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speculative
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speculative as in:  a speculative look or mind

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  • She looked speculative for a few seconds and then made her decision.
    speculative = deep in thought
  • Although there may be some truth in both hypotheses, this sort of posthumous off-the-rack psychoanalysis is a dubious, highly speculative enterprise that inevitably demeans and trivializes the absent analysand.   (source)
    speculative = uncertain
  • Before there had always been his polite capping of remarks like this: "Yes, they do, that's what they call it"—but today he glanced speculatively at me and said nothing.   (source)
    speculatively = with curiosity or interest
  • Kynes directed a speculative look at Jessica, gave a subtle hand signal to Tuek.   (source)
    speculative = showing curiosity
  • The search for new weapons continues unceasingly, and is one of the very few remaining activities in which the inventive or speculative type of mind can find any outlet.   (source)
    speculative = curious or deep-thinking
  • His eye rested speculatively on Mr. Justice Wargrave.   (source)
    speculatively = with curiosity or interest
  • Rhett watched the train until it was out of sight and on his face there was a look of speculative bitterness that was not pleasant.   (source)
    speculative = thoughtful
  • Martin sank or rose to Clif's buoyancy, while Clif rose or sank to Martin's speculativeness.   (source)
    speculativeness = deep thoughtfulness
  • He had no longer free energy enough for spontaneous research and speculative thinking, but by the bedside of patients, the direct external calls on his judgment and sympathies brought the added impulse needed to draw him out of himself.   (source)
    speculative = arising from curiosity rather than need
  • Not being of a very speculative character, however, save under circumstances when her speculations could be put into words and uttered aloud, that discreet matron attributed the emotion to the circumstance of her daughter's not happening to have her best frock on: 'though I never saw her look better, certainly,' she reflected at the same time.   (source)
    speculative = deep-thinking
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  • O'Brien was looking down at him speculatively.   (source)
    speculatively = showing, engaged in, or having a tendency of curiosity or deep thought
  • He dropped her chin and, turning, walked back to his chair and sprawled tiredly again, his chin on his breast, his eyes looking up at her from under black brows in an impersonal speculative way.   (source)
    speculative = thoughtful
  • In the look of farewell on his face there was no sorrow, no pain, only a speculative wonder at himself, only a poignant stirring of emotions dead since boyhood, as he said again: "A very great lady."   (source)
  • But Scarlett never lost the old feeling that he was watching her covertly, knew that if she turned her head suddenly she would surprise in his eyes that speculative, waiting look, that look of almost terrible patience that she did not understand.   (source)
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speculative as in:  a speculative theory

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  • Stephen Hawking said, "I'd rather be right than rigorous," as he transitioned to becoming more speculative in his thinking rather than insisting on mathematical proofs.
    speculative = based on unproven thought or theory
  • Kant wanted to put an end to purely speculative theories of human experience without resorting to the skepticism of Hume.
    speculative = unprovable
  • In the class of science fiction that is called speculative fiction, the author accepts something as true without proof that it could be (such as a new technology in the future), but tries to make the characters react in a natural way under the changed circumstances.
    speculative = based on thought or theory that is unproven
  • Once out of the lobby, I ducked into the doorway of the florist next door to check my messages and text Kitsey before heading downtown, just in case; if she was just getting out of her movie, I could meet her for dinner and a drink (alone, without the girlfriends: the weirdness of the incident seemed to call for it) and —definitely —a speculative and humorous talk on the behavior of Em.   (source)
    speculative = based on uncertain thought
  • My particular province is speculative philosophy.   (source)
    speculative = based on thought that is not provable
  • Morris had a speculative idea that she had a little property; but he naturally did not press this.   (source)
    speculative = an unproven thought
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speculative as in:  a speculative venture

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  • She's too old to invest in speculative business enterprises.
    speculative = risky
  • The country's bonds were downgraded to speculative non-investment grade, so I found myself with junk bonds in my retirement account.
