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officious
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show 115 more with this conextual meaning
  • "Be ye royalty types, or officious emissaries?" the badger asked.†   (source)
  • The woman softened, looked at her slightly less officiously.†   (source)
  • 'Next?' barked Milo's deputy mayor officiously.†   (source)
  • You know the sort of thing, a station administrator who's either in disgrace or a jumped-up nobody, an officious inspector supervisor playing tyrant on the docks, and half a dozen Security whose biggest challenge is chasing chickens out of the tea shop.†   (source)
  • And so it was for the Magdalen Sisters of Charity, especially for the officious superior hen on the single rear point.†   (source)
  • A voice is talking to her now, calm and officious.†   (source)
  • You officious son of a…†   (source)
  • He managed to meet these individuals outside the door of their compartment, barking at them in a variety of languages with a stern, officious air.†   (source)
  • "I think you ought to go, Will," Braselton said officiously.†   (source)
  • He's officious and arrogant.†   (source)
  • He would be as officious and impatient as possible, demand the information, and, when he had it, ride straight for the pilot, even if to the empire's farthest border.†   (source)
  • She glanced toward the corner where Peabody stood, looking her officious best in full uniform.†   (source)
  • And in her officious busy bossiness, so lacking in any quality of the tender as she prattled away (now she was smartly smacking Sophie's cheeks, saying that the first-aid manual stated that smart smacks might help in reviving a victim of die Synkope, as she persisted, with medical precision, in calling a fainting spell), she seemed an Obersturmbannfuhrer in microdimension, the SS spirit and essence—its true hypostasis—embedded in her very genes.†   (source)
  • I got chewed out by Lieutenant Warren for being stupidly officious but he opened his safe and let me check his registered publications.†   (source)
  • He had known him long ago, in the days when Clumly was in his prime, not Chief yet: an officious, sharp-eyed, sharp-witted little man, not yet gone fat.†   (source)
  • FATHER-JACQUES: We'll make officers, officials, and officious people.†   (source)
  • But, however, I soon found it would not do; he was bent upon going, and as I hate to be worrying and officious, I said no more;   (source)
    officious = too eager to offer advice or opinions
  • If by any officious exertions of his, she is induced to leave Henry's protection, there will be much less chance of his marrying her than if she remain with him.   (source)
    officious = too eagerly offered advice or opinions
  • To all she must have saved some trouble of head or hand; and were it only in supporting the spirits of her aunt Bertram, keeping her from the evil of solitude, or the still greater evil of a restless, officious companion, too apt to be heightening danger in order to enhance her own importance, her being there would have been a general good.   (source)
    officious = too eager to offer advice or opinions
  • In vain were the well-meant condescensions of Sir Thomas, and all the officious prognostications of Mrs. Norris that she would be a good girl; in vain did Lady Bertram smile and make her sit on the sofa with herself and pug, and vain was even the sight of a gooseberry tart towards giving her comfort; she could scarcely swallow two mouthfuls before tears interrupted her, and sleep seeming to be her likeliest friend, she was taken to finish her sorrows in bed.   (source)
  • Now —" to me, with a mock show of officiousness—"small word in private.†   (source)
  • His horn-rimmed glasses helped make him seem officious and condescending.†   (source)
  • They were escorted into a much more officious-looking room.†   (source)
  • The help tended to be officious, the rules, if heeded, restrictive, and the management meddlesome.†   (source)
  • The officious creature did not bother introducing himself, but led Max swiftly down the hall to the empty waiting room.†   (source)
  • She had wandered aimlessly along the terraces of the last, as if in a trance, looking for a statue she could not remember, jostled by the intermittent groups of tourists led by loud, officious guides.†   (source)
  • At length a shifty yet officious-looking man—the Steward of Paralon, Bert said—strode to the center of the hall and called for order.†   (source)
  • "You are aware, Mr. McLean, that this is a military college andthat we sign statements at the beginning of the year saying we are not married," Jim stated officiously.†   (source)
