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preposterous
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  • While he groused about so preposterous an idea, the kid laid down the mat he never used, bulldogged him down to it, pulled off his shoes and draped a blanket over him.†   (source)
  • Then again, he thought, there would be a rather majestic eloquence to it-antimatter, the ultimate scientific achievement, being used to vaporizeHe refused to accept the preposterous thought.†   (source)
  • I could just picture him, at the end of his ten o'clock class, organizing it with the easy authority which always came into his manner when he had an idea which was particularly preposterous.†   (source)
  • Pretending to be Silver, being betrothed to a prince, learning to control myself—it sounds preposterous, but they listen intently.†   (source)
  • No, no, the very idea was preposterous.†   (source)
  • In fact, it had made things harder for Cecilia with her third, though it was preposterous of her to pretend to be disappointed.†   (source)
  • The stone, that token of preposterous time, bounced five yards to Henry's right and fell in the water.†   (source)
  • It was so preposterous —how could I possibly believe it?†   (source)
  • And it is the sight of her looking like some preposterous zombie that sends a hummingbird of panic ricocheting through me.†   (source)
  • In the center was an oversize one of Desi and Amy back in high school, in tennis whites—the two so preposterously stylish, so monied-lush they could have been a frame from a Hitchcock movie.†   (source)
  • It is preposterous.†   (source)
  • He has no intention of being lured into some compromising and preposterous rigmarole.†   (source)
  • Besides, our story was too preposterous not to be real.†   (source)
  • The head coach of the Giants, Bill Parcells, didn't think it preposterous, however.†   (source)
  • Radios howled the various party slogans and preposterous wagers were made by party members on both sides.†   (source)
  • We waited for you to bring proof of your preposterous claim.†   (source)
  • In the spring I kept on looking until I realised how preposterous my search was.†   (source)
  • As if that were not preposterous enough, Jeod went on to describe an agreement between the Varden, dwarves, and elves that the egg should be ferried between Du Weldenvarden and the Beor Mountains, which was why the egg and its couriers were near the edge of the great forest when they were ambushed by a Shade.†   (source)
  • The NCAA's stance on paying players—or not paying them—seems unfair to me, with the preposterous amounts of money being made by schools, television, coaches, and the like.†   (source)
  • "Why, that's preposterous," he said.†   (source)
  • That I proposed to climb to the cruising altitude of an Airbus 300 jetliner struck me, at that moment, as preposterous, or worse.†   (source)
  • And in light of the fact that he'd just met the woman, the whole idea seemed preposterous.†   (source)
  • The preposterously long hours, the ill-ventilated rooms, the savage monotony of her toil, none of these reached the girl through the glow of hope and ambition.†   (source)
  • "Preposterous," he said.†   (source)
  • General John Burgoyne disdainfully dubbed them "a preposterous parade," a "rabble in arms."†   (source)
  • But that's preposterous!†   (source)
  • Billy was Preposterous-six feet and three inches tall, with a chest and shoulders like a box of kitchen matches.†   (source)
  • It was preposterous.†   (source)
  • But if the odds are so preposterously stacked against the poor—machetes versus Uzis, donkeys versus tanks, stones versus missiles, or even typhoid versus cancer—then is it responsible, is it wise, to push the poor to claim what is theirs by right?†   (source)
  • What preposterous madness to float in thin air two miles high on an inch or two of metal, sustained from death by the meager skill and intelligence of two vapid strangers, a beardless kid named Huple and a nervous nut like Dobbs, who really did go nuts right there in the plane, running amuck over the target without leaving his copilot's seat and grabbing the controls from Huple to plunge them all down into that chilling dive that tore Yossarian's headset loose and brought them right back inside the dense flak from which they had almost escaped.†   (source)
  • The critics had called the result "engaging" and "good, spooky fun," except for the ones who'd deemed it "preposterous" and "convoluted."†   (source)
  • More than preposterous ...it was impossible.†   (source)
  • I never heard anything so preposterous in my life!†   (source)
  • The very idea that Bram would bargain away children is preposterous—it violates everything he stood for!†   (source)
  • A Walrus as High King is preposterous.†   (source)
  • "That's preposterous," he said.†   (source)
  • Alexandra called out a guest list so preposterous that Jean Louise sighed heavily.†   (source)
