dynamic
toggle menu
menu
vocabulary
1000+ books

decisive
in a sentence
grouped by contextual meaning

decisive as in:  a decisive defeat

show 10 more with this conextual meaning
  • Tonight, they play the decisive game seven of the series.
    decisive = determining an outcome
  • In the end, it is character that is the decisive factor in a person's life.
  • She took decisive action to turn her life around.
  • That piece of evidence had proved decisive against Williams in both trials, despite everything the defense had done to explain it.   (source)
    decisive = conclusive in settling a matter
  • "Okay then, I'll pick you up, no problem," Mom said decisively, sweeping the half-grapes into a snack bag with the side of her knife.   (source)
    decisively = in a manner that ends any question about something
  • Apparently, there had been a brief and decisive skirmish and I'd just missed it.   (source)
    decisive = conclusive in settling a matter
  • Thanks to auxiliary fuel tanks and slender, ultraefficient Davis wings, it could fly literally all day, a decisive asset in the sprawling World War II theaters.   (source)
    decisive = determining an outcome
  • Something had to be done, something decisive—he couldn't spend the rest of the school year hiding from Dana Matherson and Beatrice Leep.   (source)
    decisive = conclusive in settling a matter
  • A small reserve, held back until the end of the game, can be decisive.   (source)
  • "Just the same, we got to get you home again, Winnie," said Tuck, standing up decisively.   (source)
    decisively = in a way that ends any question about something
▲ show less (of above)
show 88 more with this conextual meaning
  • Paul turned decisively back to his repair job.   (source)
    decisively = in the manner of someone who ended questioning about something
  • The book is broken up into eight chapters, corresponding to eight years that had a decisive impact on our respective lives.   (source)
    decisive = determining an outcome
  • Brinker for example had begun a long, decisive sequence of withdrawals from school activity ever since the morning I deserted his enlistment plan.   (source)
  • I nod decisively, at the last minute softening the gesture with a tilt of my head.   (source)
    decisively = in a manner that ends any question about something
  • But here again, Curtis played a decisive role in my life.   (source)
    decisive = important (determining an outcome)
  • The decisive factor is how you take apart your adversary's system.   (source)
    decisive = determining an outcome
  • Future generations must know how quickly the Clave lost, and how decisive our victory was.   (source)
    decisive = conclusive in settling a matter
  • But as resounding as the British victory had been, it was not a decisive victory.   (source)
  • "The Athenaeum takes only its own, and we are not its own," Father says decisively.   (source)
    decisively = in a way that ends any question about something
  • No decision he makes at Gettysburg will be decisive, except perhaps the last.   (source)
    decisive = conclusive in settling a matter
  • It does not matter whether the war is actually happening, and, since no decisive victory is possible, it does not matter whether the war is going well or badly.   (source)
    decisive = final (settling the outcome)
  • Vera said decisively: "Not at all."   (source)
    decisively = in a manner that ends any question about something
  • The telephone rang inside, startlingly, and as Daisy shook her head decisively at Tom the subject of the stables, in fact all subjects, vanished into air.   (source)
  • "That evidence," he observed, "was hardly required in so glaring a case, but I am glad of it, and, indeed, none of our judges like to condemn a criminal upon circumstantial evidence, be it ever so decisive."   (source)
    decisive = conclusive in settling a matter
  • 'Yeah, it does,' said Tonks decisively.†   (source)
  • 'We're together,' Patrick said decisively.†   (source)
  • "They should be ripped out by their roots," Mrs. White said decisively.†   (source)
  • "Well, I want you on it," he says decisively.†   (source)
  • It hesitated for a moment, wobbling there on the edge of oblivion, and then pitched decisively forward and fell, tumbling end over end in beautiful balletic slow-motion.†   (source)
  • To spare the quail the pain she felt, Tita moved sharply and decisively, finishing him off as an act of mercy.†   (source)
  • "Because," I said decisively, "there's no way I'm letting Celeste do better than me."†   (source)
  • SCORPIUS steps forward decisively.†   (source)
  • "He broke your mother's heart," said Boris decisively.†   (source)
  • When it happened, it happened fast, decisively.†   (source)
  • There have to be, Sophie said decisively.†   (source)
  • The report closed, "If we are not to be disgraced before the public as business-men, this matter must be followed up sharply and decisively."†   (source)
  • For, confused as I was, I was certain someone else had come between us, someone who was battling him decisively, forcing him to relinquish his hold.†   (source)
  • "You," she said decisively, "are coming out to the lake with me for the afternoon."†   (source)
  • We haven't spoken much of the Volturi agenda, but Alistair worried that no matter how decisively we can prove your innocence, the Volturi will not listen.†   (source)
  • After losing decisively in gin rummy, Theresa went inside to start one of the books she'd brought with her.†   (source)
  • "Greenwood," the maid said decisively as the nurse came in.†   (source)
  • It had moved quickly, decisively, and by an unknown route.†   (source)
  • The results of the test, to the dismay of Osprey's sheriff as well as Alvin Dewey, who does not believe in exceptional coincidences, were decisively negative.†   (source)
  • It was still possible, if he acted decisively.†   (source)
  • It acts quickly and decisively.†   (source)
