dynamic
toggle menu
menu
vocabulary
1000+ books

opportune
in a sentence

show 169 more with this conextual meaning
  • Other golden words of wisdom were taught at opportune moments: "If somebody falls over, you offer them your hand."†   (source)
  • The ship just opportunely came apart?†   (source)
  • In his own good time William Howe was drawing up plans to outmaneuver the rebels once again, while his brother, Lord Howe, reflected on whether it might be the opportune moment for another peace overture.†   (source)
  • Instead of turning the boy into an opportune snack, as they half expected would happen, the lion allowed Bug to stroke its mane, then scratch behind its ears.†   (source)
  • Her death comes at an opportune moment for you.†   (source)
  • Cassius searched for the most opportune moment.†   (source)
  • He knew that the opportune moment was going to arrive even before it did, and once it had, he acted without thought or hesitation, without attempting to be fast or slow, seeking only to fulfill the potential of that single, perfect instant.†   (source)
  • The intruder waited for the opportune moment; it came when the guard's chest swelled with a long yawn and his eyes briefly closed as he inhaled deeply.†   (source)
  • And later, at an opportune moment, when Franny was pretending to sample a cup of chicken broth, Mrs. Glass had climbed up on the window seats with the agility of a mountain nanny goat and stripped all three of the sash windows of their heavy damask curtains.†   (source)
  • It was true her screams were sometimes justified, out on a ship at sea, and always opportune-but there were also screams that seemed offered through the day for their own sake, endeavors of pure anguish or joy that youth and strength seemed able to put out faster than the steady, pounding quiet of the voyage could ever overtake and heal.†   (source)
  • If offering Mishka the banquette had been gracious and opportune, it also had the added benefit of keeping him in his seat.   (source)
  • Then, rather than reclaim his seat, he offered the banquette to Mishka—an action that seemed at once courteous and opportune, since it allowed the Count to turn his back on the willow.   (source)
  • Individuals of wiser faith, indeed, who knew that Heaven promotes its purposes without aiming at the stage-effect of what is called miraculous interposition, were inclined to see a providential hand in Roger Chillingworth's so opportune arrival.   (source)
    opportune = timely or advantageous
  • She did not wait for an opportune moment as she had the first time.†   (source)
  • It wasn't exactly the most opportune of moments.†   (source)
  • Arcadio, had seen her many times working in her parents' small food store but he had never taken a good look at her because she had that rare virtue of never existing completely except at the opportune moment.†   (source)
  • spontaneous cross-reference-something lam coded to do at opportune moments-you may wish to examine herpes simplex, a virus that takes up residence in the nervous system and never leaves.†   (source)
  • When they realized they could not reach the parrot even with their extension ladders, the firemen began to chop at the branches with machetes, and only the opportune arrival of Dr. Urbino Daza prevented them from mutilating the tree all the way to the trunk.†   (source)
  • There was nothing in his voice, no sorrow or pleasure, but Clary could not help but wonder what hidden glee he might feel at having so opportunely lucked into an effective bargaining chip.†   (source)
  • Nevertheless, I considered most carefully what might be the most opportune occasion to bring the matter up with him; for although I would not for one moment, as I say, suspect Mr Farraday of inconsistency, it nevertheless made sense not to broach the topic when he was preoccupied or distracted.†   (source)
  • So they continued repositioning their warriors for an opportune strike, moving their children and womenfolk in the remaining boats to the as yet unassailed moorings of Lonelywood, similar to the strategies of the refugee forces on the other two lakes.†   (source)
  • Being Adam, he'd wait for opportune moments to build his fellow recruits back up, demonstrating the leadership that had been MIA all those years.†   (source)
  • Sometimes that was sliding the litter down an opportune slope adjacent to the terrace; sometimes that was lying prone, then lowering Adam horizontally or vertically to the waiting hands reaching up from ten feet below.†   (source)
  • But there never seemed an opportune moment.†   (source)
  • In the course of business she could find many opportune times for conversations without it appearing to anyone that she was seeking him out.†   (source)
  • And now perhaps would be an opportune moment to realize the consequences of your gallantry towards this lady.†   (source)
  • Your coming to our house is, in no respect, opportune.†   (source)
  • Once, at an opportune moment, he leaned toward her.†   (source)
  • This seemed an opportune time, K. went to Miss Bürstner's room and knocked gently.†   (source)
  • Can't we plan to be nice to Mrs. Bland and then at an opportune time sneak off without any gun-play?†   (source)
