menu

vocabulary

1000+ books

positive
used in The Brothers Karamazov

81 uses

(click/touch triangles for details)

1 —34 uses as in:
I'm absolutely positive!

Definition

certain (having no doubt; or used for emphasis)

He positively dares to make objections," the ladies babbled.
Book 12 — A Judicial Error (95% in)

positively = with certainty; or absolutely (used for emphasis)

His face was suddenly solemn and impressive, which gave him a positively malignant look.
Book 2 — An Unfortunate Gathering (60% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

He positively stammered; but he was beyond thinking of style, and he seized his hat.
Book 2 — An Unfortunate Gathering (92% in)

positively = with certainty; or absolutely (used for emphasis)

There was something positively condescending in his expression.
Book 3 — The Sensualists (48% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

There was something positively mysterious in it, too.
Book 3 — The Sensualists (76% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

On the other hand, he was more than once that night overcome by a sort of inexplicable humiliating terror, which he felt positively paralyzed his physical powers.
Book 5 — Pro And Contra (91% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

Ivan positively smiled at the thought that everything was helping his sudden departure.
Book 5 — Pro And Contra (92% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

So that I positively wondered at so strange a dream in myself.
Book 6 — The Russian Monk (6% in)

positively = with certainty; or absolutely (used for emphasis)

Mother positively smiled at that, smiled through her tears.
Book 6 — The Russian Monk (13% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

I was so overwhelmed at this unexpected circumstance that my mind was positively clouded.
Book 6 — The Russian Monk (32% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

They walked along in silence, Rakitin was positively afraid to talk.
Book 7 — Alyosha (44% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

When Mitya began to speak of his quarrel with his father over his inheritance, the priest was positively alarmed, as he was in some way dependent on Fyodor Pavlovitch.
Book 8 — Mitya (15% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

But that morning in the cart a brilliant idea had struck him: "If she is so anxious I should not marry Katerina Ivanovna" (and he knew she was positively hysterical upon the subject) "why should she refuse me now that three thousand, just to enable me to leave Katya and get away from her for ever.
Book 8 — Mitya (26% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

Kalvanov was positively indignant.
Book 8 — Mitya (89% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

And let me tell you, as I wish to hide nothing from you now, that he positively spat at me.
Book 9 — The Preliminary Investigation (6% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

They had positively thrown down their cards, all were standing up and talking.
Book 9 — The Preliminary Investigation (13% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

You are positively hindering the inquiry....
Book 9 — The Preliminary Investigation (19% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

"So you positively declare that you are not guilty of the death of your father, Fyodor Pavlovitch?" asked the investigating lawyer, softly but insistently.
Book 9 — The Preliminary Investigation (20% in)

positively = with certainty; or absolutely (used for emphasis)

Mitya spoke much and quickly, nervously and effusively, as though he positively took his listeners to be his best friends.
Book 9 — The Preliminary Investigation (23% in)

positively = with certainty; or absolutely (used for emphasis)

When the police captain went out, Mitya was positively gay.
Book 9 — The Preliminary Investigation (30% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

There's positively no talking to you!" cried Mitya, exasperated beyond endurance, and turning to the secretary, crimson with anger, he said quickly, with a note of fury in his voice: "Write down at once .... at once ....
Book 9 — The Preliminary Investigation (39% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

I tell you positively, definitely, the door was shut the whole time I was in the garden, and when I ran out of the garden.
Book 9 — The Preliminary Investigation (43% in)

positively = with certainty; or absolutely (used for emphasis)

We will tell you what to do," Nikolay Parfenovitch said, and his voice was positively peremptory, or so it seemed to Mitya.
Book 9 — The Preliminary Investigation (56% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

"Surely I didn't declare so positively that I'd brought three thousand?"
Book 9 — The Preliminary Investigation (83% in)

positively = with certainty; or absolutely (used for emphasis)

The prosecutor positively smiled at the "innocence of this subterfuge."
Book 9 — The Preliminary Investigation (87% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

Nikolay Parfenovitch's little figure was positively majestic by the time he had finished speaking.
Book 9 — The Preliminary Investigation (97% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

She was positively thinner.
Book 11 — Ivan (19% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

He positively disliked him; at most, felt sometimes a compassion for him, and even that was mixed with great contempt, almost repugnance.
Book 11 — Ivan (44% in)

positively = with certainty; or absolutely (used for emphasis)

They gave him to understand that the attack was an exceptional one, the fits persisting and recurring several times, so that the patient's life was positively in danger, and it was only now, after they had applied remedies, that they could assert with confidence that the patient would survive.
Book 11 — Ivan (45% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