  • First he watched, then he advised, gesturing, speaking a studied broken English that the young men might grasp, and then he moved decisively in, handing his jacket to someone and redirecting the length of string and taking the trowel and setting the bricks in courses and leveling the grout, working quickly, and I didn't know he could do this kind of work and I don't think my mother knew it either.†   (source)
  • Colonel Korn acted decisively to arrest what seemed to him to be the beginning of an unwholesome trend in Major Major's squadron.†   (source)
  • The real Max McDaniels is ten feet tall— "And when he roars, the mountains shake," chimed Valya decisively.†   (source)
  • She had cut him out of her life as surgically and decisively as she deleted files from her computer, and without explanation.†   (source)
  • "It's got honking big engines on it," I said, decisively clarifying the situation for her in my leaderly way.†   (source)
  • But the effects of prolonged exposure to high altitude had sapped Mortenson of the ability to act and think decisively.†   (source)
  • Yes, three," Bonnie said decisively, "because I was still nursing Carter, my youngest, and he's currently terrorizing everyone at nursery school.†   (source)
  • He spoke little, but when he did, it was to snap decisively, with a contemptuous grin, "Pipe down, Jimmy!" or, "Nuts, Wes, you're talking through your hat!"†   (source)
  • 'Yes,' she said decisively.†   (source)
  • Just decisively.†   (source)
  • VLADIMIR: When I think of it ....all these years ....but for me ....where would you be ....(Decisively.)†   (source)
  • I resolved to tell them that I would not go with them to Coney Island, after all; that done, I would politely but decisively nudge them out of my life, making it plain that I was a solitary spirit who was not to be disturbed, ever.†   (source)
  • Then she turns back, sits decisively, and writes again, as the lights dim on her.†   (source)
  • He nodded, then seemed unsure, then, decisively, nodded again.†   (source)
  • Two factors had a decisive influence.
    decisive = determining an outcome
  • They rested a minute on the open window, then he shook his head decisively.   (source)
    decisively = in the manner of someone who ended questioning about something
  • To mark the paper was the decisive act.   (source)
    decisive = determining an outcome; or ending question; or describing something as unmistakable
  • It seemed to him that it was only now, when he had begun to be able to formulate his thoughts, that he had taken the decisive step.   (source)
  • All three powers merely continue to produce atomic bombs and store them up against the decisive opportunity which they all believe will come sooner or later.   (source)
  • To understand the nature of the present war — for in spite of the regrouping which occurs every few years, it is always the same war — one must realize in the first place that it is impossible for it to be decisive.   (source)
  • "Never heard of them," he remarked decisively.   (source)
    decisively = in a manner that ends any question about something
  • "I know nothing whatever about mechanics," he said decisively.   (source)
  • The only certainty to be drawn from it was, that nothing decisive had yet taken place.   (source)
    decisive = final (settling the outcome)
  • This was enough to determine Sir Thomas; and a decisive "then so it shall be" closed that stage of the business;   (source)
    decisive = ending discussion of other ideas
  • One sudden and desolating change had taken place; but a thousand little circumstances might have by degrees worked other alterations, which, although they were done more tranquilly, might not be the less decisive.   (source)
    decisive = conclusive in settling a matter
  • Had she doubted his meaning while she listened, the glow in his face, when she looked up at him, would have been decisive.   (source)
    decisive = ending any question
  • "The plan is pretty simple," Aspen said decisively.†   (source)
  • He steps decisively away from the dementor.†   (source)
  • Suddenly, decisively, Maxon faced me, taking my hands in his.†   (source)
  • 'Right, we're leaving that room,' said Hermione decisively.†   (source)
  • Yes," she said decisively, to Platt, as if the matter had been settled, folding her hands.†   (source)
  • "Then you must ask her, straight out," said Boris decisively.†   (source)
  • "Go find him and apologize," Lissa said decisively.†   (source)
  • I don't want to do it," she said decisively.†   (source)
  • Then he walked decisively back to Zalachenko's room and closed the door.†   (source)
  • "I hate her," Scarlett said decisively through a mouthful of ice.†   (source)
  • "I feel bad for her," said David decisively.†   (source)
  • He stopped and turned to see the Agent pointing decisively at Middlemarch.†   (source)
  • He had begun to think that the Army might have to act decisively to put out this fire.†   (source)
  • 'No,' I said decisively, we couldn't do that.'†   (source)
  • "I was never engaged to Jonathan," she began furiously, then decisively bit her tongue.†   (source)
  • He leaned forward across the desk, reluctant to end the interview and to end it so decisively.†   (source)
  • Finally Angel nodded her head decisively and nudged Total off her feet to come stand next to me.†   (source)
  • She tried the knocker again, more decisively.†   (source)
  • "It is beautiful that you saw her again," said Lucia decisively.†   (source)
  • Frowning, Max stepped decisively over to the cauldron and reached inside for the Spear of Lugh.†   (source)
  • "Any verdict regarding Yuri Vilyak will have to wait," said Miss Kraken decisively.†   (source)
  • You're Max McDaniels," he said decisively.†   (source)
  • Then Morris said decisively, "A golem, if you ask me.†   (source)
  • ALBUS turns decisively.†   (source)
  • "No," said Scathach decisively.†   (source)
  • They fulfill that duty decisively.†   (source)
  • Iona cut another bite, decisively.†   (source)
▲ show less (of above)

decisive as in:  a decisive decision maker

show 10 more with this conextual meaning
  • We need a decisive leader who can act quickly without losing time in consultation.
