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urbane
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  • He hated the chaplain venomously for being a chaplain and making a coarse blunder out of an observation that in any other circumstances, he knew, would have been considered witty and urbane.†   (source)
  • North was much liked—moderate, urbane, and intelligent.†   (source)
  • I believed that because I had grown up the way I did, I was just inherently tougher than my more urbane coworkers, and could get away with more.†   (source)
  • CIA director Alan Dulles, an urbane and wealthy gentleman in his late sixties, epitomizes that aura of secrecy and covert intrigue.†   (source)
  • This British pattern was popular in movies of the 1920s and 1930s, when many American actors, especially if playing urbane or sophisticated roles, spoke with what some called a mid-Atlantic accent.†   (source)
  • The faces of the guests, confident, urbane, and relaxed, were illuminated by a dozen candelabra and the soft liquid light of the downstairs chandeliers.†   (source)
  • And thus he was forced to watch in a state of silent anguish while the imp's urbane sardonic voice whispered in his ear.†   (source)
  • And now here he was, rich, urbane, and tremendous, in a green Alpini hat with a red feather, doing paperwork in a bunker at two thousand meters.†   (source)
  • Yousef was the bridge between the urbanity of Salem, of Alan, and these young men, who Alan guessed were being raised more conservatively, far from things like pop music and American guests.†   (source)
  • At a party a week earlier, I had met a man thirty-five in appearance, smooth, polite, but with that supercilious air that says: "Your fly is unzipped, old man, but I'm too urbane to mention it.†   (source)
  • maintained an urbane tone in his letters
  • He is an urbane diplomat, schooled in France and with a flawless command of six languages.
  • He beamed urbanely as he began orienting Colonel Scheisskopf to his new surroundings.†   (source)
  • Now I've reached the place where we used to get off the streetcar, stepping into the curbside mounds of January slush, into the grating wind that cut up from the lake between the flat-roofed dowdy buildings that were for us the closest thing to urbanity.†   (source)
  • There is an urbanity without ostentation or extravagance which will succeed everywhere and at all times.†   (source)
  • Simon, however, preserved his habitual appearance of immaculate and well-washed urbanity.†   (source)
  • Then he would turn smooth as silk, affable, urbane, and try to win her so.†   (source)
  • And (pardon me the thought) I thought, too, of the admirable smoke and drink and the deep armchairs and the pleasant carpets: of the urbanity, the geniality, the dignity which are the offspring of luxury and privacy and space.†   (source)
  • He felt deeply drawn to him, and not solely because he was intrigued by the contrast between O'Brien's urbane manner and his prize-fighter's physique.†   (source)
  • Conway managed to smile urbanely.†   (source)
  • He was a silk-haired senior, with his cope and crosier, alb and ring —urbane, ecclesiastical, knowing the spiritual power.†   (source)
  • I was now rapidly learning to contain the tension I felt in my relations with whites, and the people in Memphis had an air of relative urbanity that took some of the sharpness off the attitude of whites toward Negroes.†   (source)
  • He can be taught to enjoy kneeling beside the grocer on Sunday just because he remembers that the grocer could not possibly understand the urbane and mocking world which he inhabited on Saturday evening; and contrariwise, to enjoy the bawdy and blasphemy over the coffee with these admirable friends all the more because he is aware of a "deeper", "spiritual" world within him which they cannot understand.†   (source)
  • If we give them the week-end to think about it, we shall have them in an urbane Sunday-in-the-country mood.†   (source)
  • I had always been aware of a frame of malevolence under his urbanity; now it protruded like his own sharp bones through the sunken skin.†   (source)
  • He held the High Lama in most cordial respect, but he did not see why their social relations should be anything less than urbane.†   (source)
  • There were urbane abbots, titupping along on ambling palfreys, in furred hoods which were against the rules of their orders, and yeomen in smart tackle with hawks on their fists, and sturdy peasants quarrelling with their wives about new cloaks, and jolly parties going out to hunt without armour of any sort.†   (source)
  • He wanted to be urbane and careless.†   (source)