    speculative = risky investment
  • And although Hammond spoke confidently of seven billion dollars in annual revenues by 1993, his project was intensely speculative.   (source)
    speculative = without certainty of working and making money
  • The room displayed a modest and pleasant color-scheme, after one of the best standard designs of the decorator who "did the interiors" for most of the speculative-builders' houses in Zenith.   (source)
    speculative = without certainty of payment
  • Consider the wastes incidental to the blind and haphazard production of commodities—the factories closed, the workers idle, the goods spoiling in storage; consider the activities of the stock manipulator, the paralyzing of whole industries, the overstimulation of others, for speculative purposes; the assignments and bank failures, the crises and panics, the deserted towns and the starving populations!   (source)
    speculative = to make money
  • It is worthy of remark that a certain speculative writer of quasi-scientific repute, writing long before the Martian invasion, did forecast for man a final structure not unlike the actual Martian condition.   (source)
    speculative = without certainty of payment
  • Probably, as with persons playing whist for love, the consciousness of a certain immunity under any circumstances from that worst possible ultimate, the having to pay, makes them unduly speculative.   (source)
    speculative = risk-taking
  • And, if you remember, Hammond's plan was extremely speculative.   (source)
    speculative = without certainty of working and making money
  • It was a speculative venture to call on the Rieslings; interesting and sometimes disconcerting.   (source)
    speculative = with much uncertainty
  • Babbitt was an official delegate; another was Cecil Rountree, whom Babbitt admired for his picaresque speculative building, and hated for his social position, for being present at the smartest dances on Royal Ridge.   (source)
    speculative = without certainty of payment
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  • Yet his eventual importance to mankind was perhaps lessened by his large and complacent ignorance of all architecture save the types of houses turned out by speculative builders; all landscape gardening save the use of curving roads, grass, and six ordinary shrubs; and all the commonest axioms of economics.   (source)
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show 10 more examples with any meaning
  • Many of them sat languidly along the benches or milled in the aisles discussing the trial in hushed and speculative tones.†   (source)
  • He sounded speculative, hardly interested.†   (source)
  • Though my interests lie less in the area of romance and more in the speculative nature of things.†   (source)
  • She looked at him speculatively.†   (source)
  • He sounds just like my dad on one of his speculative rants, and suddenly I'm annoyed, I'm not sure why.†   (source)
  • My speculative sister, she of the rocket-science brain and the rodeo spirit, dropped out of college and moved to Manhattan in the late '90s.†   (source)
  • Sloan picked up the stone and gauged its weight speculatively.†   (source)
  • He gave me a speculative look.†   (source)
  • He chuckled, and a speculative look came into his eye.†   (source)
  • She looked speculatively at Lieutenant Awn.†   (source)
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show 190 more examples with any meaning
  • Jack's eyes bad fluttered open again and this time Daddy was looking directly at him, his gaze strangely flat and speculative.†   (source)
  • Instead of great speculative systems, we had what we call an existential philosophy or a philosophy of action.†   (source)
  • Murky, speculative stuff, a smear campaign on a dead woman.†   (source)
  • By this time Lieutenant Mannion was looking over Thompson's shoulder, listening, and nodding speculatively.†   (source)
  • Leto toyed with a fork, looked speculatively at Kynes.†   (source)
  • His mouth held a neutral line, but I detected a speculative smile trapped behind it.†   (source)
  • Of course, this is highly speculative.†   (source)
  • He ran his fingers around the base of the rocket, studied carefully the soldered washer, sniffed speculatively at the cured black-powder mix.†   (source)
  • But now she shifted position, used an elbow to prop her upper body and watched me speculatively from the foot of the bed.†   (source)
  • Now, Yves, as though he were also remembering that day and night, turned his head and looked at Eric with a wondering, speculative, and triumphant smile.†   (source)
  • "I think the excitement of futures is the ...um, their speculative nature, combined with the ability to control risk with hedge positions," I hear myself saying.†   (source)
  • Amatis looked at her speculatively.†   (source)