    decisive = able to make quick decisions
  • It was actually quite fortunate that they saw Frau Holtzapfel coming from the living room window, for her knuckles on the door were hard and decisive.   (source)
    decisive = firm
  • He had to have discipline, and that meant demanding—and getting—quick, decisive obedience.   (source)
    decisive = without hesitation or doubt
  • Their decisive movements showed they knew exactly where to go and what they were looking for.   (source)
    decisive = ability to make quick decisions
  • This is a moment for him to show his decisiveness, and allowing the Selection to drag on doesn't look good.   (source)
    decisiveness = the quality of making quick decisions and sticking by them
  • She did this decisively, one jab and one grind, not the series of genteel taps favored by many of the Wives.   (source)
    decisively = without hesitation
  • One thing I was decisive about.   (source)
    decisive = indicating a firm decision
  • As he pushed down, the raised circle on the box slid into the ring's opening, and there was a faint but decisive click.   (source)
    decisive = firm
  • The war games required them to make decisive, rapid-fire decisions under conditions of high pressure and with limited information, which is, of course, what they did all day at work.   (source)
    decisive = without hesitation
  • The King was praised for his resolution to uphold the interests and honor of the kingdom, praised for his decisiveness.   (source)
    decisiveness = the quality of making quick decisions and sticking by them
▲ show less (of above)
show 10 more with this conextual meaning
  • "It's almost time to go back," she says, closing the watch with a decisive snap.   (source)
    decisive = firm
  • He was by nature a decisive man, and although this was one of the great decisions of his life and he knew it, he made it quickly and did not agonize over it.   (source)
    decisive = making quick decisions and sticking by them
  • His tone grew decisive.   (source)
    decisive = indicating a firm decision
  • She was not, she worried, strong enough to endure the routine, and she could not picture herself standing before grinning children and pretending to be wise and decisive.   (source)
    decisive = able to make quick, firm decisions
  • Patria closed her purse with a decisive snap. "Let's just go."   (source)
    decisive = indicating a firm decision
  • She sat paralyzed on the bed for fifteen minutes before springing up, suddenly decisive.   (source)
    decisive = in a manner characterized by making a firm decision
  • You need to be strong, decisive.   (source)
    decisive = making quick decisions and sticking by them
  • Accident may put a decisive blunder in the right, but eternal defeat and miscarriage must attend the men of the best parts if cursed with indecision.   (source)
    decisive = from a quick, firm decision
  • Vida was soothing but decisive: "My dear, you're all off."   (source)
    decisive = firm
  • He tried to get witnesses; Westlake spread lies; his friends doubted him; his self-confidence was so broken that it was horrible to see the indecision of the decisive man; he was convicted, handcuffed, taken on a train——   (source)
    decisive = making quick decisions and sticking by them
▲ show less (of above)
show 10 more examples with any meaning
  • The right-hand one, commissioned by my Grandmother Adelia, is of Colonel Parkman, a veteran of the last decisive battle fought in the American Revolution, that of Fort Ticonderoga, now in New York State.†   (source)
  • There was never a clear boundary, never a decisive moment to which Edgar could object.†   (source)
  • If we don't take decisive measures and cleanse the traitors and enemies within, we will lose everything!†   (source)
  • How is a soldier expected to prevail on the field of battle, the Count wondered, if he cannot be decisive about ascending to an upper floor?†   (source)
  • I watched the men in the hallway; they had clearly been expecting the officer to do something more decisive and effective.†   (source)
  • You need help to send the right message—the message being that you're sensitive, intuitive, decisive, you have good taste and you're perfect.†   (source)
  • I acted more decisive and made rules.†   (source)
  • However, a voice responded at once, a crisp, decisive voice that sounded as though it were reading a prepared statement.†   (source)
  • "We'd better get cracking," said Bruce, trying to sound decisive, but his mouth was dry.†   (source)
  • REPUBLIC WINS DECISIVE VICTORY AGAINST COLONIES IN MADISON, DAKOTA.†   (source)
▲ show less (of above)
show 190 more examples with any meaning
  • This is your one last good chance to show what we can do when we're decisive and determined.†   (source)
  • Zaphod tried to run in several equally decisive directions simultaneously.†   (source)
  • When it came to dealing with threats to the country, he had to be decisive, cold.†   (source)
  • Might be the decisive moment.†   (source)
  • The attack must have been swift and decisive, else Arya would have escaped.†   (source)
  • It was not necessarily even the decisive moment.†   (source)
  • Burnham was decisive, blunt, and cordial; he spoke under a level blue gaze that Olmsted found reassuring.†   (source)
  • He pulled a red and blue bandanna from his back pocket, blew his nose with a decisive honk, and thrust it back out of sight after a short peek into it to see if he had gotten anything interesting.†   (source)
  • There were many heads of state who dared not go to war or take other decisive steps until they had consulted the oracle at Delphi.†   (source)
