countenance

in a sentence

grouped by contextual meaning

Her countenance grew stern.

Miss Maudie answered: "A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance!"  (source) Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960

One word or look from you ... and I'll tear the countenance from the front of your head.  (source) Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes, 1996

Bibwit came forward with beaming countenance and took both her hands in his.  (source) Frank Beddor, The Looking Glass Wars, 2006

The countenances of many a parishioner reflected shock and insult, as if the Lord Jesus had just spat in their faces—to deem them sacrilegious.†  (source) John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany, 1989

Quite plainly he had a distaste for the duty at hand, but his stern soldierly countenance did not soften.  (source) Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, 1958

News to "enliven our countenances," the Tory historian Edward Gibbon called it.†  (source) David McCullough, 1776, 2005

She was on a roll now, her countenance billowing and moving.  (source) William P. Young, The Shack, 2007

A tentative list of the material requirements for this assignment lay on the conference table, surrounded by many grave countenances.†  (source) Farley Mowat, Never Cry Wolf, 1963

He tried to read in her countenance any disposition of the mistress so recently visited that might reflect upon his case.  (source) Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, 1992

When she began to look at people's actual countenances there was no more familiarity in the world for her.†  (source) Eudora Welty, The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty, 1955

She had a stern countenance and was critical-looking.  (source) Amy Tan, The Bonesetter's Daughter, 2001

The twelve faces before him had a variety of countenances, but there was something, neither color nor feature, upon all of them, as a common denominator, something that dissolved their expressions, so that they were not faces any longer but only empty ovals of flesh.†  (source) Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, 1943

They countenance terrorism.

Sethe's crime was staggering and her pride outstripped even that; but she could not countenance the possibility of sin moving on in the house, unleashed and sassy.  (source) Toni Morrison, Beloved, 1987

It was not that he pitied me but that he felt we were in the same boat for different reasons, and that I could understand his frustration just as he could countenance my withdrawal.  (source) Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1969

This was extravagant and not to be countenanced.  (source) John Steinbeck, The Pearl, 1947

He disagreed with Reb Saunders, yes, but he would countenance no slander against his name or his position.  (source) Chaim Potok, The Chosen, 1967

Jean Louise's aunt often held up Cousin Joshua to her as a family example not lightly to be discountenanced: he was a splendid figure of a man, he was a poet, he was cut off in his prime, and Jean Louise would do well to remember that he was a credit to the family.†  (source) Harper Lee, Go Set a Watchman, 2015

For the launch of the First Five-Year Plan, Bukharin's fall from grace, and the expansion of the Criminal Code to allow the arrest of anyone even countenancing dissension, these were only tidings, omens, underpinnings.†  (source) Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow, 2016

It was on Isabel's invitation she had come, and she imparted all due dignity to the girl's uncountenanced state.†  (source) Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady - Volumes 1 & 2, 1881

I will speak in spite of all the intimidations, or threats, or discountenances that may be thrown upon me.†  (source) John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage, 1955

discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned;†  (source) George Washington, Washington's Farewell Address, 1796

...there was room for wonder why she had countenanced deception at all,  (source) Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge, 1886

But expect no help nor countenance from me.  (source) C. S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy, 1954

'Mrs' was a word somewhat discountenanced by the Party — you were supposed to call everyone 'comrade' — but with some women one used it instinctively.†  (source) George Orwell, 1984, 1949