  • Beasley would be smart enough to choose an opportune time.†   (source)
  • DE GUICHE (carelessly knotting on his scarf): 'Tis opportune.†   (source)
  • "Joan," he whispered, at an opportune moment, "I'm only tired—dead for sleep.†   (source)
  • In it she informed Alyosha of a strange and very opportune incident.†   (source)
  • It seems to me that this would be the most opportune moment.†   (source)
  • He tasted her in sips, he let her stand, with an opportuneness she herself could not have surpassed.†   (source)
  • She began well, thanks to a silent reminder that came to her unexpectedly, but most opportunely.†   (source)
  • I need, at least, a fortnight's space,
    To find an opportune occasion.†   (source)
  • You come to give me the benefit of your sober judgement at a most opportune time.†   (source)
  • Whom should Maggy meet but Flora and Mr F.'s Aunt opportunely coming in?†   (source)
  • But as soon as the opportune moment came I—and the others—took the matter into our hands.†   (source)
  • An opportune failure of breath on his part helped the stratagem.†   (source)
  • In which another old Friend encounters Smike, very opportunely and to some Purpose†   (source)
  • The voice of Mrs Clennam opportunely called from her chamber above, 'Affery, let them both come up.†   (source)
  • The bedroom had turned into a hiding-place at a very opportune moment.†   (source)
  • He found himself most opportunely armed, as he had Javert's pistols with him.†   (source)
  • OLD PEOPLE ARE MADE TO GO OUT OPPORTUNELY.†   (source)
  • "You came in opportunely!" ejaculated Bossuet.†   (source)
  • So, true to her word, Madeline remembered at an opportune moment, when conversation had hushed and only the long, dismal wail of coyotes broke the silence, to turn toward the little cowboy.†   (source)
  • The imprisonment of Wolf Larsen had happened most opportunely, for what must have been the Indian summer of this high latitude was gone and drizzling stormy weather had set in.†   (source)
  • She knew that Carry Fisher was right: that an opportune absence might be the first step toward rehabilitation, and that, at any rate, to linger on in town out of season was a fatal admission of defeat.†   (source)
  • Strictly to himself, however, he kept the fact that in view of his own approaching nomination in the ensuing November election this should all prove most opportune, since in the absence of any such special term the case could not possibly be tried before the succeeding regular January term of the Supreme Court, by which time he would be out of office and although possibly elected to the local judgeship still not able to try the case in person.†   (source)
  • That summer the rains had been so many and opportune that it was almost more than Shabata and his man could do to keep up with the corn; the orchard was a neglected wilderness.†   (source)
  • He was a famous story-teller; after I had acquired language he used to spell clumsily into my hand his cleverest anecdotes, and nothing pleased him more than to have me repeat them at an opportune moment.†   (source)
  • Ann, musing on Violet's opportune advice, approaches Tanner; examines him humorously for a moment from toe to top; and finally delivers her opinion.†   (source)
  • She had been dominated by distress and the enthusiastic forces of relief which Drouet represented at an opportune moment when she yielded to him.†   (source)
  • Only, now and again, he gave Odette to understand that people maliciously kept him informed of everything that she did; and making opportune use of some detail—insignificant but true—which he had accidentally learned, as though it were the sole fragment which he would allow, in spite of himself, to pass his lips, out of the numberless other fragments of that complete reconstruction of her daily life which he carried secretly in his mind, he led her to suppose that he was perfectl†   (source)
  • Mrs. Kernan, remembering Mr. Power's good offices during domestic quarrels, as well as many small, but opportune loans, said: "O, you needn't tell me that, Mr. Power.†   (source)
  • In the early twilight at an opportune moment he called Fletcher to him, and, linking his arm within the outlaw's, he drew him off in a stroll to a log bridge spanning a little gully.†   (source)
  • "If people of my age WILL eat chicken-salad in the evening what are they to expect?" she enquired; and, the doctor having opportunely modified her dietary, the stroke was transformed into an attack of indigestion.†   (source)
  • The growing strain of the conversation is here relieved by Violet, who has sallied from the villa and through the garden to the steps, which she now descends, coming very opportunely between Malone and Straker.†   (source)
  • But they were both happily relieved by the opportune appearance of Mike, the client with the fur cap and the habit of wiping his nose on his sleeve, whom I had seen on the very first day of my appearance within those walls.†   (source)
  • Turning from the Pharisee, we are attracted by some parties who, as subjects of study, opportunely separate themselves from the motley crowd.†   (source)
  • 'Joseph is here,' I answered, catching opportunely the roll of his cartwheels up the road; 'and Heathcliff will come in with him.†   (source)
