3 uses
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Definition
someone who expects the worst — especially of people (such as expecting them to be selfish and lie)
- He had a sort of self-contained quaintness and rough humor impossible to describe; a certain cynical earnestness that puzzled one.Chapter 7 (82% in)
- ...nameless prejudice that leaps beyond all this he stands helpless, dismayed, and well-nigh speechless; before that personal disrespect and mockery, the ridicule and systematic humiliation, the distortion of fact and wanton license of fancy, the cynical ignoring of the better and the boisterous welcoming of the worse, the all-pervading desire to inculcate disdain for everything black, from Toussaint to the devil,—before this there rises a sickening despair that would disarm and...Chapter 1 (76% in)
- On the strong and cunning few Cynic favors I will strew; I will stuff their maw with overplus until their spirit dies; From the patient and the low I will take the joys they know; They shall hunger after vanities and still an-hungered go.Chapter 8 (0% in)
There are no more uses of "cynical" in The Souls of Black Folk.
Typical Usage
(best examples)