Word: dictional
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...perhaps ten or fifteen to one . . . Probably three or five or any number of individual judges would have been unanimous for Boston College or pretty nearly so, as the young men from the Heights outgeneralled their adversaries, marshalled arguments more skillfully, were more serious and more dignified, used better diction and were far superior in oratory...
...accuracy of the editor's statement that the "young men from the Heights outgeneralled their adversaries, marshaled arguments more skilfully, were more serious and more dignified, used better diction and were far superior in oratory" depends largely upon what meanings he attaches to those terms. If by "outgeneralled their adversaries" he means that the Boston College speakers succeeded in discussing national prohibition rather than the effects and merits of the proposed repeal of the Baby Volstead Act in Massachusetts, he is correct. If by "marshalled arguments more skilfully" he means that Boston College was able to get away without giving...
...Fang's genius, say his Chinese critics, resides in the perfection with which he executes the bewildering Chinese orthodoxy of posture and diction. Playing his feminine roles he seemed like a painting of Hui Tsung miraculously come to elastic, undulating life. His dances with swords and wands possessed an extraordinarily feline continuity of movement. His falsetto was harsh but expressive. Watching his gait, his play with hands and voluminous sleeves, his tender coquetry, you could understand why Chinese poets have written panegyrics about his eye, smile, shoulder, even his waist...
...Playwright O'Casey reveals a group of infantrymen encamped in a ruined apse behind the lines. There they sing songs of war-not bawdy ditties or rousing marches, but strange and awesome chants. This lyricism, now solo, now antiphonal, now choral, is a poetic, formalized utterance. The diction is abominable-words can only be guessed at-but the import of these Gaelic spirituals can be felt. Mystic and throbbing, they express the soldiers' gruesome mission and man's revolt from the ghastliness he has made for himself...
...Lewisohn's meaning is often obscure, his message occasionally fanatical, but the consistent dignity and rhythm of his prose are hypnotic. Mr. Lippmann's meaning, on the contrary, is always clear, his message pragmatic, his diction incisive, effective...