  • A thin man in a stained leather vest with embroidery on the front was watching John Grady with narrowed and speculative eyes.†   (source)
  • If it seemed to Sarah that he sometimes paused in his work to watch her speculatively, she didn't press him on it.†   (source)
  • "Maybe wanted to see what we could do," Gage countered, and earned a speculative glance from Cybil.†   (source)
  • Chaz looks around the room speculatively.†   (source)
  • I never swerved from any principle, I never professed any opinion—I never concealed even any speculative opinion—to obtain a vote.†   (source)
  • The head guy looked at me speculatively.†   (source)
  • But it's still speculative.†   (source)
  • Well, it's rather ....speculative, I must admit, but here you go: I have been developing a way to stimulate memories.†   (source)
  • Avoiding you ...avoiding the other boys ...alone ...He looks speculatively at Helene's retreating back, and I go for my scim, but Marcus is already holding a dagger to my stomach.†   (source)
  • His second phase, the metaphysical one, was tenuous and speculative, but this first phase, in which he simply taught rhetoric, was by all accounts solid and pragmatic and probably deserves to be judged on its own merits, independently of the second phase.†   (source)
  • Most of his dealings came on order rather than through the type of speculative buying that Pepe did.†   (source)
  • Two years before, sitting around after lunch, talking speculatively, it had all seemed wonderful.†   (source)
  • Alessandro had been pacing at exactly the speed of Isabelle, Jeannette, and Ariane, hidden from them by the plume of the fountain as perfectly as the speculative planet on the other side of the sun, the twin to earth, that cannot be seen.†   (source)
  • Bertram Scudder considered him speculatively, but without particular interest.†   (source)
  • It's true that there are those who think that the "symbolic" revolution among our sort of people doomed the Neanderthals, but this is, to put it mildly, a very speculative story, more "Star Trek" than "Mr. Wizard†   (source)
  • The advantages are at best speculative and equivocal.†   (source)
  • "Oh," he said, looking at her speculatively.†   (source)
  • She eyed him speculatively.†   (source)
  • Indeed, I suspected that many pairs of lupine eyes were already watching me with speculative interest.†   (source)
  • The relationship, therefore, is quite intangible, and interesting primarily on levels of speculative metaphysics.†   (source)
  • How long Sophie had been gazing down I could not tell, of course, but I had the uneasy feeling that it had been for quite a spell; the expression she wore was sweet, speculative, not without humor.†   (source)
  • Having no close relatives, and approaching an age beyond which she could not reasonably hope for a proposal of marriage, and when even speculative second looks from rakish or lonely widowers had grown rare, her whole life centered in the office.†   (source)
  • When he tried to resign from the Senate in 1836 to recoup speculative losses through his law practice, his Massachusetts businessmen friends joined to pay his debts to retain him in office.†   (source)
  • That was why he looked at the young man with a speculative frowning look, not condemning him, only wary and on the alert.†   (source)
  • I gave the lute's neck a sour, speculative look.†   (source)
  • Denna gave the remains of her apple a speculative look, then began to eat it from the bottom up.†   (source)
  • Anker gave me a speculative look.†   (source)
  • He noticed her speculative look.†   (source)
  • He looked at me speculatively, rubbing his hand over his chin as if he had a beard.†   (source)
  • She looked at me speculatively for a moment.†   (source)
  • Strigan looked speculatively at her for a moment, then turned to me.†   (source)
  • "Perhaps we can help," the president offered speculatively.†   (source)
  • Deoch eyed me speculatively as I crossed the courtyard toward the Eolian.†   (source)
  • A few of the masters looked at me speculatively.†   (source)
  • He looked speculatively at the walls and pursed his lips.†   (source)
  • But I would think that if—" he trailed off and peered speculatively into my eyes.†   (source)
  • "My sons," she said, looking at me speculatively, "are not mine alone."†   (source)
  • Ida looked at her, speculatively, a small, sardonic smile touching her lips.†   (source)
  • Izzi peers down at the dunes speculatively.†   (source)
  • His father turned back and looked at him speculatively.†   (source)
  • The fact that he had been searching for traces of a hotshot writer named Paul Sheldon was reported, but Kushner's disappearance had not been linked, even speculatively, with Paul's own.†   (source)
  • He picked his change up, put it in a front pocket, and paused, looking speculatively at his Lord Buxton.†   (source)
