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detract
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  • And all of them just to detract attention away from me.†   (source)
  • It seems beyond any question to be the thing fitting to the locality and I cannot see that it will in any manner detract essentially from the features which you care for.†   (source)
  • With each modern war the term has changed, from shell shock to battle fatigue in World War II and Korea to post-traumatic stress disorder in Vietnam, and each time the illness had its believers and its detractors.†   (source)
  • I supposed because Nero hadn't wanted his detractors trying to shoot arrows into his imperial noggin.†   (source)
  • Unnamed detractors have challenged the very existence of the savior, he claims, and his purpose in life is to show them God has his back, and that the good people outnumber the bad.†   (source)
  • Oddly enough, our growing relationship didn't detract me from my studies.†   (source)
  • And the schoolbook pictures of primitive man sometimes omit some of the detractions of his primitive life…the pain, the disease, famine, the hard labor needed just to stay alive.†   (source)
  • He read a quotation from who: "mdr-tb is too expensive to treat in poor countries; it detracts attention and resources from treating drug-susceptible disease."†   (source)
  • Combining a strongly negative event with a reorganisation was, in PR terms, such a clumsy error that it could not but astonish Blomkvist's detractors and garner optimum attention for Henrik Vanger's new role.†   (source)
  • This is a facet which has remained largely unexplored by his detractors, who have painted him as a rather dull clique-centered athlete; the phrase "dumb jock" expresses this view of Tommy Ross perfectly.†   (source)
  • Moreover, you will prove to your detractors that we cannot trust a Dragon Rider.†   (source)
  • In those cases, the comfort quotient became a negative number, and doing what came habitually actually detracted from happiness.†   (source)
  • The detractors asserted that the movie was an example of Western propaganda that sought toerase the fact that Cleopatra was an African woman.†   (source)
  • Though his hair was gray, there were only a few lines around the corners of his eyes, but they added to, rather than detracted from, an overall sense of vitality.†   (source)
  • It was a firmly held belief among soccer's detractors that the game was harder on turf than other sports.†   (source)
  • Once Chuito complained to the bosses and was written up for detracting from the familial spirit of the department.†   (source)
  • He had his share of setbacks and failures as well as many detractors.†   (source)
  • And half me—which, surprisingly, made her better rather than detracting.†   (source)
  • To the question "Do you have any past or present injuries or physical condition which detracts from your physical capabilities?" he answered, "I was shot in the eye with a sim round.†   (source)
  • Yet the occasional detractor surfaced, amidst the general flow of praise.†   (source)
  • He was convinced that if anyone tried to assassinate him, these two stocky morons would be powerless to prevent it, but he trusted that their presence would at least scare off spontaneous detractors.†   (source)
  • Of course, the floodlights and razor wire at the top of the wall detracted a bit from its charm, but if you squinted, they faded a little.†   (source)
  • Lettie had her share of detractors.†   (source)
  • Neither the players and coaches of Monterrey Industrial, nor their fans or detractors, could imagine that the Regiomontanos would soon participate in the most emotional and dramatic Little League World Series ever played.†   (source)
  • And besides, I suspected that fighting a battle royal might detract from the dignity of my speech.†   (source)
  • "Could you tell me why you've spent so much time and effort, and a considerable amount of your own capitol, on this project—one detractors say will never fly?"†   (source)
  • We didn't want to detract from that.†   (source)
  • Nor was he ever so obtuse about French sensibilities and the importance of maintaining good relations with France as his detractors would later charge.†   (source)
  • Her detractors—and there were many—said she would soon run out of victims.†   (source)
  • But we didn't let the subject matter of the script get out, and as soon as word got out that we were doing an ad with Focus on the Family, it instantly created a huge swirl of attention—with both supporters and detractors trying to figure out what the ad was all about.†   (source)
  • But nothing had been allowed to come too close and detract from the building's austerity.†   (source)
  • Some of its detractors might have termed it quality gossip, but the word "quality" wasn't forgotten.†   (source)
  • He also hoped aloud that his absence from legal work of any sort over the same long period of time, and his advanced age, would not detract from his performance in court today.†   (source)
  • There is something extra and a little heroic about him; not even the blue ears of his bunny suit can detract from that.†   (source)
  • He knew there were detractors in Saudi and elsewhere.†   (source)
