—some of the things he did in that dungeon, some of the reasons he gave ...People were outraged, of course.†   (source)
  • Realizing, too, that he was beginning to flatten and extend his own vowels, called by the deep pull of language, patterns of speech as familiar and compelling as water.†   (source)
  • A hunger, a compelling need.†   (source)
  • And as I stare out at the land, I think that this, if nothing else, is compelling evidence for my parents' God, that our world is so massive that it is completely out of our control, that we cannot possibly be as large as we feel.†   (source)
  • It was clearly one of the most compelling stories in American medicine.†   (source)
  • These pieces are really compelling.†   (source)
  • Yes, there are a few problems, grammatical things, some sentence structure, some punctuation, but, on balance, it's very strong and compelling.†   (source)
  • Shade Buckheath was a handsome, compelling fellow, and a good match; this Adamless Eden regarded him as a rival in glory even to Pap himself.†   (source)
  • Artkin began to turn around, slowly, deliberately, his arms stretched high, the child still held aloft, turning, turning, quicker now, stepping up the movement, as if he were dancing to some compelling music nobody else could hear.†   (source)
  • Although Lord was not a vampyre—and it's really a shame he wasn't," she added under her breath, "I still find his take on the night compelling and his writing style and tone interesting and very readable.†   (source)
  • "I have no doubt but the nation at large sees the conduct in America in its true light," he had written to his Prime Minister, Lord North, "and I am certain any other conduct but compelling obedience would be ruinous and ...therefore no consideration could bring me to swerve from the present path which I think myself in duty-bound to follow."†   (source)
  • But another expert said, "I'm not sure that no matter how compelling a case that this group or any other group makes, there's going to be all of a sudden an outpouring of money to treat."†   (source)
  • Some of the most compelling incentives yet invented have been put in place to deter crime.†   (source)
  • People who believe I was just speeding to another compelling story are dead wrong.†   (source)
  • It was only the teacher from the art class saying she was looking for people for a project she was doing at a gallery, and she thought of me, because of my quote unquote compelling presence.†   (source)
  • "Now, now, Tweedy," cautioned Nolan, "I grant you I didn't realize Kettlemouth's songs were so ...compelling ...but it's not his fault.†   (source)
  • There's something compelling about the child.†   (source)
  • I thought it was the most compelling description of faith that I had ever heard.†   (source)
  • First, that Svensson was a brilliant writer who described the business of the sex trade with compelling objectivity.†   (source)
  • He felt a compelling desire for cool water.†   (source)
  • He wished for a more compelling force with which to rule his subjects.†   (source)
  • The eyes, a compelling and vivid blue, beam into whatever they touch.†   (source)
  • Once he began to speak, the sound of it was so compelling that you focused all your thoughts upon the words, and not upon the man who uttered them.†   (source)
  • Who was to say which reality was more compelling?†   (source)
  • But our curiosity was so compelling: Who were we?†   (source)
  • In 1969, in Queens, snatching liberty seemed compelling.†   (source)
  • But Roger, don't you find their situation compelling?†   (source)
  • Hunter's very compelling physically.†   (source)
  • At least my dreams don't rest upon compelling all of humanity to pose for them.†   (source)
  • Granted, that to look up at the stars comes close to compelling disbelief—how can such a chance arrangement be other than an elaboration—near infinite—of natural impulses?†   (source)
  • Kessell let them marvel over the splendor of his new home, then called again to the chieftain, compelling the goblin to approach Cryshal-Tirith.†   (source)
  • She had such a compelling presence that she seemed to be coming at him though she was standing still, to loom over him though she was ten inches shorter than he.†   (source)
  • I'll leave you to your very compelling table.†   (source)
  • As writers often do, I adapted what seemed compelling to me from the myth—angels having children, when that is such a human thing to do!†   (source)
  • But it's not a compelling argument when there's no food on the table or a roof over your head.†   (source)
  • But, above all, the eye is struck by the compelling vastness of open space.†   (source)
  • Then, after the briefest pause, he let go of the photo itself, the image of the woman still compelling, though smeared and oily.†   (source)
  • Critics have accused Crook of padding his own part, but the book makes for compelling reading.†   (source)
  • That is, by far, the most compelling piece of evidence the state will present in this case.†   (source)
  • —Or something more compelling?†   (source)
  • Yet there are times when a deeper need enters, when we want the poem to be not only pleasurably right but compellingly wise, not only a surprising variation played upon the world, but a re-tuning of the world itself.†   (source)
  • A compelling case for sex education in the schools.†   (source)
