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contrary
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contrary as in:  a contrary idea

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  • We're trying to choose between two contrary solutions.
    contrary = different
  • I'm getting contrary messages.
    contrary = different (perhaps opposite or mutually exclusive)
  • I take issue with anyone who says the contrary.
  • Early the next morning a contrary breeze came whistling along the river.   (source)
    contrary = opposite
  • Alessandro had contrary and volatile opinions and did a good job of justifying them even when they were totally absurd.   (source)
  • Napoleon was well aware of the bad results that might follow if the real facts of the food situation were known, and he decided to make use of Mr. Whymper to spread a contrary impression.   (source)
    contrary = different
  • Impossible to reply to this in the affirmative: my little world held a contrary opinion: I was silent.   (source)
  • The two ladies continued to talk, to re-urge the same admitted truths, and enforce them with such examples of the ill effect of a contrary practice as had fallen within their observation, but Anne heard nothing distinctly; it was only a buzz of words in her ear, her mind was in confusion.   (source)
    contrary = different (the opposite of what is recommended)
  • Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Nations and peoples who forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms.   (source)
    contrary = opposite
  • — This trick may chance to scathe you,—I know what: You must contrary me! marry, 'tis time.   (source)
    contrary = contradict
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  • My lord should to the heavens be contrary,
    Oppose against their wills.   (source)
    contrary = different (doing something other than what the heavens would dictate)
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contrary as in:  a contrary personality

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  • She just said it to be contrary.
  • We were hoping to make better time, but we had to battle a contrary wind.
    contrary = disagreeable (the wind was blowing in the opposite direction of travel)
  • She'd have spent the rest of her life on it and died without so much agony, but she was too contrary-   (source)
    contrary = disagreeable
  • She's contrary as a very witch herself.   (source)
  • "Later," Alessandro said, since part of his business was to be contrary.   (source)
  • Lizabetha Prokofievna, who disliked Varvara, although she had a great respect for her mother, was much annoyed by this sudden intimacy, and put it down to the general "contrariness" of her daughters, who were "always on the lookout for some new way of opposing her."   (source)
    contrariness = disagreeableness
  • Beyond Cologne we descended to the plains of Holland; and we resolved to post the remainder of our way, for the wind was contrary and the stream of the river was too gentle to aid us.   (source)
    contrary = disagreeable (not blowing as desired)
  • I suspected there was probably a large dose of natural contrariness in his decision—nobody expected him to go, probably least of all Alicia and Rupert themselves.†   (source)
  • Quite often social contrariness and a generally pessimistic outlook are observed.†   (source)
  • My contrariness kept Char laughing, and his goodness kept me in love.†   (source)
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show 12 more with this conextual meaning
  • As any parent of a teenage child will tell you, the essential contrariness of adolescents suggests that the more adults inveigh against smoking and lecture teenagers about its dangers, the more teens, paradoxically, will want to try it.†   (source)
  • Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow?
    contrary = disagreeable
  • What do you suppose they mean by "social contrariness"?†   (source)
  • Quite often social contrariness and a generally pessimistic outlook are observed.†   (source)
  • They don't define "social contrariness," and I can't define it, so I think it ought to be excluded from the list.†   (source)
  • And I must admit the very contrariness of his thoughts, their antipathy to my own, add a special allure to our meetings.†   (source)
  • Something of her contrariness came back to her as she paced the wall and looked over it at the tree-tops inside.†   (source)
  • Despite his contrariness, however, Spillbeans had apparently no intention of allowing the other horses to get completely out of sight.†   (source)
  • She'd marry him out of contrariness.†   (source)
  • The honest old scholar suffered every abuse imaginable as a result of young Leo's intellectual obstinacy, captiousness, skepticism, contrariness, and cutting dialectical logic.†   (source)
  • She folded herself in the large chair, and leaned her head against it in fatigued quiescence, while Tantripp went away wondering at this strange contrariness in her young mistress—that just the morning when she had more of a widow's face than ever, she should have asked for her lighter mourning which she had waived before.†   (source)
  • What storm is this that blows so contrary?   (source)
    contrary = disagreeably
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contrary to as in:  contrary to

show 10 more with this conextual meaning
  • We will not allow members to act contrary to our code of ethics.
  • how could he mean to behave this way, contrary to the principle that had always governed his treatment of others--his sense of decency.   (source)
  • Contrary to my usual practice, I'm going to write you a detailed description of the food situation, since it's become a matter of some difficulty and importance, not only here in the Annex, but in all of Holland, all of Europe and even beyond.   (source)
    contrary to = opposite
  • At that moment Corin ran up to Shasta, seized his hand and started dragging him towards King Lune. "Here he is, Father, here he is," cried Corin.
      "Aye, and here thou art, at last," said the King in a very gruff voice. "And hast been in the battle, clean contrary to your obedience."   (source)
    contrary to = in opposition to
  • Contrary to most theologians, I have always believed that even worms and weasels have souls, and that even they are capable of salvation.   (source)
  • A too rigid equality in rations, Squealer explained, would have been contrary to the principles of Animalism.   (source)
  • With this I have gone far ahead and, contrary to my actual plan and intention, already conveyed what Haller essentially meant to me; whereas my original aim was to uncover his picture by degrees while telling the course of my gradual acquaintance with him.   (source)
  • We sometimes have strange, impossible dreams, contrary to all the laws of nature.   (source)
  • I DO see a certain justice; but it is contrary to all custom.   (source)
  • I asked him if he didn't know it was contrary to law; and that slaves were whipped and imprisoned for teaching each other to read.   (source)
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show 89 more with this conextual meaning
  • As the minuteness of the parts formed a great hindrance to my speed, I resolved, contrary to my first intention, to make the being of a gigantic stature, that is to say, about eight feet in height, and proportionably large.   (source)
    contrary to = opposite or different
  • It is to be noted that the contributions to this building being made by people of different sects, care was taken in the nomination of trustees, in whom the building and ground was to be vested, that a predominancy should not be given to any sect, lest in time that predominancy might be a means of appropriating the whole to the use of such sect, contrary to the original intention.   (source)
    contrary to = in opposition to
  • You know, contrary to popular belief, the OASIS really won't change that drastically when IOI takes control of it.†   (source)
  • Contrary to common belief, however, the bus doesn't lie beneath any established flight path, and very few planes fly over it.†   (source)
  • B sleeps in a separate tent and is in the habit of forgetting her mittens, and wandering around at night contrary to orders.†   (source)
  • Contrary to the predictions of many, Pastoral China not only survived, but thrived.†   (source)
  • To do so would be contrary to the human spirit.†   (source)
  • Contrary to conventional wisdom, the military is not a landing spot for low-income kids with no other options.†   (source)
  • She stayed at school after hours, because "I've got to pull up my art grade" (never mind the pot smoking and the drinking, and that, contrary to what we had been led to believe, there was no supervision in the room).†   (source)
  • Contrary to their original conclusion, she was very much alive.†   (source)
  • Unfortunately, it was an expensive model equipped with a two-way radio feature, which, contrary to his orders, was now being used by one of his agents to page him.†   (source)
  • He warns me that money is not the most important thing, contrary to the popular view on campus.†   (source)
  • The afternoon was a runaway train, with the questions from the newbies constant, contrary to the assurances of Jared, who was in and out throughout the afternoon, leaving the room a dozen times, talking on his phone with great intensity.†   (source)
  • The seas, as it turned out, contrary to all plans, were running high and choppy.†   (source)
  • And there was another, general misunderstanding at that time: contrary to popular belief, coming to Canada was not a very shrewd way to beat the draft; there were better and easier ways to "beat" it— I'll tell you about one, later.†   (source)
  • 'You are charged with, on March 6, 2007, a count of first-degree murder, contrary to 631:1-A, in that you purposely caused the death of another, to wit, Justin Friedman'.†   (source)
  • High school is neither a democracy nor a dictatorship—nor, contrary to popular belief, an anarchic state.†   (source)
  • And contrary to local lore, Kerry did not burn the stuff in a bonfire; Dad told me that he donated it to St. Vincent de Paul.†   (source)
  • Contrary to what you might think, I don't spend every waking hour thinking about boys.†   (source)
  • Contrary to popular belief, not all traveling performers are of the Ruh.†   (source)
  • Contrary to popular belief, dog teams generally do not stop and wait for a musher who falls off.†   (source)
  • Would it be contrary to medical ethics in the HeLa cell's coming-of-age year to authenticate the name and let He ...La ...enjoy the fame she so richly deserves?†   (source)
  • An awful lot of what is done in my name has nothing to do with me and is often, even if unintentional, very contrary to my purposes.†   (source)
  • It is clear that this slave has violated the person of her master, destroyed valuable property, and attempted to run away, all contrary to the laws of our colony.†   (source)
  • Tis not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of the whole world to the scratching of my finger,' said Hume.†   (source)