  • The fraternity men joined first—those merry and extravagant snobs of whom he had never known, but who now represented for him the highest reach of urbane and aristocratic life.†   (source)
  • "Fie! two very ugly words, fair lady," protested Chauvelin, urbanely.†   (source)
  • CUSINS [urbanely: trying to bring him down to earth] This is extremely interesting, Mr Undershaft.†   (source)
  • He had seen her lift her eyes, and waved his hand urbanely to her, while he blew her a kiss.†   (source)
  • —Might I ask you what you are talking about? said Stephen urbanely.†   (source)
  • Then Barban talking to her mother with an urbane fluency that made Rosemary like him again.†   (source)
  • Nodding urbanely, the Professor stepped delicately off.†   (source)
  • Not with the greatest urbanity, I must say.†   (source)
  • At this quiet time, Mr Pancks softly appeared before her, urbanely nodding.†   (source)
  • "I beg your pardon?" said Mr. Kenge with excessive urbanity.†   (source)
  • "I found I wished to wait for you," she said urbanely.†   (source)
  • Mr Dorrit welcomed the visitor with the highest urbanity, and most courtly manners.†   (source)
  • The marquis lifted his eyebrows; but he was apparently determined to be even more urbane than usual.†   (source)
  • It was muffled in sociability and urbanity, as an old dowager in her laces and strings of pearls.†   (source)
  • "Well, you must not be discouraged," said M. de Bellegarde, with vague urbanity.†   (source)
  • "Ah, you don't approve?" questioned his conductor, with curious urbanity.†   (source)
  • "You have never taken a liberty but you have justified it," said Newman, with diplomatic urbanity.†   (source)
  • Where did urbanity end and sincerity begin?†   (source)
  • Then, turning to Newman, with sustained urbanity, "You are traveling for your pleasure?" he asked.'†   (source)
  • She made him more urbane.†   (source)
  • Sweet was her smile, swift her submission; dinner in Harley Street, numbering eight or nine courses, feeding ten or fifteen guests of the professional classes, was smooth and urbane.†   (source)
  • I attended to all the ghastly formalities, and the urbane undertaker proved that his staff was afflicted, or blessed, with something of his own obsequious suavity.†   (source)
  • But for the most part, his background, his urbane manners, and ultimately a pretty, if rather dispassionate talent for mathematics helped him move ahead; and after receiving his report card in his freshman year, he concluded he would finish school—primarily, truth to tell, because that allowed him to extend a familiar, provisional, indecisive state of affairs and to win time for reflection as to what Hans Castorp would most like to do, because he was not even close to deciding that,…†   (source)
  • [urbanely] Undoubtedly.†   (source)
  • It was indecent to think of using the "How's tricks, ole socks?" which gratified Vergil Gunch and Frink and Howard Littlefield—men who till now had seemed successful and urbane.†   (source)
  • By his original constitution aided by the cooperating influences of his lot, Billy in many respects was little more than a sort of upright barbarian, much such perhaps as Adam presumably might have been ere the urbane Serpent wriggled himself into his company.†   (source)
  • He hinted a desire to know whether Martin "drank," how prosperous he was, and how he could possibly have come all this way from the urbanities of Winnemac.†   (source)
  • And then, through a door to the south of the dais, a large urbane and florid and smooth-faced man, who in an ample black gown, walked swiftly to the large chair immediately behind the desk, and after looking steadily upon all before him, but without appearing to see any one of them seated himself.†   (source)
  • I smiled urbanely.†   (source)
  • "Anyhow, he gives large parties," said Jordan, changing the subject with an urbane distaste for the concrete.†   (source)
  • Exempted by a long career in the Secretariate from personal contact with the peoples of India, he was able to speak of them urbanely, and to deplore racial prejudice.†   (source)
  • He had a quiet toneless voice and urbane manners and on a finger of his plump clean hand he displayed at moments a signet ring.†   (source)
  • Chauvelin, who was trying to conceal his impatience beneath his usual urbane manner, took a quick look at his watch.†   (source)
  • When, in fact, there was nothing to that fawning poet laureate and flunky of the Julians, that oh-so-urbane inkslinger and rhetorical show-off without a spark of creativity, whose soul, if he had one, was secondhand at best, who was not a poet at all, but a Frenchman togged out in a full Augustan wig of flowing curls.†   (source)