  • Her detractors were far less charitable.†   (source)
  • However Oriental the wrapper had originally been designed to look, it didn't detract an iota from the single, impactful impression that Mrs. Glass, chez elle, made on a certain type of observer.†   (source)
  • He had not had to hunt far for detractors.†   (source)
  • When the Herald-Trib arrived, it detracted from my sybaritic pleasure.†   (source)
  • And you have detracted from the glory of a goddess, whose supremacy here has always been undisputed.†   (source)
  • Still, when we realize that a newspaper that chooses to denounce a Senator today can reach many thousand times as many voters as could be reached by all of Daniel Webster's famous and articulate detractors put together, these stories of twentieth-century political courage have a drama, an excitement—and an inspiration—all their own.†   (source)
  • It didn't detract an iota from her cool, innate beauty.†   (source)
  • The impact of the message detracts from the subtext.†   (source)
  • He might have known from his father's own mouth that detractors were there to be found.†   (source)
  • The shore of the Wooded Island was just now beginning to burst forth in a dense profusion of new leaves and blossoms, and the Japanese temple, the Hoo-den, crafted in Japan and assembled by Japanese artisans, detracted little from the sylvan effect.†   (source)
  • The wide-plank pine flooring was scuffed and stained, and the cabinets had probably been around since the place was built, but these things seemed to add to the house's character rather than detract from it.†   (source)
  • He planned the death of my woman and me but not to coincide with yours, not in a way that would detract from the high drama of his immediate victory over you.†   (source)
  • Some of his detractors likened his departure to that of Nirriti the Black, god of darkness and corruption, who had left Heaven filled with ill will and the miasma of many a dark curse.†   (source)
  • Eleven new states were added quickly as the West was developed; and twenty-two new Senators and a tremendous new chamber detracted from that old distinctive atmosphere.†   (source)
  • He was stubborn, his detractors said.†   (source)
  • The detractors of Varuna were not so numerous, however, for it was common knowledge that he deserved the title Just, and his condemnation could easily be construed to reflect upon the worth of its speaker, so few spoke of him beyond the days immediately following his going.†   (source)
  • It is said by his detractors, though, that he did accept these proffers, but was later betrayed himself, so giving his sympathies back to suffering mankind for the rest of his days, which were few… Then, as so often in the past, her snowy fur was sleeked by the wind.†   (source)
  • People have no right to say those things," she cried out irritably against unknown detractors.†   (source)
  • …granted a little better luck than you have had heretofore, you will someday possess; —not of envy but of despair: that sharp shocking terrible hopeless despair of the young which sometimes takes the form of insult toward and even physical assault upon the human subject of it or, in extreme cases like Henry's, insult toward and assault upon any and all detractors of the subject, as witness Henry's violent repudiation of his father and his birthright when Sutpen forbade the marriage.†   (source)
  • He had the knack of making the kindliness of his smile add to, not detract from his solemn appearance of dignity; his long, thin, hooked nose did detract from the kindliness, but it added to the dignity; his stomach, cantilevered over his legs, did detract from the dignity, but it added to the kindliness.†   (source)
  • Naturally, Pork and Dilcey and Mammy gave vent to loud guffaws at hearing the detractor of their beloved Tara set at naught.†   (source)
  • During the weeks that followed her surprise party, while Rhett was mysteriously absent and the town in a frenzied state of gossip, excitement and partisanship, she gave no quarter to Scarlett's detractors, whether they were her old friends or her blood kin.†   (source)
  • I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest iota from your appearance.†   (source)
  • He did his work, and leaned on Leora's assurance, and tried to ignore his detractors.†   (source)
  • The king was dull and appeared ill, which detracted a little from his usual lofty bearing.†   (source)
  • All these gates were strong, and also handsome, which does not detract from strength.†   (source)
  • It is neither wise nor honest to detract from beauty as a quality.†   (source)
  • The prosiness of the originators detracted nothing from the bravery of the movement.†   (source)
  • All this, it is true, detracted nothing from the angelic charms of the young girl of the Luxembourg.†   (source)
  • That Thenardier was a villain detracted nothing from the fact that he had saved Colonel Pontmercy.†   (source)
  • She was growing a little stout, but it did not seem to detract an iota from the grace of every step, pose, gesture.†   (source)
