positive

in a sentence

grouped by contextual meaning

I'm positive our team will win on Friday.

When he drank, he was quite positive that he was swallowing them.  (source) Markus Zusak, The Book Thief, 2005

"You sure you're not up for the Halloween Parade?" "Positive."  (source) R. J. Palacio, Wonder, 2012

So don't press it unless you're absolutely positive it's the right thing to do, OK?  (source) Ernest Cline, Ready Player One, 2011

Absolutely, positively, I am live on every screen in Panem.  (source) Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games, 2008

I think that's very kind, very noble," Pansy went on with deepening positiveness.†  (source) Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady - Volumes 1 & 2, 1881

But you have to achieve positivity in order to maintain it.†  (source) Tommy Orange, There There, 2018

"Are you sure?" "Positive," said Hermione, shifting Scabbers the rat so that she could sit down on the end of Ron's four-poster.  (source) J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 1998

But I began to put on weight, and I was positively chubby by the time I started the fifth grade.  (source) J. D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy, 2016

But in spite of Macaulay's brilliancy and his admirable faculty of making the commonplace seem fresh and picturesque, his positiveness wearied me at times, and his frequent sacrifices of truth to effect kept me in a questioning attitude very unlike the attitude of reverence in which I had listened to the Demosthenes of Great Britain.†  (source) Helen Keller, Story of My Life, 1903

Positivity anytime was hard for me to take, but in the morning with a hangover, almost impossible.†  (source) Sarah Dessen, Lock and Key, 2008

"I'm absolutely positive," he assured Gallien, "I won't run into anything I can't deal with on my own."  (source) Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild, 1996

With irises as dark and foreboding as the deep, it was positively unnerving.  (source) Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow, 2016

Lower gasoline prices have positively affected movie fast food sales.

We don't have a solution yet, but our recent experiment was a positive step in the right direction.

Wage growth had a positive impact on the stock market.

I'm making a list of the positives and negatives of switching jobs

Curly finally came up with something positive to contribute.  (source) Carl Hiassen, Hoot, 2002

People were scarcely real to them, in the sense of being warmly or positively (or even angrily) felt about… The three men under sentence of death had shallow emotions regarding their own fate and that of their victims.  (source) Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, 1966

His ear infections and nerve damage were still contorting the marching pattern at the Hitler Youth, which, I can assure you, was not a positive thing.  (source) Markus Zusak, The Book Thief, 2005

But there are also a lot of positives to military service.  (source) Chris Kyle, American Sniper, 2012

When citizens honor a person, he responds positively.  (source) James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, & John Jay, The Federalist Papers -- Modern English Edition 2, 2008

"Personally I see nothing positive at all about Chris McCandless's lifestyle or wilderness doctrine," scolded another correspondent.  (source) Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild, 1996

It's society that implants positives or negatives onto certain ideas.†  (source) Sharon M. Draper, Tears of a Tiger, 1994

He got his hands on a gun for self-defense but was quickly arrested for it and placed in a juvenile camp where supervisors reported that he eagerly participated in and positively responded to the structured environment and guidance of staff members.  (source) Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy, 2014

It's always a positive force.  (source) Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist, 1988

We're getting a lot of positive feedback about the proposed changes.

"You liked it?" I said, getting my second taste—and how sweet it was—of a positive review.  (source) Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner, 2003

But some of the reaction in Pakistan was not so positive.  (source) Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, 2013

She must have had some sort of positive emotion about him though.  (source) Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, 2003

To ensure that his message got through, he decided to speak positively about his captors.  (source) Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken, 2010

The materials we developed were generating positive feedback, and I became hopeful that we might be able to push back against the suppression of this difficult history of racial injustice.  (source) Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy, 2014

I always tried to be positive with her, although I'd learned that even compliments were a kind of insult to Lou Ann, causing her to wrinkle her face and advise me to make an appointment with an eye doctor.  (source) Barbara Kingsolver, The Bean Trees, 1988

He had never knowingly given her pain, but he now felt that she required more positive kindness; and with that view endeavoured, in the first place, to lessen her fears of them all, and gave her especially a great deal of good advice as to playing with Maria and Julia, and being as merry as possible.  (source) Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, 1814

Women have always had it hard in this country, Laila, but they're probably more free now, under the communists, and have more rights than they've ever had before, Babi said, always lowering his voice, aware of how intolerant Mammy was of even remotely positive talk of the communists.  (source) Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns, 2007

But still not everyone in Pakistan was so positive. Though my father had tried to keep it from me, I knew some people were saying he had shot me, or that I wasn't shot at all and we had staged it so we could live overseas.  (source) Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, 2013

It would be a generous one, more generous than his length of service warranted, because, let's be frank, his friends at AnooYoo wanted Jimmy to remember them in a positive manner, in his terrific new position.  (source) Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, 2003

The media in Swat were under pressure to give positive coverage to the Taliban—some even respectfully called the Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan School Dada, when in reality he was destroying schools.  (source) Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala, 2013

I appreciation your positive attitude.

