toggle menu
menu
vocabulary
1000+ books

prevail
in a sentence
grouped by contextual meaning

show 10 more with this conextual meaning
  • The defending champions prevailed again.
    prevailed = won (proved to be superior)
  • Big Ma didn't answer immediately; she was occupied in a test of wills with Jack. When hers had prevailed and Jack had settled into a moderate trot, she replied moodily...   (source)
    prevailed = proved superior or won
  • There is a saying in the Quran, "The falsehood has to go and the truth will prevail."   (source)
    prevail = prove superior or win
  • Eventually, the spirit of reconciliation prevailed.   (source)
    prevailed = won (became dominant)
  • At last Zeus' strength prevailed.   (source)
    prevailed = proved superior or won
  • As Washington was unwilling to leave me surrounded by the malignant fever which prevailed, I could not think of hazarding her and the Children any longer by my continuance in the city, the house in which we lived being, in a manner, blockaded, by the disorder.   (source)
    prevailed = was common
  • On the surface, at least, a remarkable civility prevailed.   (source)
    prevailed = won (was accepted)
  • She paused, and then she said, "May the right prevail."   (source)
    prevail = win or succeed
  • The fake peace that prevailed on Sundays was made more irritating by Aunt Alexandra's presence.   (source)
    prevailed = was common
  • But there were many others who saw the situation differently, and it was their counsel that prevailed in the end.   (source)
    prevailed = won (was accepted)
▲ show less (of above)
show 44 more with this conextual meaning
  • They encouraged my hunger to prevail.   (source)
    prevail = do well (prove superior or win)
  • So once again, just as I do every Day, I begin to read the notebook aloud, so that she can hear it, in the hope that the miracle that has come to dominate my life will once again prevail.   (source)
    prevail = overcome other forces and show itself
  • He'd also demonstrated a remarkable ability to prevail over adversity.   (source)
    prevail = win
  • Justice will prevail.   (source)
    prevail = prove superior or win
  • The important thing is you have prevailed. And you saved Annabeth!   (source)
    prevailed = succeeded or won
  • After several hours, our view prevailed.   (source)
    prevailed = won (was accepted)
  • They come from a long line of warriors who have prevailed in the face of many armies for centuries.   (source)
    prevailed = proved superior or won
  • It would be at Camp Pendleton that the 5th Division learned the skills needed to prevail on the Road to Tokyo.   (source)
    prevail = win or succeed
  • Lord Denby prevails, and he and Simon return to the ball.   (source)
    prevails = wins
  • These less obvious consequences will rarely prevail over the immediate interest one party may have in disregarding the rights of another or the good of the whole.   (source)
    prevail = win
  • Too many farmers had assumed, without due enquiry, that on such a farm a spirit of license and indiscipline would prevail.   (source)
    prevail = overcome other forces and show itself
  • I have always felt strongly that right should prevail.   (source)
    prevail = win (overcome other forces)
  • She wept, too, to see that her sweeter counsels had prevailed.   (source)
    prevailed = won (been accepted)
  • Knowing your natural temper better than I, he could the better judge what arguments to use, whether of tenderness or terror, such as might prevail over your hardness and obstinacy, insomuch that you should no longer hide the name of him who tempted you to this grievous fall.   (source)
    prevail = prove superior or win
  • But when Dunstan's meditation reached this point, the inclination to go on grew strong and prevailed.   (source)
    prevailed = won (was accepted)
  • I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail.   (source)
    prevail = win
  • But wisdom prevailed in the camp of the faithful and many lives were thus saved.   (source)
    prevailed = won out (was accepted)
  • I tried to heed Rob's advice, but my latent claustrophobia prevailed.   (source)
    prevailed = won
  • This view prevailed, despite Manilal Gandhi's strong objections.   (source)
    prevailed = was common
  • True affection and love have a purity which shall always prevail over bigotry.   (source)
    prevail = win
  • And it will prevail in all free governments.   (source)
    prevail = prove superior or win
  • However, let's assume, for argument's sake, that selfish interests prevail.   (source)
  • His opposition would prevail only if it was supported by a very large part of congress.   (source)
    prevail = win (overcome other forces)
  • The most numerous group or, in other words, the most powerful faction will prevail.   (source)
    prevail = win
  • In all governments, the community's objectives should prevail over the objectives of its rulers.   (source)
    prevail = win or succeed
  • The strongest force would prevail, whether it supported or defied the national authority.   (source)
    prevail = win
  • In one case, the current legislature denied the opinions of the council and actually prevailed.   (source)
    prevailed = won
  • If the former sometimes prevailed, my excuse is that it has not been often or much.   (source)
  • When the king prevailed, it was usually because the barons abused their citizens.   (source)
  • Tensions rose, but peace prevailed, largely because of the tireless efforts of a forward-thinking mayor, Malcolm Maclean, and a nonviolent strategy adopted by black leaders, notably W. W. Law, the head of the local branch of the NAACP.   (source)
    prevailed = won (was accepted)
  • The army had wanted to imprison him, but the intelligence service had prevailed and taken him to Bajaur so that he could slip across the border to Afghanistan.   (source)
    prevailed = succeeded or won
  • Again, silence prevailed; but that would not do for T.J. "Say, how 'bout we sneak down to that ole Wallace store and learn how to do them new dances?"   (source)
    prevailed = won out (was in effect)
  • He would call off the debt for past wages if Irwin would give him Knighthood. Irwin at first declined, saying the horse was useless. Smith persisted and prevailed.   (source)
    prevailed = was successful