  • Gauldin asked officiously.†   (source)
  • "How many have you brought with you?" asked Nemo, looking with a barely disguised disdain at the Violet Dragon, which seemed manned by only a few officious types, none of whom were outfitted for war.†   (source)
  • An officious man, Sedgwick now could look Piedmont in the eye and declare he had analyzed the Yamacraw situation firsthand by braving the river brine for an eyewitness visit.†   (source)
  • Look here, Inspector, I consider this uncalled-for and officious.†   (source)
  • "Like French and German," added another student, officiously showing off his learning.†   (source)
  • Whether she was really an agent of the Thought Police, or simply an amateur spy actuated by officiousness, hardly mattered.†   (source)
  • When the barracks went dark at night, he prowled the campus, contemptuous of the electric flash and the muttered apologies of the officious shave-tails.†   (source)
  • —Still, I repeated sullenly, I did not go, and so, driven out of the sanctuary by these officious devils, went to Jinny because she had a room; a room with little tables, with little ornaments scattered on little tables.†   (source)
  • She was not even distracted by an officious sacristan who tried to collect a fee for something or other and who, from spite, made her change her place under the pretext of repairing a tile on the floor.†   (source)
  • Well, of course, if I'd known that earlier, I wouldn't have called you officious and talked about reporting you.†   (source)
  • "I fear," said Mr. Beebe, after a pause, "that I have been officious.†   (source)
  • PRICE [rising and hurrying officiously to take the old man off Jenny's hands] Poor old man!†   (source)
  • "The man's drunk," said I, perhaps officiously; "you'll do no good."†   (source)
  • 'Here he is, please sir,' rejoined twenty officious voices.†   (source)
  • But it was perhaps a mere fancy of Bob's too officious brain.†   (source)
  • You are rather disposed to call his interference officious?†   (source)
  • Sam was there new oiled from dinner, with an abundance of zealous and ready officiousness.†   (source)
  • I was in the mood for being useful, or at least officious, I think, for I now drew near him again.†   (source)
  • Officious hands, Russian and French, immediately seized the cross and fastened it to the uniform.†   (source)
  • But their officious inquisitiveness was not gratified.†   (source)
  • One hates to be officious, to be giving bad impressions, making mischief.†   (source)
  • Elizabeth's misery increased, at such unnecessary, such officious attention!†   (source)
  • 'How dare you go and poke your officious nose into my family affairs?'†   (source)
  • The fact is, that you were sick of civility, of deference, of officious attention.†   (source)
  • What is all this growing love of pageantry, this effusive loyalty, this officious rising and uncovering at a wave from a flag or a blast from a brass band?†   (source)
  • At a desk sat a captain, to whom the officious individual who had stopped the battle spoke at length in Italian, at times pointing at Dick, and letting himself be interrupted by the taxi-men who delivered short bursts of invective and denunciation.†   (source)
  • "Ah, I might have trusted you to find your own way out—don't overwhelm me with the sense of my officiousness!"†   (source)
  • She only perceived that Anne had made a very thorough apology and all resentment vanished from her kindly, if somewhat officious, heart.†   (source)
  • A rather heavy man, evidently in a position of confidence, with intelligent eyes, a bony, broad, very dark face, and a cheerily of officious manner (I learned later on he was the executioner), presented to us two cups of coffee on a brass tray, which he took from the hands of an inferior attendant.†   (source)
  • He heard her move and sigh in slumber; he wondered if there wasn't some officious brisk thing he could do for her, and before he could quite form the thought he was asleep, racked and aching.†   (source)
  • Margaret Schlegel has been officious and tiresome during this terrible week, and we have all suffered under her, but upon my soul she's honest.†   (source)
  • …me, found me standing in tears on that steep little hillside close to Tansonville, bidding a long farewell to my hawthorns, clasping their sharp branches to my bosom, and (like a princess in a tragedy, oppressed by the weight of all her senseless jewellery) with no gratitude towards the officious hand which had, in curling those ringlets, been at pains to collect all my hair upon my forehead; trampling underfoot the curl-papers which I had torn from my head, and my new hat with them.†   (source)