  • "I think something decisive will happen in the spring," he said.†   (source)
  • In the High District there was no alarm at the first partial returns from the provinces, which favored the left, because everyone knew that it was the votes from the capital that would be decisive.†   (source)
  • This was the decisive clue, because he had not failed to take Communion on an important feast day since he had made his first Communion, at the age of eight.†   (source)
  • Then he went on with new decisiveness.†   (source)
  • They were 13-0 with a decisive win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl to close out their season.†   (source)
  • She was calm, organized, and decisive.†   (source)
  • To be worthwhile, any such conference would have to be of sufficient weight so that it could have a decisive effect on the 'official' international conferences several of which had already taken place with the express purpose of reviewing the treaty, but which had succeeded in producing only confusion and bitterness: Our Prime Minister of that time, Mr Lloyd George, had called for another great conference to be held in Italy in the spring of 1922, and initially his lordship's aim was to organize a gathering at Darlington Hall with a view to ensuring a satisfactory outcome to this event.†   (source)
  • With an air of weary decisiveness, I opened the window, took the binoculars and climbed onto the ledge.†   (source)
  • What courage it must have taken, she thought, in that final, decisive moment.†   (source)
  • As in Colorado Springs, the huge influx of white, middle-class voters from southern California has played a decisive role in the Rocky Mountain West's shift to the right.†   (source)
  • In reality, Ebola had not yet made a decisive, irreversible breakthrough into the human race, but it seemed close to doing that.†   (source)
  • In the operating room, Deepak was patient, forceful, brilliant, creative, painstaking, and decisive—a true artisan.†   (source)
  • Today, they will do another selection ...a decisive one ...†   (source)
  • Not that Perry really considered it a smiling matter, for Dick, flourishing a dangerous weapon, could have played a decisive role in plans he himself was forming.†   (source)
  • Finally, in a decisive gesture, he gets up, and, in mingled joy and desperation, picks up the money.†   (source)
  • She was a competent midwife and decisive diagnostician.†   (source)
  • "Let's just back up for a minute," I said; feeling angry made it so much easier to be clear, decisive.†   (source)
  • Descartes took a decisive step forward: he made manmaitre et proprietaire de la nature.†   (source)
  • After all the decisive victories of the day my life was to end in sticky death.†   (source)
  • Alongside 'Bologna (bomb line moved on map during)' 'Food poisoning (during Bologna)' and 'Moaning (epidemic of during Avignon briefing)' he wrote in a bold, decisive hand: ?†   (source)
  • Miss Boon strode forward and muttered a sharp word of command coupled with a decisive sweep of her arm.†   (source)
  • In a flash, Simeon knew there would be a fight, and in these situations he had learned that it was best to draw first blood, to land the initial and maybe decisive blow.†   (source)
  • Meeting followed meeting, with Kennedy expected to be not just in attendance, but also knowledgeable about and decisive on each of the many varied subjects presented to him.†   (source)
  • Samuel Adams, to whom the Declaration was "the decisive measure," wished only that it had come sooner.†   (source)
  • Then she stood and crossed the room with a decisive step that didn't match her finery.†   (source)
  • Mr. White took a decisive step toward him.†   (source)
  • She began to write in a decisive hand.†   (source)
  • With every out, the Owensboro hitters were well aware of their diminishing chances, and each faced Angel with a growing sense of urgency and determination to strike a decisive blow.†   (source)
  • This time he had to deal a decisive and final blow to any living soul who would pretend to be her father.†   (source)
  • If both races were agreed upon, Belmont's race would be of far less interest, especially if the first event proved decisive.†   (source)
  • It disappeared into the veins of the ship with a decisive thunk.†   (source)
  • El Líder's pistol, pressing it to his temple, squeezing the trigger until he hears the decisive click.†   (source)
  • What made us different was our experience level and knowing when to take violent, decisive action and when to be patient and quiet.†   (source)
  • THOUGH WHEN he sat on a campaign chair his legs didn't reach the floor, Colonel Pietro Insana was a man of great decisiveness.†   (source)
  • We can never tell when one such issue may he decided and what may be the decisive factor in a delicate balance.†   (source)
  • Suddenly ELESIN flings one arm round his neck, once, and with the loop of the chain, strangles himself in a swift, decisive pull.†   (source)
  • She was competent, decisive, self-reliant; perhaps she intimidated them, for before long they drifted their attentions elsewhere.†   (source)
  • All that he had to do was delay the wizard from taking any decisive actions for the next few moments.†   (source)
  • With a decisive move he snapped the phone in half.†   (source)
  • The Etzion area in the Hebron Mountains fell, the Jordanian Army attacked Jerusalem, the Iraqi Army invaded the Jordan Valley, the Egyptian Army invaded the Negev, and the battle for Latrun, the decisive point along the road to Jerusalem, turned into a bloodbath.†   (source)