  • This was because she knew few words and believed in none, and in the world she was rather silent, contributing just her share of urbane humor with a precision that approached meagreness.†   (source)
  • The last thing he heard, just before the end of the summer session, was that Griffiths, urbanity had given way at length under the exasperation of the constant persecution.†   (source)
  • But Chauvelin remained urbane, sarcastic, mysterious; not a line betrayed to the poor, anxious woman whether she need fear or whether she dared to hope.†   (source)
  • Donovan took leave of them urbanely.†   (source)
  • The luncheon in Zurich was a council of caution; obviously the logic of his life tended away from the girl; yet when a stranger stared at her from a nearby table, eyes burning disturbingly like an uncharted light, he turned to the man with an urbane version of intimidation and broke the regard.†   (source)
  • —My dear man, said Cranly urbanely, you are incapable, do you know, absolutely incapable of thinking.†   (source)
  • "Nay, fair lady," he added urbanely, "you can have no interest in anyone save in St. Just, and all you need do for his safety is to remain where you are, and to keep silent.†   (source)
  • The urbane activity with which a man receives money is really marvellous, considering that we so earnestly believe money to be the root of all earthly ills, and that on no account can a monied man enter heaven.†   (source)
  • It was no ordinary sight to see a numerous and powerful class of men, whose every outward action seemed constantly to be dictated by a natural elevation of thought and feeling, by delicacy and regularity of taste, and by urbanity of manners.†   (source)
  • As a Frenchman—quite apart from Newman's napoleons—M. Nioche loved conversation, and even in his decay his urbanity had not grown rusty.†   (source)
  • Her attention was now claimed by Mr. Woodhouse, who being, according to his custom on such occasions, making the circle of his guests, and paying his particular compliments to the ladies, was ending with her—and with all his mildest urbanity, said, "I am very sorry to hear, Miss Fairfax, of your being out this morning in the rain.†   (source)
  • Let him hear in season that he is born into the state of war, and that the commonwealth and his own well-being require that he should not go dancing in the weeds of peace, but warned, self-collected, and neither defying nor dreading the thunder, let him take both reputation and life in his hand, and, with perfect urbanity, dare the gibbet and the mob by the absolute truth of his speech, and the rectitude of his behavior.†   (source)
  • Nevertheless, whether the passengers were really touched by the urbanity of Planchet or whether this time nobody was posted on the young man's road, our two travelers arrived at Chantilly without any accident, and alighted at the tavern of Great St. Martin, the same at which they had stopped on their first journey.†   (source)
  • He addressed him, on the few occasions of their meeting, not a word that was not necessary; but his manner had always the urbanity proper to conscious success in the presence of conscious failure.†   (source)
  • 'You are more comfortable here than in the little lodge you used to have?' inquired Pavel Petrovitch urbanely, but without the slightest smile.†   (source)
  • He seemed to recognise this same tendency in the subversive enquiry that I quoted a moment ago, and set himself to answer our heroine's question with greater urbanity than it perhaps deserved.†   (source)
  • When they reached the house he helped her to get out of the carriage, and making an effort to master himself, took leave of her with his usual urbanity, and uttered that phrase that bound him to nothing; he said that tomorrow he would let her know his decision.†   (source)
  • She had him painted in a brooch and wore it—indeed she amused and somewhat pestered her acquaintance with her perpetual talk about his urbanity and beauty.†   (source)
  • Ralph was imperturbable—Ralph had a kind of loose-fitting urbanity that wrapped him about like an ill-made overcoat, but of which he never divested himself; he thought Mr. Osmond very good company and was willing at any time to look at him in the light of hospitality.†   (source)
  • 'Therefore, madam,' said Mr Dorrit, 'I took the liberty' (he laid an emphasis on the phrase and repeated it, as though he stipulated, with urbane firmness, that he must not be contradicted again), 'I took the liberty of requesting this interview, in order that I might mention the topic to you, and inquire how you would advise me?'†   (source)