  • At that instant she knew that in running away she had merely hidden her doubts behind the officious stir of travel.†   (source)
  • Its effect upon her appears in the immediate resolution it produced: as soon as she found I was really gone from Randalls, she closed with the offer of that officious Mrs. Elton; the whole system of whose treatment of her, by the bye, has ever filled me with indignation and hatred.†   (source)
  • Tom Saft—the rogue—took care to spill a little by accident; but Mrs. Poyser (too officiously, Tom thought) interfered to prevent the exaction of the penalty.†   (source)
  • If there hadn't been over-officiousness it wouldn't have been made, and I hate over-officiousness at all times, whether or no. Good evening!'†   (source)
  • It was this officious refugee,' said Jeremiah to Mrs Clennam, 'who came knocking at the door on the night when Arthur and Chatterbox were here, and who asked me a whole Catechism of questions about Mr Blandois.'†   (source)
  • The only thing is that I may well be asked, I acknowledge, why then, in the present fiction, I have suffered Henrietta (of whom we have indubitably too much) so officiously, so strangely, so almost inexplicably, to pervade.†   (source)
  • I was heavier at heart when I packed up such of my books and clothes as still remained there to be sent to Dover, than I cared to show to Uriah Heep; who was so officious to help me, that I uncharitably thought him mighty glad that I was going.†   (source)
  • "Why, bless your heart alive, my dear, how late you are!" said Mrs. Cratchit, kissing her a dozen times, and taking off her shawl and bonnet for her with officious zeal.†   (source)
  • It sometimes happened that officious busybodies spoke to him of Marius, and asked him: "What is your grandson doing?"†   (source)
  • I have already more than once spoken of the disgusting air of patronage which he assumed toward me, and of his frequent officious interference withy my will.†   (source)
  • He had been sent into the county of which Templeton was the capital, and had been kindly invited by Marmaduke, and officiously pressed by Richard, to take up his abode in the village.†   (source)
  • To one or two rather officious offers of sympathy, her responses were little short of acrimonious; and, we regret to say, Hepzibah was thrown into a positively unchristian state of mind by the suspicion that one of her customers was drawn to the shop, not by any real need of the article which she pretended to seek, but by a wicked wish to stare at her.†   (source)
  • The officious shopmen began explaining with oily politeness that the first box contained only half a dozen bottles of champagne, and only "the most indispensable articles," such as savories, sweets, toffee, etc. But the main part of the goods ordered would be packed and sent off, as on the previous occasion, in a special cart also with three horses traveling at full speed, so that it would arrive not more than an hour later than Dmitri Fyodorovitch himself.†   (source)
  • Even if some unduly officious person insist upon a trial, neighborly comity will probably make his conviction sure, and then the labor due the county can easily be bought by the master.†   (source)
  • Heyward had too recently witnessed a frightful instance of the prompt punishments of the people into whose hands he had fallen to hazard an exposure by any officious boldness.†   (source)
  • This revolt, which came very suddenly, and on the last day, so alarmed Mr. Sedley, junior, that he was on the point of giving up the expedition, but Captain Dobbin (who made himself immensely officious in the business, Jos said), rated him and laughed at him soundly: the mustachios were grown in advance, and Jos finally was persuaded to embark.†   (source)
  • He therefore dined very silently, in spite of the officious attention of his host, who presented himself two or three times to inquire if he wanted anything.†   (source)
  • The girl reddened very prettily, and not for shame but for pleasure; and the old man laughed, and said: "Guest, I see that you will be as comfortable as need be; for you need not fear that those two will be too officious with you: they will be so busy with each other, that they will leave you a good deal to yourself, I am sure, and that is a real kindness to a guest, after all.†   (source)