  • Marine discipline and the sacrificial bonding of ardent young men was prevailing over concrete, steel, and thick volcanic rock.   (source)
    prevailing = winning
  • I cited many occasions when the ANC and the CP had differed on policy and the ANC had prevailed, but this did not seem to impress them.   (source)
    prevailed = won (been accepted)
  • The federal Congress will feel the effect of State loyalties more often than a national spirit will prevail in State legislatures.   (source)
    prevail = win (overcome other forces)
  • As long as farm interests prevail in State legislatures, they will also prevail in the national Senate.   (source)
    prevail = prove superior or win
  • House Will Prevail in This Situation   (source)
    prevail = win
  • This goes against the basic principle of republican government: the will of the majority should prevail.   (source)
  • They may not prevail on her wanting to get in, for then the UnDead is desperate, and must find the line of least resistance, whatsoever it may be.   (source)
    prevail = win or succeed
  • There was an unusual understanding of himself, which was unlike anything I had ever met with in a lunatic, and he took it for granted that his reasons would prevail with others entirely sane.   (source)
    prevail = prove superior and be accepted
  • The wind fell away entirely during the evening, and at midnight there was a dead calm, a sultry heat, and that prevailing intensity which, on the approach of thunder, affects persons of a sensitive nature.   (source)
    prevailing = powerful (winning)
  • She was not, however, in her heart perfectly satisfied with his refusal to show her the letter; so deaf are we to the clearest reason, when it argues against our prevailing passions.   (source)
    prevailing = winning
  •   Unless philosophy can make a Juliet,
      Displant a town, reverse a prince's doom,
      It helps not, it prevails not,—talk no more.   (source)
    prevails = wins or proves superior
▲ show less (of above)

show 10 more with this conextual meaning
  • May I prevail upon your patience as I describe one more complication.
  • She prevailed upon him to make the visit.
  • I beg you, woman, prevail upon your husband to confess.   (source)
    prevail = use persuasion
  • Walter was friendly with a family that lived nearby, and we prevailed upon them to take us in for the night.   (source)
    prevailed = persuaded
  • She prevailed upon me to see her wisdom.   (source)
    prevailed = used persuasion
  • No reason less urgent than this could have prevailed on Nancy to give Godfrey this opportunity of sitting apart with her.   (source)
  • ...when Justine was twelve years of age, prevailed on her mother to allow her to live at our house.   (source)
  • His last journey to London had been undertaken with no other view than that of introducing her brother in Hill Street, and prevailing on the Admiral to exert whatever interest he might have for getting him on.   (source)
    prevailing = persuading
  • It may not be easy for this court to understand, but it is a fact that for a long time the people had been talking of violence—of the day when they would fight the white man and win back their country, and we, the leaders of the ANC, had nevertheless always prevailed upon them to avoid violence and to use peaceful methods.   (source)
    prevailed = used persuasion
  • She was not to be prevailed on to leave Mr. Crawford.   (source)
    prevailed = persuaded
▲ show less (of above)
show 9 more with this conextual meaning
  • With his permission my mother prevailed on her rustic guardians to yield their charge to her.   (source)
    prevailed = used persuasion
  • Dolly's exhortation, which was an unusually long effort of speech for her, was uttered in the soothing persuasive tone with which she would have tried to prevail on a sick man to take his medicine, or a basin of gruel for which he had no appetite.   (source)
    prevail = use persuasion
  • Your sister, perhaps, may be prevailed on to spend the day with us, and I shall certainly be at home.   (source)
    prevailed = persuaded
  • It was after the early supper-time at the Red House, and the entertainment was in that stage when bashfulness itself had passed into easy jollity, when gentlemen, conscious of unusual accomplishments, could at length be prevailed on to dance a hornpipe, and when the Squire preferred talking loudly, scattering snuff, and patting his visitors' backs, to sitting longer at the whist-table—a choice exasperating to uncle Kimble, who, being always volatile in sober business hours, became…   (source)
  • Sometimes I could not prevail on myself to enter my laboratory for several days, and at other times I toiled day and night in order to complete my work.   (source)
    prevail = successfully use persuasion
  • She stopt, felt herself getting into a puzzle, and could not be prevailed on to add another word, not by dint of several minutes of supplication and waiting.   (source)
    prevailed = persuaded
  • Something like tranquillity might now be hoped for; and accordingly, when Rebecca had been prevailed on to carry away the tea-things, and Mrs. Price had walked about the room some time looking for a shirt-sleeve, which Betsey at last hunted out from a drawer in the kitchen, the small party of females were pretty well composed, and the mother having lamented again over the impossibility of getting Sam ready in time, was at leisure to think of her eldest daughter and the friends she had…   (source)
  • "If I had not been active," said she, "and made a point of being introduced to his mother, and then prevailed on my sister to pay the first visit, I am as certain as I sit here that nothing would have come of it; for Mr. Rushworth is the sort of amiable modest young man who wants a great deal of encouragement, and there were girls enough on the catch for him if we had been idle."   (source)
  • And now, Fanny, having performed one part of my commission, and shewn you everything placed on a basis the most assured and satisfactory, I may execute the remainder by prevailing on you to accompany me downstairs, where, though I cannot but presume on having been no unacceptable companion myself, I must submit to your finding one still better worth listening to.   (source)
    prevailing = persuading
▲ show less (of above)

show 10 more with this conextual meaning
  • Yesterday, the prevailing wisdom changed.