  • Which there's not a man alive more ready to do, for you're a man of urbanity and suavity, you know, and you've got the sort of heart that can feel for another.†   (source)
  • …possible, Mr. Jarndyce, that the gentleman to whom, for the reasons I have mentioned, I refrain from making further allusion— it is possible, Mr. Jarndyce, that that gentleman may have done me the honour so far to misapprehend my character as to induce you to believe that you would not have been received by my local establishment in Lincolnshire with that urbanity, that courtesy, which its members are instructed to show to all ladies and gentlemen who present themselves at that house.†   (source)
  • With that he rubbed his hands as if the interview had been very satisfactory to him, panted away to the door, and urbanely nodded himself out again.†   (source)
  • The Collegians cheered him very heartily, and he kissed his hand to them with great urbanity and protection.†   (source)
  • 'Look,' said he, in his former tone, 'at this gentleman our host, not yet in the prime of life, who in so graceful a way and with such courtly urbanity and modesty presides over us!†   (source)
  • The list of toasts disposed of, Mr Dorrit urbanely went through the motions of playing a game of skittles with the Collegian who was the next oldest inhabitant to himself; and left the tenantry to their diversions.†   (source)
  • M. Ledoux had evidently a high sense of the becoming, and was prepared to be urbane and tasteful on all points.†   (source)
  • He felt, most accurately, that she was not a grain less urbane than she would have been if his marriage were still in prospect; but he felt also that she was not a particle more urbane.†   (source)
  • The Count Valentin looked at our hero from head to foot with his peculiar smile, in which impudence and urbanity seemed perplexingly commingled.†   (source)
  • The other took the card from his hand, read it in a rapid glance, looked again at Newman from head to foot, hesitated a moment, and then said, gravely but urbanely, "Madame de Cintre is not at home."†   (source)
  • All this was uttered by M. de Bellegarde with the modulated smoothness of the man of the world, and in spite of his excellent English, of the Frenchman; but Newman, at the same time that he sat noting its harmonious flow, perceived that it was not mere mechanical urbanity.†   (source)
  • The opening chapters of Herodotus' Histories reflect with urbane bemusement on these old legendary wars fought over straying women.†   (source)
  • There was nearly fifteen years' difference in their ages, for one thing, which likely accounted for some of the difference between Frank's urbane reserve and Jamie's frank openness.†   (source)
  • Urbane, to comfort them, the quaker librarian purred: —And we have, have we not, those priceless pages of Wilhelm Meister.†   (source)
  • [4] This protest was marked by Franklin's habitual mildness, but in other quarters dissent was voiced with far less urbanity.†   (source)
  • And out of an inventiveness somewhat more urbane came such coinages as /live-oak/, /potato-bug/, /turkey-gobbler/, /poke-weed/, /copper-head/, /eel-grass/, /reed-bird/, /egg-plant/, /blue-grass/, /pea-nut/, /pitch-pine/, /cling-stone/ (peach), /moccasin-snake/, /June-bug/ and /butter-nut/.†   (source)
  • What remained of an urbane habit of mind and utterance began to be confined to the narrowing feudal areas of the south, and to the still narrower refuge of the Boston Brahmins, now, for the first time, a definitely recognized caste of /intelligentsia/, self-charged with carrying the [Pg074] torch of culture through a new Dark Age.†   (source)
  • That is to say, we incline toward a directness of statement which, at its greatest, lacks restraint and urbanity altogether, and toward a hospitality which often admits novelties for the mere sake of their novelty, and is quite uncritical of the difference between a genuine improvement in succinctness and clarity, and mere extravagant raciness.†   (source)
  • Right away you'll move among the most urbane Of hicks.†   (source)
  • That declaration is very urbane, But in a man of God it's a bit profane.†   (source)
  • "He would be wanting in wits, senora countess," said the duke, "who did not perceive your worth by your person, for at a glance it may be seen it deserves all the cream of courtesy and flower of polite usage;" and raising her up by the hand he led her to a seat beside the duchess, who likewise received her with great urbanity.†   (source)
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