  • Her ringlets, her buckles and bangles, glistened more brightly with each succeeding year, and she remained quite the same officious and imaginative Mrs. Penniman, and the odd mixture of impetuosity and circumspection, that we have hitherto known.†   (source)
  • Mrs. Mann ushered the beadle into a small parlour with a brick floor; placed a seat for him; and officiously deposited his cocked hat and cane on the table before him.†   (source)
  • When this notice was conveyed to him through an officious intermediary, Pontmercy retorted with a bitter smile: "I do not know whether I no longer understand French, or whether you no longer speak it; but the fact is that I do not understand."†   (source)
  • --at Rome, with how untimely, yet with how spectral an officiousness, stepped he in between me and my ambition!†   (source)
  • 'As you didn't understand me, Master Copperfield,' resumed Uriah in the same officious manner, 'I may take the liberty of umbly mentioning, being among friends, that I have called Doctor Strong's attention to the goings-on of Mrs. Strong.†   (source)
  • How now, Sambo!" he said, to a ragged fellow, without any brim to his hat, who was officious in his attentions.†   (source)
  • Oliver lay, covered with mud and dust, and bleeding from the mouth, looking wildly round upon the heap of faces that surrounded him, when the old gentleman was officiously dragged and pushed into the circle by the foremost of the pursuers.†   (source)
  • But Sir Mulberry Hawk was not to be so easily repulsed, for he advanced with extended hand; and Mrs Nickleby officiously informing Kate of this circumstance, she was obliged to extend her own.†   (source)
  • Many of the men sprang forward, officiously, to offer their services, either from the hope of the reward, or from that cringing subserviency which is one of the most baleful effects of slavery.†   (source)
  • Sam and Andy ran and shouted,—dogs barked here and there,—and Mike, Mose, Mandy, Fanny, and all the smaller specimens on the place, both male and female, raced, clapped hands, whooped, and shouted, with outrageous officiousness and untiring zeal.†   (source)
  • His ease and cheerfulness rendered him a most agreeable addition to their evening party; and he bore with the ill-judged officiousness of the mother, and heard all her silly remarks with a forbearance and command of countenance particularly grateful to the daughter.†   (source)
  • Every qualification is raised at times, by the circumstances of the moment, to more than its real value; and she was sometimes worried down by officious condolence to rate good-breeding as more indispensable to comfort than good-nature.†   (source)
  • Before her removing from Norland, Elinor had painted a very pretty pair of screens for her sister-in-law, which being now just mounted and brought home, ornamented her present drawing room; and these screens, catching the eye of John Dashwood on his following the other gentlemen into the room, were officiously handed by him to Colonel Brandon for his admiration.†   (source)
  • ...one of those busybodies who are ever alert, officious, forward, fawning, and complaisant; who watch for strangers in their passage through the capital, tell them the scandalous history of the town, and offer them pleasure at all prices.   (source)
    officious = too eager to offer advice, opinions, or help
  • I tried to cover my resentment at being recaptured and my remorse at having hurt him with an air of bullying officiousness.†   (source)
  • Lenehan in yachtsman's cap and white shoes officiously detaches a long hair from Blazes Boylan's coat shoulder.†   (source)
  • Yet not to Earth are those bright luminaries Officious; but to thee, Earth's habitant.†   (source)
  • DEMETRIUS You are too officious In her behalf that scorns your services.†   (source)
  • VOLT: A strange, officious, Troublesome knave! thou dost torment me.†   (source)
  • The nurse moves onward, with officious care, And all the speed her aged limbs can bear.†   (source)
  • He said; and straight th' officious courser kneels, To take his wonted weight.†   (source)
  • Till I find more than will or words to do it, I mean your malice, know, officious lords, I dare and must deny it.†   (source)
  • It now proved of great advantage to me that when a boy, I took great delight in standing at a basket-maker's in the same town where my father lived, to view them at work; and like other boys, curious to see the manner of their working these things and very officious to assist, I perfectly learned the method of it, and wanted nothing but the tools.†   (source)