    prevailing = most common, powerful, or influential
  • Instead of using prevailing interest rate indexes, they...
    prevailing = most influential
  • At that time, the prevailing belief was that trans fats were healthier than butter.
    prevailing = most common
  • The prevailing Alaska wisdom held that McCandless was simply one more dreamy half-cocked greenhorn who went into the country expecting to find answers to all his problems and instead found only mosquitoes and a lonely death.   (source)
  • The prevailing opinion in the corridors of the courthouse was that Bobby Lee Cook had raised just enough doubt about the state's case to enable jurors to vote "not guilty" in good conscience.   (source)
  • The prevailing color of life in America is a dull, dark green called olive drab.   (source)
    prevailing = most common or most influential
  • And of course the prevailing popular view of Africans at that time contributed to our feeling of amusement.   (source)
    prevailing = common or influential
  • He will study the many prevailing schools of thought, but he will not add to them; not yet.   (source)
  • The punishment against us was never enunciated as an official policy, but it was a renewal of the harsh atmosphere that prevailed upon our arrival on the island.   (source)
    prevailed = were most powerful
  • The remarkable thing, given the decades of thievery and ruination of the Pimas, is the legacy of dignity and forbearance that prevails amid their exploited culture.   (source)
    prevails = is most common or influential
▲ show less (of above)
show 21 more with this conextual meaning
  • I imagined myself like some tiny sailboat, aimlessly tacking in whatever wind prevailed at the moment.   (source)
    prevailed = was most powerful or influential
  • This method prevails in dictatorships.   (source)
    prevails = is common
  • Do you think this represents the prevailing sentiment around town?   (source)
    prevailing = most common, powerful, or influential
  • The prevailing emotion was simply curiosity.   (source)
    prevailing = most powerful or influential
  • Every quarter of an hour the prevailing perfume of the room was automatically changed.   (source)
    prevailing = currently influential
  • This custom prevails throughout this portion of the South today.   (source)
    prevails = is common
  • These windows were of stained glass whose color varied in accordance with the prevailing hue of the decorations of the chamber into which it opened.   (source)
    prevailing = most common or influential
  • The republican institutions of our country have produced simpler and happier manners than those which prevail in the great monarchies that surround it.   (source)
    prevail = are most common
  • ...suffering the more from that involuntary forbearance which his character and manner commanded, and from not daring to relieve herself by a single attempt at throwing ridicule on his cause. ... It was time to have done with cards, if sermons prevailed; and she was glad to find it necessary to come to a conclusion, and be able to refresh her spirits by a change of place and neighbour.   (source)
    prevailed = were most powerful or influential
  • In fact, small landowners prevail in the New York senate and assembly.   (source)
    prevail = are most common
  • The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.'s influence, like an echo of Gandhi's, prevails.   (source)
    prevails = is most common, powerful, or influential
  • When you add to these activities the constant comings and goings of the tenants who live in the upstairs apartments—they must all walk through Mr. Odom's entrance hall to reach the stairway—you have an idea of the chaotic atmosphere that prevails.   (source)
    prevails = is common
  • "… Our helper He a-mid the floods," wafted out across the Common in the tempo of a football march, "Of mortal ills prevailing!"   (source)
    prevailing = common or influential
  • It was not an unreasonable argument, but the prevailing view, with which I agreed, was that circumcision was a cultural ritual that had not only a salutary health benefit but an important psychological effect.   (source)
    prevailing = most common
  • They lean with the prevailing winds and employ every fallacy of logic in order to editorialize harmoniously with popular prejudices.   (source)
    prevailing = most common or influential
  • This is not to say that either the conduct of war, or the prevailing attitude towards it, has become less bloodthirsty or more chivalrous.   (source)
    prevailing = most powerful or influential
  • But they had been foreshadowed by the various systems, generally called totalitarian, which had appeared earlier in the century, and the main outlines of the world which would emerge from the prevailing chaos had long been obvious.   (source)
    prevailing = powerful and influential
  • Even the humblest Party member is expected to be competent, industrious, and even intelligent within narrow limits, but it is also necessary that he should be a credulous and ignorant fanatic whose prevailing moods are fear, hatred, adulation, and orgiastic triumph.   (source)
    prevailing = most powerful or influential
  • In Oceania the prevailing philosophy is called Ingsoc, in Eurasia it is called Neo-Bolshevism, and in Eastasia it is called by a Chinese name usually translated as Death-Worship, but perhaps better rendered as Obliteration of the Self.   (source)
  • We pray you, throw to earth This unprevailing woe; and think of us As of a father: for let the world take note You are the most immediate to our throne; And with no less nobility of love Than that which dearest father bears his son Do I impart toward you.†   (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unprevailing means not and reverses the meaning of prevailing. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
  • A REPORT PREVAILS HERE THAT A MOST VILE DEEP LAID PLOT WAS YESTERDAY DISCOVER'D AT NEW YORK, I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO ASSERTAIN THE PERTICULAR FACTS ….   (source)
    prevails = is common
▲ show less (of above)

show 10 more with this conextual meaning
  • Though rare, the ancient practice still prevails today.
