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vocabulary
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pithy
in a sentence

show 38 more with this conextual meaning
  • His idea of French was verb forms and Phaedra, with a reliance on pithy maxims from noted authors.†   (source)
  • Further complicating matters, the prelate was deaf in his left ear, partial to Latin epigrams, and prone to stare at décolletage whenever he drank a glass of wine; while the Duchess Obolensky, who was particularly caustic in summer, frowned upon pithy sayings and could not abide discussions of the arts.†   (source)
  • He opened his mouth, waiting for his brain to supply the customary pithy comeback.†   (source)
  • I only wish I had an excellent answer, something pithy and substantive, maybe with a little alliteration, but instead I have one that's merely short.†   (source)
  • So he gives me the flowers he'd just bought, thrust them at me, really, and gave me a short, pithy lecture.†   (source)
  • He knew he was no longer expected to come up with a pithy comment or any sharp question which would shed a new light on the case.†   (source)
  • Before I could come up with something more pithy than No, thanks, he edged behind me and disappeared out the door.†   (source)
  • When Time asked him to speak about the Racing Commission, Smith was typically pithy.†   (source)
  • After that pithy nugget from my Voice-turned-travel-agent, I said, "Well, okay, then.†   (source)
  • The consequence of all that ice was a wretched Thanksgiving of tiny tough birds, heavy pork cakes, and pithy sweet potatoes.†   (source)
  • "Near here, and soon," I replied, echoing what Captain Ono had pithily said to me.†   (source)
  • You know, gentlemen, you slay me with your pithy titles.†   (source)
  • She flashed her badge at security, gave him a pithy suggestion that he keep out of her face, then strode toward the ascent.†   (source)
  • McCourt, give us a sentence with pithy.†   (source)
  • Clarke is pithy but adequate, sir.†   (source)
  • He wrote a pithy message.†   (source)
  • And," he continued before she could give him her short, pithy opinion, "what is it about you that pulls at me, even when you're sitting there with an invisible badge pinned to your lovely breast?"†   (source)
  • Dr. Krokowski showed up, smiling pithily and showing his yellow teeth under his beard.†   (source)
  • They may be said, in few and pithy words, to have ill served a poor purpose.†   (source)
  • "Fresh water," resumed Cap pithily; "you are not to expect too much of the young man, Mabel.†   (source)
  • Yes, despite the Dansker's pithy insistence as to the Master-at-arms being at the bottom of these strange experiences of Billy on board the Indomitable, the young sailor was ready to ascribe them to almost anybody but the man who, to use Billy's own expression, "always had a pleasant word for him."†   (source)
  • Someone ran to get him, and he came: he broke into a rugged, pithy smile once he had the picture, his very presence demanding their cheerful trust.†   (source)
  • With a rugged, pithy smile he cheerfully bade them trust him as he strove to make them feel at home in these swampy, suspicious, and subhuman regions, enjoined them to see in his stout person a true leader, even for the timid and those dubious about such matters.†   (source)
  • Beneath Dr. Krokowski's beard, under that pithy expression that reassured and enjoined confidence, his yellow teeth were constantly in evidence as he repeated his "my d'gods" and were particularly visible as he welcomed Hans Castorp, who said nothing and looked unsure of himself.†   (source)
  • Dr. Krokowski, however, stood up and strode over to Hans Castorp; tilting his head to one side and smiling so pithily that it revealed the yellow teeth under his beard, he placed one hand on the young man's shoulder and with the other offered a hearty handshake.†   (source)
  • For I am a plodding kind of fellow, Copperfield, and had learnt the way of doing such things pithily.†   (source)
  • Then, his preaching was ingenious and pithy, like the preaching of the English Church in its robust age, and his sermons were delivered without book.†   (source)
  • We shall not detain the narrative, to relate the quaint morals with which he next endeavoured to cheer the drooping spirits of his more sensitive companion, or the occasional pithy and peculiar benedictions that he pronounced, on all the bands of the Dahcotahs, commencing with those whom he accused of stealing or murdering, on the banks of the distant Mississippi, and concluding, in terms of suitable energy, with the Teton tribe.†   (source)
  • Uncas pressed closer to his side, and regarded the speaker with a look of commendation, while his father expressed his satisfaction by the ordinary pithy exclamation of approbation.†   (source)
  • The proposal originated with himself, and was couched in the pithy terms, 'If your John is weak enough, ma'am, not to take it, that is no reason why you should be, don't you see?†   (source)
  • But, on this occasion, up to the moment of putting his lips to the old woman's ear, Mr. Dimmesdale, as the great enemy of souls would have it, could recall no text of Scripture, nor aught else, except a brief, pithy, and, as it then appeared to him, unanswerable argument against the immortality of the human soul.†   (source)
  • In this dialogue Judith held a material part, the Delaware readily understanding all she said, while his own replies and remarks, both of which were few and pithy, were occasionally rendered into English by his friend.†   (source)
  • The next day they went on board, and their friends with them, where truly doleful was the sight of that sad and mournful parting, to hear what sighs and sobs and prayers did sound amongst them; what tears did gush from every eye, and pithy speeches pierced each other's heart, that sundry of the Dutch strangers that stood on the Key as spectators could not refrain from tears.†   (source)
  • They could always talk; and their discourse, witty, pithy, original, had such charms for me, that I preferred listening to, and sharing in it, to doing anything else.†   (source)
  • Regaining his faculties by slow and faint glimmerings, he at length sat upright; and, displaying a very yellow face, a very red nose, and a very bristly beard: the joint effect of which was considerably heightened by a dirty white handkerchief, spotted with blood, drawn over the crown of his head and tied under his chin: stared ruefully at Ralph in silence, until his feelings found a vent in this pithy sentence: 'I say, young fellow, you've been and done it now; you have!'†   (source)
  • When his brief story was ended, the father of the sick woman stepped forth, and, in a few pithy expression, related, in his turn, what he knew.†   (source)
  • More pleasant, pithy, and effectual   (source)
    pithy = short (not taking as long)
  • With the new verbs came a great swarm of verb-phrases, some of them short and pithy and others extraordinarily elaborate, but all showing the true national talent for condensing a complex thought, and often a whole series of thoughts, into a vivid and arresting image.†   (source)
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