  • In this exercise I once met an accident, which had like to have cost me my life; for, one of the pages having put my boat into the trough, the governess who attended Glumdalclitch very officiously lifted me up, to place me in the boat: but I happened to slip through her fingers, and should infallibly have fallen down forty feet upon the floor, if, by the luckiest chance in the world, I had not been stopped by a corking-pin that stuck in the good gentlewoman's stomacher; the head of the…†   (source)
  • The inordinate pride of State importance has suggested to some minds an objection to the principle of a guaranty in the federal government, as involving an officious interference in the domestic concerns of the members.†   (source)
  • To which Sancho made answer, "Far better would it be not to look for him, for, if we find him, and he happens to be the owner of the money, it is plain I must restore it; it would be better, therefore, that without taking this needless trouble, I should keep possession of it until in some other less meddlesome and officious way the real owner may be discovered; and perhaps that will be when I shall have spent it, and then the king will hold me harmless."†   (source)
  • He had officiously carried up the dinner, being, as he said, very desirous to see his young lady; he made therefore no scruple of keeping his master standing above ten minutes, while civilities were passing between him and Sophia, for which he received only a good-humoured rebuke at the door when he returned.†   (source)
  • My landlord, an officious though well-meaning fellow, had sent away for the neighbouring clergyman; and when my gentleman began to speak of it to him, and talk of sending for him, 'Sir,' says he to him, 'my friend is in the house'; so without any more words he brought them together.†   (source)
  • Therefore, to Pray to, to Swear by, to Obey, to bee Diligent, and Officious in Serving: in summe, all words and actions that betoken Fear to Offend, or Desire to Please, is Worship, whether those words and actions be sincere, or feigned: and because they appear as signes of Honoring, are ordinarily also called Honor.†   (source)
  • I will bring these two moles, these blind ones, aboard him: if he think it fit to shore them again, and that the complaint they have to the king concerns him nothing, let him call me rogue for being so far officious; for I am proof against that title, and what shame else belongs to't.†   (source)
  • I went boldly in, and was just going to lay my hand upon a piece of plate, and might have done it, and carried it clear off, for any care that the men who belonged to the shop had taken of it; but an officious fellow in a house, not a shop, on the other side of the way, seeing me go in, and observing that there was nobody in the shop, comes running over the street, and into the shop, and without asking me what I was, or who, seizes upon me, an cries out for the people of the house.†   (source)
  • MOS: And since, to seem the more officious And flatt'ring of his health, there, they have had, At extreme fees, the college of physicians Consulting on him, how they might restore him; Where one would have a cataplasm of spices, Another a flay'd ape clapp'd to his breast, A third would have it a dog, a fourth an oil, With wild cats' skins: at last, they all resolved That, to preserve him, was no other means, But some young woman must be straight sought out, Lusty, and full of juice, to…†   (source)
  • Terrestrial Heaven, danced round by other Heavens That shine, yet bear their bright officious lamps, Light above light, for thee alone, as seems, In thee concentring all their precious beams Of sacred influence!†   (source)
  • She told him that she came, though a stranger, with a single design of doing him a service and he should find she had no other end in it; that as she came purely on so friendly an account, she begged promise from him, that if he did not accept what she should officiously propose he would not take it ill that she meddled with what was not her business.†   (source)
  • Officious grooms stand ready by his side; And some with combs their flowing manes divide, And others stroke their chests and gently soothe their pride.†   (source)
  • Then to the rising sun he turns his eyes, And strews the beasts, design'd for sacrifice, With salt and meal: with like officious care He marks their foreheads, and he clips their hair.†   (source)
  • And now perhaps, in hopes of thy return, Rich odors on his loaded altars burn, While we, with vain officious pomp, prepare To send him back his portion of the war, A bloody breathless body, which can owe No farther debt, but to the pow'rs below.†   (source)
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