  • It seems kind of rough on the men to separate them from their women in the last few days, unless there was some compelling reason in the interest of the naval service.†   (source)
  • None of them, however, could offer any compelling reasons for staying alive.†   (source)
  • But though the letter tugged at my heart and at the same time possessed, in practical terms, a compelling logic, I realized that I had to turn my father's invitation down.†   (source)
  • It was the image, ghost, archaic (as even Will Jr knew) but still compelling, that had once made Hodge seem to himself a fool and now made him a disappointment to his elder son.†   (source)
  • That constant questioning of mirrors and eyes; compelling others to look for the blemish that kept you in hiding; lunacy in a small room.†   (source)
  • Mind you, if you're kinky for Northern Hygienic, as I am, you can't find anything much more compelling than a Scottish Lady Dentist.†   (source)
  • More compelling, Lib usually went with him.†   (source)
  • And how distant, cold, and compellingly attractive was this woman to whom he had sacrificed all he had, whom he had preferred to everything, and in comparison with whom everything seemed to him worthless!†   (source)
  • What I did give them was that compelling rhythm and rhyme scheme double-talking and faking on any fluffs and really slamming it on "beating on a table with the handle of a broom!†   (source)
  • We felt that planned destruction of power plants, and interference with rail and telephone communications, would tend to scare away capital from the country, make it more difficult for goods from the industrial areas to reach the seaports on schedule, and would in the long run be a heavy drain on the economic life of the country, thus compelling the voters of the country to reconsider their position.†   (source)
  • And everywhere, the yawning, inconvenient, and suddenly familiar rooms were as deep and inviting and compelling as the yawning big roses opening and shattering in one day in the heating gardens.†   (source)
  • Henry Clay of Kentucky—bold, autocratic and magnetic, fiery in manner with a charm so compelling that an opponent once declined a meeting which would subject him to the appeal of Harry of the West.†   (source)
  • He had asked her this question before, but never in such a tone; she had never before felt so compelling a need to reply.†   (source)
  • I guess I've just never found a compelling reason to leave Tinos.†   (source)
  • Is it because its stories are such compelling reading?†   (source)
  • I could feel Meg's command sinking into my muscles, compelling me to obey.†   (source)
  • That is partly because the scientific data seemed so compelling.†   (source)
  • But the tune was forceful and oddly compelling.†   (source)
  • Edward's soft voice was compelling, almost hypnotic.†   (source)
  • The familiar acid-compelling taste flooded in.†   (source)
  • Would she have found him as compelling as she did now, or would she have fallen for David again?†   (source)
  • The chance to see Minnie was compelling in itself.†   (source)
  • Though Williams's view was unabashedly self-serving, it was compelling in its detail.†   (source)
  • I have heard that the hunger for air exceeds as a compelling sensation the thirst for water.†   (source)
  • Flight alone is a won-der; with these other elements, a complete and compelling myth.†   (source)
  • That's what makes it so compelling and—to be frank—terrifying.†   (source)
  • Something compelling, like heat from a fire.†   (source)
  • None of this compelling mitigating evidence was presented at trial, and it should have been.†   (source)
  • And then the situation in which he finds himself needs to be compelling.†   (source)
  • One of the most compelling buildings, given the nature of the age, was the Electricity Building.†   (source)
  • When she was not forthcoming, I prodded her, compelling her to speak.†   (source)
  • Indeed her entire history presents most compelling proof that she is not.†   (source)
  • But there's something compelling about it.†   (source)
  • It felt the wizard's will imposing upon it once again, compelling the creature to its knees.†   (source)
  • Marvin began to understand why the odor was so compelling.†   (source)
  • How compelling, to be invited to the Big House.†   (source)
  • No. But not because of the lip-ripping thing, though that is compelling.†   (source)
  • She was a compelling spokeswoman, actually.†   (source)
  • The eyes are fixed on him, a tender and compelling blue..."Hey.†   (source)
  • Neferet's voice was soft, but compelling, and I could feel the power in her command.†   (source)
  • The thought suddenly felt terribly compelling.†   (source)
  • The results were as compelling as the cheating algorithm had predicted.†   (source)
  • I think their situation is beyond compelling.†   (source)
  • There was a mood of intense concentration, minds converging on a single compelling idea.†   (source)
  • And why on earth did he find it so ....compelling?†   (source)
  • And then I feel her tap upon my shoulder firmly, compelling me to rise.†   (source)
  • Hunter looked just as dangerous, just as compelling as ever.†   (source)
  • The fact that still another man claimed to be her father was even more compelling.†   (source)
  • But the need to speak was more compelling.†   (source)
  • Surely the bullet-head, who was as ridiculous as he was compelling, would go nowhere.†   (source)
  • Are you saying the two kinds of fire are equally compelling?†   (source)