  • Although in one instance the bearers of not good tidings, Mr. and Mrs. Weston's visit this morning was in another respect particularly opportune.†   (source)
  • He had barely time to regain his feet, and to conceal the hole with the bedclothes, across which Benjamin very opportunely fell, before the key was turned, and the door of the apartment opened.†   (source)
  • The clock struck opportunely.†   (source)
  • Such a visit was, indeed, opportune.†   (source)
  • To this prominent personage Akakiy Akakievitch presented himself, and this at the most unfavourable time for himself though opportune for the prominent personage.†   (source)
  • An opportune double knock at the door, which I knew well from old experience in Windsor Terrace, and which nobody but Mr. Micawber could ever have knocked at that door, resolved any doubt in my mind as to their being my old friends.†   (source)
  • The stare of indignant wonder with which Young Barnacle accompanied this disclosure, would have strained his eyes injuriously but for the opportune relief of dinner.†   (source)
  • Thus far the knowledge of Heyward assisted him in the explanation; and as he now knew that the interruption was caused by the unlooked-for return of a successful war-party, every disagreeable sensation was quieted in inward congratulation, for the opportune relief and insignificance it conferred on himself.†   (source)
  • Something always drew him toward those richer and more powerful than himself and he had rare skill in seizing the most opportune moment for making use of people.†   (source)
  • Therefore I proposed to the children that they should come in and be very good at my table, and I would tell them the story of Little Red Riding Hood while I dressed; which they did, and were as quiet as mice, including Peepy, who awoke opportunely before the appearance of the wolf.†   (source)
  • She suspected that her uncle's scheme was disapproved by Mr. Casaubon, and this made it seem all the more opportune that a fresh understanding should be begun, so that instead of Will's starting penniless and accepting the first function that offered itself, he should find himself in possession of a rightful income which should be paid by her husband during his life, and, by an immediate alteration of the will, should be secured at his death.†   (source)
  • What was it that made her start back, and gaze upon him for a moment, and then on the ground at her feet, and make as if she would faint on his arm, had he not by opportunely treading on her toes, brought the young lady back to self-control?†   (source)
  • The noise of Charley's laughter, and the voice of Miss Betsy, who opportunely arrived to throw water over her friend, and perform other feminine offices for the promotion of her recovery, might have kept many people awake under more happy circumstances than those in which Oliver was placed.†   (source)
  • His more tempered appetite was already satisfied, and he faced the new comer with a look of cordiality, that plainly evinced how very opportune he considered his arrival.†   (source)
  • This question was most opportunely put, for at that instant Mr Wititterly walked in, and to him Kate introduced her brother, who at once announced his purpose, and the impossibility of deferring it.†   (source)
  • George is becoming thoughtful, sitting here while Mrs. Bagnet is busy, when Mr. Bagnet and young Woolwich opportunely come home.†   (source)
  • She asked herself whether the present moment, now that she was a free woman again, were not as opportune a one as she would find in a world where everything had been so inopportune, for making a desperate effort to advance Elizabeth.†   (source)
  • Belleforet, Father Le Juge, and Corrozet affirm that it was picked up on the morrow, with great pomp, by the clergy of the quarter, and borne to the treasury of the church of Saint Opportune, where the sacristan, even as late as 1789, earned a tolerably handsome revenue out of the great miracle of the Statue of the Virgin at the corner of the Rue Mauconseil, which had, by its mere presence, on the memorable night between the sixth and seventh of January, 1482, exorcised the defunct Eustache Moubon, who, in order to play a trick on the devil, had at his death maliciously concealed his soul in his straw pallet.†   (source)
  • Dr. Battius had not thought it necessary to push his success beyond the comfortable niche, which accident had so opportunely formed for his protection, and in which he now reposed from his labours, with a pleasing consciousness of security, added to great exultation at the possession of the botanical treasure already mentioned.†   (source)
  • This stupendous national calamity, however, was averted by Lord Coodle's making the timely discovery that if in the heat of debate he had said that he scorned and despised the whole ignoble career of Sir Thomas Doodle, he had merely meant to say that party differences should never induce him to withhold from it the tribute of his warmest admiration; while it as opportunely turned out, on the other hand, that Sir Thomas Doodle had in his own bosom expressly booked Lord Coodle to go down to posterity as the mirror of virtue and honour.†   (source)
