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positive
in a sentence
grouped by contextual meaning

show 10 more with this conextual meaning
  • I'm positive our team will win on Friday.
  • But when she told them she wasn't exactly sure whether Luke had been born in May or June, that set the voices positively buzzing.   (source)
    positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)
  • When he drank, he was quite positive that he was swallowing them.   (source)
    positive = certain
  • "You sure you're not up for the Halloween Parade?"
      "Positive."   (source)
  • Absolutely, positively, I am live on every screen in Panem.   (source)
    positively = with certainty
  • She positively glowed as she told me about the hot meals and the hot showers and all the friends she'd made.   (source)
    positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)
  • In Montana, the only animals that dug holes like that were gophers and badgers, and Roy was positive there weren't many of those in Florida.   (source)
    positive = certain
  • "Are you sure?"
    "Positive," said Hermione, shifting Scabbers the rat so that she could sit down on the end of Ron's four-poster.   (source)
  • "I'm absolutely positive," he assured Gallien, "I won't run into anything I can't deal with on my own."   (source)
  • I wasn't positive that Sergeant Bickle's son was a lunatic, and I wasn't convinced he would lead us to Phoebe's mother, but enough of Phoebe's tales had been transplanted into my brain so that I was caught up in the plan.   (source)
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show 89 more with this conextual meaning
  • Our sources indicate that while Pickett has not been positively identified, authorities believe the body found in an offshoot of the Pogue's Run tunnel is indeed that of billionaire construction magnate Russell Davis Pickett, Sr.   (source)
    positively = with certainty
  • Absolutely, positively, perfectly right.   (source)
  • But I began to put on weight, and I was positively chubby by the time I started the fifth grade.   (source)
    positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)
  • He was almost positive the smell would bring back some sort of pleasant memory, but nothing came.   (source)
    positive = certain
  • I was positively giddy with happiness.   (source)
    positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)
  • I am absolutely positive!   (source)
    positive = certain
  • Bloody well positive!   (source)
  • I looked positively plain.   (source)
    positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)
  • After learning all of this, I was positive they would not prosecute Charlie as an adult.   (source)
    positive = certain
  • We'll be staying until we're positive that he's safe.   (source)
  • First you write down all the positive whole numbers in the world.   (source)
  • And I'm positive that deep down she likes me, too, even though she ACTS like she hates me.   (source)
  • I am positive that Aibileen would have better luck convincing someone than I would.   (source)
  • Guitierrez himself would write the preliminary report, but the remains would have to be sent back to the United States for final positive identification, of course.   (source)
    positive = with certainty
  • You are positive that he took full advantage of you?   (source)
    positive = certain
  • They clamber down into a cramped, moist space that positively reeks of the sea.   (source)
    positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)
  • Only when he was positive that Jack would say nothing of the trifling matter to the queen or the Lord of Diamonds, only when he heard the boy greedily munching on a tarty tart, did he set out after Alyss and Dodge.   (source)
    positive = certain
  • Already jam-packed with computers and equipment, the cramped space had turned positively claustrophobic with the many spectators now squeezing into it.   (source)
    positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)
  • We were positive that Stephano killed him!   (source)
    positive = certain
  • "It is safe, sir," said William positively.   (source)
    positively = with certainty
  • I took positive control over my life.   (source)
    positive = absolute (used for emphasis)
  • Absolutely, positively, one hundred and ten percent smashed.   (source)
    positively = with certainty
  • He had pushed the thought down and out of sight, where only some positive reminder like this could bring it to the surface.   (source)
    positive = certain (strong)
  • At the last moment, when disaster seemed positive, he pulled his hands from his pockets and broke his fall by grasping the golden pole.   (source)
    positive = certain
  • When radium was first discovered in the late 1800s, headlines nationwide hailed it as "a substitute for gas, electricity, and a positive cure for every disease."   (source)
  • Eventually, of course, after their Galaxy had been decimated over a few thousand years, it was realized that the whole thing had been a ghastly mistake, and so the two opposing battle fleets settled their few remaining differences in order to launch a joint attack on our own Galaxy—now positively identified as the source of the offending remark.   (source)
    positively = with certainty
  • For example, one family living on our square claimed they saw all four of us riding by on our bikes early in the morning, and another woman was absolutely positive we'd been loaded into some kind of military vehicle in the middle of the night.   (source)
    positive = certain
  • I've never been more positive of anything in my life.   (source)
  • But she was absolutely positive she understood them, and it scared the jujubes out of her.   (source)
  • I am positive.   (source)
  • They never promise anything, especially a visit or reunion, until they are positive they can deliver.   (source)
  • He sounded positively enthused.   (source)
    positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)
  • She wouldn't let me peek while she was getting ready, but when she finally emerged from the bathroom, she was positively glamorous.   (source)
  • Three years later, when Grandma discovered I would be one of the first blacks to attend Central High School, she said the nightmare that had surrounded my birth was proof positive that destiny had assigned me a special task.   (source)
    positive = certain
  • He positively snorted at that.   (source)
    positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)
  • And those ROE are very specific: we may not open fire until we are fired upon or have positively identified our enemy and have proof of his intentions.   (source)
    positively = with certainty
  •   "You sure?"