  • His reasoning had its own kind of compelling sense.†   (source)
  • The short, rough beard surrounded the poet's mouth, making it all the more compelling.†   (source)
  • That she was intriguing and full of life and compelling.†   (source)
  • The most compelling explanation is that all those early lynchings worked.†   (source)
  • She hadn't known land could be so demanding, or so compelling.†   (source)
  • "I often find it harsh, but always compelling," Lee said simply.†   (source)
  • Said he'd try and come if there was a compelling reason but he'd be leaving half his crew behind.†   (source)
  • I find it pretty compelling.†   (source)
  • His eyes weren't nearly as hypnotic as David's had been, but there was something compelling about him for sure.†   (source)
  • When I opened my mouth, I could taste the air—it was unpolluted now, with no trace of the compelling perfume to torment my thirst.†   (source)
  • Silly ....yet still compelling.†   (source)
  • Her face is heart-shaped, her skin milky, her eyes large and compelling; but although her waist is slender, there is something metallic about it, as if she is using a short length of stove-pipe instead of stays.†   (source)
  • With the discovery by Clausen and Treadwell that wild potato seeds may be repositories of swainsonine or some similarly toxic compound, a compelling case can be made for these seeds having caused McCandless's death.†   (source)
  • What Cleaver never realized, even at the end of his life, is that chaos is as compelling a cause as any other.†   (source)
  • The theme this year — with a nod to last year's spectacular "Tamurlane in Samarkand" Beaux Arts Ball — was "Xanadu," and under the skilled direction of Mr. Wallace Wynant, the three lavish ballrooms were transformed into a "stately pleasure dome" of compelling brilliance, where Kubia Khan and his glittering entourage held court.†   (source)
  • I'm not a bad judge of people, a skill that comes from thousands of reads, and he seemed like a decent fellow, charismatic and compelling in his own way, climbing onto the stage each day at his Little Walt Disney Concert Hall.†   (source)
  • Dad kept pushing baseball and had been making a compelling argument from when I was young: if you're good enough to have a professional career in baseball, it's usually longer than a football career, injuries are less frequent, and the pay is greater.†   (source)
  • The book itself is heartwarming and beautifully written, a compelling story of friendship and mother-daughter relationships.†   (source)
  • Hore!" behind me as I started back toward the dormitory, and my feet of course could not help but begin to fall involuntarily into step with that coarse, compelling voice, which carried to me like an air-raid siren across the fields and commons.†   (source)
  • But if a movie as stupid as The Ten Commandments could make Owen Meany murder toads by throwing them at Mary Magdalene, a performance as compelling as Bette Davis's in Dark Victory could convince Owen that he, too, had a brain tumor.†   (source)
  • There was a certain irony in this, because the most compelling social gossip at the moment happened to be the test of wills currently being waged by Mrs. Strong and her rebellious daughter, Dutton.†   (source)
  • Since Carlisle and Esme had no problem with this, Charlie couldn't come up with a compelling objection; he'd agreed with poor grace.†   (source)
  • Randall Dale Adams inspired a compelling, award-winning documentary film by Errol Morris called The Thin Blue Line.†   (source)
  • The weird contrast between the bright, striped, living orange of his coat and the inert white of the boat's hull was incredibly compelling.†   (source)
  • She brought in a folklorist to help coach the stylists in how to present their information about breast cancer in a compelling manner.†   (source)
  • It occurs to me now that this suggestion was even less compelling to Hester than it was to me, and I could think only that Hester's snarling mouth was about as inviting as Firewater's; yet I think we both realized that the potential embarrassment of being mated to this conjugal position for any duration of time, while Noah and Simon observed our breathing and minor movements, would perhaps lead to even greater suffering than indulging in a single kiss.†   (source)
  • It was unheard of to indict someone for perjury without any investigation or compelling evidence to establish that a false statement had been made.†   (source)
  • So what made my encounter with him different, so much more compelling than the conversational encounters I have every day?†   (source)
  • And it certainly keeps us readers on our toes, inviting us, compelling us, to dig through layers of possible meaning and competing signification.†   (source)
  • The fair had become so intensely compelling that one woman, Mrs. Lucille Rodney of Galveston, Texas, walked thirteen hundred miles along railroad tracks to reach it.†   (source)
  • Then I raced down the hill on the left and raced up the hill on the right—to offer thanks to Lord Krishna for having put Jesus of Nazareth, whose humanity I found so compelling, in my way.†   (source)
  • He's ....compelling.†   (source)
  • It was a compelling presentation.†   (source)