  • I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour.†   (source)
  • He did this, he knew; he dispensed with things, trying to be like other people — decisive, practical — only to discover he'd overdone it.†   (source)
  • Might he be less willing to take decisive actions that could make personal enemies, when he knows that very soon he will be just a citizen?†   (source)
  • In any case, the decline of morale proved short-lived, for the Union armies did not fall apart and soon won some of their most decisive victories of the war.†   (source)
  • It is difficult at times to repress the thought that history is about as instructive as an abattoir; that Tacitus was right and that peace is merely the desolation left behind after the decisive operations of merciless power.†   (source)
  • So soon we are going to win the decisive victory, Your Majesty, and glorify your name.†   (source)
  • With a feeling of decisive, final negation that was almost like panic within me, I wanted to hear no more about Auschwitz, not another word.†   (source)
  • Anybody can be decisive during a panic; it takes a strong man to act during a boom.†   (source)
  • If they used every one of those minutes with maximum efficiency, retaliation could be decisive.†   (source)
  • In all Pasha's life there had not been a change in him so decisive and abrupt as in the course of this night.†   (source)
  • Mr. Calhoun's clear and powerful exposition would have had something of a decisive effect if it had not been so soon followed by Mr. Webster's masterly playing.†   (source)
  • The plan was to his liking: swift, decisive, and unexpected.†   (source)
  • But the ants continued to appear and multiply, daily growing more impudent and more decisive.†   (source)
  • I refer to the natural philosophers and their decisive break with the mytholog-ical world picture.†   (source)
  • A more decisive and forceful personality than Cornelius.†   (source)
  • He did everything with direct and decisive movements, in contrast to his languid look.†   (source)
  • Material factors of that nature have certainly been decisive for historical development.†   (source)
  • We find decisive diffrences between the two, not least in their writing.†   (source)
  • It was Alexander who won the final, decisive victory over the Persians.†   (source)
  • A decisive factor in Lyell's theory was the age of the earth.†   (source)
  • "Our cause being almost lost, something decisive and great must be done," he tells himself.†   (source)
  • He wished that the decisive Fredrik was still there.†   (source)
  • If nothing else, he was decisive—they both were.†   (source)
  • The clap was a term with a very decisive ring to it.†   (source)
  • Our own experience is explicit and decisive.†   (source)
  • Today the influence of flavor in the world marketplace is no less decisive.†   (source)
  • Bryan locked the door behind him with a decisive click.†   (source)
  • For that to happen, we have to be decisive and resort to tough measures.†   (source)
  • There were three more knocks, quick and decisive.†   (source)
  • But his most decisive blows were the four attacks on September 11, 2001.†   (source)
  • It was, he could tell himself, what was known in the trade as a decisive moment.†   (source)
  • And they are overbalanced by certain and decisive disadvantages.†   (source)
  • It depends on how decisive you can be in the Section these days.†   (source)
  • One man can be more decisive, keep secrets, and act faster than any greater number of people.†   (source)
  • Decisive moment meant exactly that, all or nothing.†   (source)
  • I realize now that I arrived at a mysteriously decisive moment.†   (source)
  • It was then that he thought of the decisive step, not only for the modernization of his business but to link the town with the rest of the world.†   (source)
  • In a jumble of Spanish and Curacao patois, he explained to Florentino Ariza that the man in evening dress was the new plenipotentiary from England, on his way to the capital of the Republic; he reminded him of how that kingdom had provided us with decisive resources in our struggle for independence from Spanish rule, and that as a consequence no sacrifice was too great if it would allow a family of such distinction to feel more at home in our country than in their own.†   (source)
  • Stymied at the very instant of decisive action, the general expressed his exasperation with the fecklessness of civilians, walked into the prelate's apartment, and tossed the goose out the window.†   (source)
  • We need a decisive act that will completely suffocate science on Earth and freeze it at its current level.†   (source)
  • The decisive difference was revealed in the midst of the war, when Jose Arcadio Segundo asked Colonel Gerineldo Marquez to let him see an execution.†   (source)
  • For however decisive the Bolsheviks' victory had been over the privileged classes on behalf of the Proletariat, they would be having banquets soon enough.†   (source)
  • In the haze of convalescence, surrounded by Remedios' dusty dolls, Colonel Aureliano Buendia, brought back the decisive periods of his existence by reading his poetry.†   (source)
  • Despite the fact that the cat had a decisive lead and knew every nook and cranny of the hotel's upper floors, once the dogs regained their footing, they charged across the lobby in full chorus with every intention of mounting the stairs.†   (source)
  • The decisive factor.†   (source)