  • Hiro concludes that Bruce Lee, contrary to his reputation, must have just gone out and gotten scalps of any old color, bleached them, and dyed them.†   (source)
  • Contrary to what she expected they poled upriver, far away from the rowboat Amy had found.†   (source)
  • And contrary to what you're probably thinking, not all sniper shots, certainly not mine, take the bad guys in the head.†   (source)
  • Because still, "I" was me, unitary, one thing, and yet I acted against myself, contrary to my interests and desires, sometimes secretly, deceiving myself as to what I knew and did.†   (source)
  • also of the future, even though he did not say this to Saeed, for he feared that if he said this to his son that his son might not go, and he knew above all else that his son must go, and what he did not say was that he had come to that point in a parent's life when, if a flood arrives, one knows one must let go of one's child, contrary to all the instincts one had when one was younger, because holding on can no longer offer the child protection, it can only pull the child down, and threaten them with drowning, for the child is now stronger than the parent, and the circumstances are such that the utmost of strength is required, and the arc of a child's life only appears for a whil†   (source)
  • It was so contrary to the way that I felt that it was difficult to process.†   (source)
  • Contrary to regulations.†   (source)
  • Contrary to what I observed a few times in Australia, in our situation we don't need to depend upon a superstar.†   (source)
  • Rebeca, contrary to what might have been expected, was the more beautiful.†   (source)
  • At the end of the hearing, Palmgren intimated that compulsory institutionalisation was in all probability not only contrary to Parliament's decisions in similar situations, but in this particular case it might in addition be the subject of political and media reprisals.†   (source)
  • Contrary to Mrs. Scatcherd's expectations—or perhaps in response to her rebuke—we are a quiet lot, even the older boys.†   (source)
  • It is — contrary to all our expectations — a certainty.†   (source)
  • We didn't expect the leader of Erudite to start hunting them down—or for the Abnegation to even tell her what they were—and contrary to what Edith Prior said, we never really intended for you to send a Divergent army out to us.†   (source)
  • Contrary to its legend, Paris does not offer many distractions; or, those distractions that it offers are like French pastry, vivid and insubstantial, sweet on the tongue and sour in the belly.†   (source)
  • It was completely contrary to Lord Darlington's natural tendencies to take such public stances as he came to do and I can say with conviction that his lordship was persuaded to overcome his more retiring side only through a deep sense of moral duty.†   (source)
  • Apart from its wrong-headedness, Neville's speech was entirely contrary to the climate of cooperation between organizations we were trying to create on the island.†   (source)
  • Contrary to what you, Arya, and everyone else seem to believe, Iam aware that other eligible women exist in Alagaesia and that people have been known to fall in love more than once.†   (source)
  • As a result, said a Ghanaian doctor, Eunice Brookman-Amissah, "contrary to its stated intentions, the global gag rule results in more unwanted pregnancies, more unsafe abortions, and more deaths of women and girls.†   (source)
  • Contrary to his doctor's orders, the judge was still smoking his pipe—he could not quit—and he loaded one up with Sir Walter Raleigh and struck a match.†   (source)
  • "THIS IS THE SCENIC ROUTE: STRAIGHT AHEAD TO POINT OF VIEW" announced a rather large road sign; but, contrary to its statement, all that could be seen were more trees.†   (source)
  • Contrary to logic, the feeling of surprise wasn't born immediately.†   (source)
  • That would be contrary to Kansas law.†   (source)
  • Diem—whose regime President Kennedy has long supported, but whose anti-Buddhist stance is contrary to American foreign policy—denies promotions to officials known to be Buddhist and looks the other way when Roman Catholic priests organize private armies that loot and demolish the pagodas where the Buddhists worship.†   (source)
  • Waving his arms and trying to tell her what that fool redhead's been up to already, so early in the morning-disrupting things, goin' contrary to ward policy, can't she do something?†   (source)
  • Contrary to his fears, however, Bigwig remained as silent as himself.†   (source)
  • The typical crack murder involved one crack dealer shooting another (or two of them, or three) and not, contrary to conventional wisdom, some bug-eyed crackhead shooting a shopkeeper over a few dollars.†   (source)
  • But contrary to what she'd said, he didn't look forty, and that had surprised her.†   (source)
  • If the Commandant catches us — "Contrary to what you might think, girl," Cook says, "the Commandant is not all-powerful.†   (source)
  • No one at the Khayan Hotel spoke English, contrary to advertising, and I had to wear my mon toe and roosarie during dinner.†   (source)
  • Contrary to almost everything he'd read about their luridness, he found them long and boring.†   (source)
  • For contrary to what Washington thought, the British had had no plans for or any intention of engaging the rebels that day, or anytime soon.†   (source)
  • Though he did not say so to Bilbo, he also thought it important, and disturbing, to find that the good hobbit had not told the truth from the first: quite contrary to his habit.†   (source)
  • Contrary to the overall impression I may have given you, I really am a very decent guy.†   (source)
  • And contrary to popular opinion, we don't dance around graveyards and raise the dead either.†   (source)
  • Everyone knows that part of the spirit descends to the afterworld, while part of it remains with the family, but we have a special belief about the spirit of a young woman who has died before her marriage that goes contrary to this.†   (source)
  • Jennings that, contrary to popular belief, Bach was not more prolific than Telemann; he's just better remembered.†   (source)
  • Contrary to the most enlightened skeptics, there might be a God, after all.†   (source)
  • This seemed to be contrary to the whole nature of geometry itself.†   (source)
  • Mr. Lias, contrary to his usual nature, said next to nothing.†   (source)
  • Contrary to popular belief, the United States Army has a sense of humor.†   (source)
  • Contrary to my usual policy, I have become a publicity hound.†   (source)
  • It sounds good—but it's so contrary to orthodox doctrine that I need to see it.†   (source)
  • Later, Dad looked up the Manichaeans in the encyclopedia and discovered that, contrary to what Max claimed, the Manichaeans believed that the world and all matter were created by nefarious forces, and that the only way to battle them was through asceticism and a pure life.†   (source)
  • Many a Red had set out on such a journey and been turned away, forced to stop and sleep and rest and eat, stopped by darkness or bad weather, because his need for the journey wasn't great enough, or his journey was contrary to what the land itself needed.†   (source)
  • If judges didn't conspire with the legislature, they would rule that the State law was contrary to the supreme law of the land, unconstitutional, and void.†   (source)
  • I mean that contrary to anything Peters told you, you are not going farther east.†   (source)
  • A Missouri captain reported that his men believed it contrary to "what they have fought for the last four years."†   (source)
  • Contrary to her assumptions, Natalie had not made the crossing from Santorini to Bodrum alone.†   (source)
  • Contrary to yet another myth, Eskimo dogs are not semi-domesticated wolves though both species may well have sprung from the same ancestry.†   (source)
  • The notion runs contrary to all my experience.†   (source)
  • It was the second crop of the year, sown on ground which had not been allowed to lie fallow, and so we did not think it would be other than meagre; but contrary to our expectations it was a very good harvest.†   (source)
  • Just for your information, and contrary to the gossip Claudie's spreading, I had a very satisfactory dinner.†   (source)
  • In this absurdity, so contrary to common sense, the doctor saw a profound symbol.†   (source)
  • We can improve our democratic processes, we can enlighten our understanding of its problems, and we can increase our respect for those men of integrity who find it necessary, from time to time, to act contrary to public opinion.†   (source)
  • Speaking like this to a native, appealing to him, was contrary to Dick's ideas of the relationship between white and black, but he was furious with Mary for her lack of consideration and tact.†   (source)
  • Treat with utmost respect your power of forming opinions, for this power alone guards you against making assumptions that are contrary to nature and judgments that overthrow the rule of reason.   (source)
  • Contrary to general belief, I do not believe that friends are necessarily the people you like best, they are merely the people who got there first.   (source)
  • Napoleon had denounced such ideas as contrary to the spirit of Animalism.   (source)
  • Others asked such questions as ... 'If this Rebellion is to happen anyway, what difference does it make whether we work for it or not?', and the pigs had great difficulty in making them see that this was contrary to the spirit of Animalism.   (source)
  • I confess, however, that I should not have stayed here even if you had invited me, not for any particular reason, but because it is—well, contrary to my practice and nature, somehow.   (source)
  • All had issued forth in obedience to the mandate; that is, the girls, mamma, and Prince S. Lizabetha Prokofievna went off in a direction exactly contrary to the usual one, and all understood very well what she was driving at, but held their peace, fearing to irritate the good lady.   (source)
  • But before three o'clock in the afternoon that something took place to which I alluded at the end of the last book, something so unexpected by all of us and so contrary to the general hope, that, I repeat, this trivial incident has been minutely remembered to this day in our town and all the surrounding neighborhood.   (source)
  • A name that I am so very well acquainted with; knew the gentleman so well by sight; seen him a hundred times; came to consult me once, I remember, about a trespass of one of his neighbours; farmer's man breaking into his orchard; wall torn down; apples stolen; caught in the fact; and afterwards, contrary to my judgement, submitted to an amicable compromise.   (source)
  • While he spoke, Maria was looking apprehensively round at Edmund in full expectation that he must oppose such an enlargement of the plan as this: so contrary to all their first protestations; but Edmund said nothing.   (source)
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on the contrary as in:  on the contrary

show 10 more with this conextual meaning
  • I will not pay you for the work. On the contrary, I may sue you for damages.