      "Positive."   (source)
    positive = certain
  • "I'm positive," asserted Mack adamantly.   (source)
  • "I'm not positive," he says.   (source)
  • Remember the morning you waited for him in the lobby until you were absolutely, positively going to be late, and then you rang his doorbell, and it turned out he'd gone to school without you?   (source)
    positively = with certainty
  • Could your Fremen provide me with proof positive that the Sardaukar are here in Harkonnen uniform?   (source)
    positive = certain
  • I'm positive.   (source)
  • He seemed positively diabolic in his enjoyment of our discomfort.   (source)
    positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)
  • I was positive that Timothy was back on north beach cutting on that piece of wood but something told me not to go down there.   (source)
    positive = certain
  • I'm almost positive that these pictures were taken there—it should be possible to check.   (source)
  • Oh, I don't really miss it-the frenzy, and never a cab, and always worrying how one looks. Positively not.   (source)
    positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)
  • In the reflection of the mirror, she watched the girl who looked just like her take a tube of lipstick-'Positively Hot!' the label read-and apply it.   (source)
  • He had heard that the place had experts who could identify monkey diseases, and he wanted to get a positive identification of the sickness.   (source)
    positive = with certainty
  • I was positive that I would remember this, even though I didn't want to.   (source)
    positive = certain
  • But he's been positively identified, so we know it's him.   (source)
    positively = with certainty
  • The legend of Bilbo's gold excited both curiosity and hope; for legendary gold (mysteriously obtained, if not positively ill-gotten), is, as every one knows, any one's for the finding — unless the search is interrupted.   (source)
  • Yes, positively beautiful.   (source)
    positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)
  • "You sure?" she asked.
    "Positive."   (source)
    positive = certain (having no doubt)
  • Still I was positive it had been a shot and I bolted forward.   (source)
    positive = certain
  • I'm positive, in fact.   (source)
  • It was odd, I felt, how many people seemed to have positive, if conflicting, information upon God's views.   (source)
  • I was sure—no I was positive—that wasn't how you do it.   (source)
  • Can you make such a statement with positive assurance, Miss Taggart?   (source)
    positive = absolute (used for emphasis)
  • I couldn't, I positively couldn't, stand not seeing LEW.   (source)
    positively = with certainty; or absolutely (used for emphasis)
  • After the second gutter ball, he looked positively panicked.†   (source)
    positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)
  • "You're absolutely positive?"†   (source)
    positive = certain
  • Then he does the absolutely, positively unthinkable.†   (source)
    positively = with certainty
  • We've positively identified two of them—a dark blue delivery van and a black car that used to be a taxi.†   (source)
  • "You're a positively disarming young man."†   (source)
    positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)
  • "Truly, I'm almost positive," I said, though I felt less sure now under Rideau's steely gaze.†   (source)
    positive = certain
  • Don't shoot at anything unless it's positively identified and unquestionably threatening.†   (source)
    positively = with certainty
  • About three things I was absolutely positive.†   (source)
    positive = certain
  • Told me you looked positively wretched.†   (source)
    positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)
  • And I'm sure she was positive it was mine.†   (source)
    positive = certain
  • On the other hand, if Maryse looked angry, the Inquisitor looked positively demented.†   (source)
    positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)
  • Despite the fact that John and I believed what we told Beth's parents, we couldn't be positive that Beth would wake up or that she wouldn't, finally, just slip away.†   (source)
    positive = certain
  • He looked positively rabid.†   (source)
    positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)
  • According to Kierkegaard, angst is almost positive.†   (source)
    positive = certain
  • I'm not positive.†   (source)
  • The longer I knelt there, the more out of sorts I felt, so that I was positively relieved when the General finally arrived—even though he did nothing more, after I had greeted him, than turn on the radio and sit drinking a beer.†   (source)
    positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)
  • One of the orderlies holding him looked positively evil.†   (source)
  • "HE HAS BEATEN Inigo!" the Turk said, not quite sure he wanted to believe it, but positive that the news was sad; he liked Inigo.†   (source)
    positive = certain
  • I didn't outright suspect Patch of spying on me, but I couldn't ignore the coincidence that I was almost positive I'd seen someone looking in my window just hours after I'd met him.†   (source)
  • To make a positive identification.†   (source)
    positive = with certainty
  • I think I was positively creative in terms of my mental cruelty.†   (source)
    positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)
  • And I was embarrassed because I was positive he could feel my heart hammering in my chest.†   (source)
    positive = certain
  • I'm almost positive the one I saw did.†   (source)
  • It was positively lavish, a spring miracle.†   (source)
    positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)
  • I was positive of it.†   (source)
    positive = certain
  • It was positively from Red October.†   (source)
    positively = absolutely (used for emphasis)
  • I'm positive.†   (source)
    positive = certain
  • An AC-130 gunship thousands of feet overhead engaged the enemy that could be positively identified by their weapon fire.†   (source)
    positively = with certainty
  • He was positive it hadn't appeared on any map he'd ever studied of the Karakoram, and he'd studied dozens.†   (source)
    positive = certain
  • I am positive that had it not been for the self-sacrifice of his life, I would have been killed or seriously wounded.†   (source)
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show 10 more with this conextual meaning
  • I'm making a list of the positives and negatives of switching jobs
    positives = good things or characteristics
  • Wage growth had a positive impact on the stock market.
    positive = good or beneficial
  • We don't have a solution yet, but our recent experiment was a positive step in the right direction.