    prevails = is in force
  • The trial by jury prevails only in the courts of common law and there are exceptions.   (source)
  • Though segregation and discrimination still prevail and still work a hardship, great strides have been made—strides that must give hope to every observer of the South.   (source)
    prevail = have an influence
  • The tankards are on the side-table still, but the bossed silver is undimmed by handling, and there are no dregs to send forth unpleasant suggestions: the only prevailing scent is of the lavender and rose-leaves that fill the vases of Derbyshire spar.   (source)
    prevailing = having an effect
  • …she found, while they were at table, such a happy flow of conversation prevailing, in which she was not required to take any part—   (source)
    prevailing = being in force
  • As these were the best of her hopes, they could not always prevail; and in the course of a long morning, spent principally with her two aunts, she was often under the influence of much less sanguine views.   (source)
    prevail = come into effect
  • Half an hour followed that would have been at least languid under any other circumstances, but Fanny's happiness still prevailed.   (source)
    prevailed = was in force
  • Miss Crawford saw much of Sir Thomas's thoughts as he stood, and having, in spite of all his wrongs towards her, a general prevailing desire of recommending herself to him, took an opportunity of stepping aside to say something agreeable of Fanny.   (source)
    prevailing = having an effect
  • I had thought you peculiarly free from wilfulness of temper, self-conceit, and every tendency to that independence of spirit which prevails so much in modern days, even in young women, and which in young women is offensive and disgusting beyond all common offence.   (source)
    prevails = is in force
  • The remaining three, Mrs. Rushworth, Mrs. Norris, and Julia, were still far behind; for Julia, whose happy star no longer prevailed, was obliged to keep by the side of Mrs. Rushworth, and restrain her impatient feet to that lady's slow pace, while her aunt, having fallen in with the housekeeper, who was come out to feed the pheasants, was lingering behind in gossip with her.   (source)
    prevailed = was in force
▲ show less (of above)
show 1 more with this conextual meaning
  • Down to the keels, and upward to the sails,
    The fire descends, or mounts, but still prevails;
    Nor buckets pour'd, nor strength of human hand,
    Can the victorious element withstand.   (source)
    prevails = is in force
▲ show less (of above)

show 10 more examples with any meaning
  • We still store those instincts in our genes, and they express themselves when certain circumstances prevail.†   (source)
  • They were so cunning and strong, how could any real man be expected to prevail against them?†   (source)
  • For she was not without her own selfish desires: to hold things motionless, to measure herself against them and find herself present, to know that she was alive precisely because he needn't acknowledge her in casual passing; that utter constancy might prevail if she attended the world so carefully.†   (source)
  • Given the prevailing sobriety of her expression, it was unclear what she thought of this music from another era.†   (source)
  • I planned to demand an apology (and fight the guy if necessary), but my common sense prevailed and I shut the door before I got out of the car.†   (source)
  • While Lale enjoys the goals, common sense prevails when he looks at the angry faces of the SS.†   (source)
  • I had feared the brotherhood's reputation for secrecy might prevail.†   (source)
  • Fifty years ago, the prevailing concept in the American criminal justice system was that everyone in the community is the victim when an offender commits a violent crime.†   (source)
  • I hoped that diplomacy might prevail, that Hera or Demeter or Hestia would make the two brothers see sense.†   (source)
  • Because of this, and also because of prevailing currents, Isla Nublar lies in a foggy area.†   (source)
▲ show less (of above)
show 190 more examples with any meaning
  • I prevailed upon the Meanys to use Hurd's Church—and to let the Rev. Lewis Merrill perform the service.†   (source)
  • Order would prevail.†   (source)
  • Love will prevail.†   (source)
  • "Well, it appears that logic has prevailed yet again," he said.†   (source)
  • It is important that the body survives, but it is more meaningful that the human spirit prevails.†   (source)
  • Things that should never have happened, that seemed out of place and wrong, these were what prevailed, what endured, in the end.†   (source)
  • Or maybe three or four years from now, or three or four days from now, the prevailing winds take the balloon back home, because it needs money, or it sobered up, or it misses its kid brother.†   (source)
  • and vice versa Lawyers who prevailed in the snake pit excelled at winging it.†   (source)
  • And if his champion should prevail here—†   (source)
  • THE POTTY POWER PUNCH PREVAILS!†   (source)
  • WHO WILL PREVAIL?†   (source)
  • A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing; Our helper He, amid the flood Of mortal ills prevailing ….†   (source)
  • I wanted to try it out there and then but wiser heads prevailed.†   (source)
  • The next afternoon, however, their love prevails.†   (source)
  • If you are crazy, the first interpreter's viewpoint, the tiger theory, will prevail.†   (source)
  • Again Eragon struggled against their efforts to stop him, and again-to their obvious anger-he prevailed.†   (source)
  • I noticed too that the windbreak was angled against the prevailing winds.†   (source)
  • Ferris prevailed.†   (source)
  • None of those expectations we just listed are going to prevail; in fact, quite the opposite.†   (source)
  • The political philosophy that now prevails in so much of the West — with its demand for lower taxes, smaller government, an unbridled free market stands in total contradiction to the region's true economic underpinnings.†   (source)
  • (& Most Important) Astutely gauged the prevailing temper, and not just rejected, but rejected outright and extremely rudely, all of Baby Kochamma's advances and small seductions.†   (source)