  • She did not want to get up; not because she was still tired - on the contrary she was wonderfully rested   (source)
  • Still, I don't want to moan and groan. On the contrary, I want to be brave!   (source)
  • Trees grew along both sides of the road home, making it very dark and dangerous for anyone who wasn't used to it. But Stanley had no fears. On the contrary, he loved the night.   (source)
  • On the contrary, he felt his original views were correct: that a lizard species had been driven from the forest into a new habitat, and was coming into contact with village people.   (source)
  • You yourself don't seem to trust your gift... On the contrary, I think you are a master of your craft, and I can scarcely wait for you to give us another taste of your skill at long last.   (source)
  • "On the contrary" I said, "only I know how long I have been here."   (source)
  • On the contrary, Judge.†   (source)
  • But stupidity is not enough. On the contrary, orthodoxy in the full sense demands a control over one's own mental processes as complete as that of a contortionist over his body.   (source)
  • "No one has ever seen such a pearl."
    "On the contrary," said the dealer, "it is large and clumsy."   (source)
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show 89 more with this conextual meaning
  • On the contrary, it was often exceedingly painful, often almost intolerable.   (source)
  • Then she took to helping him without leave; and he saw how valuable her assistance was to him, and did not drive her away again; on the contrary, he occasionally gave her the remnants of his dinner, bread and cheese.   (source)
  • There was hardly a night the summer through when the old cow could be found waiting at the pasture bars; on the contrary, it was her greatest pleasure to hide herself away among the huckleberry bushes,   (source)
  • Ivan Ilych never abused his power; he tried on the contrary to soften its expression, but the consciousness of it and the possibility of softening its effect, supplied the chief interest and attraction of his office.   (source)
  • Not a bit. On the contrary, I feel extraordinarily lively.   (source)
  • What would be your surprise, my son, when you expected a happy and glad welcome, to behold, on the contrary, tears and wretchedness?   (source)
    on the contrary = in opposition to the idea previously stated
  • On the contrary, it was pride that more resembled that small pool of felt something in her stomach.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, he looked resentful and sulky.†   (source)
  • He was not less exhausted; on the contrary, his steps were leaden, and he could barely move his freezing, tired legs.†   (source)
  • On the contrary.†   (source)
  • On the contrary.†   (source)
  • "On the contrary," Gregor murmured.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, it is quite possible.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, you let it penetrate you fully.†   (source)
  • Adler made no effort to conceal his closeness to Lawton; on the contrary, he put a large RE-ELECT SPENCER LAWTON poster on the fence in front of his house.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, she is one of us.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, he feels quite hopeful.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, it was easy to see how, over the years, Pete's reponses to Daddy had been more honest than Ty's, destructive but at least not duplicitous, impolitic but passionate, angry but never self-serving, and almost noble in the last four years, after Rose's revelations about what Daddy had done to her.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, what I have to tell you is extremely unpleasant, extremely unpleasant indeed.†   (source)
  • He was articulate, but he never made speech seem effortless; on the contrary, he exhibited what hard work it was—to make his faith, in tandem with his doubt, clear; to speak well, in spite of his stutter.†   (source)
  • On the contrary.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, I was elated and urgently wanted to tell my closest friends.†   (source)
  • On the contrary.†   (source)
  • Right, well, he'd been sick for a while and his nurse said to him, 'You seem to be feeling better this morning,' and Ibsen looked at her and said, 'On the contrary' and then he died.†   (source)
  • ROSE: On the contrary, it's exciting.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, Maxon held me so close I could smell his cologne and feel his stubble against my cheek.†   (source)
  • "On the contrary, in the Capitol you'd be considered stupid not to do it," says Messalla.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, he's the sanest person I know.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, I find you very difficult to read.†   (source)
  • "On the contrary," the doctor says, looking up at him.†   (source)
  • There is no question of skipping this meal; on the contrary, for ten evenings the three of them are strangely hungry, eager to taste the blandness on their plates.†   (source)
  • "On the contrary," Menshikov said, rubbing his chafed neck.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, independent sentiment now burns as far away as Georgia, as well as the western frontier.†   (source)
  • On the contrary he gave the impression of one desiring to learn from those he spoke with.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, it will get stronger.†   (source)
  • And the reason was that he did not look like a SEAL; on the contrary, Ryan looked like a big lump.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, no?†   (source)
  • He didn't much care if they stirred up the seekers' nest; on the contrary, he rather welcomed it.†   (source)
  • She said, No, on the contrary, Tashi works harder than most girls her age.†   (source)
  • Certainly I'm no mad exterminator bent on killing devil microbes; on the contrary, I admire them.†   (source)
  • On the contrary.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, they were happy at not sleeping because there was so much to do in Macondo in those days that there was barely enough time.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, he had remained something of a man in the shadows among his peers.†   (source)
  • And then Doctor Nolan told me how the best of psychiatrists have suicides among their patients, and how they, if anybody, should be held responsible, but how they, on the contrary, do not hold themselves responsible.... You had nothing to do with us, Buddy.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, they were so eager to be off, many of them asked Roran if it was possible to set sail that day instead of the next.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, all of the results strongly suggest that our environment plays as big — if not bigger — a role as heredity in shaping personality and intelligence.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, everyone's afraid of him.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, at eighteen Rosa was still slender and remained unblemished; her maritime grace had, if anything, increased.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, I believe ....I feel ....that I am being asked to perform a final service that is entirely compatible with what I had promised earlier.†   (source)
  • They did not impress her as being rough; they seemed, on the contrary, rather too gentle for their brutal environment.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, Miss Kenton.†   (source)
  • None of these teenagers had been forced to break the law; on the contrary, they seemed eager to do it.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, I felt very strong.†   (source)
  • But, on the contrary, I am an admirer of such a system.†   (source)
  • And Billy, meanwhile, was trying to hang onto his dignity, to persuade Barbara and everybody else that he was far from senile, that, on the contrary, he was devoting himself to a calling much higher than mere business.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, there was a curious, rather unnatural gentleness about the way in which he waited for them to come nearer.†   (source)
  • On the contrary.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, only by doing so could she live in truth.†   (source)
  • Grandmother was by no means feebleminded; on the contrary, she was an intelligent, overbearing individual, who seemed at times to relish demeaning her daughter.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, Farmer said, it could be quite helpful.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, William Howe had little inclination ever to rush things.†   (source)
  • 'On the contrary,' Yossarian corrected.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, it has a great deal to do with it if you want to understand.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, he was the one who'd convinced her they had to come in the first place.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, I think it was very well done of you.†   (source)
  • "On the contrary," retorted David.†   (source)
  • On the contrary.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, I want to get back to them as soon as I can.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, I believe that hierarchy and painful controls create destructive people.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, I think my predecessor was quite innocent.†   (source)
  • On the contrary; I revere them.†   (source)
  • On the contrary!†   (source)
  • "On the contrary, Mr. Staples," Judson said.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, they are people who move right up into the strongest social positions.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, I have never been more in earnest.†   (source)
  • She didn't seem surprised to see Clary on the throne: on the contrary, her lips curved into a smirk.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, Socrates—according to Plato—contends that the unmanly and pathetic practice of pleading for clemency disgraces the justice system of Athens.†   (source)
  • On the contrary: "lfyour enemy is hungry; feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, I failed utterly.†   (source)
  • When the first people, some neighbors, arrived to offer their congratulations, his mother (who had now assumed the grave and dignified air befitting the mother of a surgeon) related to them how Hisham hadn't made any effort to win the appointment; on the contrary, it was they who had insisted on appointing him, in view of his excellence.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, the State ban on taxing imports and exports implies that the States have the power to tax.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, Mr. McLean.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, its trustworthiness and its travel-worthiness have to do with its local setting.†   (source)
  • PLAYER: On the contrary, it's the only kind they do believe.†   (source)
  • On the contrary.†   (source)
  • On the contrary.†   (source)
  • On the contrary he felt flattered; proud.†   (source)
  • On the contrary, that was the greatest of heresies.†   (source)
  • JEAN: On the contrary.†   (source)
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to the contrary as in:  to the contrary

show 10 more with this conextual meaning
  • No matter what anyone says to the contrary, I heard him say it.