  • Lower gasoline prices have positively affected movie fast food sales.
    positively = in a good way
  • The authorities' problem with the book was obvious. The protagonist was a Jew, and he was presented in a positive light.   (source)
    positive = good
  • Fussing over children who cry only encourages them, she told us. That's positive reinforcement for negative behavior.   (source)
    positive = beneficial (providing a benefit)
  • Curly finally came up with something positive to contribute.   (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
  • Best of all, women found the flyboy uniform irresistible. While Louie was out walking one afternoon, a convertible fringed in blondes pulled up, and he was scooped into the car and sped off to a party. When it happened a second time, he sensed a positive trend.   (source)
    positive = good
  • "Personally I see nothing positive at all about Chris McCandless's lifestyle or wilderness doctrine," scolded another correspondent.   (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
  • Several new treatments are available that we hope to use with positive effect, in particular the "electro-shock therapy," for which we will have the equipment soon.   (source)
    positive = beneficial
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show 89 more with this conextual meaning
  • A change in personal circumstances, even a positive one, can trigger anxiety.   (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
  • Reams of social science attest to the positive effect of a loving and stable home.   (source)
  • The only positive news Goldie has to offer is her own.   (source)
    positive = good
  • Lotte had assured her that Johann would always be the love of her life, but cheerful Antoon knew how to see something positive in every day, and had given her life new meaning.   (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
  • Thomas waited, hoping that Newt or Alby would have a positive reaction to the news, maybe even have further information to shed light on the mystery.   (source)
    positive = good
  • I assigned this tension to the new environment of the island; any change, even positive, will make an animal tense.   (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
  • Interpol said Vernet's name appeared in the newspapers from time to time, but always in a positive light.   (source)
    positive = good
  • This was a very positive development.   (source)
  • Professor Lupin continued, "The Patronus is a kind of positive force, a projection of the very things that the dementor feeds upon — hope, happiness, the desire to survive — but it cannot feel despair, as real humans can, so the dementors can't hurt it."   (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
  • Even jail can be positive if you go in with a good heart.   (source)
  • It's more than the negative that you're going to die, it's also the positive that you understand you're going to die, and that you live a better life because of it.   (source)
  • It's always a positive force.   (source)
  • To a background of gasps and exclamations of relief, amazement, joy, and every other positive emotion that Alice's miraculous return could give rise to, she told of how she had escaped from her captors (a gang of Scottish stevedores looking to blackmail the royal family, she claimed), a feat which she herself pooh-poohed as nothing very astonishing.   (source)
    positive = good
  • Concentrate your thoughts on a positive flow of energy.   (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
  • I hadn't been told anything positive for so long that I nearly cried.   (source)
    positive = good
  • The characters suffer in the beginning and the middle, but not the end. There's positive resolution.   (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
  • And if there's any positive to the jabberjay attack, it's that it let us know where we are on the clock face again.   (source)
    positive = good
  • With some positive action before them, a little of the tension died.   (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
  • Everything he'd said after the Inglemoor game was positive, but I knew what was happening. Dave Kane was playing better and better every week. His star was shining brighter and mine was fading.   (source)
    positive = good
  • The concept of unity, in which positive and negative are attributes of the same force, in which good and evil are relative, ever-changing, and always joined to the same phenomenon—such a concept is still reserved to the physical sciences and to the few who have grasped the history of ideas.   (source)
  • Many adults seemed to interpret this numbness as a positive sign; I remember particularly Mr. Beeman (an overly clipped Brit in a dumb tweed motoring cap, whom despite his solicitude I had come to hate, irrationally, as an agent of my mother's death) complimenting me on my maturity and informing me that I seemed to be "coping awfully well."   (source)
  • Others cast the train in a more positive light.   (source)
  • If there was a positive side to all this, it was that it gave him something to build his days around now that he was retired—something aside from coins, that is.   (source)
  • But there are also a lot of positives to military service.   (source)
    positives = good things
  • He views Leah's bow and arrows as a positive development in our household after so many other discouraging ones, such as the death, for all practical purposes, of Ruth May.   (source)
    positive = good
  • If you visit a coworker's page and write something on the wall, that's a positive thing.   (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
  • Mr. Turner has spoken of it, and not in positive terms.   (source)
    positive = good
  • It was what had brought them to the war in the first place, nothing positive, no dreams of glory or honor, just to avoid the blush of dishonor.   (source)
  • I remember the social worker telling my grandparents and Aunt Diane that this was a positive step.   (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
  • We recognized that there were things we could do that might help the outcome in positive ways…and we did them.   (source)
  • That is something the Amity would do: put me in time-out, and then teach me to do cleansing breaths or think positive thoughts.   (source)
    positive = good
  • The measure of Count Fenring's friendship may be seen first in a positive thing: he allayed the Landsraad's suspicions after the Arrakis Affair.   (source)
  • You will describe in detail how positive I am and how well things are going for me.   (source)
  • People were scarcely real to them, in the sense of being warmly or positively (or even angrily) felt about… The three men under sentence of death had shallow emotions regarding their own fate and that of their victims.   (source)
    positively = in a good or beneficial manner
  • The stereotypes almost always accentuated the positive.   (source)
    positive = good
  • I chose to look upon this incident, even if small, as a positive sign.   (source)
  • On a technical level, she was measuring the amount of positive and negative emotion, because one of Gottman's findings is that for a marriage to survive, the ratio of positive to negative emotion in a given encounter has to be at least five to one.   (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