Brian thought of him now, wondered how to stay positive and stay on top of this.  (source) Gary Paulsen, Hatchet, 1987

I was in no mood to hear one of her lectures about the power of positive thinking.  (source) Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle, 2005

Occasionally, in spite of the professional and positive attitude of the staff, outbursts do occur.  (source) Neal Shusterman, Unwind, 2007

It also went to show the value of statesmanship and diplomacy as well as positive thinking and plain old hard-headed business sense.  (source) Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin, 2000

I needed to turn this around, make it positive.  (source) Kiera Cass, The Selection, 2012

All I can tell you is that it's a combination of perfecting your skill and keeping a positive outlook.  (source) Bethany Hamilton, Soul Surfer, 2004

"We've got to think positive thoughts."  (source) Sharon M. Draper, Out of My Mind, 2010

She finally had a decent year in the Games with Peeta and me, and now it's all broken down into a mess that even she can't put a positive spin on.  (source) Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire, 2009

I asked Morrie how he managed to stay positive through that.  (source) Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie, 1997

My mom can be quiet and talk at the same time when she's being positive.  (source) Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, 1999

I tried to look cheerful. He needs someone upbeat, someone positive.  (source) Jojo Moyes, Me Before You, 2012

I can get used to these daily positive affirmations.  (source) Colleen Hoover, Hopeless, 2013

The test for bacterial infection came back positive.

After several days of symptoms, he finally tested positive for strep throat.

We tested for lead in the drinking water. The results came back positive.

The dog’s bloodwork was positive for heartworm, so treatment had to begin immediately.

"Of course I tested positive," I said to the doctor.  (source) Pam Munoz Ryan, Esperanza Rising, 2000

They had run toxicity profiles as well, and they had found only one positive match: the blood was mildly reactive to the venom of the Indian king cobra.  (source) Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park, 1993

You're positive for strep and mono.  (source) Tara Westover, Educated, 2018

I caught it just a few weeks ago, tested positive at the quarantine checkpoint—government's trying their damnedest to keep the sick and the well separate.  (source) James Dashner, The Scorch Trials, 2010

Out of the eighteen, one was positive for melanoma.  (source) Nicholas Sparks, Dear John, 2006

For example, a patient with a normal ECG who was positive on all three urgent risk factors would go to the intermediate unit; a patient whose ECG showed acute ischemia (that is, the heart muscle wasn't getting enough blood) but who had either one or no risk factors would be considered low-risk and go to the short-stay unit; someone with an ECG positive for ischemia and two or three risk factors would be sent directly to the cardiac care unit—and so on.  (source) Malcolm Gladwell, Blink, 2005

I took a pregnancy test today. It was positive.  (source) Jodi Picoult, Nineteen Minutes, 2007

One month prior to current visit, patient tested positive for gonorrhea.  (source) Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, 2010

It said that his stool sample had tested positive for Escherichia coli 0157:H7, a virulent and potentially lethal foodborne pathogen.  (source) Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, 2001

We expect to achieve a positive cash flow next year.

It is a positive number.

So I limited the reactor enough that we weren't getting positive heat.  (source) Andy Weir, The Martian, 2011

Absolute value: the distance that a given number is from zero on a number line …. always a positive.  (source) Meg Cabot, The Princess Diaries, 2000

And then, slowly, she watched the second, perpendicular line appear: a plus sign, a positive, a cross to bear.  (source) Jodi Picoult, Nineteen Minutes, 2007

Assuming negative numbers if the guy is more of a Dumpee; positive if the girl is.  (source) John Green, An Abundance of Katherines, 2006

Positive numbers if the boy is more attracted to the girl; negative if vice versa.  (source) John Green, An Abundance of Katherines, 2006

A negative number if the boy is more of a Dumper; positive number if the girl is.  (source) John Green, An Abundance of Katherines, 2006

He sketched: Where x = time, and y = happiness, y = 0 beginning of relationship and breakup, y negative = breakup by m, and y positive = breakup by f: my relationship with K-19.  (source) John Green, An Abundance of Katherines, 2006

Which Colin arrived at by calculating the popularity difference between Person A and Person B on a scale of 1 to 1,000 (you can approximate) and then dividing by 75—positive numbers if the girl is more popular; negative if the guy is.  (source) John Green, An Abundance of Katherines, 2006

I flipped through my notebook to the lecture on negative and positive liberty.  (source) Tara Westover, Educated, 2018

Yes, no positive action.  (source) Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None, 1939

They'd survived the siege of Leningrad, the modern St. Petersburg, and I found it fascinating how she could have lived through something so horrific yet be so positive and gentle with the world.†  (source) Matthew Mather, Cyberstorm, 2013

You mean, I should try to channel her enthusiasm into positive outlets?†  (source) Margaret Peterson Haddix, Uprising, 2007

Then one of them will ask me, "This was last winter, Miss Wilkes, how could you be so positive?"†  (source) Stephen King, Misery, 1987

"And I'm O positive—a universal donor," Naka whispered back.†  (source) Nicholas D. Kristof, Half the Sky, 2009

Thanks for being so positive in my life.†  (source) Eric Blehm, Fearless, 2012

When did you suddenly become so positive?†  (source) Sarah Dessen, Lock and Key, 2008

It was also positive for blood.†  (source) Michael Crichton, The Andromeda Strain, 1969

It's about people who were so brave, and so positive, and treated so badly.†  (source) Beatrice Sparks, It Happened to Nancy, 1994

I could live and work in here if I go positive for Ebola.†  (source) Richard Preston, The Hot Zone, 1994

Had he done so, however, he would have been in the spirit of Parmenides and made heavy go to light, that is, negative to positive!†  (source) Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, 1984

And when this intellectual predisposition co-exists with the actualities of Ulster and Israel and Bosnia and Rwanda and a host of other wounded spots on the face of the earth, the inclination is not only not to credit human nature with much constructive potential but not to credit anything too positive in the work of art.†  (source) Seamus Heaney, Crediting Poetry, 1995