A few days later he positively wondered how he could have been so horribly distressed at his suspicions.
Book 11 — Ivan (60% in)

positively = with certainty; or absolutely (used for emphasis)

But I was positively afraid of doing it, for you'd have thrashed me for daring to pin the Lion and the Sun on my coat, instead of, at least, the Polar Star or the Sirius.
Book 11 — Ivan (91% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

When we told him that Grigory saw the door was open before he fell down, and had heard Smerdyakov behind the screen as he came out of his bedroom—Karamazov was positively crushed.
Book 12 — A Judicial Error (66% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

The prisoner was positively offended, he thought it almost insulting to ask him such a trivial question, and would you believe it, his resentment was genuine!
Book 12 — A Judicial Error (66% in)

positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)

Is it positively, actually true that there is no one else at all?
Book 12 — A Judicial Error (83% in)

positively = with certainty; or absolutely (used for emphasis)

There are no more uses of "positive" flagged with this meaning in The Brothers Karamazov.

Typical Usage (best examples)

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google^®Dictionary / more samples — Oxford^® US Dictionary list — Onelook.com^®

? —47 uses
exact meaning not specified

Though the doctors encouraged Katerina Ivanovna and Alyosha, it was evident that they could not yet give them positive hopes of recovery.
Epilogue (2% in)