  • The expedition's many forays into the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific west of South America were of decisive significance as well.†   (source)
  • But—and here Kant stretches his hand out to the rationalists—in our reason there are also decisive factors that determine how we perceive the world around us.†   (source)
  • There is a decisive difference between a living and a nonliving thing, for example a rose and a stone, just as there is a decisive difference between a plant and an animal, for example a rose and ahorse.†   (source)
  • There was another decisive snap and Max lost his grip on the handrails, landing on his back with a painful thud.†   (source)
  • And let us help a young man toward an ethical strength that makes him decisive, that shows him precisely who he is, Shay, and how he is meant to address the world.†   (source)
  • After Salander's nighttime visit to his apartment he had felt paralyzed—virtually incapable of clear thought or decisive action.†   (source)
  • A bullish, handsome man with decisive eyebrows and more hair than he could find use for, Lin had a great deal of money and a habit of having things go his way.†   (source)
  • He had to take several deep breaths to steady himself, for this was the final and most decisive test of his skill.†   (source)
  • When Tomas first positioned his scalpel on the skin of a man asleep under an anesthetic, then breached the skin with a decisive incision, and finally cut it open with a precise and even stroke (as if it were a piece of fabrica coat, a skirt, a curtain), he experienced a brief but intense feeling of blasphemy.†   (source)
  • He wrote his reminder to himself in a heavy and decisive hand, amplifying it sharply with a series of coded punctuation marks and underlining the whole message twice, so that it read: Yossarian!†   (source)
  • They chose to return, as if they had no choice, and what struck Alessandro above all was the consummate and decisive beauty of their fall.†   (source)
  • Camelot's demise could have originated during the Cuban missile crisis, when JFK scored a decisive public relations victory over Nikita Khrushchev and the Soviet Empire, while at the same time frustrating his top generals and what Dwight Eisenhower called "the military-industrial complex" for refusing to launch a war.†   (source)
  • They needed her defences: the crust of independence and indifference: the air of practical, decisive reliability; the unroused interest, the aloof manner.†   (source)
  • It is time for decisive action.†   (source)
  • Then, too, the severity of Dick's "wake-up" speech, the belligerence with which he proclaimed his theretofore concealed opinion of Perry's dreams and hopes-all this, perversity being what it is, appealed to Perry, hurt and shocked him but charmed him, almost revived his former faith in the tough, the "totally masculine," the pragmatic, the decisive Dick he'd once allowed to boss him.†   (source)
  • At the decisive Battle of Five Forks, General Phil Sheridan and 45,000 men capture a pivotal crossing, cutting off the main road to North Carolina, handing General George Pickett his second disastrous loss of the war—the first coming at Gettysburg, and the infamous ill-fated charge that bears his name.†   (source)
  • It slid within troughs, righted itself; and generally presented a narrow profile to the waves, which were never able to land a decisive blow.†   (source)
  • Charles is suddenly all-decisive.†   (source)
  • They are determined still that there is a final form to defend: soon they will attain the stability they strive for, in the only form it is granted — a place among the fossils....Her patterns became less harsh and decisive.†   (source)
  • Enough spokesmen remained suspicious of their rivals and were willing to accept Kemp's explanation to prevent Cassius from bringing the council to decisive action.†   (source)
  • At The Hague, as Adams came to understand, there was little sympathy for the American cause, nor much hope for decisive action.†   (source)
  • Indeed, Adams's insistence on American naval strength proved decisive in achieving peace with France in 1800.†   (source)
  • He tilted his chin in high rebuke, mostly theatrical, and withdrew his body from the surface of the desk, dropping his bottom into the swivel chair and looking at me again and then doing a decisive quarter turn and raising his right leg sufficiently so that the foot, the shoe, was posted upright at the edge of the desk.†   (source)
  • If we compare the number of State-appointed militia officers with the military and navy officers in a permanent federal military, the States have a decisive advantage.†   (source)
  • Having consulted no one, and without advice from Abigail, he took the most decisive action of his presidency.†   (source)
  • He was elated and took untold satisfaction from the knowledge that French sea power after all had proved decisive.†   (source)
  • On April 6, in another decisive step, Congress opened American ports to the trade of all nations except Britain.†   (source)
  • Had the news of the peace agreement at Mortefontaine arrived a few weeks sooner, it, too, could very well have been decisive for Adams.†   (source)
  • And as this is most certainly our case, why not proclaim to the world in decisive terms our own importance?†   (source)
  • That Adams valued and trusted her judgment ahead of that of any of his departmentheads there is no question, and she could well have been decisive in persuading Adams to support the Sedition Act.†   (source)
  • No matter that the Dutch Republic was one of the "lesser theaters" of Europe, or that other events in which he had played a decisive part would rank higher in the balance.†   (source)