  • Unless I hear to the contrary, I will meet you outside the theatre at eight.
    the contrary = something with an opposite or different effect
  • To the contrary: His life hummed with meaning and purpose.†   (source)
  • Children believe that everything bad that happens is somehow their fault, and in this I was no exception; but they also believe in happy endings, despite all evidence to the contrary, and I was no exception in that either.†   (source)
  • If he looked into the strobed rain too long, he ended up curled and oblivious, for if there was no figure to be seen in the falling drops of water, he felt abandoned, and if he saw anything—a shape, a movement, a form—he screamed, silently, despite all resolution to the contrary.†   (source)
  • For some reason, many Americans began to think that all Iranians, despite outward appearances to the contrary, could at any given moment get angry and take prisoners.†   (source)
  • Quite to the contrary, it was one of the most intricate and purposeful constructions ever manufactured by man.†   (source)
  • But if a third of our community questions the president's origin—despite all evidence to the contrary—it's a good bet that the other conspiracies have broader currency than we'd like.†   (source)
  • I would freeze or, the contrary, pursue my activity, pretending not to have heard.†   (source)
  • Quite the contrary.†   (source)
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show 89 more with this conextual meaning
  • The epithet, despite sounding flattering, was quite to the contrary.†   (source)
  • I don't pretend to be an expert at fighting dementors, Harry, quite the contrary...†   (source)
  • She could feel how this country far across the ocean pulled on her and lived inside her despite her wishes to the contrary; it was something she could not deny.†   (source)
  • Atticus, let's get on with these proceedings, and let the record show that the witness has not been sassed, her views to the contrary.†   (source)
  • I'm in no position to make an argument to the contrary.†   (source)
  • But the scratches and bruises were long healed, and all her own statements at the time were to the contrary.†   (source)
  • Because of their meetings at the shot-put circle, the kids at school had made them a couple despite all evidence to the contrary.†   (source)
  • Never heard a whisper to the contrary.†   (source)
  • Mother passed this story on to me, and I was secretly amazed that Peter, who'd been so angry at Dussel, had humbled himself, despite all his assurances to the contrary.†   (source)
  • Quite the contrary.†   (source)
  • Quite to the contrary, he was thriving.†   (source)
  • "To the contrary, ma'am," Bellingham snapped.†   (source)
  • Handcuffs are not intended as long-term restraint devices, millions of Clink franchisees to the contrary.†   (source)
  • Despite numerous reports to the contrary, as far as is known, Sheikh Abdullah al-Janabi escaped from Fallujah and is still at large.†   (source)
  • Fernanda, quite the contrary, raised her pitch.†   (source)
  • Any suggestion to the contrary is ignorant and outrageous.†   (source)
  • "Quite the contrary," Kynes said.†   (source)
  • Without asking their opinion, Severo made them marry, and, despite the predictions to the contrary of Nivea and her friends, they were very happy.†   (source)
  • He constructed a rigid system that said that a young black man in a car running from the police had to be a dangerous criminal, and all evidence to the contrary that would ordinarily have been factored into his thinking—the fact that Russ was just sitting in his car and that he had never gone above seventy miles per hour—did not register at all.†   (source)
  • Despite his statements to the contrary after the mule-barn incident, Roy Lee was still with us.†   (source)
  • The contrary.†   (source)
  • Quite to the contrary, he was so serious, she wondered if he was mocking her.†   (source)
  • They didn't handle the smallish boxes roughly; quite the contrary, they placed them with infinite care onto the waist-high lip of concrete.†   (source)
  • "Quite the contrary, Jake," Judge Atlee said.†   (source)
  • Quite the contrary, for their pleasures were not his; he had no use for card games, golf, cocktails, or buffet suppers served at ten-or, indeed, for any pastime that he felt did not "accomplish something."†   (source)
  • I think perhaps the contrary.†   (source)
  • Disregard for a moment the contrary examples of Steve Forbes, Michael Huffington, and especially Thomas Golisano, who over the course of three gubernatorial elections in New York spent $93 million of his own money and won 4 percent, 8 percent, and 14 percent, respectively, of the vote.†   (source)
  • It was as if she were afraid she had hallucinated him and needed proof to the contrary.†   (source)
  • Miles flinched when Brian mentioned the blanket, and for the first time Brian knew that he was really listening, despite his shouts to the contrary.†   (source)
  • Quite the contrary.†   (source)
  • Despite the many good things Grace had told him (or perhaps because of them) and despite his own best efforts to the contrary, Tom could not fully dislodge a predisposed dislike that was not, he knew, in his nature.†   (source)
  • Stirling had been ordered by Putnam to "repulse" the enemy, and for lack of orders to the contrary, he and his men had held on for nearly four hours.†   (source)
  • They could do this despite the evidence to the contrary around them: the doctors and medics with their surgical instruments and their operating tables ready to be set up on the beaches.†   (source)
  • Some still believe that, despite all evidence to the contrary.†   (source)
  • The way he'd insisted I'm brave, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary.†   (source)
  • To the contrary, I found myself excited, enthralled even, at the prospect of seeing the Great Lady again.†   (source)
  • A glance at his emaciated body, jutting out at harsh angles from under the sheets, testified to the contrary.†   (source)
  • Until someone offers a reasonable argument to the contrary, we do it your way.†   (source)
  • They would then impose themselves upon us with such force that we couldn't conceive the contrary proposition, or build upon it a theoretic edifice.†   (source)
  • His bearing witness in North Vietnam during that war convinced him, despite all official Washington arguments to the contrary, that North Vietnam was inhabited by human beings.†   (source)
  • Do we have any evidence to the contrary?†   (source)
  • Really, she thought she handled the Mini, the roads, the left-hand drive very well, whatever Meara said to the contrary.†   (source)
  • She stared in astonishment at a paragraph in a syndicated column from New York, which stated over emphatically that Mr. James Taggart wished it to be known that his sister had died in an airplane crash, any unpatriotic rumors to the contrary notwithstanding.†   (source)
  • Despite her claims to the contrary, Jerry moved with quick agility through the door.†   (source)
  • Without a thought to the contrary.†   (source)
  • Quite the contrary.†   (source)
  • Well, you are a slave, my friend, despite your attempts to the contrary.†   (source)
  • It is amazing what mothers will believe despite all evidence to the contrary—anything to save themselves.†   (source)
  • To the contrary.†   (source)
  • I more or less gave everyone near top marks for everything, even in the face of obvious evidence to the contrary.†   (source)
  • Indeed, the contrary appears more likely.†   (source)
  • It's just that each of us feels very strongly about our beliefs, and we're not going to change our minds about something unless someone else offers a very good case to the contrary.†   (source)
  • The contrary is shown in the vicissitudes and fate of the republic.†   (source)
  • Despite some reports to the contrary, the weather is cooperating very well and it looks to be a bumper crop.†   (source)
  • Officers sometimes winked at this activity despite orders to the contrary.†   (source)
  • On, the contrary, it takes the time-stones of events to give a memory past dimension.†   (source)
  • Though he pretended to be above such ideas as racial superiority and spoke with genuine warmth, the entire context of his talk reeked of preconceived ideas to the contrary.†   (source)
  • To the contrary, while she stood there for a moment with one hand caressing the doorknob, a curious, fleeting glint of mild amusement crossed her face, as if she might give a gentle laugh; her lips parted, her gleaming teeth caught the bright afternoon light, and then he saw her tongue run across her upper lip, interrupting the words she had been poised to say.†   (source)
  • For all that anyone knew to the contrary, the Overlords might be tone deaf.†   (source)
  • I do not know why you were invited here, but you must realize that there is little interest here in either books or writers ...rather to the contrary.†   (source)
  • But the contrary is also true.†   (source)
  • However much Filat tried to convince them to the contrary, Lara and Amalia Karlovna insisted that the shots were blanks.†   (source)
  • But now she went on, "That's just barely conceivable, just about one chance in a million, and so long as there is that chance, so long as we don't absolutely know to the contrary, I'm not going to dismiss the possibility entirely from my mind.†   (source)
  • That's only the contrary way she talks when you all come," said the first old lady with sudden intimacy.†   (source)