  • He looked at Danny speculatively.†   (source)
  • He looked speculatively at the Suk School ring on the Doctor's hair, stared once at the diamond tattoo and then met Yueh's eyes.†   (source)
  • And even as she sat down next to her son and thanked Holly for her cup of hot cocoa, her thoughts had turned speculatively to the idea of divorce again.†   (source)
  • Jace looked at Simon speculatively.†   (source)
  • She eyed me speculatively.†   (source)
  • People drove speculatively to the edges of towns, where some would turn back, some decide to venture toward remoter areas which seemed in these past days to exist under a spell, a hallowed expectation.†   (source)
  • He looked at me speculatively.†   (source)
  • I eyed Carlisle speculatively.†   (source)
  • She raised her head and eyed them speculatively for a moment, then waded back to shore, where she proceeded to act as if she had suddenly become demented.†   (source)
  • I watched him repress the anger, watched as his eyes grew speculative.†   (source)
  • Brett was looking at her in a speculative way that made her a little uneasy.†   (source)
  • The look on her face evolved from challenging to doubtful to speculative to careful.†   (source)
  • He fixed her with a speculative expression.†   (source)
  • Ian tilted his head to one side, his expression speculative.†   (source)
  • She had no right to try something so speculative without under-standing its implications.†   (source)
  • Other than a small speculative investment.†   (source)
  • The Inquisitor's colorless lashes grazed her cheeks as she narrowed her eyes, her gaze speculative.†   (source)
  • Larry, too, was quiet, though in a more speculative way than Brian.†   (source)
  • Speculative traders understand that this analysis is valid.†   (source)
  • And he looked at Vivaldo's face, in which affection and something coldly speculative battled.†   (source)
  • The possible danger of a gradual change is speculative.†   (source)
  • And there was something in her face which he could not read, something speculative and hard.†   (source)
  • The benefits derived from it will chiefly be watched and perceived by speculative men.†   (source)
  • Abruptly, Jacob's expression shifted, and he was staring at Edward with an odd, speculative expression.†   (source)
  • His speculative expression stoked the flames of my smoldering anger at the same time that it worried me.†   (source)
  • Indian, Greek, and Norse mythology all have obvious leanings toward a philosophic, or "speculative," view of the world.†   (source)
  • He led the way into the line, still not speaking, though his eyes returned to my face every few seconds, their expression speculative.†   (source)
  • She eyed me with a look that was much more speculative than it was resigned, and then reached out to take my hand.†   (source)
  • He looked up at Gary, and there was something cold and speculative in the dog's eyes that gave Gary a chill.†   (source)
  • He had looked at the family portrait Steve Kemp had stepped on and had seen a pretty, neatly coiffed woman, the sort you look at twice on the street, the second look being mildly speculative.†   (source)
  • He raised a speculative eyebrow.†   (source)
  • Their eyes during these conversations look dewy, blurred, pulpy, easily hurt, like the eyes of blind baby kittens; but also sly and speculative, and filled with greed and deceit.†   (source)
  • A full-grown one, blonde, dirty, sensual, watched with a speculative curiosity as she drew water from the groaning pump beside the building.†   (source)
  • The next chapter, the next word, the next book, was of much more importance to him than any speculative article he might read.†   (source)
  • But her greater worry was Nabby, whose husband, with a growing family and no profession, had suddenly gone off to England on some kind of speculative venture.†   (source)
  • And so the pathetic story-pitcher turns to pop science—to Jonathan Gottschall's new book, "The Storytelling Animal," for instance— for some scientific, or at least speculative, ideas about what makes stories work and why we like them.†   (source)
  • There was a speculative, open light in Cuthbert's eyes, and the gunslinger controlled only with great difficulty the need to tell him not to call for the test for a year or even eighteen months, lest he go west.†   (source)
  • A small speculative investment?†   (source)
  • The three men looked at the murderer, thinking their own thoughts, speculative, frowning, but not as if he were important now.†   (source)
  • She saw in his face surprise at her posture of fear, and she watched grow there that look she had so often seen lately, half sardonic, speculative, brutal, as if he were judging her.†   (source)