  • Nor is it possible to know the extent of Jefferson's disappointment, or if the opposition of South Carolina and Georgia was truly as decisive as he later claimed.†   (source)
  • Nor, importantly, was her influence always decisive, as shown by his choice of Elbridge Gerry as an envoy to France and, most importantly, his continued reluctance to declare war.†   (source)
  • When Washington requested of France that Genet be recalled, Adams, with a father's pride, was certain that John Quincy's essays had played a decisive part.†   (source)
  • When Elizabeth Shaw wrote that as agreeable as John Quincy might be in company, he could be in private conversation "a little too decisive and tenacious" in his opinions, Abigail responded with a strong letter of motherly advice to the young man.†   (source)
  • All but speechless with pleasure, Adams heard the Spanish ambassador praise him for his determination and spirit, saying he had "struck the greatest blow that has been struck in the American cause, and the most decisive.†   (source)
  • John Marshall had said much the same thing, and so had John Quincy in some of his correspondence with his father, but as Adams was to write, the assurances of Gerry—"my own ambassador"—were "more positive, more explicit, and decisive."†   (source)
  • At Ghent the same month, the American commissioners led by John Quincy Adams signed a peace treaty with Britain, news that would not reach the United States until February, by which time Americans under General Andrew Jackson had won a decisive victory, on January 15, at the battle of New Orleans.†   (source)
  • As the author of the Summary View, the young Virginian had, as Adams said, achieved "the reputation of a masterly pen," and however reticent in Congress, he proved "prompt, frank, explicit, and decisive upon committees and in conversation..."†   (source)
  • It was as decisive a defeat of the British as Saratoga and made possible by the arrival of Admiral de Grasse with the French West Indies fleet of twenty-eight ships of the line at exactly the right place at exactly the right time.†   (source)
  • His understanding lies, I think, rather in seeing large things largely than correctly...In the conduct of affairs he may perhaps be able to take so comprehensive a view as to render invention and expedient unnecessary, but were they to become necessary, I think he would fail in these—and I am not clear as to the first, or whether much of his reputation may not arise from a very firm and decisive tone suited to the times, with a clear and perspicuous elocution.†   (source)
  • Some showed courage throughout the whole of their political lives; others sailed with the wind until the decisive moment when their conscience, and events, propelled them into the center of the storm.†   (source)
  • The decisive consideration is not whether the proposition is good but whether it is popular—not whether it will work well and prove itself but whether the active talking constituents like it immediately.†   (source)
  • Obeying her father to the end, Sophie together with Kazik did spread the pamphlet around in the university hallways, but it turned out to be a decisive flop.†   (source)
  • Her decisiveness seemed to drive the others into action.†   (source)
  • But the decisiveness of her message shook him to his very marrow, and when he walked into the cool shadows of the drawing room he did not have time to think about the miracle he was experiencing because his intestines suddenly filled in an explosion of painful foam.†   (source)
  • "Tomorrow," said the ogre with gruff decisiveness, glancing pointedly at one of the attending moomenhovens.†   (source)
  • It was on the same afternoon, at the mills, that he saw the Wet Nurse hurrying toward him-a gangling, coltish figure with a peculiar mixture of brusqueness, awkwardness and decisiveness.†   (source)
  • The rooms were bare and crudely simple, the house seemed built with the skill, the decisiveness and the impatience typical of Francisco; it looked like a frontiersman's shanty thrown together to serve as a mere springboard for a long flight into the future-a future where so great a field of activity lay waiting that no time could be wasted on the comfort of its start.†   (source)
  • The people involved in treaty negotiations need several characteristics: knowledge of foreign politics, stable views of the national character, decisiveness, secrecy, and speed.†   (source)
  • Neville with his clean and decisive ways has finished.†   (source)
  • We could not enforce the decisive blockade or interruption which is possible from surface vessels.†   (source)
  • Suddenly with a brief decisive nod of the head he crossed the room to a desk near the window.†   (source)
  • Her words were hopeless too, but they were decisive enough, determined enough.†   (source)
  • But his voice was calm and decisive as he called to her.†   (source)
  • It didn't carry any suggestion of the nice, clean, decisive, well-healed surgical wound.†   (source)
  • It just so happened that I chose the field that interests you—the field of art—because I thought that it focused the decisive factors in the task we had to accomplish.†   (source)
  • When told of some unlooked-for recovery, they made a show of interest, but actually received the news with the stolid indifference that we may imagine the fighting man in a great war to feel who, worn out by the incessant strain and mindful only of the duties daily assigned to him, has ceased even to hope for the decisive battle or the buglecall of armistice.†   (source)