  • Public opinion to the contrary, he is not guilty.   (source)
  • For all the writer of these lines knows to the contrary, she is living still.†   (source)
  • I have seen persuasive evidence to the contrary.†   (source)
  • "I see no evidence to the contrary!" shouted Fudge, now matching her anger, his face purpling.†   (source)
  • "For me, it was the contrary," Pari says.†   (source)
  • To the contrary, he enjoyed tipping a glass now and then and was an incorrigible ham.†   (source)
  • Quite to the contrary, Dr. Abaddon looked almost aristocratic in his impeccably tailored suit.†   (source)
  • Quite the contrary: he felt better than he had in years.†   (source)
  • No indication from initial investigation to the contrary.†   (source)
  • He sounded persuasive and, despite her knowledge to the contrary, caring.†   (source)
  • I am going to show you evidence to the contrary.†   (source)
  • Quite to the contrary, it's a land of light, and soon I'll have to ask you if I'm floating.†   (source)
  • Quite the contrary, sir—it is a privilege and honor.†   (source)
  • Anything to the contrary would have been a surprise.†   (source)
  • But in a state of disunion, the contrary of this supposition would be almost unavoidable.†   (source)
  • With no evidence to the contrary, Conklin presumed the worst.†   (source)
  • Notwithstanding his claim to Abigail to the contrary, anxiety was not at all good for his health.†   (source)
  • They plan to give out the antivirus selectively, regardless of any promise to the contrary.†   (source)
  • "To the contrary," Orfeo said, wagging his finger, "the war goes brilliantly, and I don't even care.†   (source)
  • If we arbitrarily suppose the contrary, we can deduce anything we want.†   (source)
  • To the contrary, he was seduced by the hope that seemed to come to them so easily.†   (source)
  • NW: Quite the contrary.†   (source)
  • He supposed he had been pleasant in his way, but he had also seemed vain and, whatever he said to the contrary, much too surprised that a Muggle-born should make a good witch.†   (source)
  • She hasn't said this with any particular malice—quite the contrary, her words are very matter-of-fact.†   (source)
  • Quite to the contrary, he thought a prompt dispensing of pleasantries and a quick shift to the business at hand utterly in keeping with the etiquette of tea—perhaps even essential to the institution.†   (source)
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show 10 more examples with any meaning
  • He drifted back from her boat, bobbing in their contrary wakes.†   (source)
  • And if it had been one of theirs, all but the most contrary would have bounded forward.†   (source)
  • Yet against his will, he was visited by contrary examples.†   (source)
  • Some obstinate, contrary part of him still couldn't bear it.†   (source)
  • The Vatican is made up of deeply pious men who truly believe these contrary documents could only be false testimony.†   (source)
  • Head and heart are contrary historians.†   (source)
  • "I don't mean to be contrary," said Harry Harrison (the other Helper signaled her vigorous agreement), "and I hope you won't be displeased.†   (source)
  • "HE WAS USED," said Owen Meany, who was in a contrary mood.†   (source)
  • Lola was required only to remain silent about the truth, banish it and forget it entirely, and persuade herself not of some contrary tale, but simply of her own uncertainty.†   (source)
  • She said it was the strangest thing, it's like it was broken twenty years ago and allowed to set in the "most contrary" of directions.†   (source)
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show 190 more examples with any meaning
  • contrary, it would-at the very least-amuse us and give at least a glimpse of our fellow travelers" souls before the Shrike or some other calamity distracts us.†   (source)
  • Or simply contrary.†   (source)
  • But I'm a contrary person.†   (source)
  • "Carlisle promised," I mumbled, contrary out of habit.†   (source)
  • I am fond of Miss Emily Dickinson: No snikcidy lime, a contrary name with a delicious sour-green taste.†   (source)
  • It was not the most benign season on the ocean, due to the December trade winds, and the historic schooner, the only one that would risk the crossing, might find itself blown by a contrary wind back to the port where it had started.†   (source)
  • It was weird, really, to have something so contrary in common.†   (source)
  • One of the few societies to take a contrary view was the Huichol tribe in Mexico.†   (source)
  • The smell was both astringent and saccharine, these two contrary characteristics coming together in what she'd come to think of as fetor terribilis.†   (source)
  • Contrary as he was, he might have asked me to sew it back on.†   (source)
  • The East River, no river at all but a saltwater estuary nearly a mile wide, was famously difficult to navigate, with swift, contrary currents and tides of as much as six feet.†   (source)
  • He taught me a lot on those outings: how to account for the wind's contrary nature, its irritating whims; how to move silently across the sand, a no-brainer compared to the jungle; how to aim slightly in front of a moving target, assuming a straight-on run.†   (source)
  • And she wasn't a contrary person, Bryan reminded herself almost fiercely.†   (source)
  • What right did he have to make such bold statements so soon and in such contrary circumstances?†   (source)
  • If she cries or makes a mess or decides to be contrary (and these are relatively rare), it doesn't bother.†   (source)
  • To let all Luna—yes, and all those earthworms, especially ex-Lunar ex-Authonty—know that we not repudiating Adam Selene, on contrary he was our beloved elder statesman and was not President simply because he chose not to be!†   (source)
  • Contrarily, they were also the eyes of a zealot whose blind dedication was the core of his strength; white heat was in the pupils, lightning in the orbs.†   (source)
  • In cities like Laredo it might appear that this is happening, but there is contrary evidence.†   (source)
  • There is no screaming; she's only being contrary.†   (source)
  • With neither apologies nor care, nor thought, nor credit given to the many contrary proofs, Alessandro believed that the portrait of Bindo Altoviti— "il ritratto suo quando era giovane," his portrait when he was young-was as alive as any of the light that calibrates the time that says of us that we live.†   (source)
  • Rather than present himself as eager for the "entire strangers" to be captured, Mudd is vague and contrary.†   (source)
  • Melisandre had been much in his thoughts as Shayala's Dance made her way across Blackwater Bay and through the Gullet, tacking against perverse contrary winds.†   (source)
  • She said, "I don't know why you're being so contrary."†   (source)
  • Edna Graves was much more formidable and contrary.†   (source)
  • Moreover, consistent with the courageous philosophy that had governed his return to public life, Lamar was determined not to back down merely because his section was contrary minded.†   (source)
  • Contrarily, I do not think all of you are insane.†   (source)
  • Contrarily, I listened harder.†   (source)
  • "No, you didn't," I said, just to be contrary.†   (source)
  • She was too contrary, impetuous, and annoying to be an effective mole.†   (source)
  • As the Count looked across at Mishka, he was moved by two contrary currents of emotion.†   (source)
  • The stray seemed just contrary enough to come back after wintering with some adopted family.†   (source)
  • His mother feigned indifference, as with a contrary pup, though he knew she felt otherwise.†   (source)
  • What possibly could have happened to reunite these contrary souls?†   (source)
  • However, audacity and steadfastness—entirely contrary means—have sometimes served to produce the same effect....†   (source)
  • One of the pups had been in that contrary mood that came over them sometimes, when they cared more about drama than praise.†   (source)
  • And where Nina would not hesitate to cut someone off in mid-assertion in order to make a contrary point and then declare the matter decided once and for all, Sofia would listen so attentively and with such a sympathetic smile that her interlocutor, having been given free rein to express his views at considerable length, often found his voice petering out as he began to question his own premises.... Demure.†   (source)
  • So ten days later, Party Premier Malenkov was forced to pass his chairmanship of the Secretariat to the conservative Khrushchev, setting the stage for a duumvirate of antagonists—a delicate balance of authority between two men of contrary views and ambiguous alliances, which would keep the world guessing for a few years to come.†   (source)
  • Since everything was pink, or had pink incorporated somewhere, I'd decided to be contrary, digging in the very bottom drawer until I found a plain black Onesie and some bright green pants.†   (source)
  • "After a detention of nine days by contrary winds," he wrote, "the Constitution took advantage of a brisk breeze, and went out of the harbor and out of sight this afternoon, making a beautiful and noble figure."†   (source)
  • But we heard contrary views from women with long experience fighting trafficking in the red-light districts of Kolkata.†   (source)
  • At age thirty-seven, he was at his professional prime but, unlike Howe, a man with no bad habits or inclinations to self-indulgence, and if not as intellectually gifted as Clinton, he had no peevish or contrary side.†   (source)