That was the truth; the young man had an unmistakable influence over his father, who positively appeared to be behaving more decently and even seemed at times ready to obey his son, though often extremely and even spitefully perverse.
Book 1 — The History Of A Family (40% in)
But I have been lying, lying positively my whole life long, every day and hour of it.
Book 2 — An Unfortunate Gathering (18% in)
"Hitherto at least I have stood in the front ranks of all that is progressive in Europe, and here the new generation positively ignores us," he thought.
Book 2 — An Unfortunate Gathering (44% in)
His eyes gleamed, and his lips positively quivered.
Book 2 — An Unfortunate Gathering (91% in)
For one moment every one stared at him without a word; and at once every one felt that something revolting, grotesque, positively scandalous, was about to happen.
Book 2 — An Unfortunate Gathering (92% in)
Tears positively glittered in his eyes.
Book 3 — The Sensualists (73% in)
Alyosha realized at the first glance, at the first word, that all the tragedy of her position in relation to the man she loved so dearly was no secret to her; that she perhaps already knew everything, positively everything.
Book 3 — The Sensualists (79% in)
The people of the house, an old cabinet-maker, his son, and his old wife, looked with positive suspicion at Alyosha.
Book 4 — Lacerations (68% in)
He moved closer so that his knees positively knocked against Alyosha.
Book 4 — Lacerations (74% in)
In the morning as he lay down to sleep, Father Zossima had told him positively: "I shall not die without the delight of another conversation with you, beloved of my heart.
Book 6 — The Russian Monk (1% in)
Every one wondered at his words, he spoke so strangely and positively; we were all touched and wept.
Book 6 — The Russian Monk (13% in)
If they declare that it is they who are advancing towards unity, only the most simple-hearted among them believe it, so that one may positively marvel at such simplicity.
Book 6 — The Russian Monk (84% in)
He foresaw with distress that something very unseemly was beginning and that there were positive signs of disobedience.
Book 7 — Alyosha (18% in)
It was a positive fact, for there had been a good many, especially during the last two years, who had attempted to obtain those favors.
Book 7 — Alyosha (47% in)
She gayly sat down beside Alyosha on the sofa, looking at him with positive delight.
Book 7 — Alyosha (57% in)
Then he began at once speaking with loud, nervous haste, gesticulating, and in a positive frenzy.
Book 8 — Mitya (8% in)
After keeping him for a moment in suspense, Kuzma Kuzmitch pronounced at last in the most positive and chilling tone: "Excuse me, we don't undertake such business."
Book 8 — Mitya (11% in)
At the sight of Grushenka, Mitya's jealousy vanished, and, for an instant he became trustful and generous, and positively despised himself for his evil feelings.
Book 8 — Mitya (23% in)
Mitya positively laughed at her, and had once said about her that she was just as lively and at her ease as she was uncultivated.
Book 8 — Mitya (25% in)
"Not the faintest, madam; ah, madam, not the faintest!" cried Mitya, in nervous impatience, positively starting from his seat.
Book 8 — Mitya (28% in)
"I don't know on what terms you are .... since you say it so positively, I suppose she did give it to you.
Book 8 — Mitya (48% in)
"And I shall be making a fuss!" he thought, with a feeling of positive discomfort.
Book 8 — Mitya (58% in)
The prosecutor positively seized hold of him.
Book 9 — The Preliminary Investigation (19% in)
And you have made a very just remark about the mutual confidence, without which it is sometimes positively impossible to get on in cases of such importance, if the suspected party really hopes and desires to defend himself and is in a position to do so.
Book 9 — The Preliminary Investigation (31% in)
There are indications, too, if I am not mistaken, that you confessed this yourself to some one, I mean that the money was Katerina Ivanovna's, and so, it's extremely surprising to me that hitherto, that is, up to the present moment, you have made such an extraordinary secret of the fifteen hundred you say you put by, apparently connecting a feeling of positive horror with that secret....
Book 9 — The Preliminary Investigation (69% in)
The prosecutor positively pounced on this piece of evidence.
Book 9 — The Preliminary Investigation (86% in)
To Nikolay Parfenovitch's direct question, had he noticed how much money Dmitri Fyodorovitch held in his hand, as he must have been able to see the sum better than any one when he took the note from him, Maximov, in the most positive manner, declared that there was twenty thousand.
Book 9 — The Preliminary Investigation (88% in)
But this was received with positive indignation by the ladies, who immediately called him a "naughty man," to his great satisfaction.
Book 9 — The Preliminary Investigation (89% in)
I noticed that there was a sort of softness and sentimentality coming over the boy, and you know I have a positive hatred of this sheepish sentimentality, and I have had it from a baby.
Book 10 — The Boys (41% in)
Because you are just like me," cried Kolya, in positive ecstasy.
Book 10 — The Boys (92% in)
Ici, Perezvon!" he cried with positive ferocity to the dog, and with rapid strides he went home.
Book 10 — The Boys (**% in)
Yet he went to see Mitya on the first day of his arrival, and that interview, far from shaking Ivan's belief in his guilt, positively strengthened it.
Book 11 — Ivan (45% in)
He did not want to analyze the reason for this feeling, and even felt a positive repugnance at prying into his sensations.
Book 11 — Ivan (51% in)
All this struck Ivan instantly; he took it all in and noted it at once—most of all the look in Smerdyakov's eyes, positively malicious, churlish and haughty.
Book 11 — Ivan (54% in)
I didn't say that openly to the prosecutor when I was being examined, but quite the contrary, I brought him to it by a hint, as though I didn't see it myself, and as though he'd thought of it himself and I hadn't prompted him; so that Mr. Prosecutor's mouth positively watered at my suggestion."
Book 11 — Ivan (73% in)
"There'll be nothing of the sort, and you won't go," he concluded at last positively.
Book 11 — Ivan (74% in)
So, for instance, when Grigory, Fyodor Pavlovitch's old servant, who had given the most damning piece of evidence about the open door, was examined, the counsel for the defense positively fastened upon him when his turn came to question him.
Book 12 — A Judicial Error (8% in)
But even Rakitin could say nothing positive about Mitya's inheritance, and confined himself to contemptuous generalities.
Book 12 — A Judicial Error (11% in)
The doctor expressed his opinion positively and emphatically.
Book 12 — A Judicial Error (18% in)
Fetyukovitch positively started, as though scenting something, and caught at it instantly.
Book 12 — A Judicial Error (19% in)
But before Katerina Ivanovna was called, Alyosha was examined, and he recalled a fact which seemed to furnish positive evidence against one important point made by the prosecution.
Book 12 — A Judicial Error (20% in)
He wrote it from spite, and feeling certain, positively certain, that I should never show it to any one, even if he did kill him, or else he wouldn't have written it.
Book 12 — A Judicial Error (34% in)
What is more, he can be carried off his feet, positively carried off his feet by noble ideals, but only if they come of themselves, if they fall from heaven for him, if they need not be paid for.
Book 12 — A Judicial Error (43% in)
"I cannot positively assert," the prosecutor continued, "that the prisoner fully intended to murder his father before that incident.
Book 12 — A Judicial Error (48% in)
What's more, justice and punishment on earth positively alleviate the punishment of nature and are, indeed, essential to the soul of the criminal at such moments, as its salvation from despair.
Book 12 — A Judicial Error (62% in)
And if there is the barest possibility of such an explanation, how can the prisoner be so positively accused of having committed murder for the sake of robbery, and of having actually carried out that robbery?
Book 12 — A Judicial Error (75% in)

There are no more uses of "positive" in The Brothers Karamazov.

Typical Usage (best examples)

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google^®Dictionary list — Onelook.com^®