15 uses
(click/touch triangles for details)
1 —12 uses as in:
coax her to join us
Definition
try to obtain a result through gentle and careful effort — often gentle persuasion
- Her only struggle was in coaxing Kennicott not to spend all his time with the tourists from the ten thousand other Gopher Prairies.Chapter 34 (5% in)
- An early-wrinkled, young-old mother, moving as though her joints were dry, opens a suit-case in which are seen creased blouses, a pair of slippers worn through at the toes, a bottle of patent medicine, a tin cup, a paper-covered book about dreams which the news-butcher has coaxed her into buying.Chapter 3 (7% in)
- She was coaxed from her unhappy mood.Chapter 3 (43% in)
- Even the millionaire Dawsons and Ezra Stowbody and "Professor" George Edwin Mott danced, looking only slightly foolish; and by rushing about the room and being coy and coaxing to all persons over forty-five, Carol got them into a waltz and a Virginia Reel.Chapter 6 (53% in)
- She wondered whether they could for five minutes be coaxed to talk about something besides the winter top of Knute Stamquist's Ford, and what Al Tingley had said about his mother-in-law.Chapter 6 (90% in)
- I mustn't let it make me self-conscious," she coaxed herself—overstimulated by the drug of thought, and offensively on the defensive.Chapter 7 (42% in)
- Carol, smart in maid's uniform, coaxed the temporary stage-hands to finish setting the first act, wailed at Kennicott, the electrician, "Now for heaven's sake remember the change in cue for the ambers in Act Two," slipped out to ask Dave Dyer, the ticket-taker, if he could get some more chairs, warned the frightened Myrtle Cass to be sure to upset the waste-basket when John Grimm called, "Here you, Reddy."Chapter 18 (71% in)
- Carol coaxed the powerful matrons to call on Bea.Chapter 19 (10% in)
- His arm coaxed my shoulder and his eyes dared me not to admire him.Chapter 23 (40% in)
- And if he ever were such a sad dog as to look at another woman, I certainly hope he'd have spirit enough to do the tempting, and not be coaxed into it, as in your depressing picture!"Chapter 25 (96% in)
- Anyway——Poor lamb, coaxing me to stay and play with him!Chapter 28 (91% in)
- "Don't you like the old man any more?" he coaxed.Chapter 30 (93% in)
There are no more uses of "coax" flagged with this meaning in Main Street.
Typical Usage
(best examples)
? —3 uses
exact meaning not specified
- He did not coax her to like him.Chapter 38 (29% in)
- coax us, 'Be calm!Chapter 16 (70% in)
- ...the lakes shut off by railroads, and the creeks lined with dumping-grounds; of depressing sobriety of color; rectangularity of buildings; and excessive breadth and straightness of the gashed streets, so that there is no escape from gales and from sight of the grim sweep of land, nor any windings to coax the loiterer along, while the breadth which would be majestic in an avenue of palaces makes the low shabby shops creeping down the typical Main Street the more mean by comparison.Chapter 22 (54% in)
There are no more uses of "coax" in Main Street.
Typical Usage
(best examples)