  • The crew for the most part had been well behaved, no more irritable or contrary than any other group of men.†   (source)
  • The truth is that Florentino Ariza was sure she had not returned, until the telegraph operator in Riohacha confirmed that they had embarked on Friday aboard the very same schooner that did not arrive the day before because of contrary winds, so that during the weekend he watched for any sign of life in her house, and at dusk on Monday he saw through the windows a light that moved through the house and was extinguished, a little after nine, in the bedroom with the balcony.†   (source)
  • Not that he was really bad, but there was something risky about him, something contrary and outrageous.†   (source)
  • Especially for those who had been with Washington and who knew what a close call it was at the beginning—how often circumstance, storms, contrary winds, the oddities or strengths of individual character had made the difference—the outcome seemed little short of a miracle.†   (source)
  • The "contrary" winds of the afternoon of March 5, the storm that followed that night, and the "weather continuing boisterous the next day and night" were the deciding factors, Howe wrote, in that they gave the enemy still more time to improve their defenses of the Heights.†   (source)
  • The justice of our cause, the hope of success, and every other circumstance that can enliven us, must be put into the scale against those of a contrary kind, which I allow to be serious....My honor, duty, and every other tie held sacred among men, call upon me to proceed with firmness and resolution....My country will, I trust, yet be free, whatever may be our fate who are cooped up, or are in danger of being so, on this tongue of land, where we ought never to have been.†   (source)
  • In a feat of extraordinary seamanship, at the helm and manning oars hour after hour, they negotiated the river's swift, contrary currents in boats so loaded with troops and supplies, horses and cannon, that the water was often but inches below the gunnels— and all in pitch dark, with no running lights.†   (source)
  • "Yes, both the ride—and you," flashed Carley, contrarily.†   (source)
  • Is there anything you dislike in me that you act so contrarily to my wishes?†   (source)
  • He rightly judged that, at first at all events, they would go in a contrary direction from their late companion.†   (source)
  • Mistress Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow?†   (source)
  • But now, like a contrary child, the half-caste wanted to start again.†   (source)
  • Finally only a door separated us and there we were pulling it in contrary ways.†   (source)
  • In spite of all his insults, he did love her and he was just so contrary he didn't want to come out frankly and put it into words, for fear she'd laugh.†   (source)
  • Then from a strange and contrary fever of love Wang Lung would not go again to the great tea house until the affair was arranged.†   (source)
  • For it needs little skill in psychology to be sure that a highly gifted girl who had tried to use her gift for poetry would have been so thwarted and hindered by other people, so tortured and pulled asunder by her own contrary instincts, that she must have lost her health and sanity to a certainty.†   (source)
  • He remembered remembering contrary things, but those were false memories, products of self-deception.†   (source)
  • There was a recess and in the afternoon five doctors said that they thought Bigger was "sane, but sullen and contrary."†   (source)
  • Fray Pedro Simon reports, in his Noticias historiales de las conquistes de Tierra Firme en las Indias Occidentales (Cuenca, 1627), that after work had been begun amongst the peoples of Tunja and Sogamozzo in Colombia, South America, the demon of that place began giving contrary doctrines.†   (source)
  • He paused and then said, 'When I first came here, madame, the children's nursery rhyme came into my head: 'Mistress Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow?†   (source)
  • She pointed in a contrary direction, the direction in which he was journeying.†   (source)
  • The man's as contrary as air currents or water currents.†   (source)
  • We were to adhere strictly to that plan, unless I had contrary orders, and I have had none.†   (source)
  • Contrary winds buffeted at the street corner.†   (source)
  • Why, on this day of all others, was he so hopelessly contrary?†   (source)
  • They did not want to head out into the wilderness, and on the start were contrary.†   (source)
  • She began to feel hot and as contrary as she had ever felt in her life.†   (source)
  • Already she felt less "contrary," though she did not know why.†   (source)
  • "The rain is as contrary as I ever was," she said.†   (source)
  • They sang— Mistress Mary, quite contrary,
    How does your garden grow?†   (source)
  • She knew she felt contrary again, and obstinate, and she did not care at all.†   (source)
  • Chapter 2 — Mistress Mary Quite Contrary†   (source)
  • Mary', quite contrary, How does your garden grow?†   (source)
  • And how long ago is it since you said the very contrary?†   (source)
  • These contrary tendencies explain each other.†   (source)
  • We had to drive those hogs home—ten miles; and no ladies were ever more fickle-minded or contrary.†   (source)
  • 'Contrary, then,' answered another, in deep but softened tones.†   (source)
  • It was the graceful contrary of the stupid side of weakness—especially the feminine variety.†   (source)
  • I hold that a contrary tendency may distinctly be observed.†   (source)
  • But the wind was contrary, the sea bad; they tacked and kept offshore.†   (source)
  • If thinks must go contrary with me, and I must go contrary myself, let me go contrary in my parish.†   (source)
  • Exceptions to this rule may be met with, but not a contrary principle.†   (source)
  • Now, allowing for contrary winds, accidents, and a woman's weakness, there are twelve days.†   (source)
  • The greatest advantage of religion is to inspire diametrically contrary principles.†   (source)
  • I trace amongst our contemporaries two contrary notions which are equally injurious.†   (source)
  • I feel my troubles, and they make me contrary.†   (source)
  • 'Contrary ways, please God!' cried Peggotty, with great animation.†   (source)
  • Hence proceeded the two-fold contrary tendencies which I have just pointed out.†   (source)
  • I am a lone lorn creetur', and had much better not make myself contrary here.†   (source)
  • How could I expect to be wanted, being so lone and lorn, and so contrary!'†   (source)
  • From this moment the emotion which had been accumulating in his breast as the bottled-up effect of solitude and the poetized locality he dwelt in, insensibly began to precipitate itself on this half-visionary form; and he perceived that, whatever his obedient wish in a contrary direction, he would soon be unable to resist the desire to make himself known to her.†   (source)
  • He did not paralyze the nerve of antithesis with confusion and obstructionism the way Naphta did; he was not ambiguous like him, or if so, then in an entirely contrary, positive fashion—he was the staggering mystery that went not only beyond mere stupidity and cleverness, but also beyond so many of the other opposites that Settembrini and Naphta conjured up to create high tension for.†   (source)
  • It was as though he had sailed for many years over a great waste of waters, with peril and privation, and at last had come upon a fair haven, but as he was about to enter, some contrary wind had arisen and drove him out again into the open sea; and because he had let his mind dwell on these soft meads and pleasant woods of the land, the vast deserts of the ocean filled him with anguish.†   (source)
  • In the years we've rustled together we never had a contrary word till I let Beasley fill my ears with his promises.†   (source)
  • I wasn't as contrary as they were.†   (source)
  • If the milk of human decency is so soured in your breast that you can't hev a kind feelin', then try to avoid the onpleasantness that'll result from any contrary move on your part to-day.†   (source)
  • Despite superficial and temporary signs which might lead one to entertain a contrary opinion, there was never a time when I felt more hopeful for the race than I do at the present.†   (source)
  • The rise of her blood as their eyes met was succeeded by a contrary motion, a wave of resistance and withdrawal.†   (source)
  • England was alive, throbbing through all her estuaries, crying for joy through the mouths of all her gulls, and the north wind, with contrary motion, blew stronger against her rising seas.†   (source)
  • They looked in at a shop window; they did not wish to buy or to talk but to part, only with contrary winds buffeting the street corner, with some sort of lapse in the tides of the body, two forces meeting in a swirl, morning and afternoon, they paused.†   (source)
  • Here he manifested hunger, then a contrary nature, next insubordination, and finally direct hostility.†   (source)
  • She danced again, and helped Flo entertain her guests, and passed that door often; and once stood before it, deliberately, with all the strange and contrary impulse so inscrutable in a woman, and never for a moment wholly lost the sense of the man's boldness.†   (source)
  • Mary had worn her contrary scowl for an hour after that, but it made her think several entirely new things.†   (source)
  • It was in this way Mistress Mary arrived at Misselthwaite Manor and she had perhaps never felt quite so contrary in all her life.†   (source)