  • He is doing what he can, after all, to ensure that peace will continue to prevail in Europe.†   (source)
  • But common sense prevailed.†   (source)
  • Once the domain of the prevailing Nez Perce tribe, the remnants of their presence are scattered throughout this wilderness, as well as those of white settlers traveling through on their way to the West.†   (source)
  • When he said that, he once again felt compassion prevailing over the bitterness caused by the letter, for which he thanked not his wife but rather a miracle of the music.†   (source)
  • Slowly her long years of training prevailed.†   (source)
  • Socrates is a good example of a person who managed to free himself from the prevailing views of his time by his own intelligence.†   (source)
  • Where the odors of tempura, raw fish and cha had dominated, the aroma of chitlings, greens and ham hocks now prevailed.†   (source)
  • But inside the rooms, calm usually prevails.†   (source)
  • While offering to the Lord the results of Mr. Cowper's hallucination, or declaring it was Love that lifted her, Jean Louise shared the warmness that prevails among diverse individuals who find themselves in the same boat for one hour each week.†   (source)
  • The prevailing theory in articles from the late sixties seemed to be that she drowned and was swept out to sea—a tragedy, but something that could happen to any family.†   (source)
  • I also learned that outside school another set of rules prevailed.†   (source)
  • I think men of common sense will prevail.†   (source)
  • I need time alone in the garden to formulate my battle plans, so could I prevail upon you two to personally escort Buttercup to my bedchamber?†   (source)
  • Much to the distress of psychiatrists and liberal jurists, the Rule prevails in the courts of the British Commonwealth and, in the United States, in the courts of all but half a dozen or so of the states and the District of Columbia, which abide by the more lenient, though to some minds impractical, Durham Rule, which is simply that an accused is not criminally responsible if his unlawful act is the product of mental disease or mental defect.†   (source)
  • East meets west in Iran, and no one is yet sure which lifestyle will prevail.†   (source)
  • What order could prevail against so grim a privacy?†   (source)
  • The Wrong shall fail, The Right prevail, With peace on earth, good will to men!†   (source)
  • Fortunately, good sense prevails.†   (source)
  • The last thing anyone wants is to live in a society where total honesty prevails.†   (source)
  • The prevailing wind was westerly, as at Efrafa.†   (source)
  • In the end, J. T. prevailed.†   (source)
  • Not even Hildreth's special talent with powder prevailed.†   (source)
  • The prevailing rumor was that the BOP had "closed" the Camp, accepting only prisoners who were already doing time in other facilities, because they didn't want Martha Stewart designated to Danbury.†   (source)
  • "And I can't prevail upon you to stay for dinner?"†   (source)
  • " In fact, with the aid of Gus's two dollars, Dish had been able to prevail on Lorena.†   (source)
  • He'd brought his mother here, prevailing over her own fatalism and his wife's practical misgivings.†   (source)
  • The dominant camp--which was backed by the World Health Organization and initially prevailed--insisted that the solution lay in improving primary care.†   (source)
  • Knowing that they would soon be off to the East, he didn't want to demonstrate to handicappers that his horse was a terrific weight carrier. But Howard insisted, and prevailed.†   (source)
  • He had already written down one of Confucius' sayings on the blackboard by the time we'd all sat down at our little wooden desks: When the perfect order prevails, the world is like a home shared by all.†   (source)
  • Outside, the prevailing wind snuffled and whined around the ground-level eaves.†   (source)
  • According to Clay, the prevailing explanation for my foray into the Josh Bennett Dead Zone is that I must already be dead.†   (source)
  • But they cannot prevail without help, and there is no High King to draw together those who might come to their aid.†   (source)
  • How can cool heads like Tom's prevail when the general feeling is to stand up and fight?†   (source)
  • Oh, I'll grant you I should have taught her something to prevail against her desire to kill Lestat.†   (source)
  • Other men will prevail, and soon the great avenues will be open again, where free men will walk, to build a better society.†   (source)
  • At the field a heavy silence prevailed, overpowering motion like a ruthless, insensate spell holding in thrall the only beings who might break it.†   (source)
  • Although it is not my way to interfere with the outer realm of men, I prevailed upon my husband—who had not only inherited Uncle Lu's vast holdings but had added to them from the salt business profits and now had fields that stretched all way to Jintian—to find something for this young man to do besides slaughter pigs.†   (source)
  • I prevailed on my church steering committee ….†   (source)
  • It had taken Mia months to prevail upon Kat, but prevail she did.†   (source)
  • But we prevailed.†   (source)
  • I had always believed that the Catholic Church was evidence of religious survival of the fittest: the truest, most powerful ideas were the ones that had prevailed over time.†   (source)
  • We must prevail.'†   (source)
  • In the newsroom environment through which these essays pass, the prevailing atmosphere is appropriately skeptical and even harsh.†   (source)
  • Everywhere the greatest terror and confusion seemed to prevail.†   (source)
  • Instinct prevailed.†   (source)
  • Others have connections upon whom we could prevail.†   (source)
  • One rain-soaked Friday night in late October, Grace prevailed on him to stay over.†   (source)
  • Why it had been sent was as yet unrevealed, but, judging by precedent, there had very likely been a phase of irreligious arrogance prevailing at the time.†   (source)
  • Cooler heads prevailed—his.†   (source)