  • It would be difficult and even impossible to imagine any result more opportune than the actual outcome of this battle.†   (source)
  • His arrival at this aperture was most opportune, for he had no sooner placed his eye at a crack, than a sight met his gaze that might well have alarmed a sentinel so young and inexperienced.†   (source)
  • We had just got convenient space for it, and I thought it was just the opportune moment— Dr. Stockmann.†   (source)
  • At what an opportune moment they arrived, how they listened, and what they heard, is already known to the reader.†   (source)
  • At this opportune moment, the cards were thrown up, and Mr Henry Gowan came across the room saying, 'Mother, if you can spare Mr Clennam for this time, we have a long way to go, and it's getting late.'†   (source)
  • When the aide-de-camp, having returned and choosing an opportune moment, ventured to draw the Emperor's attention to the devotion of the Poles to his person, the little man in the gray overcoat got up and, having summoned Berthier, began pacing up and down the bank with him, giving him instructions and occasionally glancing disapprovingly at the drowning Uhlans who distracted his attention.†   (source)
  • The conversation threatened to take a somewhat angry tone when it had arrived thus far, but Mrs Crummles opportunely interposed to prevent its leading to any violent outbreak, by making some inquiries of the literary gentleman relative to the plots of the six new pieces which he had written by contract to introduce the African Knife-swallower in his various unrivalled performances.†   (source)
  • At the instant when the young man was least on his guard, and his enemy was the most on the alert, she called out in a warning voice to the former, most opportunely giving the alarm.†   (source)
  • Still, the sight of the peacock opportunely spreading his tail on the stackyard wall, just as they reached Garum Firs, was enough to divert the mind temporarily from personal grievances.†   (source)
  • When they were gone, the Father of the Marshalsea was at first inclined to sink into despondency again, and would have done so, but that a gentleman opportunely came up within a minute or two to attend him to the Snuggery.†   (source)
  • The entrance of supper opportunely adjourned this difficulty, and relieved Mr. Riley from the labor of suggesting some solution or compromise,—a labor which he would otherwise doubtless have undertaken; for, as you perceive, he was a man of very obliging manners.†   (source)
  • Showers mingled with thunder shook the doors on their hinges, and created in the prison a terrible and opportune uproar.†   (source)
  • During the rare, inopportune social moments when I found myself squeezed between black and white, I fled to the black side,   (source)
    inopportune = bad circumstances
    standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in inopportune means not and reverses the meaning of opportune. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
  • For whether in the guest rooms, the lobby, or the linen closet on the second floor, no detail was too small, no flaw too immaterial, no moment too inopportune to receive the benefit of the Bishop's precious, persnickety, and mildly dismissive interference.   (source)
    inopportune = untimely
  • It perplexed, as well as shocked her, by the irreverent inopportuneness of the occasions that brought it into vivid action.   (source)
    inopportuneness = inappropriateness (bad circumstances)
    standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in inopportuneness means not and reverses the meaning of opportuneness. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
  • But that perversity, which all children have more or less of, and of which little Pearl had a tenfold portion, now, at the most inopportune moment, took thorough possession of her, and closed her lips, or impelled her to speak words amiss.   (source)
    inopportune = bad
  • So Amaranta Ursula dismissed the possibility of an inopportune return.†   (source)
  • He wished he wouldn't think about blood at inopportune times.†   (source)
  • For example, at inopportune moments her mind busied itself pasting images into a mental scrapbook.†   (source)
  • THE MADNESS OF THAT EVENING came at a most inopportune time.†   (source)
  • If my room had not been bugged, Colin certainly had showed up at a most inopportune time for me.†   (source)
  • After three days of favorable water, however, it became more difficult to navigate between inopportune sandbanks and deceptive rapids.†   (source)
  • It's a really bad trait and I hate it because I do it at the most inopportune moments and it's embarrassing.†   (source)
  • If there was one thing she had learned early on about the dead particularly the old dead it was that they were extraordinarily rude, popping up at the most inopportune and inappropriate moments.†   (source)
  • Well, I'd be most willing to oblige you, Chuckie, but it happens you've chosen a rather inopportune moment.†   (source)
  • It was a gross, tasteless thing to say—my brain had been burping up such inappropriate thoughts at inopportune moments.†   (source)