  • The children call her 'Mistress Mary Quite Contrary,' and though it's naughty of them, one can't help understanding it.†   (source)
  • Mistress Mary forgot that she had ever been contrary in her life when he allowed her to draw closer and closer to him, and bend down and talk and try to make something like robin sounds.†   (source)
  • Then Mary told him about Basil and his brothers and sisters in India and of how she had hated them and of their calling her "Mistress Mary Quite Contrary."†   (source)
  • Mistress Mary felt quite contrary.†   (source)
  • He had a surly old face, and did not seem at all pleased to see her—but then she was displeased with his garden and wore her "quite contrary" expression, and certainly did not seem at all pleased to see him.†   (source)
  • There doesn't seem to be no need for no one to be contrary when there's flowers an' such like, an' such lots o' friendly wild things runnin' about makin' homes for themselves, or buildin' nests an' singin' an' whistlin', does there?†   (source)
  • If she had been an affectionate child, who had been used to being loved, she would have broken her heart, but even though she was "Mistress Mary Quite Contrary" she was desolate, and the bright-breasted little bird brought a look into her sour little face which was almost a smile.†   (source)
  • He sang it until the other children heard and laughed, too; and the crosser Mary got, the more they sang "Mistress Mary, quite contrary"; and after that as long as she stayed with them they called her "Mistress Mary Quite Contrary" when they spoke of her to each other, and often when they spoke to her.†   (source)
  • But that doesn't take into account bad weather, contrary winds, shipwrecks, railway accidents, and so on.†   (source)
  • But, after we had taken in our cargo, the wind became contrary, so that we were four or five days without being able to enter the Rhone.†   (source)
  • Thinks go too contrary with me.†   (source)
  • Henchard sent the two men staggering in contrary directions by collaring one with each hand, turned to the horse that was down, and extricated him after some trouble.†   (source)
  • But whilst they suffer from cold in proportion to their rise, we were beginning to feel a contrary effect.†   (source)
  • In the midst of a conversation that was started about Napoleon's Spanish affairs, which they all agreed in approving, Prince Andrew began to express a contrary opinion.†   (source)
  • I've always set store by the Quakers, they are so prettyspoken, clever people, and it's a wonderment to me how your father come to marry into a church family; for they are as contrary in religion as can be.†   (source)
  • Now I can consort with such a sailor as yourself, Eau-douce, and find nothing very contrary in our gifts, though yours belong to the lakes and mine to the woods.†   (source)
  • Tradition,—which sometimes brings down truth that history has let slip, but is oftener the wild babble of the time, such as was formerly spoken at the fireside and now congeals in newspapers,—tradition is responsible for all contrary averments.†   (source)
  • Contrary-minded say, 'No'.†   (source)
  • He ended by asserting that for every individual, like ourselves, who does not believe in God or immortality, the moral law of nature must immediately be changed into the exact contrary of the former religious law, and that egoism, even to crime, must become not only lawful but even recognized as the inevitable, the most rational, even honorable outcome of his position.†   (source)
  • It is grievous to think that those valiant barons, to whose stand against the crown the liberties of England were indebted for their existence, should themselves have been such dreadful oppressors, and capable of excesses contrary not only to the laws of England, but to those of nature and humanity.†   (source)
  • By and by it finds how to join two things and see in them one nature; then three, then three thousand; and so, tyrannized over by its own unifying instinct, it goes on tying things together, diminishing anomalies, discovering roots running under ground whereby contrary and remote things cohere and flower out from one stem.†   (source)
  • From the very beginning of his illness, ever since he had first been to see the doctor, Ivan Ilych's life had been divided between two contrary and alternating moods: now it was despair and the expectation of this uncomprehended and terrible death, and now hope and an intently interested observation of the functioning of his organs.†   (source)
  • Gals is nat'lly made contrary; and so, if you thinks they've gone one road, it is sartin you'd better go t' other, and then you'll be sure to find 'em.†   (source)
  • To every villainous meanness of this model man it gave a hidden, higher, Socialistic interpretation, the exact contrary of its real character.†   (source)
  • A most contrary circumstance it is, for I want certain information out of that girl, and she must be brought to reason somehow.†   (source)
  • And what a mockery to have so long worn on his breast his father's last commands, written in his own hand, only to act in so horribly contrary a sense!†   (source)
  • Not that we would have endangered his safety by any tremendous weather—but only by a steady contrary wind, or a calm.†   (source)
  • Unfortunately, whether through envy or stupidity, all Morrel's correspondents did not take this view; and some even came to a contrary decision.†   (source)
  • Seeing, on the other side, some Cossacks (les Cosaques) and the wide-spreading steppes in the midst of which lay the holy city of Moscow (Moscou, la ville sainte), the capital of a realm such as the Scythia into which Alexander the Great had marched—Napoleon unexpectedly, and contrary alike to strategic and diplomatic considerations, ordered an advance, and the next day his army began to cross the Niemen.†   (source)
  • Meg and Amy were contrary-minded, and Mr. Winkle rose to say with great elegance, "We don't wish any boys, they only joke and bounce about.†   (source)
  • Police-sergeants maintained, on the sides of the boulevard, these two interminable parallel files, moving in contrary directions, and saw to it that nothing interfered with that double current, those two brooks of carriages, flowing, the one down stream, the other up stream, the one towards the Chaussee d'Antin, the other towards the Faubourg Saint-Antoine.†   (source)
  • In punctuality, she was as inevitable as a clock, and as inexorable as a railroad engine; and she held in most decided contempt and abomination anything of a contrary character.†   (source)
  • She rushed out at an opposite door from the one her uncle was approaching, and was walking up and down the East room in the utmost confusion of contrary feeling, before Sir Thomas's politeness or apologies were over, or he had reached the beginning of the joyful intelligence which his visitor came to communicate.†   (source)
  • "Oh, dear!" sighed Amy, "now she's in a contrary fit, and will drive me distracted before I can get her properly ready.†   (source)
  • Already Dantes had visited this maritime Bourse two or three times, and seeing all these hardy free-traders, who supplied the whole coast for nearly two hundred leagues in extent, he had asked himself what power might not that man attain who should give the impulse of his will to all these contrary and diverging minds.†   (source)
  • "Yer see," said Sam, "yer see, Andy, if any such thing should happen as that Mas'r Haley's horse should begin to act contrary, and cut up, you and I jist lets go of our'n to help him, and we'll help him—oh yes!"†   (source)
  • I have already shown that two contrary interests were opposed to each other in the establishment of the Federal Constitution.†   (source)
  • Thus, not only are physical causes inadequate to produce results analogous to those which occur in North America, but they are unable to raise the population of South America above the level of European States, where they act in a contrary direction.†   (source)
  • He refused to believe it at first, got angry with himself, and couldn't understand it, but these hearts of ours are curious and contrary things, and time and nature work their will in spite of us.†   (source)
  • To expect to acquire the former and to escape the latter is to cherish one of those illusions which commonly mislead nations in their times of sickness, when, tired with faction and exhausted by effort, they attempt to combine hostile opinions and contrary principles upon the same soil.†   (source)
  • One of the most ordinary weaknesses of the human intellect is to seek to reconcile contrary principles, and to purchase peace at the expense of logic.†   (source)
  • These contrary tendencies of opinion ultimately turn on either side to such blind instincts and such ungovernable habits that they still direct the actions of men, in spite of particular exceptions.†   (source)
  • Here a distinction must be made; contrary interests sometimes arise in the different provinces of a vast empire, which often terminate in open dissensions; and the extent of the country is then most prejudicial to the power of the State.†   (source)
  • These two conditions, which must never be either separately considered or confounded together, inspire the citizen of a democratic country with very contrary propensities.†   (source)
  • An attentive examination of what is going on in the United States will easily convince us that two opposite tendencies exist in that country, like two distinct currents flowing in contrary directions in the same channel.†   (source)