  • But reason—or at least a willingness to conquer rational terror—prevailed and Max crept back down the stairs.†   (source)
  • If their influence prevails, we'll be all right.†   (source)
  • But praise God, right will prevail.†   (source)
  • So it is not surprising that a Midwestern accent would initially prevail in California.†   (source)
  • But if I read the signs back yonder rightly, the Orcs of the White Hand prevailed, and the whole company is now bound for Isengard.†   (source)
  • She protested, but he prevailed and soon they saw their chickens perform a dance of death, dying of exhaustion and hunger, a few managing to escape along Inner Flower Road, some kidnapped by a furious Lalla in the folds of her large brown dress and taken to Palm Lodge where she had them cooked.†   (source)
  • May justice prevail.†   (source)
  • They had longish hair in the prevailing style and swarthy, unshaven faces, though I could tell from their voices that they were in their twenties, the youthful ring still there.†   (source)
  • One cannot expect the forms of the past to prevail, but will you marry diis man?†   (source)
  • Puzzling over this question in 1863, Confederate War Department clerk John Jones wrote in his diary: "Our men must prevail in combat, or lose their property, country, freedom, everything….†   (source)
  • Red prevailed, and he was back on the job shortly after being discharged from the hospital.†   (source)
  • Yet the local sovereigns usually prevailed when the monarch tried to take more power.†   (source)
  • Lee prevails upon him to stay.†   (source)
  • The massive global conglomerates, like Bosch, might be able to command discounts when buying, say, specially formulated metals; but Standard has to pay the prevailing price, and for years now, that price has been rising.†   (source)
  • Otherwise, the shadows prevailed.†   (source)
  • With luck we will prevail.†   (source)
  • When I trained my glasses on the gully (the telescope was not as good as ordinary binoculars for night viewing, in the twilight conditions which then prevailed) she had already emerged and was standing facing the point where the strangers were.†   (source)
  • It was the soil, so fresh, so robust, so much better quality than Chinese soil; Chinese soil having been prevailed upon for too many thousands of years.†   (source)
  • From now on reason will prevail.†   (source)
  • Tell them that we prevail.†   (source)
  • Furthermore, it possessed the luxury of a kitchenette and a small private bathroom in which the toilet and tub appeared almost jarringly white against the prevailing peppermint.†   (source)
  • JAMES sits, and a moveless silence prevails; KELLER'S eyes do not leave him.†   (source)
  • The bleak weather that prevails in these latitudes at this time of year did little to improve my mood.†   (source)
  • There's always a prevailing west wind in these seas all through the late summer, and it always changes after the New Year.†   (source)
  • Nor had I ever been part of the enormous, grass-prevailing silences of the ever-shifting marsh.†   (source)
  • He has prevailed, and there can be only one reason: he was right.†   (source)
  • …father for his only son, the blind, wild desire of a young, vain woman for jewelry and admiring glances from men, all of these urges, all of this childish stuff, all of these simple, foolish, but immensely strong, strongly living, strongly prevailing urges and desires were now no childish notions for Siddhartha any more, he saw people living for their sake, saw them achieving infinitely much for their sake, travelling, conducting wars, suffering infinitely much, bearing infinitely…†   (source)
  • Once one becomes accustomed to those that prevail, such as the wind in the trees or in the grass, he soon begins to recognize those other, smaller sounds.†   (source)
  • Chaos prevails in all the rooms.†   (source)
  • The race in this way became a race for racing drivers only; in the prevailing difficulties of transport not very many spectators could be expected to drive forty miles out of the city to see it.†   (source)
  • Adams, said the Salem Gazette, is "a popularity seeker …. courting the prevailing party," and one of "Bonaparte's Senators."†   (source)
  • It may not be easy for this Court to understand, but it is a fact that for a long time the people had been talking of violence - of the day when they would fight the White man and win back their country - and we, the leaders of the ANC, had nevertheless always prevailed upon them to avoid violence and to pursue peaceful methods.†   (source)
  • I prevailed on the widow.†   (source)
  • The signal fire was kept burning on the shelf at the downstream end, the prevailing wind being such that smoke usually did not blow back into the cave— when the wind did shift was unbearable; they were forced to flee, eyes streaming.†   (source)
  • Tell me how reason has finally prevailed.†   (source)
  • I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail.†   (source)
  • Instead, Hillary Clinton prevailed on the World Bank to look into giving Russia a loan.†   (source)
  • Even the fine weather that prevailed in the first couple of weeks of April caused delays.†   (source)
  • "Surely our friends at court could be prevailed upon to join us with fresh troops," said Ser Harys.†   (source)
  • Who could tell yet what rules of parenthood prevailed here?†   (source)
  • And of course Edison urged the fair to use direct current, DC, the prevailing standard.†   (source)
  • Burnham established defenses that by prevailing standards seemed elaborate, even excessive.†   (source)
  • Diplomacy prevailed, however, and she agreed to attend.†   (source)
  • Strict secrecy prevailed, much to Adams's disapproval.†   (source)
  • He entertained no hope of prevailing against an elf.†   (source)
  • Vinge's view was not even controversial in the climate prevailing inside the Firm.†   (source)
  • "The prevailing wisdom is that he's speaking to himself, Doctor.†   (source)
  • Deo was persuaded, but he couldn't get a refund for his plane ticket, and his frugality prevailed.†   (source)
  • Losses were heavy on both sides, but in the end our loyal men prevailed.†   (source)
