All 7 Uses
contradict
in
Atonement, by Ian McEwan
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- The lighthearted ironies she might have deployed among her friends deserted her in his presence, and she heard her own voice become thin when she attempted some docile contradiction.†
Chpt 1contradiction = something (typically a statement) that disagrees with itself; or (more rarely) the act of disagreeing
- If there was mystery or contradiction in a friend, Leon took the long view and found a benign explanation.†
Chpt 1
- What fairy tale ever held so much by way of contradiction?†
Chpt 1
- Even harder was the threat, or the confusion of feeling contradictory things.†
Chpt 1 *contradictory = in disagreement
- And even if it had been considered proper for children to introduce a topic, they too would have been incapable: Briony could think only of what she had witnessed, Lola was subdued both by the shock of physical assault and an array of contradictory emotions, and the twins were absorbed in a plan.†
Chpt 1
- His excitement was close to pain and sharpened by the pressure of contradictions: she was familiar like a sister, she was exotic like a lover; he had always known her, he knew nothing about her; she was plain, she was beautiful; she was capable—how easily she protected herself against her brother—and twenty minutes ago she had wept; his stupid letter repelled her but it unlocked her.†
Chpt 1contradictions = things that disagree with themselves; or (more rarely) acts of disagreeing
- They would be alone together soon, with more contradictions—hilarity and sensuousness, desire and fear at their recklessness, awe and impatience to begin.†
Chpt 1
Definitions:
-
(1)
(contradict) disagreein various senses, including:
- to say something is not true -- as in "She contradicted his testimony."
- to say something else is true when both can't be true -- as in "I don't believe her. She contradicted herself as she told us what happened."
- to be in conflict with -- as in "Her assertions contradict accepted scientific principles."
- (2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)