Abruptness

Examples

• Your sister, said he, with abruptness, a moment afterwardsis out of danger. Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility.
• Mr. Jarndyce then withdrawing into the temporary growlery, Miss Jellyby opened a conversation with her usual abruptness. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
• The hill, crowned with wood, which they had descended, receiving increased abruptness from the distance, was a beautiful object. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
• He almost started at my sudden and strange abruptness: he looked at me astonished. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
• I--I do a little in that way,' replied Mr. Snodgrass, rather taken aback by the abruptness of the question. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
• As the reply passed my lips--a little bitterly, perhaps--she took my arm with the abruptness which characterised all her actions. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
• Mr. Chillip was so alarmed by her abruptness--as he told my mother afterwards--that it was a mercy he didn't lose his presence of mind. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
• She did not get up and leave the room, as she had done in former days, when his abruptness or his temper had annoyed her. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
• I often tell you abruptness is your fault; remember, too, that to you she is a stranger, and does not know your ways. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
• Selden exclaimed, startled out of his composure by the abruptness of the statement. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
• Here is my card, sir,' replied Mr. Pickwick, much amused by the abruptness of the question, and the singular manner of the stranger. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
• Pray, says Sir Leicester to Mercury, what do you mean by announcing with this abruptness a young man of the name of Guppy? Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
• After a long pause, he suddenly, and with abruptness, said, Who makes your shoes? Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.

Editor: Stu