  • Eragon feared that even if she prevailed, the Lethrblaka would maim her before she slew them.†   (source)
  • By the evening a kind of holiday spirit prevailed.†   (source)
  • You are sworn companions of the prevailing winds of convenience!†   (source)
  • Whatever private feelings either harbored, civility prevailed.†   (source)
  • "Wickedness prevails very much," declared Lieutenant Joseph Hodgkins of Ipswich, Massachusetts.†   (source)
  • It was a difficult task, but in the end Roran prevailed.†   (source)
  • But calmer heads, including the president's, had prevailed.†   (source)
  • I have prevailed upon certain people, I will not name them, to give certain releases.†   (source)
  • Three times he attacked, and three times we prevailed.†   (source)
  • Still, the old mind prevailed, the brave old heart hung on.†   (source)
  • As with everything transacted within Congress, secrecy prevailed.†   (source)
  • On one occasion at least your counsel has prevailed, not long ago.†   (source)
  • The selfsame blend of fire and eeriness Prevails outside and in snug dwelling.†   (source)
  • HOLY WEEK The murk of night still prevails.†   (source)
  • I have prevailed on Mr. Walsh to trim his beard somewhat and to indulge his pipe smoking only out of doors, and in time perhaps both of these things, the beard and the pipe too, will disappear altogether, but it's never a good idea to nag and push a man, as it only makes them the more obstinate.†   (source)
  • There was also hopeless confusion in the corridors of the centre, where a mood of belligerent self-confidence prevailed.†   (source)
  • You will understand then something of the climate prevailing around Darlington Hall by the time of my father's fall in front of the summerhouse - this occurring as it did just two weeks before the first of the conference guests were likely to arrive - and what I mean when I say there was little room for any 'beating about the bush'.†   (source)
  • The prevailing wisdom was that they were the reason we were in there, yet they were utterly absent from our hospital lives.†   (source)
  • And Aunt Martha and Uncle Alfred had prevailed upon Hester to bring Owen to Sawyer Depot for Christmas—that was how significantly Owen had managed to impress them.†   (source)
  • THE POTTY POWER PUNCH PREVAILS!†   (source)
  • In tapping into this ancient tale of initiation, she invests the story of Laura's initiation with the accumulated power of the prevailing myth.†   (source)
  • The term Hellenism refers to both the period of time and the Greek-dominated culture that prevailed in the three Hellenistic kingdoms of Macedonia, Syria, and Egypt.†   (source)
  • The prevailing idea for decades had been that "all victims are equal"—that is, the murder of a four-year-old child of a wealthy parent is no more serious an offense than the murder of a child whose parent is in prison or even than the murder of the parent in prison.†   (source)
  • In a sip, it would evoke the timing of that winter's thaw, the extent of that summer's rain, the prevailing winds, and the frequency of clouds.†   (source)
  • An eerie quality of untidiness prevailed amid order: Dr. Finch kept his house militarily spotless, but books tended to pile up wherever he sat down, and because it was his habit to sit down anywhere he got ready, there were small stacks of books in odd places about the house that were a constant curse to his cleaning woman.†   (source)
  • And in addition to the brightness of the sun that shone upon him, Owen's face was blood-red—throbbing, I presumed, from his riding his bike into town; for a late November bike ride down Maiden Hill, given the prevailing wind off the Squamscott, was bitter cold.†   (source)
  • But a stiff formality prevailed for the first two hours or so, in spite of dozens of toasts and half a dozen bottles of vodka consumed.†   (source)
  • In its color, aroma, and taste, it would certainly express the idiosyncratic geology and prevailing climate of its home terrain.†   (source)
  • Finally the wise of both races prevailed, and the chiefs and heroes of the First Men met the greenseers and wood dancers amidst the weirwood groves of a small island in the great lake called Gods Eye.†   (source)
  • The thoughts that are washed along with the current of past tradition, as well as the material conditions prevailing at the time, help to determine how you think.†   (source)
  • SINK: a habitable lowland area on Arrakis surrounded by high ground that protects it from the prevailing storms.†   (source)
  • WINDTRAP: a device placed in the path of a prevailing wind and capable of precipitating moisture from the air caught within it, usually by a sharp and distinct drop in temperature within the trap.†   (source)
  • In the humid air, the diesel exhaust was heavy and foul, but I was sure that Mr. Meany could not be prevailed upon to turn the engine off; probably he was keeping the engine running in an effort to hurry up Owen's prayers.†   (source)
  • In international health near the turn of the twenty-first century, a mentality nearly opposite to Jim Kim's optimism prevailed.†   (source)
  • But in the Count's considered opinion, the reason that dueling prevailed among Russian gentlemen stemmed from nothing more than their passion for the glorious and grandiose.†   (source)
  • Ah, Napoleon, perhaps you would never have prevailed in your quest for Mother Russia; but ten degrees warmer and at least you might have reached home with half your forces intact, instead of losing another three hundred thousand men between the gates of Moscow and the banks of the Neman River.†   (source)
  • The mutated poverty grasses were planted first along the downwind (slipface) of the chosen dunes that stood across the path of the prevailing westerlies.†   (source)
  • Having dedicated the first several years to a study of the French (covering their idioms and forms of address, the personalities of Napoleon, Richelieu, and Talleyrand, the essence of the Enlightenment, the genius of Impressionism, and their prevailing aptitude for je ne sail quoi), the Count and Osip spent the next few years studying the British (covering the necessity of tea, the implausible rules of cricket, the etiquette of foxhunting, their relentless if well-deserved pride in…†   (source)