  • When the sounds continued ( despite everything I could do to muffle them) she got slowly to her feet and, after a glance at the pups, as if to assure herself that they were not responsible, she cocked a speculative eye at the cloudless sky above.†   (source)
  • Francie took a speculative look at the Pennsylvania fellow standing ten feet away.†   (source)
  • It was an ambiguous, speculative look.†   (source)
  • "I maybe could give you the dirt," the Boss said speculatively.†   (source)
  • He looked speculatively at the basket.†   (source)
  • For a moment he continued to look wisely, speculatively at Tom, and then he turned on his heel and popped into the shack after the gray woman.†   (source)
  • "That, I suppose," said Mr. Jackson, speculatively, "is the line the Mingotts mean to take."†   (source)
  • As he turned to go on, he spat speculatively.†   (source)
  • Speculatively regarded, it well might be referred to a jury of casuists.†   (source)
  • "Yes," said Amory speculatively, "but I'm more than bored; I am restless."†   (source)
  • He cocked his red eye speculatively at Stewart.†   (source)
  • CECELIA: (Speculatively) Drink?†   (source)
  • APART from the momentary thrill and zest of this, the effect was to throw Clyde, as before, speculatively back upon the problem of his proper course here.†   (source)
  • Then as slowly going out to the door and around to the front of the house where Orville Mason was seated on the broken front steps, contemplating speculatively along with the afternoon sun in the west the misery that this lorn and incompetent farmer was conveying to his wife.†   (source)
  • Before this time he had known it but speculatively; now he thought he knew it as a practical man; though perhaps he did not, even yet.†   (source)
  • He had nothing to do here, he sometimes said to himself; but there was something beyond the ocean that he was still to do; something that he had left undone experimentally and speculatively, to see if it could content itself to remain undone.†   (source)
  • INSPECTOR puts photograph back into his pocket and stares speculatively after her.†   (source)
  • Have you never made a speculative investment?†   (source)
  • Conway had no desire to discuss the matter further in a merely speculative way; there had been enough of that during the journey.†   (source)
  • X. The Barnards Elizabeth Barnard's parents lived in a minute bungalow, one of fifty or so recently run up by a speculative builder on the confines of the town.†   (source)
  • hallway whose air was even hotter than outside, as if there were prisoned in it like in a tomb all the suspiration of slow heat-laden time which had recurred during the forty-three years, the small figure in black which did not even rustle, the wan triangle of lace at wrists and throat, the dim face looking at him with an expression speculative, urgent, and intent, waited to invite him in.†   (source)
  • She looked at him, speculative.†   (source)
  • He had cringed and sweated and felt the baleful speculative stare of the Boss on him in the long silence after he had tried to sell the idea of Gummy Larson.†   (source)
  • The Mormon studied her with dark, speculative eyes.†   (source)
  • He stopped to measure her with stern, speculative eye.†   (source)
  • When sorrow ceases to be speculative, sleep sees her opportunity.†   (source)
  • Henrietta fixed him a moment with her speculative gaze.†   (source)
  • But I made it in a highly speculative business.†   (source)
  • And this supposition made the visitor more interesting to our speculative heroine.†   (source)
  • In 1860, Dougherty County had six thousand slaves, worth at least two and a half millions of dollars; its farms were estimated at three millions,—making five and a half millions of property, the value of which depended largely on the slave system, and on the speculative demand for land once marvellously rich but already partially devitalized by careless and exhaustive culture.†   (source)
  • I found some of it hard to endure, though I am a mild-tempered man; but, certainly, when I told the captain to "shut up" I had forgotten that I was merely a bit of human flotsam, cut off from my resources and with my fare unpaid; a mere casual dependant on the bounty, or speculative enterprise, of the ship.†   (source)
  • I heard Bland say this afternoon—an' he said it serious-like an' speculative—thet he'd never seen your equal.†   (source)
  • After first casting a fleeting, speculative glance in the air, Hans Castorp halfway assented to the idea by asking in return whether Head Nurse Mylendonk had sold him a thermometer.†   (source)