  • It was the only time I could write, away from white reporters, black reporters, away from the synergy of black and white that was already simmering inside my soul, ready to burst out at the most inopportune moments.†   (source)
  • Very romantic, I thought, and with some presence of mind, I pressed down the light switch, so that a sudden return of power shouldn't ruin the mood at some inopportune moment.†   (source)
  • She never understood the charm of serenity in bed, never had a moment of invention, and her orgasms were inopportune and epidermic: an uninspired lay.†   (source)
  • Besides, many times in the history of the river the yellow plague flag had been flown in order to evade taxes, or to avoid picking up an undesirable passenger, or to elude inopportune inspections.†   (source)
  • But she did so in such a casual way and at such an inopportune moment that it did not go in one of Dr. Urbino's ears and out the other, as she thought; it did not go in at all.†   (source)
  • There was no difference between Dr. Urbino Daza and his public image: his talents were limited, his manner awkward, and he suffered from sudden twitching, caused by either happiness or annoyance, and from inopportune blushing, which made one fear for his mental fortitude.†   (source)
  • She was encouraged by the certainty that he was there, still alive but without his masculine whims, his patriarchal demands, his consuming need for her to love him in the same ritual of inopportune kisses and tender words with which he loved her.†   (source)
  • Melanie wasn't much given to giggling, but Pet had been, and her body betrayed me at this most inopportune moment.†   (source)
  • How do you get rid of a girl who blunders into your hideout at the most inopportune moment, claiming to be the long-lost daughter of the Lioness?†   (source)
  • I have no sense of balance or coordination, and I have a hand that likes to randomly lose its grip at inopportune times.†   (source)
  • It came at an inopportune moment too, for the bull and the bear, twisting like cats, had left the creek bank and were moving in the direction of the herd, although the dust the battle raised was so thick no one could see who had the advantage.†   (source)
  • While I understand that your grief may make this feel like an inopportune time to discuss his will, he did ask that I let you know what he intended to do while you were both here.†   (source)
  • Julia's would not come up till the following term; meanwhile the game of General Post—moving my property from the Old Rectory to my flat, my wife's from my flat to the Old Rectory, Julia's from Rex's house and from Brideshead to my flat, Rex's from Brideshead to his house, and Mrs. Muspratt's from Falmouth to Brideshead—was in full swing and we were all, in varying degrees, homeless, when a halt was called and Lord Marchmain, with a taste for the dramatically inopportune which was plainly the prototype of his elder son's, declared his intention, in view of the international situation, of returning to England and passing his declining years in his old home.†   (source)
  • She remembered the long relationship, crowded with the wreckage of exhumed conversations, of fancied slights, of inopportune confidences, of charges of neglect and exclusion (but she must have been mad that day; she remembered beating upon the table).†   (source)
  • She was hitting a naughty child who had been stealing chocolates at an inopportune moment.†   (source)
  • you frightened me," she said with a forced little laugh, "your presence is entirely inopportune.†   (source)
  • How foolish and inopportune that mistletoe looked now.†   (source)
  • It might be expected, therefore, that the committee-man's visit would be quite inopportune.†   (source)
  • Such is not the case with democracies, whose laws are almost always ineffective or inopportune.†   (source)
  • I knew well that I risked death; for any drug that so potently controlled and shook the very fortress of identity, might by the least scruple of an overdose or at the least inopportunity in the moment of exhibition, utterly blot out that immaterial tabernacle which I looked to it to change.†   (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in inopportunity means not and reverses the meaning of opportunity. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
  • Such questions, at such an hour, were bound to drift through his mind; but he was conscious that their uncomfortable persistence and precision were due to the inopportune arrival of the Countess Olenska.†   (source)
  • He is affected with a frivolous sense of humor which plunges him at the most inopportune moments into paroxysms of imperfectly suppressed laughter.†   (source)
  • Kerry, not inclined as yet to take things seriously, chided him gently for being curious at this inopportune time about the intricacies of the social system, but liked him and was both interested and amused.†   (source)
  • She never would have asked him that if she had not known she could bear inspection at such an inopportune moment.†   (source)
  • It was certainly an inopportune moment.†   (source)
  • I suppose the calls of the stupid and curious, especially of newspaper reporters, are always inopportune.†   (source)
