Word: portent
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...victory was a distinct shock to Kentucky's regular Democratic politicians, who had predicted a Combs victory by a margin of 40,000 votes. And it was a portent of worse shocks to come. If he wins the election in November (which seems likely), Chandler will almost certainly throw out the supporters of Senator Earle Clements and found his own political dynasty. And, with the end of his machine at hand, Boss Clements' own future looks bleak: during the campaign Happy repeatedly swore to end Clements' career in Washington if he won the governorship...
...William Cowart, 22, Lewis Griggs, 22, and Otho Bell, 24, recently of Communist China, the grim homecoming was a portent of a grimmer future. They faced punishment (maximum penalty: death) for acts committed against their country and fellow Americans while they were prisoners of war in Korea. Each was accused of the gravest crimes under military law-aiding the enemy and ratting on their brothers-in-arms...
...talk their way through life, but the best remembered words they utter are often their last. The mystery of death seems to touch the most commonplace sayings with power and portent. Edifying compilations of last words were highly valued in the days when people spoke of "making a good death." The latest such anthology throws edification to the winds. In his Dictionary of Last Words (Philosophical Library;$5), Editor Edward S. Le Comte includes the irrelevancies of delirium as well as the measured phrases of "holy dying." He has culled such sources as Baedeker's The United States, newspapers...
Instead, an agenda was adopted in two days. In five days, though the U.S.S.R. dodged and twisted on the way, the Big Four Foreign Ministers were actually discussing the subject for which the conference was called. It was still no strong portent that any agreement could be reached in Berlin. But, as one Berlin newspaper put it: "Even a genuine inventory of intentions would be progress." The inventory was already being made...
Cherington nurses grave doubts about Hoover's role in the White case. "The use of the head of secret police as a witness for political purposes is a portent of things to come. Mr. Hoover possesses files which in times of excitement, passion and departure from due process of law could be used as the justification for imprisoning half a million Americans in concentration campus. I think the FBI now in a position to become the police arm of a McCarthy dictatorship. I think Mr. Hoover is quite capable of operating in this fashion. Despite his denials, Mr. Hoover...