  • "Preposterous," DeBlass blurted out before his attorney lifted a hand to silence him.†   (source)
  • That's preposterous, Mother!†   (source)
  • To Kara such realities would sound preposterous without having lived them firsthand.†   (source)
  • This question is so preposterous coming from the Commandant that I almost laugh.†   (source)
  • The English poet said it best: There were more preposterous vicissitudes in life than a single philosophy could conjure.†   (source)
  • Mrs. Nightwing wears her customary dark dress with that preposterous bustle at the back.†   (source)
  • All of this is just preposterous.†   (source)
  • Eccentric souls with too much money in their pockets and far too much time on their hands, they had blown thick wads of cash on preposterous machines called automobiles.†   (source)
  • Authority told him this was preposterous, no more of FN's crack troops could be spared—to be permanently ruined for Earthside duties—and such requests should not be made.†   (source)
  • The story was preposterous.†   (source)
  • Then, preposterously, the first thing he said, his voice anxious, was, "But who will run Taggart Transcontinental in the meantime?"†   (source)
  • Suffrage, as preposterous as it sounds, means a black man might someday become president of the United States.†   (source)
  • Most of the time, they were direct carry-overs from the five undoubtedly formative years he had spent as a regular panelist on "It's a Wise Child," when, rather than seem to flaunt his somewhat preposterous ability to quote, instantaneously and, usually, verbatim, almost anything he had ever read, or even listened to, with genuine interest, he cultivated a habit of furrowing his brow and appearing to stall for time, the way the other children on the program did.†   (source)
  • Even if the national rulers were very ambitious, it is impossible to believe they would use such a preposterous way to accomplish their designs.†   (source)
  • The idea of them coming here, and staging a raid on this fortress, was preposterous, but at the same time it gave Alan a surge of hope, of possibility.†   (source)
  • That is the most preposterous suggestion I have ever heard delivered between these four walls.†   (source)
  • As the evening wore on, more and more absurdities seemed less and less preposterous, as is sometimes the case.†   (source)
  • Small things, preposterous tiny things, still confounded her.†   (source)
  • JUDGE That's preposterous!†   (source)
  • It was preposterous.†   (source)
  • In fact the suggestion is preposterous.†   (source)
  • The whole thing was preposterous!†   (source)
  • He just called women's colleges preposterous, and you were scared to say anything else.†   (source)
  • As time went on—as you shall see—maybe not so preposterous.†   (source)
  • "That's preposterous," the Count replied a little stiffly.†   (source)
  • I knew they were stupid enough to have told him what they preposterously believed.†   (source)
  • You told me that preposterous story about the apples of Nizhny Novgorod.†   (source)
  • Almost as preposterous as women wanting to vote.†   (source)
  • "The very idea is preposterous," the Count was saying.†   (source)
  • "Maybe it's a little preposterous," conceded Osip, "but I don't want to watch Casablanca."†   (source)
  • The vaudevillian comedies were "preposterous narcotics."†   (source)
  • Her proposal seemed preposterous to Eragon.†   (source)
  • Even to Ricki the idea had first seemed preposterous.†   (source)
  • Not because the suggestion was so preposterous, but because it made such terrible sense.†   (source)
  • The whole thing, she suddenly decided, was preposterous.†   (source)
  • The accusation against Advokat Bjurman is preposterous.†   (source)
  • That's a preposterous, high-handed, arbitrary way of—†   (source)
  • "This is preposterous!" he shouted as he approached the taxi.†   (source)
  • It's preposterous] Peking has no right to make such a demand!†   (source)
  • Why, that's preposterous!" exclaimed Orik, almost sputtering with outrage.†   (source)
  • Don't reject the idea merely because it seems preposterous—think about it!†   (source)
  • I know that you think the spaceship is preposterous because you really don't remember a thing.†   (source)
  • Wasn't it preposterous to expose my tender skin to the violence of unfriendly strangers?†   (source)
  • Gabby sat up as a wave of relief washed over her, even though she knew the concept was preposterous.†   (source)
  • Talked an hour; I'll summarize: Our preposterous claims were rejected.†   (source)
  • Any more preposterous than Directive 10-289?†   (source)
  • When I say preposterous, I mean exactly that-beyond belief.†   (source)
  • She remembered suddenly where she had seen as expert and preposterous a performance.†   (source)
  • To have even considered John St. Jacques a criminal of any sort is preposterous!†   (source)
  • "Hank, that's preposterous"—she laughed—"it's not my kind of thing!"†   (source)