  • I plan to go back to my high school for their special events, like the annual talent show and the Mr. Toppenish show, and to keep up with the teachers who have had such a positive impact on my life.   (source)
  • I take that as a positive sign.   (source)
    positive = good
  • The one positive development for Washington was that during his stay in Philadelphia he had convinced Joseph Reed to rejoin the army, to serve as the army's adjutant general—its administrative head—with the rank of colonel, in place of General Horatio Gates, who had been sent by Congress to see what he could do about Canada.   (source)
  • As far as I was concerned a firm grasp of the negative in the cause of survival had been quite enough to occupy me; I was only just beginning to perceive the vacancy left by the absent positive.   (source)
    positive = good to do
  • If Attolia returned from the dancing flushed from more than the exercise, no one took it as a positive sign.   (source)
    positive = good
  • Along the way, they also have a positive influence on one another.   (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
  • That's the positive effect of political correctness.   (source)
  • At least they were doing something positive.   (source)
  • I BELIEVE I HAVE A PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY to make a positive impact on society.   (source)
  • "It's faith, and faith's a strong, positive thing."   (source)
  • I also have done many things the right way and have been a positive influence on many people.   (source)
  • His pulse was still rapid and weak, but his blood pressure was rising steadily, a positive development.   (source)
    positive = good
  • Many Farm folk and children were gathered around the dentist, who was checking to find out if marijuana had any positive effect on teeth.   (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
  • It hasn't changed since she picked me up, so she might just be trying to think of something positive to say to me.†   (source)
  • As Lori, the court-ordered social worker she meets with biweekly always tells her to do, Molly decides to make a mental list of all the positive things about her situation.†   (source)
    positive = good
  • I need to change these feelings into something positive instead of negative.†   (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
  • One indisputably positive development had occurred during his absence, however.†   (source)
    positive = good
  • I tried to wipe the worry off my face and focus on positive things, but I realized there weren't any.†   (source)
  • We've seen a lot of positive things come out of all of this.†   (source)
  • Yes, surely I must have dreamt that Edward said anything positive about Heathcliff.†   (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
  • They could see that the navy was firing heavily—black smoke rose from the island in great billows—and this began to have a positive influence on the disposition of Third Platoon.†   (source)
  • Nature was now regarded as a positive thing.†   (source)
  • One positive thing that came from all of the craziness is that my family took Shelley to Colorado to see Sunny Acres, and my sister really liked it.†   (source)
    positive = good
  • THE MEETINGS had a positive effect: I was told in the winter of 1988 that President Botha was planning to see me before the end of August.†   (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
  • I'm thinkin' only positive things, like how great it would be if Zoey was leader of the Dark Daughters.†   (source)
    positive = good
  • She was one of the only people I knew who'd gotten anything positive out of her prison stay: new teeth.†   (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
  • "It's a positive sign.†   (source)
    positive = good
  • Ismael should look for positive things to emphasize.†   (source)
  • We thus regard the Pentecostal boom with some suspicion, but without doubt it also has a positive impact on the role of women.†   (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
  • With so many others advising Kelley to run from Adam, it was nice to hear something positive.†   (source)
  • Mortenson marveled at the positive effects marriage had on his life.†   (source)
  • To some, these are positive developments.†   (source)
    positive = good
  • I saw this as a positive thing, but when Henry Lavender called that afternoon my mother was at the supermarket and didn't call him back.†   (source)
  • I would also to thank the many people who have had a positive impact on my life, especially my loving mother and my family.†   (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
  • Unlike Parmenides, Beethoven apparently viewed weight as something positive.†   (source)
  • Now if I really want to do something positive, I can do it right here in this country.†   (source)
  • Positive Effects of Size, Structure of Government†   (source)
  • But I've got to think about positive things, like what we're going to do tomorrow.†   (source)
    positive = good
  • If there was something ominous in the newscaster's tones, there was something torpid about our understanding of what was at stake; and if there was something culpable about such political ignorance in that time and place, there was something positive about the security I inhabited as a result of it.†   (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
  • Something positive.†   (source)
  • And as soon as it was understood, black men could do something positive to counter it.†   (source)
  • Every mouthful of food was an acute positive pleasure, now that it was truly their own food, produced by themselves and for themselves, not doled out to them by a grudging master.   (source)
  • …in spite of all, we perceive the positive in every moment, and store it up as a reserve against the onslaught of nothingness.   (source)
  • I've failed at every positive thing I've tried.   (source)
    positive = good
  • I have pointed out some of the negative wastes of competition, answered the other. I have hardly mentioned the positive economies of co-operation.   (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
  • He has one positive virtue.   (source)
    positive = good
  • I left it there, with the water rippling round it, under the still stars, and giving it a wide berth pursued my way towards the yellow glow of the house; and presently, with a positive effect of relief, came the pitiful moaning of the puma, the sound that had originally driven me out to explore this mysterious island.   (source)
    positive = good or beneficial
  • It's society that implants positives or negatives onto certain ideas.†   (source)
  • Number one was okay since it was negatives and positives and those aren't too bad.†   (source)
  • I concentrated on the positives.†   (source)
  • A deep breath brings several positives to mind.†   (source)
  • And less on the negatives and more on the positives, please?†   (source)
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  • We're getting a lot of positive feedback about the proposed changes.