  • The very same character traits of rebelliousness and impulsivity and risk-taking and indifference to the opinion of others and precocity that made them so compelling to their adolescent peers also make it almost inevitable that they would also be drawn to the ultimate expression of adolescent rebellion, risk-taking, impulsivity, indifference to others, and precocity: the cigarette.†   (source)
  • Although such interior exhibits were compelling, the earliest visitors to Jackson Park saw immediately that the fair's greatest power lay in the strange gravity of the buildings themselves.†   (source)
  • The story is so rich and full, the pain and redemption so compelling, the language so wonderful throughout, I didn't need to dwell on the last line for several readings.†   (source)
  • And in literature, there is another reason: writing a meal scene is so difficult, and so inherently uninteresting, that there really needs to be some compelling reason to include one in the story.†   (source)
  • One of the most compelling, and chilling, exhibits was the Krupp Pavilion, where Fritz Krupp's "pet monster" stood at the center of an array of heavy guns.†   (source)
  • I took the risk of talking to a few local lawyers about whether the new prosecutor might acknowledge that the conviction was unreliable and support a new trial if there was compelling new evidence.†   (source)
  • But Jones, as you can imagine, cut such a compelling figure that the Sesame Street producers left the film as it was and played it over and over again for years: the letter A or B, etc., would appear on the screen, there would be a long pause, and then Jones would boom out the name and the letter would disappear.†   (source)
  • Although her book did include compelling recipes for scrapple, ox cheek, and baked calf's head and tips for the preparation of raccoon, possum, snipe, plovers, and blackbirds (for blackbird pie) and "how to broil, fricassee, stew or fry a squirrel," it was much more than just a cookbook.†   (source)
  • He was locked into a maintenance role: He was a custodian for the system who was unlikely to overturn the previous judgment, even if there was compelling evidence of innocence.†   (source)
  • Writing that engages the realities of its world—that thinks about human problems, including those in the social and political realm, that addresses the rights of persons and the wrongs of those in power—can be not only interesting but hugely compelling.†   (source)
  • The Court's decision was strongly criticized by scholars and Court observers, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote a compelling dissent, but Thompson did not get any money.†   (source)
  • Thus, when Kruse collapsed at Boukreev was nowhere in the 20,000 feet with a splitting headache, vicinity, compelling Fischer and Beidleman to rush down from Camp Two to handle the emergency as soon as word of Kruse's condition arrived via climbers coming up the Western Cum.†   (source)
  • But all legends were like that: stories got passed around and altered slightly to make them more compelling.†   (source)
  • Compelling, but disgusting.†   (source)
  • She glanced back again, and remembered her first sight of him, and how striking, how compelling he'd looked—the big, tough man on the big, tough horse.†   (source)
  • But it's the static drama of the dangled body that Edgar finds compelling, the terror of second thoughts.†   (source)
  • A perfect fit for her mother maybe, with his compelling, confident demeanor, but that didn't make him God's gift to all women.†   (source)
  • To my mind, there was only one compelling argument for its existence: that when a hollowgast consumes enough of us, it transforms into a different sort of creature—one that can travel through time loops.†   (source)
  • Miss Trimble is a compelling creature with thick waves of auburn hair that cascade down the back of her purple cloak.†   (source)
  • We just want the law upheld—the one that promises Shay Bourne the right to practice his religion even in the state penitentiary, unless there's a compelling governmental interest to keep him from doing so.†   (source)
  • I did find the work pleasing, basic and honest, but I didn't have any extra money for gardeners and groundskeepers back then, and so there were compelling reasons to find myself in the yard, kneeling and digging and rooting.†   (source)
  • No, it was his genuine desire to change—to be a better person than he had been—that she found most compelling.†   (source)
  • Absently, I wondered why the desert was so much more colorful in Melanie's memories, so much more compelling.†   (source)
  • But the bad heart is also compelling.†   (source)
  • Leavitt went over the reports and the papers and found no reason to reject the meteorite studies out of hand; many of the experiments were careful, well-reasoned, and compelling.†   (source)
  • The same warning fear was on him as he had felt in the presence of the Black Riders, the helpless horror that had come with the cry in the wind and the shadow on the moon, though now it was not so crushing or compelling: the menace was more remote.†   (source)
  • Certainly a man with an obsession so compelling that he's driven to wholesale slaughter, his fury directed at a target — as you say —up here.'†   (source)
  • They sound equally compelling.†   (source)
  • Jimmy Gizzi had undone his pants and begun lazily stroking himself, and Sunny began laughing at him, first in chortles and then maniacally, in a dusky tone that seemed as illiberal and vile as what he was compelling on himself.†   (source)
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