  • When we have moisture locked in grasslands, we'll move on to start upland forests, then a few open bodies of water—small at first—and situated along lines of prevailing winds with windtrap moisture precipitators spaced in the lines to recapture what the wind steals.†   (source)
  • He broke prevailing rules of casual intimacy: He stood too close, stared too hard, touched too much and long.†   (source)
  • One of the most persistent problems of the day was "offensive feet," caused by the prevailing habit of washing feet only once a week.†   (source)
  • He seemed a druggist in name only; he more closely fit the prevailing ideal of the self-made man who through hard work and invention pulled himself rung by rung into the upper strata of society.†   (source)
  • The Windy City had prevailed.†   (source)
  • Previously Depew had promised the members of the Whitechapel Club that if Chicago prevailed he would present himself at the club's next meeting, to be hacked apart by the Ripper himself—metaphorically, he presumed, although at the Whitechapel Club could one ever be certain?†   (source)
  • The developer of a large Englewood parcel touted this asset in a catalog promoting the auction of two hundred residential lots called the Bates Subdivision: "To the business men of the Union Stock Yards it is particularly convenient and accessible, and free from the odors that are wafted by the prevailing winds to the most fashionable localities of the City."†   (source)
  • I've never loved anyone but you, I wanted to say, but common sense prevailed, reminding me that it would be better to save those words for another time, when I had her full attention and the words might be reciprocated.†   (source)
  • The comic books are drawn in great detail and garishly colored, with green and purple and sulfur-yellow prevailing.†   (source)
  • The idea of a peninsular Macondo prevailed for a long time, inspired by the arbitrary map that Jose Arcadio Buendia sketched on his return from the expedition.†   (source)
  • That's the prevailing theory.†   (source)
  • But silence prevailed.†   (source)
  • She wasn't here to be his buddy, after all, but expectation and manners prevailed, and she answered before she could stop herself.†   (source)
  • But what she wanted to do, in essence, was create a learning epidemic to counter the prevailing epidemics of poverty and illiteracy.†   (source)
  • Yet the doctor had prevailed.†   (source)
  • She prevailed on every charge, and she prevailed because she could mount an argument that the Munich Philharmonic could not rebut.†   (source)
  • But Ekström had prevailed.†   (source)
  • The cool light of the moon had not prevailed against the darkness of the crevasses, which looked like rivers of black oil.†   (source)
  • There was no prevailing voice.†   (source)
  • We do not yet know the winner of last night's duel, but it is only a matter of time before Otrera prevails and comes to our aid.†   (source)
  • The only affection that prevailed against time and the war was that which he had felt for his brother Jose Arcadio when they both were children, and it was not based on love but on complicity.†   (source)
  • In their book, Chicago and the Great Conflagration, Elias Colbert and Everett Chamberlin reported that as early as Tuesday morning a sense of desperation prevailed when "water-carts moving through the streets [were] being surrounded, every time they halted, by men in dressing-gowns and women in their meanest wear, bearing buckets and pitchers, to buy, at a shilling a pailful, the fluid which had suddenly become so precious."†   (source)
  • Still, a few mercies prevailed: overnight the rain had let up, the day was warming by degrees, and we seemed to have evaded the wights and their dogs, at least for the time being; either they'd stopped barking or were too far away to be heard.†   (source)
  • Therefore one had to observe the swaying grass from the ground and go forward with the prevailing breezes and the sudden mountain winds.†   (source)
  • A certain kind of man could happen upon her in her light cotton sweater and willowy walking shorts and think he was exempt from the prevailing laws, that everything in the domain was his to master.†   (source)
  • I was aware that it was a generous payment in the light of the prevailing rates which Government agencies, missions and the trading companies paid the arctic natives, but I felt my extravagance would be tolerated by the Treasury Department in view of the fact that, without Mike's help, my own Department stood to lose about four thousand dollars' worth of equipment as soon as the lake ice melted.†   (source)
  • Because I had to try something before letting Eragon and Saphira fly so far away, and because you have made a habit of confounding expectations and prevailing where others would have faltered or given up.†   (source)
  • Ned would surely have prevailed upon Robert to bring up his whole force, to encircle Stannis and besiege the besiegers.†   (source)
  • It seemed to him that Lorie had been getting a little friendlier, and if nothing had happened to distract her he might soon have prevailed.†   (source)
  • "Thankfully, wiser heads prevailed, and the Conclave accepted the fact of Pycelle's dismissal and set about choosing his successor.†   (source)
  • If it were not for your courage and that of the others who were wounded, we would not have prevailed.†   (source)
  • Flamenco dancing had no practical application in the closed society prevailing in the capital back then, but Nicolas ran a discreet announcement in the paper offering his services as a teacher of that fiery art.†   (source)
  • In a city, relatively minor problems like graffiti, public disorder, and aggressive panhandling, they write, are all the equivalent of broken windows, invitations to more serious crimes: Muggers and robbers, whether opportunistic or professional, believe they reduce their chances of being caught or even identified if they operate on streets where potential victims are already intimidated by prevailing conditions.†   (source)
▲ show less (of above)