Word: thinnest
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...first, as secretary and protege of the retired but influential courtier-statesman Sir William Temple, he seemed to see the world at his feet. Then came the inevitable slur, or imagined slur, for Swift had the thinnest of skins. He left Temple's protection only to learn that pride is a luxury to the poor. Then a kinsman, the great John Dryden, saw his verses and said: "Cousin Swift . . . nature has never formed you for a Pindaric poet." At 26 he entered holy orders "as [one joins] a regiment." He was tormented by pride and used this...
Even royal mistresses, such as Henri IV's Gabrielle d'Estrees (see color page), posed to show their full, solid voluptuousness revealed under the thinnest of gossamer veils. To hold a king's roving eye, Painter François Bunel the Younger needed all his Mannerist tricks: he shifted the focus endlessly within the frame, from head and face to breasts to Gabrielle's arched, elegant hand holding a ring, then to maidservant, and finally to Gabrielle's mirrored profile, which disobeys all known laws of reflection...
...Loom); "World's only vacuum cleaner that cleans four ways at once" (Lewyt); "World's most advanced refining developments" (Mobilgas); "World's largest cordage laboratory" (Plymouth); "World's largest-selling denture cleaner" (Poli-dent); "World's strongest folding chair" (Samsonite); "World's thinnest electric shaver" (Schick...
Bellows & Fire. Next, he put his thought into a religious and social tract a book which he assured his friends was "needed by all." When it was published a pious and disjointed tirade, his friends turned on him with angry reproaches. Gogol, whose bravado was the thinnest garment of self-loathing, broke and piteously begged forgiveness. "One drop of your pity," was all he asked. Few gave it Gogol lost his grip on the ladder...
...been truly said that Shaw's anger never made enemies. Irish evasiveness, sociability and energy made him wish resolutely to cut the best figure on the thinnest ice. He kept up his stage role to the last. He was sometimes petulant in the publicity he delighted in. His great age was his last great turn, which could hardly conceal an appalling loneliness. All his contemporaries were dead. His wife had gone. He recognized how poor his contacts with human beings were, now he was without intermediaries. He was, in a sense, unhuman. He depended on servants whom he hardly...