  • That is why I find your attitude preposterous.†   (source)
  • And besides ....It's preposterous that I should have to think of it, but what am I going to live on?†   (source)
  • It might sound preposterous, but I think it's true...What?†   (source)
  • Mrs. Taggart had expected her to look like a preposterous contrast.†   (source)
  • I ....oh, it's just that it's preposterous!†   (source)
  • It's perfectly preposterous," she said, in the tone of a challenge to the space at large.†   (source)
  • "Man's metaphysical pretensions," he said, "are preposterous.†   (source)
  • He took a breath and walked nearer, with exaggerated caution, to the preposterous place of meeting.†   (source)
  • I just think it's preposterous that other people can.†   (source)
  • "But then," he went on, "all these preposterous contradictions.†   (source)
  • To suggest that the honor system does not exist among roommates is preposterous.†   (source)
  • The JUDGE raps for order) DAVENPORT Your Honor, this is preposterous!†   (source)
  • In silence I cursed her with all the force of my preposterous love.†   (source)
  • Their English was preposterously broken.†   (source)
  • Now that she had so preposterously bungled the job, nothing seemed to matter.†   (source)
  • Uncle Vernoii muttered, "Preposterous," but Dumbledore ignored him, "Now, as you already know, the wizard called Lord Voldemort Was returned to this country.†   (source)
  • Calling Tiberias Calore the Sixth, King of Norta, Flame of the North, anything with less than eight syllables seems preposterous.†   (source)
  • That's preposterous!†   (source)
  • Preposterous!†   (source)
  • They say there is no fool like an old fool, but I say there is no fool like a young one; and I am astonished that anyone with a medical degree would allow himself to be imposed upon by such a blatant piece of charlatanism and preposterous tomfoolery as a "Neuro-hypnotic trance," which is second in imbecility only to Spiritism, Universal Suffrage, and similar drivel.†   (source)
  • To say that one lineman was more important than the others was as preposterous as arguing for the special value of a single synchronized swimmer.†   (source)
  • Preposterous.†   (source)
  • After a year he would receive his preposterous salary—the contract drawn up by Frode had been signed.†   (source)
  • The wider he became the more preposterous was that ambition, but it proved easier to ignore his width than to abandon his dream.†   (source)
  • The conclusion of the book echoed the introduction: If a parliamentary reporter handled his assignment by uncritically taking up a lance in support of every decision that was pushed through, no matter how preposterous, or if a political reporter were to show a similar lack of judgement—that reporter would be fired or at the least reassigned to a department where he or she could not do so much damage.†   (source)
  • And I need to hear from Michael:' "Well," said Sean, as if she'd just made the world's most preposterous demand.†   (source)
  • Brilliant but preposterous!†   (source)
  • Perhaps they don't mind being hit, or maybe they just don't get scared; but the idea of pro football players sweating and shaking and staring at the ceiling at night worrying about the next day's violence seems preposterous.†   (source)
  • But the notion of Sofia's involvement was so unfounded, so preposterous, so outrageous, it did not deserve a response.†   (source)
  • At the time, standing behind the little rope and gazing at the poet's desk, Andrey had thought the whole venture rather preposterous—as if by keeping a few belongings in place, one might actually protect a moment from the relentless onslaught of time.†   (source)
  • But that's preposterous.†   (source)
  • Preposterous!†   (source)
  • It was a preposterous claim.†   (source)
  • The whole incident was so preposterously unlikely that I was never even tempted to mention it to anyone else.†   (source)
  • Though it seemed preposterous now, at the time it seemed like the single most important decision she'd ever faced.†   (source)
  • It seemed unbelievable, preposterous.†   (source)
  • What a preposterous notion.†   (source)
  • Amanda was in a car with a man she'd once loved, journeying to a place unknown to either of them, and she reflected that the idea would have struck her as preposterous even a few days ago.†   (source)
  • All they'll have is the statement that I'm composing now, large parts of which will seem preposterous.†   (source)
  • I found the idea preposterous.†   (source)
  • 'What led you to the preposterous conclusion that I have had anything to do with the man you call an assassin—' 'Please, Sheng,' interrupted the analyst.†   (source)
  • From thirty thousand feet up, the idea that a virus was ravaging the earth below seemed preposterous.†   (source)
  • Izzi and I exchange another glance, and as preposterous as it is, I find I'm suppressing my laughter.†   (source)