  • 'I'm a lone lorn creetur' myself, and everythink that reminds me of creetur's that ain't lone and lorn, goes contrary with me.'†   (source)
  • Yet these two different conditions of life are perhaps not so contrary as may be supposed, and it is natural that the American women should pass through the one to arrive at the other.†   (source)
  • At last she shed tears on that subject, and said again that she was 'a lone lorn creetur' and everythink went contrary with her'.†   (source)
  • But if the inhabitants of these vast regions are not divided by contrary interests, the extent of the territory may be favorable to their prosperity; for the unity of the government promotes the interchange of the different productions of the soil, and increases their value by facilitating their consumption.†   (source)
  • Alarmed by the rapidity of its progress, those who despair of arresting its motion endeavor to obstruct it by difficulties and impediments; they vainly seek to counteract its effect by contrary efforts; but it gradually reduces or destroys every obstacle, until by its incessant activity the bulwarks of the influence of wealth are ground down to the fine and shifting sand which is the basis of democracy.†   (source)
  • 'I am a lone lorn creetur',' were Mrs. Gummidge's words, when that unpleasant occurrence took place, 'and everythink goes contrary with me.'†   (source)
  • Our contemporaries are constantly excited by two conflicting passions; they want to be led, and they wish to remain free: as they cannot destroy either one or the other of these contrary propensities, they strive to satisfy them both at once.†   (source)
  • You don't feel like me, Dan'l; thinks don't go contrary with you, nor you with them; you had better do it yourself.'†   (source)
  • Thus two contrary revolutions appear in our days to be going on; the one continually weakening the supreme power, the other as continually strengthening it: at no other period in our history has it appeared so weak or so strong.†   (source)
  • Causes Which May Partly Correct These Tendencies Of The Democracy Contrary effects produced on peoples as well as on individuals by great dangers—Why so many distinguished men stood at the head of affairs in America fifty years ago—Influence which the intelligence and the manners of the people exercise upon its choice—Example of New England—States of the Southwest—Influence of certain laws upon the choice of the people—Election by an elected body—Its effects upon the composition of the Senate.†   (source)
  • We thus arrive at this singular consequence, that of all armies those most ardently desirous of war are democratic armies, and of all nations those most fond of peace are democratic nations: and, what makes these facts still more extraordinary, is that these contrary effects are produced at the same time by the principle of equality.†   (source)
  • I know that I am a lone lorn creetur', and not only that everythink goes contrary with me, but that I go contrary with everybody.†   (source)
  • My troubles has made me contrary.†   (source)
  • 'I feel it more than anybody else,' said Mrs. Gummidge; 'I'm a lone lorn creetur', and she used to be a'most the only thing that didn't go contrary with me.'†   (source)
  • he doth shame unto the order of knighthood, and contrary unto his oath; it is pity that he liveth.†   (source)
  • and credit; particularly, I was told, that mention being made of the new printing-office at the merchants' Every-night club, the general opinion was that it must fail, there being already two printers in the place, Keimer and Bradford; but Dr. Baird (whom you and I saw many years after at his native place, St. Andrew's in Scotland) gave a contrary opinion: "For the industry of that Franklin," says he, "is superior to any thing I ever saw of the kind; I see him still at work when I go home from club, and he is at work again before his neighbors are out of bed."†   (source)
  • Madam, said Palomides, ye may say whatso ye will, I may not contrary you, but by my knighthood I knew not Sir Tristram.†   (source)
  • The different and contrary reasons of dislike to my plan makes me suspect that it was really the true medium; and I am still of opinion it would have been happy for both sides the water if it had been adopted.†   (source)
  • Of these are a Socratic dialogue, tending to prove that, whatever might be his parts and abilities, a vicious man could not properly be called a man of sense; and a discourse on self-denial, showing that virtue was not secure till its practice became a habitude, and was free from the opposition of contrary inclinations.†   (source)
  • Now, said the lady, sithen ye be set among the knights of heavenly adventures, if adventure fell thee contrary at that tournament have thou no marvel, for that tournament yesterday was but a tokening of Our Lord.†   (source)
  • But Sir Launcelot would neither for king, queen, nor knight, have the prize, but where the cry was cried through the field: Sir Launcelot, Sir Launcelot hath won the field this day, Sir Launcelot let make another cry contrary: Sir Tristram hath won the field, for he began first, and last he hath endured, and so hath he done the first day, the second, and the third day.†   (source)
  • For we read not, that the Priest, or any other did worship the Cherubins; but contrarily wee read (2 Kings 18.4.)†   (source)
  • And contrarily, when the evill exceedeth the good, the whole is Apparent or Seeming Evill: so that he who hath by Experience, or Reason, the greatest and surest prospect of Consequences, Deliberates best himself; and is able, when he will, to give the best counsel unto others.†   (source)
  • A Signe, is the Event Antecedent, of the Consequent; and contrarily, the Consequent of the Antecedent, when the like Consequences have been observed, before: And the oftner they have been observed, the lesse uncertain is the Signe.†   (source)
  • When the Actor doth any thing against the Law of Nature by command of the Author, if he be obliged by former Covenant to obey him, not he, but the Author breaketh the Law of Nature: for though the Action be against the Law of Nature; yet it is not his: but contrarily; to refuse to do it, is against the Law of Nature, that forbiddeth breach of Covenant.†   (source)
  • I was tempted to insist on attending in my own clothes, just to be contrary, but the memory of fat Rupert's response to my shift was sufficient to deter me.†   (source)
  • [36] Now and then, of course, a contrary tendency asserts itself†   (source)
  • Here the listener who was none other than the Scotch student, a little fume of a fellow, blond as tow, congratulated in the liveliest fashion with the young gentleman and, interrupting the narrative at a salient point, having desired his visavis with a polite beck to have the obligingness to pass him a flagon of cordial waters at the same time by a questioning poise of the head (a whole century of polite breeding had not achieved so nice a gesture) to which was united an equivalent but contrary balance of the bottle asked the narrator as plainly as was ever done in words if he might treat him with a cup of it.†   (source)
  • /Attackted/ and /drownded/ seem to be examples of an effort to dispose of harsh combinations by a contrary process.†   (source)
  • But during the seventeenth century it seems to have been arrested, and even to have given way to a contrary tendency—that is, toward strong conjugations.†   (source)
  • What lies at the bottom of it seems to be a feeling somewhat resembling that which causes the use of the objective form before the verb, but exactly contrary in its effects.†   (source)
  • But in the presence of two exactly contrary tendencies, the one in accordance with the general movement of the language [Pg200] since the Norman Conquest and the other opposed to it, it is unsafe, of course, to attempt any very positive generalizations.†   (source)
  • Our now universal use of /you/ for /ye/ in the nominative shows the dative and accusative swallowing the nominative, and the practical disappearance of /hither/, /thither/ and /whither/, whose place is now taken by /here/, /there/ and /where/, shows a contrary process.†   (source)
  • How far this destruction of its forms may go in the absence of strong contrary influences is exhibited by the rise of the Romance languages from the vulgar Latin of the Roman provinces, and, here at home, by the decay of foreign languages in competition with English.†   (source)
  • yet the growth of the seed leaving,
    To troops out of the war arising, they the tasks I have set
    promulging,
    To women certain whispers of myself bequeathing, their affection
    me more clearly explaining,
    To young men my problems offering—no dallier I—I the muscle of
    their brains trying,
    So I pass, a little time vocal, visible, contrary,
    Afterward a melodious echo, passionately bent for, (death making
    me really undying,)
    The best of me then when no longer visible, for toward that I have
    been incessantly preparing.†   (source)
  • And wouldst thou turn our offers contrary?†   (source)
  • he doth shame unto the order of knighthood, and contrary unto his oath; it is pity that he liveth.†   (source)
  • [Aside] He speaks the mere contrary: crosses love not him†   (source)
  • No, to their lives bad friends were contrary.†   (source)
  • CHAPTER VIII — OF THE VERTUES COMMONLY CALLED INTELLECTUAL; AND THEIR CONTRARY DEFECTS†   (source)
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