  • it is not paid for; and then that the table spreads itself voluntarily with glass and silver, little mats, saucers of red fruit; films of brown cream mask turbot; in casseroles severed chickens swim; coloured, undomestic, the fire burns; and with the wine and the coffee (not paid for) rise jocund visions before musing eyes; gently speculative eyes; eyes to whom life appears musical, mysterious; eyes now kindled to observe genially the beauty of the red carnations which Lady Bruton (whose movements were always angular) had laid beside her plate, so that Hugh Whitbread, feeling at peace with the entire universe and at the same time completely sure of his standing, said, resting his fork†   (source)
  • They were highly amused and speculative to the point of taking sides and making wagers on their choice.†   (source)
  • Speculative philosophers drew along, not always with wrinkled foreheads and hoary hair as in framed portraits, but pink-faced, slim, and active as in youth; modern divines sheeted in their surplices, among whom the most real to Jude Fawley were the founders of the religious school called Tractarian; the well-known three, the enthusiast, the poet, and the formularist, the echoes of whose teachings had influenced him even in his obscure home.†   (source)
  • As he leaned there, he ran a calm and speculative eye over us, as though to determine the precise point of the collision, and took no notice whatever when our pilot, white with rage, shouted, "Now you've done it!"†   (source)
  • He looked over the remainder of the team with a speculative eye that summed up instantly the salient traits of each animal.†   (source)
  • But after slyly studying him at intervals, the old Merlin's equivocal merriment was modified; for now when the twain would meet, it would start in his face a quizzing sort of look, but it would be but momentary and sometimes replaced by an expression of speculative query as to what might eventually befall a nature like that, dropped into a world not without some man—traps and against whose subtleties simple courage, lacking experience and address and without any touch of defensive ugliness, is of little avail; and where such innocence as man is capable of does yet in a moral emergency not always sharpen the faculties or enlighten the will.†   (source)
  • I would see one of the clumsy bovine-creatures who worked the launch treading heavily through the undergrowth, and find myself asking, trying hard to recall, how he differed from some really human yokel trudging home from his mechanical labours; or I would meet the Fox-bear woman's vulpine, shifty face, strangely human in its speculative cunning, and even imagine I had met it before in some city byway.†   (source)
  • He seemed eager, curious, speculative.†   (source)
  • Well, he eyed me in a rather cool and speculative way and said, with a smile, 'Miss, I reckon anything you love an' want bad will be coming to you out here!'†   (source)
  • All eyes except those of the Mexican gamblers were turned upon Duane; and these glances were keen, speculative, questioning.†   (source)
  • There were men like Wells and Plato, who had, half unconsciously, a strange, hidden orthodoxy, who would accept for themselves only what could be accepted for all men—incurable romanticists who never, for all their efforts, could enter the labyrinth as stark souls; there were on the other hand sword-like pioneering personalities, Samuel Butler, Renan, Voltaire, who progressed much slower, yet eventually much further, not in the direct pessimistic line of speculative philosophy but concerned in the eternal attempt to attach a positive value to life.... Amory stopped.†   (source)
  • The so-called "practical men" sneer at speculative men, as if, because they speculate or see, they could do nothing.†   (source)
  • It must not be imagined that the piety of the Puritans was of a merely speculative kind, or that it took no cognizance of the course of worldly affairs.†   (source)
  • I feel sure Alick meant no irreverence; indeed, I know that his mind was not of a speculative, negative cast, and he would on no account have missed going to church on Christmas Day, Easter Sunday, and "Whissuntide."†   (source)
  • Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, was speculative and irresolute, and we have a great tragedy in consequence.†   (source)
  • Dispositions more boldly speculative may derive a stern enjoyment from the discovery, since there must be evil in the world, that a high man is as likely to grasp his share of it as a low one.†   (source)
  • He sat in a complicated mechanical chair, at the open window of his room, looking westward over the park and the river, with his newspapers and letters piled up beside him, his toilet freshly and minutely made, and his smooth, speculative face composed to benevolent expectation.†   (source)
  • Nevertheless, there was a peculiar quietness in the look, as if taking merely a speculative, not a human interest, in the young man.†   (source)