  • There was no evidence, and further, the story seemed preposterously out of character for a man of such refinement and intellect, not to say for the President of the United States.†   (source)
  • As you might imagine, the shock and the suddenness of such an accusation, so totally preposterous after he had fully complied with your questioning ...in his own home ...I'm certain you can understand how the wrong emotions might take hold.†   (source)
  • Preposterous!†   (source)
  • How utterly preposterous!†   (source)
  • It is preposterous to argue against a federal government by saying it may make the State governments less important.†   (source)
  • The giraffes accepted Billy as one of their own, as a harmless creature as preposterously specialized as themselves.†   (source)
  • Three sprightly figures whirled madly in her head—hours filled with Uncle Jack and Dill dancing to preposterous measures blacked out the coming of tomorrow with tomorrow's troubles.†   (source)
  • Some were in so far over their heads that they resorted to invention, fabricating preposterous stories or quotations out of thin air.†   (source)
  • It was the knowledge that there would be no fighting, and there would be no struggle, no stand taken, and that the two of them, because they were not lacking materially, because despite injustices in their countries they were the recipients of preposterous bounty, would likely do nothing.†   (source)
  • Despite Brian's dizziness, the expression on Miles's face struck him as preposterous, considering the last half hour.†   (source)
  • It was preposterous to attempt to use the Antelope case as any sort of foundation for the case of the Amistad.†   (source)
  • Preposterous!†   (source)
  • That's preposterous.†   (source)
  • Now and then somebody boasted, or accused somebody else, of having found a thirty-second way — always something preposterous and usually obscene.†   (source)
  • Thus, preposterously, the law of the first State is dominant to the law of the second, within the jurisdiction of the second State.†   (source)
  • Most compellingwas his final point: Given that both his splits and final time for the race were record-shattering, the idea that Seabiscuit had been restrained was preposterous.†   (source)
  • You say that like it's preposterous.†   (source)
  • She laughs, girlish and preposterously alluring, drawing the attention of other students: Leander, who jerks his gaze away and rubs his crooked nose guiltily when I catch him looking, Faris, who grins and mutters something to an appraising Dex.†   (source)
  • Preposterous?†   (source)
  • Hunter thinks a virus is about to ravage the world, he goes to the CDC, and when they grin at his preposterous claims, he goes straight to the source of the so-called virus.†   (source)
  • I did, however, as it seemed downright preposterous to spend money on hotels when there was a clean, soft sack free and so many better ways to spend accumulated pay.†   (source)
  • In place of that optimax of 5 per cent that the M. I. never can reach, many armies in the past commissioned 10 per cent of their number, or even 15 per cent — and sometimes a preposterous 20 per cent!†   (source)
  • What a preposterous suggestion!†   (source)
  • A collection of the most preposterous allegations directed at the ranking heads of our major ministries.†   (source)
  • Preposterous!†   (source)
  • Preposterous.†   (source)
  • If anyone had ever told Jason Bourne that he was going to be briefed in depth by a Soviet espionage agent whose English was so laced with the Deep South that it sonorously floated out of his mouth with the essence of magnolias, he would have deemed the information preposterous.†   (source)
  • It's preposterous.†   (source)
  • It's preposterous!†   (source)
  • Because you were a cheap, helpless, preposterous little guttersnipe, who'd never have a chance at anything to equal me!†   (source)
  • It's the most preposterous event of the season, and everybody's been looking forward to it for weeks, all my friends.†   (source)
  • First, I don't think that Taggart Transcontinental will recover from its loss on that preposterous San Sebastian Line.†   (source)
  • Then she felt a stab of desolate loneliness, much wider a loneliness than the span of an empty streetand a stab of anger at herself, at the preposterous contrast between her appearance and the context of this night and age.†   (source)
  • Through the blank seconds of recapturing her mind, she kept telling herself: You're hysterical ....don't be preposterous ....it's just a coincidence of names-while she knew, in certainty and numb, inexplicable terror, that this was the Hugh Akston.†   (source)
  • By what right did you use my work to make an unwarranted, preposterous switch into another field, pull an inapplicable metaphor and draw a monstrous generalization out of what is merely a mathematical problem?†   (source)