    positive = indicating approval or agreement
  • But still not everyone in Pakistan was so positive. Though my father had tried to keep it from me, I knew some people were saying he had shot me, or that I wasn't shot at all and we had staged it so we could live overseas.   (source)
    positive = indicating approval
  • "You liked it?" I said, getting my second taste—and how sweet it was—of a positive review.   (source)
  • To ensure that his message got through, he decided to speak positively about his captors.   (source)
    positively = in an approving manner (saying good things)
  • She must have had some sort of positive emotion about him though.   (source)
    positive = indicating approval or agreement
  • I always tried to be positive with her, although I'd learned that even compliments were a kind of insult to Lou Ann, causing her to wrinkle her face and advise me to make an appointment with an eye doctor.   (source)
  • He had never knowingly given her pain, but he now felt that she required more positive kindness; and with that view endeavoured, in the first place, to lessen her fears of them all, and gave her especially a great deal of good advice as to playing with Maria and Julia, and being as merry as possible.   (source)
    positive = indicating approval
  • But some of the reaction in Pakistan was not so positive.   (source)
  • Women have always had it hard in this country, Laila, but they're probably more free now, under the communists, and have more rights than they've ever had before, Babi said, always lowering his voice, aware of how intolerant Mammy was of even remotely positive talk of the communists.   (source)
    positive = indicating approval or agreement
  • It would be a generous one, more generous than his length of service warranted, because, let's be frank, his friends at AnooYoo wanted Jimmy to remember them in a positive manner, in his terrific new position.   (source)
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  • The media in Swat were under pressure to give positive coverage to the Taliban—some even respectfully called the Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan School Dada, when in reality he was destroying schools.   (source)
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  • I appreciation your positive attitude.
    positive = optimistic or agreeable
  • But the positive thoughts would give way to negative thoughts, and the negative thoughts seemed to swoop into her mind the way a big flock of black crows takes over the landscape, sitting thick in the trees and on the fence rails and lawns, staring at you in ominous silence.   (source)
    positive = optimistic (focusing on good things)
  • And the next thought was there as well, that they might never find him, but that was panic and he fought it down and tried to stay positive.   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • It also went to show the value of statesmanship and diplomacy as well as positive thinking and plain old hard-headed business sense.   (source)
  • "We've got to think positive thoughts."   (source)
  • I needed to turn this around, make it positive.   (source)
    positive = optimistic (focusing on good things)
  • My mom can be quiet and talk at the same time when she's being positive.   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • I asked Morrie how he managed to stay positive through that.   (source)
  • She tried to stay positive.   (source)
  • I had prepared myself for that, and even thought of several positive, uplifting aphorisms to cheer him up.   (source)
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  • The paper explained that because he had confessed and had a positive attitude, he was pardoned.   (source)
    positive = optimistic or agreeable
  • All I can tell you is that it's a combination of perfecting your skill and keeping a positive outlook.   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • Yes, better to think positive thoughts.   (source)
  • On the plane back from Iceland, Aria had read in a Seventeen she found in her seat pocket that boys liked enthusiastic, positive girls.   (source)
  • How you get to be so positive and sure about stuff all the time, man?   (source)
  • She finally had a decent year in the Games with Peeta and me, and now it's all broken down into a mess that even she can't put a positive spin on.   (source)
    positive = optimistic (focusing on good things)
  • How can anyone maintain a positive mental attitude if you're saying things like that?   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • I try to stay positive about it, but it's hard seeing the interactions and relationships the other students have at school that I'm not a part of.   (source)
    positive = optimistic (or feeling good)
  • Practice, practice, practice—six hours a day—my arms would ache from holding the flute up—and, well, I'm sure you've heard plenty of it too, that positive-thinking crap that it's so easy for teachers and physical therapists to dole out —'oh, you can do it!' we believe in you!'   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • Even when he was punched with punishing blows or was kicked to the floor, he kept a positive attitude.   (source)
    positive = optimistic or agreeable
  • Taya tried to sound positive and downplay the problems.   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • When the mood was becoming morbid and there were too many people in tears, he would urge them to be positive.   (source)
  • Seeing Miss Riley so positive and hopeful made me ashamed and disgusted with my symptoms.   (source)
  • "Let's think positive."   (source)
    positive = optimistically
  • It has not always been easy to stay positive through my cancer treatment.   (source)
    positive = optimistic (focusing on good things)
  • Translated, that meant there was nothing a person can't do, and there should be nothing a human being didn't care about. It was the most positive encouragement I could have hoped for.   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • He's not the most positive person anyway.   (source)
  • Instead she prayed for the strength she needed to help her dad; she prayed for the ability to stay positive in his presence, instead of crying every time she saw him.   (source)
    positive = optimistic (or feeling good)
  • I'm trying to think positive here.   (source)
    positive = optimistically
  • Here he is with no leg and a positive attitude.   (source)
    positive = optimistic or agreeable
  • She described Oscar's success in Santa Barbara, noting that his team triumphed due to their "ingenuity, positive outlook, and willingness to work hard."   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • Why can't we take a more positive approach? Why can't we all pray for something good, like a tighter bomb pattern, for example?   (source)
  • That was when I began to realize that I had been tyrannized by the idea that everyone must always have a positive attitude.   (source)
    positive = optimistic or agreeable
