Casting a furtive glance over his shoulder, the felon slipped out the main prison gate to be
swallowed up in the British fog. A plethora of escapes from supposedly secure prisons
embarrassed the hapless wardens. To compound their problems, the officials were badgered
by irate citizens who accused the guards of accepting bribes from convicts whose motto was:
“Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.” 倒装句，最严密的监狱并非由石头墙或者铁栅栏构建而成
If you’re looking for a formal adjective to describe something sly or secret, sneak in furtive. Let’s hope the teacher doesn’t see your furtive attempts to pass notes in class!
The adjective, furtive, is related to fūrtum, the Latin word for theft or robbery. This is apparent as the expressions “to give someone a furtive glance” and “to steal a glance at someone” mean the same thing. If a person’s manner is furtive, he or she is acting suspiciously. Secret, stealthy and sly are all similar in meaning, but they lack this image of a thief’s actions.
I saw one of the defendants make a furtive movement.
Try not to look so furtive,Harry.
l need to know if you’ve had strange men in your store… specifically men in their thirty buying feminist literature, acting angry, or furtive,or in any way out of the ordinary.
Technically, a felon is anyone who’s been convicted of a serious crime, but you can use felon to describe anyone you think has done something terrible.
For a felon, it’s being paraded in handcuffs in front of the public that can be the worst part of being convicted. In some countries, you’re considered a felon simply because the king says that you are. Here in the U.S., though, you’re innocent until proven guilty, at which point people can call you a felon. My boyfriend took the dog, the TV, and my expensive French sauté pan after we broke up. If you ever run into the felon, please kick him in the shins, and tell him he’s a criminal.
Much of today’s hearing is hinging on the testimony of Ralph Myers, a convicted felon who was the key witness against McMillian in the original trial.
Plethora means an abundance or excess of something. If you have 15 different people who want to take you on a date, you have a plethora of romantic possibilities.
Plethora comes from the Greek for “fullness.” Although it was originally used only in old-fashioned medicine to describe the condition of having too much blood, we use it to talk about any excessive supply. If you run a theater and all the seats are taken, that’s a full house. But if the seats are full and people are standing in the aisles, you have a plethora of patrons. The stress is on the first syllable: PLETH-uh-ruh.
Is anyone else disturbed by the plethora of left over poles and fabric?
We have a plethora of agents who have now reached this milestone.
We got a plethora of sandwiches for ya!
I HAVE A PLETHORA OF DIRTY LAUNDRY AND NOWHERE TO DO IT.
Use the adjective hapless to describe someone unlucky and deserving of pity, like the hapless car buyer who gives in to the fast-talking salesperson.
The word hapless traces all the way back to the Old Norse word happ, meaning “chance, good luck.” Combine this with the suffix -less (“lacking”) and hapless means “unlucky” or “ill-fated.” A traveler who goes to Moscow and briefly gets lost on the subway? Just a tourist. A traveler who goes to Moscow, accidentally eats food he is allergic to, somehow loses all his money, and by chance gets on a train destined for Mongolia? Definitely hapless.
He’s actually kind of sweet, in a hapless way.
So they grab two hapless kids and throw them in prison?
We define Pyrrhic victory as “a victory that is not worth winning because so much is lost to achieve it.” The word comes from the name of Pyrrhus, a long-ago king of Epirus, who suffered heavy losses in defeating the Romans at Asculum in Apulia in 279 B.C.E.
You may occasionally encounter Pyrrhic used without being followed by victory ; in such cases it still carries the meaning of “achieved at excessive cost.”
That is precisely the kind of Pyrrhic victory
Is a pyrrhic victory really a win? look, little lady don’t you “little lady” me.
You afraid it might be some kind of Pyrrhic victory?