  • When she turned her face to Dagny, the amusement was still there, but its shading was now different: it seemed to suggest that they shared a secret, which would make her presence here seem preposterous to the world, but self-evidently logical to the two of them.†   (source)
  • A battle against a thing such as that bill seemed preposterous and faintly embarrassing to him, as if he were suddenly asked to compete with a man who calculated steel mixtures by the formulas of numerology.†   (source)
  • But the feeling seemed the more preposterous, because the lines of his face had the sort of hardness for which no danger on earth was a match, "No, Miss Taggart," he said suddenly, catching her glance, "you've never seen me before."†   (source)
  • His only mark of distinction seemed to be a bulbous nose, a bit too large for the rest of him; his manner was meek, but it conveyed a preposterous hint, the hint of a threat deliberately kept furtive, yet intended to be recognized.†   (source)
  • It's I who've produced that wealth and it's I who am going to let it buy for me every kind of pleasure I want-including the pleasure of seeing Row much I'm able to pay for-including the preposterous feat of turning you into a luxury object.†   (source)
  • She could make no guess; none seemed to fit; she caught herself in the preposterous feeling of wishing that he had no profession at all, because any work seemed too dangerous for his incredible kind of beauty.†   (source)
  • He was seeing the progression of the years, the monstrous extortions, the impossible demands, the inexplicable victories of evil, the preposterous plans and unintelligible goals proclaimed in volumes of muddy philosophy, the desperate wonder of the victims who thought that some complex, malevolent wisdom was moving the powers destroying the world-and all of it had rested on one tenet behind the shifty eyes of the victors: he'll do something!†   (source)
  • It was preposterous, he thought, this growing intrusion of the accidents of nature into the affairs of men: it had never mattered before, if a winter happened to be unusually severe; if a flood washed out a section of railroad track, one did not spend two weeks eating canned vegetables; if an electric storm struck some power station, an establishment such as the State Science Institute was not left without electricity for five days.†   (source)
  • It's preposterous!†   (source)
  • But this is preposterous!†   (source)
  • Then she remembered what she wore, and thought that it did look preposterous-and then, at the sudden stab of some violent impulse that felt like defiance and like loyalty to the full, real meaning of the moment, she threw her cape back and stood in the raw glare of light, under the sooted columns, like a figure at a formal reception, sternly erect, flaunting the luxury of naked arms, of glowing black satin, of a diamond flashing like a military cross.†   (source)
  • Among the stories, there was one so preposterously out of character that Dagny believed it to be true: nothing in Mulligan's nature could have given anyone ground to invent it.†   (source)
  • Her glance moved slowly down the line-up of his table: Mr. Thompson, Wesley Mouch, Chick Morrison, some generals, some members of the Legislature and, preposterously, Mr. Mowen chosen as a bribe to Galt, as a symbol of big business.†   (source)
  • You looked preposterously out of place on a railroad platform-and it was not on a railroad platform that I was seeing you, I was seeing a setting that had never haunted me before-but then, suddenly, I knew that you did belong among the rails, the soot and the girders, that that was the proper setting for a flowing gown and naked shoulders and a face as alive as yours-†   (source)
  • She remembered the sound of their hammering, high above her, Will and Ben, balanced on the comb of the barn, stripping off shingles black with age and soft as the deadmen embedded in the bottom of the Tonawanda Creek, replacing them with goldenbrown cedar richly scented and light as wings; and for all her weariness she would open her eyes and look up at where they crouched, enormous and light as bumblebees, or walked the comb with a bundle of shingles on one shoulder, solemn as Noahs at work on another antique, preposterous ark.†   (source)
  • But, my dear, the thing is preposterous.†   (source)
  • Keating stopped when he recognized the preposterous orange hair in the darkness of the porch.†   (source)
  • He exclaimed: "The whole thing is preposterous—preposterous!†   (source)
  • Well, you know, I had the preposterous idea that it might be the truth.†   (source)
  • I don't see that it's preposterous at all.†   (source)
  • Mrs. Walling called it preposterous, and Mrs. Hooper—crude.†   (source)
  • I was lunching with my p-p-preposterous tutor.†   (source)
  • He thought that he was being preposterous.†   (source)
  • They said that it was preposterous, exhibitionist and phony.†   (source)
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