  • The robe of speculative cobwebs, embroidered with flowers of rhetoric, steeped in the dew of sickly sentiment, this transcendental robe in which the German Socialists wrapped their sorry "eternal truths," all skin and bone, served to wonderfully increase the sale of their goods amongst such a public.†   (source)
  • In words he could blame his wife, but not in his heart; and had he obeyed the wise directions outside her letter this pain would have been spared him for long—possibly for ever, Elizabeth-Jane seeming to show no ambition to quit her safe and secluded maiden courses for the speculative path of matrimony.†   (source)
  • Percy Driscoll had worn himself out in trying to save his great speculative landed estate, and had died without succeeding.†   (source)
  • As they eyed the stranger in passing, they eyed him with borrowing eyes—hungry, sharp, speculative as to his softness if they were accredited to him, and the likelihood of his standing something handsome.†   (source)
  • He shook his head and beckoned her to come away, but she was fascinated just then by the freedom of Speculative Philosophy, and kept her seat, trying to find out what the wise gentlemen intended to rely upon after they had annihilated all the old beliefs.†   (source)
  • I think his broad brow to be full of a prairie-like placidity, born of a speculative indifference as to death.†   (source)
  • Nor is it credible that, from amongst so great a multitude no speculative genius should from time to time arise, inflamed by the love of truth alone.†   (source)
  • I say to thee, a speculative wight
    Is like a beast on moorlands lean,
    That round and round some fiend misleads to evil plight,
    While all about lie pastures fresh and green.†   (source)
  • To a disposition like Holgrave's, at once speculative and active, there is no temptation so great as the opportunity of acquiring empire over the human spirit; nor any idea more seductive to a young man than to become the arbiter of a young girl's destiny.†   (source)
  • It was not until the nineteenth century, whose speculative genius is a sort of living Hamlet,[615] that the tragedy of Hamlet could find such wondering readers.†   (source)
  • And this was the starting-point of a speculative theory, in his mind, that the late marquis had been a very amiable foreigner, with an inclination to take life easily and a sense that it was difficult for the husband of the stilted little lady by the fire to do so.†   (source)
  • The Americans do not read the works of Descartes, because their social condition deters them from speculative studies; but they follow his maxims because this very social condition naturally disposes their understanding to adopt them.†   (source)
  • The ladies of St. Ogg's were not beguiled by any wide speculative conceptions; but they had their favorite abstraction, called Society, which served to make their consciences perfectly easy in doing what satisfied their own egoism,—thinking and speaking the worst of Maggie Tulliver, and turning their backs upon her.†   (source)
  • It is easy to see that a greater self-reliance must work a revolution in all the offices and relations of men; in their religion; in their education; in their pursuits; their modes of living; their association; in their property; in their speculative views.†   (source)
  • The figure has to that extent, as you see, BEEN placed—placed in the imagination that detains it, preserves, protects, enjoys it, conscious of its presence in the dusky, crowded, heterogeneous back-shop of the mind very much as a wary dealer in precious odds and ends, competent to make an "advance" on rare objects confided to him, is conscious of the rare little "piece" left in deposit by the reduced, mysterious lady of title or the speculative amateur, and which is already there to disclose its merit afresh as soon as a key shall have clicked in a cupboard-door.†   (source)
  • He kept looking through the window, over the shoulder of M. Ledoux, at a slender tree which stood at the end of a lane, opposite to the inn, and seemed to be measuring its distance from his extended arm and secretly wishing that, since the subject had been introduced, propriety did not forbid a little speculative pistol-practice.†   (source)
  • Her mother too, in whose mind not one speculative thought of their marriage had been raised, by his prospect of riches, was led before the end of a week to hope and expect it; and secretly to congratulate herself on having gained two such sons-in-law as Edward and Willoughby.†   (source)
  • I concluded, at length, that the mere speculative conviction that it was our interest to be completely virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent our slipping; and that the contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and established, before we can have any dependence on a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct.†   (source)