  • As it was—and especially after the object of her nocturnal visit to Mrs. Manson Mingott had become known—her cynicism was held to exceed his; and she had not the excuse—nor her detractors the satisfaction—of pleading that she was "a foreigner."†   (source)
  • Because say what one might, what one would—and several things might be said, for example that illness was a higher level of life and so possessed a kind of solemnity—this much was certain: illness meant an overemphasis on the physical, sent a person back to his own body, cast him back totally upon it, as it were, detracted from the worthiness and dignity of man to the point of annihilation by reducing man to mere body.†   (source)
  • They preserve, however, something of the dream lightness in which they seem almost suspended; but this does not detract from the essential reality of their forms and expressions.†   (source)
  • Martin, as your colleague, I do not for a moment wish to detract from the great credit which is yours, but I must say that if you had been more closely allied with Me you would have extended your work to practical proofs and results long before this.†   (source)
  • He was a trifle above the middle size, and apparently rather weak in the legs; but this circumstance by no means detracted from his own admiration of his top-boots, which he contemplated, in their elevated situation, with lively satisfaction.†   (source)
  • Nor will it at all detract from him, dramatically regarded, if either by birth or other circumstances, he have what seems a half wilful overruling morbidness at the bottom of his nature.†   (source)
  • Avdotya Romanovna was remarkably good looking; she was tall, strikingly well-proportioned, strong and self-reliant—the latter quality was apparent in every gesture, though it did not in the least detract from the grace and softness of her movements.†   (source)
  • He is so; but then he is wholly uneducated: he is as silent as a Turk, and a kind of ignorant carelessness attends him, which, while it renders his conduct the more astonishing, detracts from the interest and sympathy which otherwise he would command.†   (source)
  • Your picture is so fine that my observation cannot detract from it, and, besides, it is only my personal opinion.†   (source)
  • 'Never say I detracted from her!'†   (source)
  • When the monster's detractors cited a saying by the botanist Linnaeus that "nature doesn't make leaps," witty writers in the popular periodicals parodied it, maintaining in essence that "nature doesn't make lunatics," and ordering their contemporaries never to give the lie to nature by believing in krakens, sea serpents, "Moby Dicks," and other all–out efforts from drunken seamen.†   (source)
  • They were warmly clad, but with so much maternal art that the thickness of the stuffs did not detract from the coquetry of arrangement.†   (source)
  • The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.†   (source)
  • But one thing detracted from my entire satisfaction and delight—large crystals lay scattered here and there, which, detached from the roof, had fallen to the ground; this, if apt to recur, would keep us in constant peril.†   (source)
  • But this detracted little from its interest, which lay in the excellent fuel it provided for newly kindled fervour.†   (source)
  • They roamed at large on the undulations of Egdon, but in numbers too few to detract much from the solitude.†   (source)
  • That's a great thing," Sergey Ivanovitch said to himself, feeling at the same time that this consideration had not the slightest importance for him personally, but would only perhaps detract from his romantic character in the eyes of others.†   (source)
  • Peggotty knowing nothing about her, and my mother saying nothing about her, she was quite a mystery in the parlour; and the fact of her having a magazine of jewellers' cotton in her pocket, and sticking the article in her ears in that way, did not detract from the solemnity of her presence.†   (source)
  • These attempts did not prevent the cardinal, to whom his most inveterate detractors have never denied personal bravery, from making nocturnal excursions, sometimes to communicate to the Duc d'Angouleme important orders, sometimes to confer with the king, and sometimes to have an interview with a messenger whom he did not wish to see at home.†   (source)
  • While Jondrette thus talked, with an apparent incoherence which detracted nothing from the thoughtful and sagacious expression of his physiognomy, Marius raised his eyes, and perceived at the other end of the room a person whom he had not seen before.†   (source)
  • But they would have been improved by some share of his frankness and warmth; and her visit was long enough to detract something from their first admiration, by shewing that, though perfectly well-bred, she was reserved, cold, and had nothing to say for herself beyond the most common-place inquiry or remark.†   (source)
  • Not much time will be gained, O Athenians, in return for the evil name which you will get from the detractors of the city, who will say that you killed Socrates, a wise man; for they will call me wise, even although I am not wise, when they want to reproach you.†   (source)
