Word: adroit
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...degree of quiet insanity well-suited to both Sim and British comedy. As entertainment officer and Chaplain, Paris decides that the weekly groans of a string quartet are hardly a diversion for his troops. To his quest for a program replacement, the Captain applies his own special talents of adroit bungling and naivete. He is essentially a master of the faux pas, breeching social etiquette regularly and filling in the gaps with comic dignity and a pained smile...
...words were well chosen. The first British reaction was relief that Dulles' joint warning had been averted. In the House of Commons, Eden himself discreetly pointed out that he had avoided "some fulminating declaration." The Economist congratulated him on this "very adroit piece of evasive action." To the U.S. delegation, however, the declaration meant that Britain has in effect agreed to 1) the idea of a Pacific "NATO." 2) some kind of collective military action against China as a possibility if Geneva fails, 3) steps to be taken at once to set up the Pacific alliance as a warning...
Clarence Budington Kelland, 72, is a prominent U.S. author to whom U.S. literary and critical magazines pay no attention whatever. He is, in the language of book reviewers, a "slick man," a contriver of "adroit hokum," which is hopelessly "fast-moving" and unreclaimably "superficial." The good always wins, the boy always gets the girl, and they are married in a nice church ceremony-just after getting the deed to a nice piece of real estate-while a kindly old homespun philosopher stands snapping his galluses in the background...
Author Dahl is an adroit craftsman who knows how to make the unlikely seem probable. He builds long bridges of suspense, then skillfully carries his stories across to his predetermined points. It is not surprising, in view of his qualities, that he has been overpraised. Long on plot, short on character, his stories extract their effectiveness from anecdotal gimmicks and surprise endings. One test of a fine story is its rereadability, and this, naturally, is a test that few of these modern O. Henry tales can meet...
...becoming Président de la République. An almost inaudible, all but invisible campaign was going on. Between Dec. 16 and Jan. 16, the members of the Council of the Republic (Senate) and National Assembly will meet at Versailles to choose a President to succeed the incumbent, adroit Vincent Auriol...