  • She obeyed the signal to wait for him with unspeculative repose, and in a few minutes man and horse stopped beside her.†   (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unspeculative means not and reverses the meaning of speculative. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
  • Under such circumstances, there are many among its myriads of souls who have absolutely needed an emphatic belief, life in this unpleasurable shape demanding some solution even to unspeculative minds,—just as you inquire into the stuffing of your couch when anything galls you there, whereas eider-down and perfect French springs excite no question.†   (source)
  • Harry, a short, stout man with a squint, considered a moment, eyeing me speculatively.†   (source)
  • The bright brown eyes regarded me speculatively.†   (source)
  • He leaned back against the door, arms crossed, watching me speculatively.†   (source)
  • He eyed me speculatively, then shook his head.†   (source)
  • He leaned further back, eyeing me speculatively.†   (source)
  • Dougal had lost his anger; he stood watching me speculatively for a moment.†   (source)
  • His eyes narrowed speculatively, and I braced myself for a quick dash.†   (source)
  • She stood looking down at me speculatively, then stooped to help me up.†   (source)
  • His sister's eyes lingered on me speculatively, but she said nothing.†   (source)
  • He twisted the badge loose from the bonnet and smiled sourly at it, weighing it speculatively in his hand.†   (source)
  • There were three or four English soldiers in the taproom, who eyed me speculatively, chatting to each other in low voices.†   (source)
  • Then he leaned back, eyed me speculatively, and asked, "But how is it, Mistress Beauchamp, that my brother's men found ye wandering about in your shift?†   (source)
  • Randall eyed me speculatively.†   (source)
  • It was Rupert's decision that swayed the others; I could still see—with a feeling of grim satisfaction—the look on Dougal's face when his squat, black-bearded lieutenant eyed me speculatively, then patted the daps at his belt and said, "Aye, lass, why not?"†   (source)
  • The slanted blue eyes remained cool and speculative as he greeted me with a pleasant, warm smile.†   (source)
  • He was hustling me out the door before I had time to do more than register the extraordinary look of speculative acquisitiveness on the face of the redcoat officer.†   (source)
  • [22] Brackebusch, in the speculative paper just mentioned, came to the conclusion that the future domination of English would be prevented by its unphonetic spelling, its grammatical decay and the general difficulties that a foreigner encounters in seeking to master it†   (source)
  • Vouch with me, heaven, I therefore beg it not To please the palate of my appetite; Nor to comply with heat,—the young affects In me defunct,—and proper satisfaction; But to be free and bounteous to her mind: And heaven defend your good souls, that you think I will your serious and great business scant For she is with me: no, when light-wing'd toys Of feather'd Cupid seel with wanton dullness My speculative and offic'd instruments, That my disports corrupt and taint my business, Let housewives make a skillet of my helm, And all indign and base adversities Make head against my estimation!†   (source)
  • Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate;
    But certain issue strokes must arbitrate:
    Towards which advance the war.†   (source)
  • The tempestuous situation from which Massachusetts has scarcely emerged, evinces that dangers of this kind are not merely speculative.†   (source)
  • "Yes, there is," said I, "but not for this speculative philosophy, that makes everything to be alike fitting at all times; but there is another philosophy that is more pliable, that knows its proper scene, accommodates itself to it, and teaches a man with propriety and decency to act that part which has fallen to his share.†   (source)
  • We crossed a walk to the other part of the academy, where, as I have already said, the projectors in speculative learning resided.†   (source)
  • These were suggestions which human selfishness could not withstand, and which even speculative men, who looked forward to remote consequences, could not, without hesitation, combat.†   (source)
  • I had hitherto seen only one side of the academy, the other being appropriated to the advancers of speculative learning, of whom I shall say something, when I have mentioned one illustrious person more, who is called among them "the universal artist."†   (source)
  • After salutation, observing me to look earnestly upon a frame, which took up the greatest part of both the length and breadth of the room, he said, "Perhaps I might wonder to see him employed in a project for improving speculative knowledge, by practical and mechanical operations.†   (source)
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