6 uses
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Definition
someone who expects the worst — especially of people (such as expecting them to be selfish and lie)
- He may have observed her look, for he explained— "I think of people more kindly when I am away from them"; adding cynically, "God knows; perhaps we will shake down together some day, for weariness; thousands have done it!"5 — The Woman Pays (24% in)
- He went as the deputy of some missionary society to preach in the neighbourhood of Trantridge, a place forty miles from here, and made it his business to expostulate with a lax young cynic he met with somewhere about there—son of some landowner up that way—and who has a mother afflicted with blindness.4 — The Consequence (28% in)
- D'Urberville read and re-read this letter, and seemed to quiz himself cynically.6 — The Convert (13% in)
- He regarded her silently for a few moments, and with a short cynical laugh resumed: "I believe that if the bachelor-apostle, whose deputy I thought I was, had been tempted by such a pretty face, he would have let go the plough for her sake as I do!"6 — The Convert (40% in)
- Cynical things he had uttered to himself about her; but no man can be always a cynic and live; and he withdrew them.6 — The Convert (61% in)
- Cynical things he had uttered to himself about her; but no man can be always a cynic and live; and he withdrew them.6 — The Convert (61% in)
There are no more uses of "cynical" in Tess of the d'Urbervilles.
Typical Usage
(best examples)