  • The programme of the new Labour government: driving up standards in education; welfare reform; monetary and fiscal stability as the foundation of a modern economy; massive investment in our public services tied to the challenge of modernization; a huge programme of constitutional change; a new positive attitude to Europe -- it is a program of national renewal as ambitious as any undertaken in any western democracy in recent times.   (source)
  • Hard work and a positive attitude paid off.   (source)
  • Occasionally, in spite of the professional and positive attitude of the staff, outbursts do occur.†   (source)
  • And then there was the willful positive thinking, the self-induced illusion that everything would turn out fine, when we had all kinds of evidence that it wouldn't.†   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • When I see the judge I will try to convey a positive attitude, while at the same time monitoring my blood pressure and other vital signs.†   (source)
    positive = optimistic or agreeable
  • Yes, it's true that Alex and Barry and David and I did all the leading and fixed all the ropes, but she contributed to the effort in her own way by having a positive attitude, by raising money, and by dealing with the media.†   (source)
  • Cod-liver oil and a dose of positive thinking, eh?†   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • Think positive, is what I always say.†   (source)
    positive = optimistically
  • Perhaps, then, there is something to his advice that I should cease looking back so, much, that I should adopt a more positive outlook and try to make the best of what remains of my day.†   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • I blurted, totally overwhelmed by the schedule, but trying to keep a positive attitude.†   (source)
    positive = optimistic or agreeable
  • Because you know what, the power of positive thinking will overcome so many things.†   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • Another class had been titled "Positive Attitude" and was taught by the former warden's secretary.†   (source)
    positive = optimistic or agreeable
  • My mother had on her Donna Reed face, which was a particularly sickly smile imbued with positive thinking, dredged up from I never understood where.†   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • That was negative thinking—now I'm seriously into positive thinking.†   (source)
  • Try to think positive.†   (source)
    positive = optimistically
  • I had seen my mother with several self-help books recently, and I knew it was a struggle for her to practice these bits of positive thinking.†   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • You keep that positive outlook, Beaver.†   (source)
  • Positive attitude, right?†   (source)
    positive = optimistic or agreeable
  • Looking at the books, I saw little possibility of handing my students The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale.†   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • "Think positive," he said.†   (source)
    positive = optimistically
  • Zoe started the meeting off on a positive note.   (source)
    positive = optimistic (focusing on good things)
  • Cheer up! Look on the bright side! You've got to think positive!   (source)
    positive = optimistically
  • You especially, Sonny, when advertisers who seemed positive pulled out without warning.   (source)
    positive = agreeable
  • That's how Perpich had put it, stay positive and stay on top of things.   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • Positive about what? That you've thought up yet another way to rip off a bunch of desperate people?   (source)
    positive = optimistic or agreeable
  • He's just this phenomenal ball of positive energy; completely physical and gregarious.   (source)
    positive = optimistic (focusing on good things)
  • I was in no mood to hear one of her lectures about the power of positive thinking.   (source)
  • The bearer of my daily doses of positive affirmation.   (source)
    positive = optimistic or agreeable
  • I can get used to these daily positive affirmations.   (source)
  • Brian thought of him now, wondered how to stay positive and stay on top of this.   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • My heart felt like lead, but we tried to find positive things to say.   (source)
    positive = optimistic (focusing on good things)
  • Power of positive thinking and all that.   (source)
  • I do my best to sound positive about our future, but people are truly devastated when they learn I've lost the baby.   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • Think positive.   (source)
    positive = optimistically
  • I'd like to tell you that was part of my plan, but even I, with all my poetic skill, cannot put a positive spin on it.   (source)
    positive = optimistic (focusing on good things)
  • His positive attitude gave me hope that even if I couldn't speak my truth, the scales of justice were weighted on our side.   (source)
    positive = optimistic or agreeable
  • But it was also an extremely positive letter, full of hope and encouraging all of us to do some small part for others.   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • "My God," complained Arthur, "you're talking about a positive mental attitude and you haven't even had your planet demolished today."   (source)
  • But we managed, through patience, perseverance, and positive thinking, to grow from scrawny teenagers with doubtful futures to become medical professionals highly respected in our community.   (source)
    positive = optimistic (focusing on good things)
  • At times she'd be happy for days on end, announcing that she had decided to think only positive thoughts, because if you think positive thoughts, then positive things will happen to you.   (source)
  • Though Jai wasn't thrilled with my bluntness and my know-it-all attitude, she said I was the most positive, upbeat person she'd ever met.   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • Can't you be positive, just for once? All this negative stuff, this is no good, that's no good, nothing's ever good enough, according to you!   (source)
    positive = optimistic or agreeable
  • I'm trying to stay positive.   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • Prepare to be bombarded for the next six months with endless annoying texts of nothing but positive affirmations about Sky.   (source)
    positive = optimistic or agreeable
  • Brian had once had an English teacher, a guy named Perpich, who was always talking about being positive, thinking positive, staying on top of things.   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • It pains him to see patients who are having a tough day healthwise and assume it's because they weren't positive enough.   (source)
    positive = optimistic (focusing on good things)
  •   "What people want is perfection," said the man. "In themselves."
      "But they need the steps to it to be pointed out," said the woman.
      "In a simple order," said the man.
