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incisive
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  • By the third time he heard it, however, he had seen Crispy Pork Rinds, and though he didn't read all that well, understood clearly his role as the target of Sarah Byrnes's and my incisive journalistic focus.†   (source)
  • See, that was me, sort of incisively singled out, living in a state of pause and stocktaking, twenty years old and stupider than my fellows and desperate to find a place for myself.†   (source)
  • But Alice is an extremely intelligent woman with an incisive ability to discern character.†   (source)
  • And now, with typical leaderly incisiveness, I put two and six together and came up with one single question that would get right to the crucial heart of the matter.†   (source)
  • All the Finches had straight incisive eyebrows and heavy-lidded eyes; when they looked slant-wise, up, or straight ahead, a disinterested observer would catch a glimpse of what May-comb called Family Resemblance.†   (source)
  • She needed the whole man to do an incisive article.†   (source)
  • As a matter of fact, I don't think there've been any really incisive jobs done on him in the last—†   (source)
  • Along the sidewalks, with incisive heels and leathery shuffle, young men and women advanced, retreated.†   (source)
  • There was no way I was going to break first—and give Fang the satisfaction? I don't think so. But I did have an obligation, as leader, to take care of Nudge. As much as I hated to stop and lose time, it was a reality. "Okay, okay. We need food." How's that for incisive leadership?   (source)
    incisive = decisive, direct and clear
  • He put his hands on the table to steady himself, his incisive features melted, his eyebrows shot up, he laughed loudly.†   (source)
  • "Miss Bart remains here," his wife rejoined incisively.†   (source)
  • "It's Perezvon's master, don't worry about me," Kolya said incisively again.†   (source)
  • But," he added, incisively, "I have to consider what I shall do without it, not with it."†   (source)
  • LISE (choking with anger): But— CYRANO (incisively): I like Ragueneau well, and so—mark me, Dame Lise—I permit not that he be rendered a laughing-stock by any... LISE: But... CYRANO (who has raised his voice so as to be heard by the gallant): A word to the wise... (He bows to the musketeer, and goes to the doorway to watch, after looking at the clock.)†   (source)
  • Zeena, apparently accepting this as final, lay watching him in silence while he pulled his suspenders over his shoulders and jerked his arms into his coat; but as he went toward the door she said, suddenly and incisively: "I guess you're always late, now you shave every morning."†   (source)
  • '"Jumped," he corrected me incisively.†   (source)
  • "You don't seem to understand," he said incisively; then looking at me without a wink, "I may have jumped, but I don't run away."†   (source)
  • His voice was sharper, more incisive; no longer did he seem to be hovering on the brink of some profound doubtfulness.†   (source)
  • I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by my friend's incisive reasoning.†   (source)
  • That cold, incisive, ironical voice could belong to but one man in all the world.†   (source)
  • Forty teeth, namely twenty-four grinders, four eye-teeth, and twelve incisive.†   (source)
  • You know how terribly incisive she is sometimes.†   (source)
  • I was incisive.†   (source)
  • Unlike his shorter and more confused brother of the Door of Hope, whom he had not even seen for thirty years, he was a little above the average in height, very well-knit, although comparatively slender, shrewd of eye, and incisive both as to manner and speech.†   (source)
  • Either he is growing stronger, healthier, wiser, as the youth approaching manhood, or he is growing weaker, older, less incisive mentally, as the man approaching old age.†   (source)
  • He spoke with incisive irony.†   (source)
  • Incisive.†   (source)
  • But he remained serious and earnest whilst she laughed, and his voice, clear, incisive, and hard, was not raised above his breath as he said,— "Then, as you have heard of that enigmatical personage, citoyenne, you must also have guessed, and know, that the man who hides his identity under that strange pseudonym, is the most bitter enemy of our republic, of France ...of men like Armand St. Just."†   (source)
  • It may be a weakness of mine that I have an incisive way of speech; but I threw all restraint to the winds and cut and slashed until the whole man of him was snarling.†   (source)
  • Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe.†   (source)
  • The following afternoon, however, after he had seen him at least half a dozen times and had been able to formulate the most agreeable impressions of him, since his uncle appeared to be so very quick, alert, incisive—so very different from his father in every way, and so rich and respected by every one here—he began to wonder, to fear even at times, whether he was going to let this remarkable opportunity slip.†   (source)
  • His tall form, as though robbed of its substance, hovered noiselessly over invisible things with stooping and indefinite movements; his voice, heard in that remoteness where he could be glimpsed mysteriously busy with immaterial cares, was no longer incisive, seemed to roll voluminous and grave—mellowed by distance.†   (source)
  • Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most inextricable mysteries.†   (source)
  • Philip was slow to reply, and when he spoke, his tone had a more incisive quietness and clearness than ever.†   (source)
  • She had risked it, but her brother gave her such a terribly incisive look—a look so like a surgeon's lancet—that she was frightened at her courage.†   (source)
  • He had taken care to repeat the incisive statement of his resolve not to be played on any more; and had tried to penetrate Raffles with the fact that he had shown the risks of bribing him to be quite equal to the risks of defying him.†   (source)
  • "Well, Adam," said Mr. Poyser, feeling that his wife's words were, as usual, rather incisive than soothing, and that it would be well to change the subject, "you'll come and see us again now, I hope.†   (source)
  • It was in this incisive strain that Mrs. Tristram moralized over Newman's so-called neglect, which was in reality a most exemplary constancy.†   (source)
  • Into the darkness it cut incisive as diamond brilliance, beautiful as if from a spear of the morning.†   (source)
  • In this way arose Feudal Socialism: half lamentation, half lampoon; half echo of the past, half menace of the future; at times, by its bitter, witty and incisive criticism, striking the bourgeoisie to the very heart's core; but always ludicrous in its effect, through total incapacity to comprehend the march of modern history.†   (source)
  • After her brother had delivered himself, on his return from Europe, of that incisive little address that has been quoted, Morris's cause seemed so hopeless that Mrs. Penniman fixed her attention exclusively upon the latter branch of her argument.†   (source)
  • "Miss Tulliver," he said, with bitter incisiveness, "has the only grounds of rank that anything but vulgar folly can suppose to belong to the middle class; she is thoroughly refined, and her friends, whatever else they may be, are respected for irreproachable honor and integrity.†   (source)
  • It was not possible for her to have received a stranger with repulsion more incisive; yet she was apparently as passionless as a statue, only the small head was a little tilted, the nostrils a little drawn, and the sensuous lower lip pushed the upper the least bit out of its natural curvature.†   (source)
  • "You must be prepared for anything," said the doctor in emphatic and incisive tones, and dropping his eyes, he was about to step out to the coach.†   (source)
  • Mrs. Tristram, looking about her, dropped a series of softly-incisive comments upon her fellow-guests.†   (source)
  • "Before you talk of a historical event like the foundation of a nationality, you must first understand what you mean by it," he admonished him in stern, incisive tones.†   (source)
  • Blent with peddlers of jewelry—sharp men cloaked in scarlet and blue, top-heavy under prodigious white turbans, and fully conscious of the power there is in the lustre of a ribbon and the incisive gleam of gold, whether in bracelet or necklace, or in rings for the finger or the nose—and with peddlers of household utensils, and with dealers in wearing-apparel, and with retailers of unguents for anointing the person, and with hucksters of all articles, fanciful as well as of need, hither and thither, tugging at halters and ropes, no†   (source)
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