  • In all my wishing for a job I had not thought of how I would be treated, and now it loomed important, decisive, sweeping down beneath every other consideration.†   (source)
  • When she used her beautifully shaped but worn-looking hands, she used them with surety, whether it was to put a broken flower into a tumbler of water with one true gesture, or to wring out a scrub cloth with one decisive motion—the right hand turning in, and the left out, simultaneously.†   (source)
  • A world organization has already been erected for the prime purpose of preventing war, UNO, the successor of the League of Nations, with the decisive addition of the United States and all that that means, is already at work.†   (source)
  • A world organization has already been erected for the prime purpose of preventing war, UNO, the successor of the League of Nations, with the decisive addition of the United States and all that means, is already at work.†   (source)
  • Look at the decisive battle of Brenneville in which a field of nine hundred knights took part, and only three were killed.†   (source)
  • 53 Among the Arunta, for example, the sound of the bull-roarers is heard from all sides when the moment has arrived for this decisive break from the past.†   (source)
  • Then the smile did the trick to the mouth which under ordinary circumstances looked like a nice, clean, decisive surgical wound, well healed and no pucker.†   (source)
  • With a curious physical sensation, as if she were urged forward and at the same time must hold herself back, she made her first quick decisive stroke.†   (source)
  • Her voice was brisk and decisive and she made up her mind instantly and with no girlish shillyshallying.†   (source)
  • The voice was shrill and decisive.†   (source)
  • Bigger watched Jack closely" he knew that the situation was one in which Jack's word would be decisive.†   (source)
  • This she said in her onetime decisive and impatient way, but without the brightness or what you might call the sea ring of real command.†   (source)
  • Gant and Eliza, although each felt dumbly that they had come to a decisive boundary in their lives, talked vaguely about their plans, spoke of Dixieland evasively as "a good investment," said nothing clearly.†   (source)
  • THE STANDARD PATH of the mythological adventure of the hero is a magnification of the formula represented in the rites of passage: separation—initiation—return: which might be named the nuclear unit of the monomyth.36 A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder (x): fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won (y): the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man (4.†   (source)
  • Lubin, who had always said that Georgie would be better off in an institution, brought the commitment papers, and Mama, without Simon's support against the old lady (and probably even that would not have stopped her, since Grandma was in a decisive action and was carried along with the impulse of a doom), had to sign.†   (source)
  • But he knew Gus, as he knew himself, and he knew that one of them might fail through fear at the decisive moment.†   (source)
  • It was a decisive battle, because it was in some ways the twelfth century equivalent of what later came to be called a Total War.†   (source)
  • He stands, sober, contained, with that air compassionate still, but decisive without being assured, confident without being assertive: that air of a man about to do something which someone dear to him will not understand and approve, yet which he himself knows to be right just as he knows that the friend will never see it so.†   (source)
  • In the dim grayness of the parlor she fought a quick decisive battle with the three most binding ties of her soul—the memory of Ellen, the teachings of her religion and her love for Ashley.†   (source)
  • With this they summoned all their energies together for one decisive encounter, leaned forward, lowered their heads like two billy-goats, and positively sprinted together for the final blow.†   (source)
  • He evidently knew what he wanted, for every movement was quick, decisive.†   (source)
  • The effects of this decisive debate were not long in showing themselves.†   (source)
  • The coming of this boy was a decisive event with Jurgis.†   (source)
  • At breakfast next morning she took decisive action.†   (source)
  • That evening Margaret took decisive action.†   (source)
  • Still he was quick, decisive, strong, equal to the occasion.†   (source)
  • Every action was swift, decisive, fierce.†   (source)
  • I heard her say she thought Mr. Bry amusing—" But Mrs. Fisher interposed with a decisive gesture.†   (source)
  • She saw Jett in quick, sharp, decisive, yet nervous action.†   (source)
  • Then he slid his chair back in one decisive motion and left the room.†   (source)
  • Almost every day the newspaper printed accounts of a decisive victory.†   (source)
  • Suddenly Newland Archer felt himself impelled to decisive action.†   (source)
  • Indeed, of late he seemed inclined to end the struggle with one decisive blow.†   (source)
  • Upon my word—it was an illusion," the Italian said with a decisive gesture of one hand.†   (source)
  • "Would I!" was all her answer; but the accent was decisive enough.†   (source)
  • and yet, she could not help rather anticipating something decisive.†   (source)
  • "Fact!" said Haley, with a decisive nod of his head.†   (source)
  • On the decisive day the doctor came, and said he hoped I had made a wise choice.†   (source)
▲ show less (of above)