      "With encouragement," said the woman. "And a positive attitude."   (source)
    positive = optimistic or agreeable
  • Such positive slogans.   (source)
  • I watched Dr. Wolff use semantics to phrase whatever he could in a positive light. When we asked, “How long before I die?” he answered, “You probably have three to six months of good health.”   (source)
    positive = optimistic (focusing on good things)
  • And Dr. Reiss, the counselor Jai and I see, has helped me find strategies to avoid losing myself in the stress of my periodic cancer scans, so I'm able to focus on my family with an open heart, a positive outlook and almost of all my attention.   (source)
  • Think positive, he told himself.   (source)
    positive = optimistically
  • Think positive.   (source)
  • Damn it, Lou Ann, you've been telling me till you were blue in the face to do something, take action, think positive, blah, blah, blah.   (source)
  • From the self-help bookshelves to the Complaint-Free World movement, the power of positive thinking is touted now more than ever as the way to be happy, healthy, wealthy, and wise.   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • Robbie always had a cheerful grin and a positive attitude.†   (source)
    positive = optimistic or agreeable
  • If he continued to show the same positive attitude, he could possibly survive as news editor.†   (source)
  • Think positive, girl, or the world ends.†   (source)
    positive = optimistically
  • "Think positive," I mumbled around a mouthful of food, shaking my head with disbelief.†   (source)
  • We hope you had a safe and restful holiday and have come back ready with a positive attitude to successfully handle the academic tasks before you.†   (source)
    positive = optimistic or agreeable
  • It will always be difficult to deal with, Andy, but taking one day at a time, with a positive attitude, is the only way to do it.†   (source)
  • You have progressed from a state of "wanting to die" to the much more positive outlook of "learning to live."†   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • I will have a positive attitude, take care of myself, I'll feed myself enzymes, and friendly bacteria.†   (source)
    positive = optimistic or agreeable
  • Given the circumstances, I doubted Amos, Carter, and Bast would let me go to London, but I decided to think positive.†   (source)
    positive = optimistically
  • The Power of Positive Thinking.†   (source)
    positive = optimistic
  • Tragically, she had not been able to lose the weight, but she still had fun at the party, because she had managed to keep her positive attitude.†   (source)
    positive = optimistic or agreeable
  • Combating the Tyranny of the Positive Attitude BARBARA HELD MANY AMERICANS INSIST THAT EVERYONE HAVE a positive attitude, even when the going gets rough.†   (source)
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show 10 more with this conextual meaning
  • We tested for lead in the drinking water. The results came back positive.
    positive = it found a substance to be present
  • The test for bacterial infection came back positive.
    positive = it found the condition present
  • You're positive for strep and mono.   (source)
    positive = indicating that the results of a test showed that a condition was found
  • "Of course I tested positive," I said to the doctor.   (source)
    positive = indicating that a condition was found
  • I caught it just a few weeks ago, tested positive at the quarantine checkpoint—government's trying their damnedest to keep the sick and the well separate.   (source)
  • They had run toxicity profiles as well, and they had found only one positive match: the blood was mildly reactive to the venom of the Indian king cobra.   (source)
    positive = found a condition or substance to be present
  • One month prior to current visit, patient tested positive for gonorrhea.   (source)
    positive = indicating that a condition was found
  • Out of the eighteen, one was positive for melanoma.   (source)
    positive = indicating that the results of a test showed that a condition was found
  • It said that his stool sample had tested positive for Escherichia coli 0157:H7, a virulent and potentially lethal foodborne pathogen.   (source)
    positive = indicating that a condition was found
  • On an island of 11 million, only 2,669 had tested positive as of 2000.   (source)
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show 22 more with this conextual meaning
  • I took a pregnancy test today. It was positive.   (source)
  • All four men eventually tested positive for Ebola Reston virus.   (source)
  • For example, a patient with a normal ECG who was positive on all three urgent risk factors would go to the intermediate unit; a patient whose ECG showed acute ischemia (that is, the heart muscle wasn't getting enough blood) but who had either one or no risk factors would be considered low-risk and go to the short-stay unit; someone with an ECG positive for ischemia and two or three risk factors would be sent directly to the cardiac care unit—and so on.   (source)
  • Besides, I've been tested positive for the virus he predicted from these dreams of his.   (source)
  • If the bat tested positive for rabies, then John Luke would have to go through about five rounds of shots.   (source)
  • Dr. Burton went on to say that it was he who conducted the study of gunshot-residue tests on suicides and found that fewer than 50 percent tested positive.†   (source)
  • Sunitha arranged for Abbas to be tested for HIV; she tested positive, so Sunitha is trying to find her an HIV-positive man to marry.†   (source)
  • The following day, after Janice and Larry found out that their son had tested positive for cocaine, marijuana, and amphetamines, Adam was already gone again.†   (source)
  • So the water tested positive for something that looked like alcohol, but only in certain pipes.   (source)
  • I've tested positive for the Raison Strain.   (source)
  • After three positive pregnancy tests, after her period was three weeks late-she was miscarrying.   (source)
  • Many of their cell lines tested positive, including the skin cells George Hyatt had transplanted onto a soldier's arm years earlier.   (source)
  • I worried that something dramatic had been found, until the doctor said, "You tested positive for Valley Fever."   (source)
  • The press release failed to mention that some ground beef from the same lot had indeed been tested — and had tested positive for E. coli 0157:H7.   (source)
  • Within weeks of Henrietta's death, Sonny, Deborah, and baby Joe—all between one and four years old—tested positive for TB.   (source)
  • The sample didn't just test positive; it showed that Henrietta had been infected with multiple copies of HPV-18, which turned out to be one of the most virulent strains of the virus.   (source)
  • Before beginning his talk, Hayflick stood at the podium and announced that, since WISH cells supposedly tested positive for a genetic marker found only in black people, he'd called his wife during the break to ask if he was, in fact, his daughter's father.   (source)
  • HeLa cells in his lab tested positive for the HPV-18 strain, but zur Hausen requested a sample of Henrietta's original biopsy from Hopkins, so he could be sure her cells hadn't been contaminated with the virus in culture.   (source)
  • One night, when I was on duty, the inmates got intoxicated, and sure enough the pipes tested positive for alcohol residue one day, although the water source tested perfectly normal.   (source)
  • None of the local people or the cattle tested positive for Marburg antibodies—if they had tested positive, it would have shown that they had been exposed to Marburg.†   (source)
  • Thabang's mother, Gertrude Tobela, tested positive, apparently after getting the disease from her husband, and then infected her youngest child, Victor, during childbirth.†   (source)
  • Neth told him that she had worked in Poipet and was friends with an American journalist, but she balked at acknowledging that she had been a prostitute--or that she had tested positive for HIV.†   (source)
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show 10 more with this conextual meaning
  • It is a positive number.
    positive = greater than zero
  • We expect to achieve a positive cash flow next year.