  • Dickens, without the excuse of having to manufacture motives for Hamlets and Macbeths, superfluously punt his crew down the stream of his monthly parts by mechanical devices which I leave you to describe, my own memory being quite baffled by the simplest question as to Monks in Oliver Twist, or the long lost parentage of Smike, or the relations between the Dorrit and Clennam families so inopportunely discovered by Monsieur Rigaud Blandois.†   (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "in-" in inopportunely means not and reverses the meaning of opportunely. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
  • They were to have spent two months more in that tranquil bosom, but inopportune events, apparently in her uncle's business, had caused their rather hurried return to Stamford.†   (source)
  • Just at this moment, too, the wind inopportunely freshened, rendering the drift of the light craft much more rapid than certain.†   (source)
  • And now let us leave Mademoiselle Danglars and her friend pursuing their way to Brussels, and return to poor Andrea Cavalcanti, so inopportunely interrupted in his rise to fortune.†   (source)
  • "It appears I come at an inopportune time, madam," said he, "when my friend, Mr. Rochester, is from home; but I arrive from a very long journey, and I think I may presume so far on old and intimate acquaintance as to instal myself here till he returns."†   (source)
  • She asked herself whether the present moment, now that she was a free woman again, were not as opportune a one as she would find in a world where everything had been so inopportune, for making a desperate effort to advance Elizabeth.†   (source)
  • Time, the continual vicissitude of circumstances, and the invariable inopportunity of death, render it impossible.†   (source)
  • All at once, in the very middle of a quarrel between Mademoiselle Merchandise and Madame Nobility, at the moment when Monsieur Labor was giving utterance to this wonderful line,— In forest ne'er was seen a more triumphant beast; the door of the reserved gallery which had hitherto remained so inopportunely closed, opened still more inopportunely; and the ringing voice of the usher announced abruptly, "His eminence, Monseigneur the Cardinal de Bourbon."†   (source)
  • "That would be unlucky," said Mrs. Tulliver, entering thoroughly into the possibility of an inopportune decease.†   (source)
  • The grandfather, trembling at having so inopportunely introduced Andre Chenier, resumed precipitately: "Cut his throat is not the word.†   (source)
  • Though Pierre, Natasha, Nicholas, Countess Mary, and Denisov had much to talk about that they could not discuss before the old countess—not that anything was hidden from her, but because she had dropped so far behindhand in many things that had they begun to converse in her presence they would have had to answer inopportune questions and to repeat what they had already told her many times: that so-and-so was dead and so-and-so was married, which she would again be unable to remember—yet they sat at tea round the samovar in the drawing room from habit, and Pierre answered the countess' questions as to whether Prince Vasili had aged and whether Countess Mary Alexeevn†   (source)
  • And as it is, I think I will pardon you for running away in an inopportune manner, and giving your friends no notice.†   (source)
  • Whatever might be in reserve for him, there could be no question that it was every way desirable to get the Ark at such a distance from the castle as to reduce his enemies to the necessity of approaching the former in the canoe, which the chances of war had so inopportunely, for his wishes and security, thrown into their hands.†   (source)
  • Maggie, we know, was apt to forget the thing she was doing, and she had chosen an inopportune moment for her remark; her foot slipped, but happily Mr. Stephen Guest held her hand, and kept her up with a firm grasp.†   (source)
  • To which Don Quixote very deliberately and phlegmatically replied, "Fair damsel, at the present moment your request is inopportune, for I am debarred from involving myself in any adventure until I have brought to a happy conclusion one to which my word has pledged me; but that which I can do for you is what I will now mention: run and tell your father to stand his ground as well as he can in this battle, and on no account to allow himself to be vanquished, while I go and request permission of the Princess Micomicona to enable me to succour him in his distress; and if she grants it, rest assured I will relieve him from it."†   (source)
  • Nothing indeed could have happened so very inopportune as this accident; the most wanton malice of fortune could not have contrived such another stratagem to confound the poor fellow, while he was so triumphantly descanting on the good morals inculcated by his exhibitions.†   (source)
  • When he saw who it was, his thunderous expression changed at once to one of courteous welcome, though I gathered our appearance was still not as opportune as might have been wished.†   (source)
  • That you may and very opportunely.†   (source)
  • Continues yet the old, old legend of our race,
