Word: witlessness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...bald and veracious a manner, the Circle loses by parading in a false and scaffolded plot a problem which has its roots in bigotry. The first act of the latter suffers immeasurably in consequence. From start to finish of the act there is talky-talk of the most stagey, witless sort, written to unfold the background of the play...
...ability to leer in a naughty fashion will often earn a witless fellow a reputation as a wag; luck in getting his books suppressed will bring an author to renown even though no one has ever read them. Shrewd Douglas H. Cooke, President of the Leslie-Judge Co., may not therefore have been altogether stunned when he was told last week that his funny-paper, Judge, was barred from the mails...
Fanny Brawne, proves Miss Lowell, was far from the shallow, flippant, witless girl that worshipers of Keats have been pleased to style her. That she had intelligence the author infers from certain letters (never examined by any other biographer) written by Fannie Brawne to Keats' sister after his death: "Let us admit, once and for all, that Keats made a most uneasy lover. . . . It would have been small wonder if Fanny Brawne occasionally asked herself whether this exacting and excitable young man could make any woman really happy...
Pride, a dismayed figure, is not permitted to obscure his mortification in the mire toward which, a witless moment back, he strutted, but is caught midway in his tumble, for all posterity to jape...
...lovers who have sinned for love and have been damned for their sin to remember forever the joy of love's delight, Paolo and Francesca embrace in pangs and torment. But Tschaikowsky believed that he had lived his best years; his hand faltered. The music twists and tumbles, witless in anguish. Hell is peopled with platitudes. The cruel critic was right. The piece marks the first faltering of Tschaikowsky's genius, and for this reason, it is not often played by the great orchestras...