  • Her hopes were mainly centred on Mrs. Trenor, who had treasures of easy-going tolerance for those who were amusing or useful to her, and in the noisy rush of whose existence the still small voice of detraction was slow to make itself heard.†   (source)
  • "I regretted it especially," he resumed, taking the usual course from detraction to insincere eulogy, "because of my gratitude and respect towards my cousin.†   (source)
  • Her dark eyes bright with the peculiar Jewish lustre met his in modest gaze; he heard her step as when she approached him with the wine, and her voice as she tendered him the cup; and he acknowledged to himself again all the sympathy she manifested for him, and manifested so plainly that words were unnecessary, and so sweetly that words would have been but a detraction.†   (source)
  • I offer you, now, no distinction among a bustling crowd; no mingling with a world of malice and detraction, where the blood is called into honest cheeks by aught but real disgrace and shame; but a home—a heart and home—yes, dearest Rose, and those, and those alone, are all I have to offer.'†   (source)
  • …which any one who would pay had a right to a place, my answer was, that I would print the piece separately if desired, and the author might have as many copies as he pleased to distribute himself, but that I would not take upon me to spread his detraction; and that, having contracted with my subscribers to furnish them with what might be either useful or entertaining, I could not fill their papers with private altercation, in which they had no concern, without doing them manifest…†   (source)
  • I have said enough in answer to the charge of Meletus: any elaborate defence is unnecessary, but I know only too well how many are the enmities which I have incurred, and this is what will be my destruction if I am destroyed;--not Meletus, nor yet Anytus, but the envy and detraction of the world, which has been the death of many good men, and will probably be the death of many more; there is no danger of my being the last of them.†   (source)
  • And it need not detract from the other by one iota as, being his own master, he would have heaps of time to practise literature in his spare moments when desirous of so doing without its clashing with his vocal career or containing anything derogatory whatsoever as it was a matter for himself alone.†   (source)
  • He had performed many eminent services for the crown, had great natural and acquired parts, adorned with integrity and honour; but so ill an ear for music, that his detractors reported, "he had been often known to beat time in the wrong place;" neither could his tutors, without extreme difficulty, teach him to demonstrate the most easy proposition in the mathematics.†   (source)
  • For all men praise the dead, and, however preeminent your virtue may be, I do not say even to approach them, and avoid living their rivals and detractors, but when a man is out of the way, the honor and goodwill which he receives is unalloyed.†   (source)
  • His forward voice now is to speak well of his friend; his backward voice is to utter foul speeches, and to detract.†   (source)
  • Nor that the calumnious reports of that impudent detractor, and shame to our profession, (Alessandro Buttone, I mean,) who gave out, in public, I was condemn'd a sforzato to the galleys, for poisoning the cardinal Bembo's—cook, hath at all attached, much less dejected me.†   (source)
  • But, not to detract from a nation, to which, during my life, I shall acknowledge myself extremely obliged, it must be allowed, that whatever this famous tower wants in height, is amply made up in beauty and strength: for the walls are near a hundred feet thick, built of hewn stone, whereof each is about forty feet square, and adorned on all sides with statues of gods and emperors, cut in marble, larger than the life, placed in their several niches.†   (source)
  • Neither do I say this, with the least intention to detract from the many virtues of that excellent king, whose character, I am sensible, will, on this account, be very much lessened in the opinion of an English reader: but I take this defect among them to have risen from their ignorance, by not having hitherto reduced politics into a science, as the more acute wits of Europe have done.†   (source)
  • Detractors are pleased to think it improbable, that so illustrious a person should descend to give so great a mark of distinction to a creature so inferior as I. Neither have I forgotten how apt some travellers are to boast of extraordinary favours they have received.†   (source)
  • But will it not live with the living? no. Why? detraction will not suffer it.†   (source)
  • Ay, an you had any eye behind you, you might see more detraction at your heels than fortunes before you.†   (source)
  • I did never think to marry: I must not seem proud: happy are they that hear their detractions, and can put them to mending.†   (source)
  • Devilish Macbeth By many of these trains hath sought to win me Into his power; and modest wisdom plucks me From over-credulous haste: but God above Deal between thee and me! for even now I put myself to thy direction, and Unspeak mine own detraction; here abjure The taints and blames I laid upon myself, For strangers to my nature.†   (source)
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