    The loftiest of life upheld by death,
    The ancient banner perfectly maintain'd,
    O lesson opportune, O how I welcome thee!†   (source)
  • As I hope For quiet days, fair issue, and long life, With such love as 'tis now, the murkiest den, The most opportune place, the strong'st suggestion Our worser genius can, shall never melt Mine honour into lust, to take away The edge of that day's celebration, When I shall think, or Phoebus' steeds are founder'd, Or Night kept chain'd below.†   (source)
  • vote: whereat his speech he thus renews:—
    "Well have ye judged, well ended long debate,
    Synod of Gods, and, like to what ye are,
    Great things resolved, which from the lowest deep
    Will once more lift us up, in spite of fate,
    Nearer our ancient seat—perhaps in view
    Of those bright confines, whence, with neighbouring arms,
    And opportune excursion, we may chance
    Re-enter Heaven; or else in some mild zone
    Dwell, not unvisited of Heaven's fair light,
    Secure, and at the brightening orient beam
    Purge off this gloom: the soft delicious air,
    To heal the scar of these corrosive fires,
    Shall breathe her balm.†   (source)
  • This you may know, And so deliver,—I am put to sea With her, whom here I cannot hold on shore; And, most opportune to her need, I have A vessel rides fast by, but not prepar'd For this design.†   (source)
  • A few ships of the line, sent opportunely to the reinforcement of either side, would often be sufficient to decide the fate of a campaign, on the event of which interests of the greatest magnitude were suspended.†   (source)
  • Thus is the Lamb of God equivalent to both those Goates; sacrificed, in that he dyed; and escaping, in his Resurrection; being raised opportunely by his Father, and removed from the habitation of men in his Ascension.†   (source)
  • He then sallied out in quest of him, and very opportunely left the lovers to enjoy a few tender minutes alone.†   (source)
  • It was not long, you may be sure, before we had a second conference upon the same subject; when, as if she had been willing to forget the story she had told me of herself, or to suppose that I had forgot some of the particulars, she began to tell them with alterations and omissions; but I refreshed her memory and set her to rights in many things which I supposed she had forgot, and then came in so opportunely with the whole history, that it was impossible for her to go from it; and then she fell into her rhapsodies again, and exclamations at the severity of her misfortunes.†   (source)
  • Then, let me not let pass
    Occasion which now smiles; behold alone
    The woman, opportune to all attempts,
    Her husband, for I view far round, not nigh,
    Whose higher intellectual more I shun,
    And strength, of courage haughty, and of limb
    Heroick built, though of terrestrial mould;
    Foe not informidable!†   (source)
  • This, though unhappy for the wretch, was very opportunely for my case, though I had carried it off handsomely enough before; but now it was out of doubt, and all the loose part of the crowd ran that way, and the poor boy was delivered up to the rage of the street, which is a cruelty I need not describe, and which, however, they are always glad of, rather than to be sent to Newgate, where they lie often a long time, till they are almost perished, and sometimes they are hanged, and the best they can look for, if they are convicted, is to be transported.†   (source)
  • the Lord required, that there should every year once, bee made an Atonement for the Sins of all Israel, both Priests, and others; for the doing whereof, Aaron alone was to sacrifice for himself and the Priests a young Bullock; and for the rest of the people, he was to receive from them two young Goates, of which he was to Sacrifice one; but as for the other, which was the Scape Goat, he was to lay his hands on the head thereof, and by a confession of the iniquities of the people, to lay them all on that head, and then by some opportune man, to cause the Goat to be led into the wildernesse, and there to Escape, and carry away with him the iniquities of the people.†   (source)
  • From Eden over Pontus and the pool
    Maeotis, up beyond the river Ob;
    Downward as far antarctick; and in length,
    West from Orontes to the ocean barred
    At Darien; thence to the land where flows
    Ganges and Indus: Thus the orb he roamed
    With narrow search; and with inspection deep
    Considered every creature, which of all
    Most opportune might serve his wiles; and found
    The Serpent subtlest beast of all the field.†   (source)
  • He no sooner saw his friend appear than he arose hastily to meet him; and after much congratulation said, "Nothing could be more opportune than this kind visit; for I was never more in the spleen in my life."†   (source)
  • Fortune sent it to your honour very opportunely for present use, as your honour's money must be almost out by this time.†   (source)
  • "The murkiest den, the most opportune place" (the voice of conscience thundered poetically), "the strongest suggestion our worser genius can, shall never melt mine honour into lust."   (source)
    opportune = favorable
▲ show less (of above)