Merely

Examples

• Being merely sheltered by others would not promote growth. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
• Merely that I don't like it. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
• She merely observed that he was perfectly good humoured and friendly. Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility.
• Much of their theory must seem to the modern mind merely fanciful and unsupported speculation. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
• I merely intend to make myself entrancingly agreeable to every one I know, and to keep them in your corner as long as possible. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
• The surplus he holds merely as custodian, and it is passed on to the younger members of the community as necessity demands. Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of Mars.
• So long, so totally separated from him, merely to see his home, to enter the room where he had that morning sat, felt like a reunion. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
• It is not merely an arbitrary decision of theirs, come to without reason. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
• It seems to me that she might, by merely sitting quietly at his side, saying little and looking less, get nigher his heart. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
• We merely glanced at it and were ready for home. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
• Only you would rather they would do something worse than merely stop a wagon before you reckon with them. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
• This is merely a friend's letter. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
• Nothing would be resolved by merely walking, walking away. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
• But it merely made him stiff. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
• If such gradations were not all fully preserved, transitional varieties would merely appear as so many new, though closely allied species. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
• If we are discouraged it is because we tend to identify statecraft with that official government which is merely one of its instruments. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
• Merely that I consider you a dead bore, I added, as I stepped into the hackney coach and was followed by Julia. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
• The Edison concentrating plant has been sketched in the briefest outline with a view of affording merely a bare idea of the great work of its projector. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
• That very afternoon they had seemed full of brilliant qualities; now she saw that they were merely dull in a loud way. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
• He looked at them slightly, without seeming to know who they were, and merely nodded to Mrs. Jennings from the other side of the room. Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility.
• I merely wish that we should--ha--understand each other. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
• As it was, she merely stipulated, If you bring the boy back with his head blown to bits by a musket, don't look to me to put it together again. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
• I speak of really a great lady, not merely great to him, but married to a gentleman of your condition, Sir Leicester. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
• In modern times we should say that art is not merely imitation, but rather the expression of the ideal in forms of sense. Plato. The Republic.
• Formerly augers and similar boring tools had merely a curved sharpened end and a concavity to hold the chips, and the whole tool had to be withdrawn to empty the chips. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
• If nothing came of it, I should be no worse off, and there would merely be a short delay in my presenting myself to Lightwood. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
• It is evident the idea of darkness is no positive idea, but merely the negation of light, or more properly speaking, of coloured and visible objects. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
• I hope, Bounderby,' said Mr. Gradgrind, in a conciliatory voice, 'that this was merely an oversight. Charles Dickens. Hard Times.
• I hastily broke open the plain wafer seal, and found a two hundred pound bank-note, merely enclosed in a blank cover. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
• Were it known to the rest of my family, I should not have merely my own gratitude to express. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.

Editor: Manuel