  • So I limited the reactor enough that we weren't getting positive heat.   (source)
  • Absolute value: the distance that a given number is from zero on a number line …. always a positive.   (source)
    positive = expressed a number greater than zero
  • And then, slowly, she watched the second, perpendicular line appear: a plus sign, a positive, a cross to bear.   (source)
    positive = greater than zero
  • A negative number if the boy is more of a Dumper; positive number if the girl is.   (source)
  • Positive numbers if the boy is more attracted to the girl; negative if vice versa.   (source)
  • Assuming negative numbers if the guy is more of a Dumpee; positive if the girl is.   (source)
  • He sketched: Where x = time, and y = happiness, y = 0 beginning of relationship and breakup, y negative = breakup by m, and y positive = breakup by f: my relationship with K-19.   (source)
  • Which Colin arrived at by calculating the popularity difference between Person A and Person B on a scale of 1 to 1,000 (you can approximate) and then dividing by 75—positive numbers if the girl is more popular; negative if the guy is.   (source)
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show 10 more examples with any meaning
  • He said positive liberty is self-mastery— the rule of the self, by the self.†   (source)
  • If someone came in here and gave you positive proof, would you do anything different?†   (source)
  • I'm positive he's going to say no, because I'm sure he's had as many leftover turkey sandwiches over at his house as we've been eating over here, but then he goes, "Sure!"†   (source)
  • I was especially mad at my mother, because she had negated the positive impression I had made previously by reciting the color wheel.†   (source)
  • Protons have positive charge.†   (source)
  • Five months later, in April 1932, Paul was able to record positive figures once again for Holsten Jewelers, and he used the capital to modernize the newly renamed Altona Market Jewelers.†   (source)
  • My mom always told me to think positive and smile—people notice and are attracted to that.†   (source)
  • The book also features a resource guide listing more than two hundred "Elevate Organizations" that young readers, their caregivers, and anyone who wants to help can use as a tool for creating positive change.†   (source)
  • Positive.†   (source)
  • Thank you for making a lot of the positive occurrences that are happening in my life possible.†   (source)
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show 190 more examples with any meaning
  • He's very much involved with depicting his neighborhood and environment in a positive manner.†   (source)
  • After getting a few positive grunts, he said, "One …. two …. three!"†   (source)
  • "But you've got to look at the positive side.†   (source)
  • A gun may give you a positive result on one firing and a negative result on another.†   (source)
  • Yeah, that Eugene, he was a positive dude even as an alcoholic who ended up getting shot in the face and killed.†   (source)
  • My parents tried yet again to put a positive spin on this new turn of events.†   (source)
  • There were certain positive words in their vocabulary—"European," among them; women who didn't shave their armpits or their legs were more "European" than American women, to their undoubted advantage.†   (source)
  • That's not the reaction I was hoping for, but I guess it was positive.†   (source)
  • What makes this situation positive?†   (source)
  • On the positive side, you have already completed enough days to get credit for this semester.†   (source)
  • He sticks the magnet to the screw's head and holds the screw's point to the positive terminal on the battery.†   (source)
  • Trying to put a positive spin on my impending demise.†   (source)
  • I have brought nothing positive into his life.†   (source)
  • Ironically, had Mao died before launching the Cultural Revolution, he would surely be remembered today as a much more positive historical figure.†   (source)
  • The distress of course was shared between them, but she felt it her duty to be positive and soothing.†   (source)
  • But with the positive lead being unaffected, the power must have come from somewhere else….†   (source)
  • Everything that went on in your life was thought to be due to some positive or negative power emanating from inside your head.†   (source)
  • With a curt smile, she says, "We expect to have a positive experience with you.†   (source)
  • I make every day a positive day.†   (source)
  • I tried to steer the conversation in a more positive direction.†   (source)
  • Positive.†   (source)
  • "Of course he will," I said, trying to sound positive.†   (source)
  • I held a page of the records close to my face to make out the small script, then began reading out loud, " 'This twenty-eight-year-old' … something … I can't read the handwriting … 'positive Rh.' "†   (source)
  • I'm heartened that Beck, Lou, and others are apparently able to look at the positive side of the experience-and envious.†   (source)
  • "In here," he says, and though I can't be positive, I think he stops at the door to the master bedroom.†   (source)
  • He also said that you might want to think about what happened on Sunday in a positive way.†   (source)
  • A Patronus is a magical charm, a projection of all your most positive feelings, and takes the shape of the animal with whom you share the deepest affinity.†   (source)
  • There had been a crackle of electricity and a small odor of ozone when he slipped the positive cable onto its terminal.†   (source)
  • She was pretty positive he wouldn't be in favor of people going close to the mountain.†   (source)
  • All the while I was talking to the reporter, I kept our instructions in mind: Accentuate the positive—don't complain too much.†   (source)
  • The UV-positive microspores were almost hanging in the air by now-I could almost follow the trail of exhalations he had left.†   (source)
  • I tried to be positive, but my voice was weak.†   (source)
  • It was all good fun, all positive.†   (source)
  • But in the meantime some folk swear by cod-liver oil and a positive mind.†   (source)
  • Boo said he was full of positive aura.†   (source)
  • As if anyone needed extra pressure, the New York Times warned: "the failure of the fair or anything short of a positive and pronounced success would be a discredit to the whole country, and not to Chicago alone."†   (source)
  • We would normally see his love of books as something that is affirming of values, improving, and educational—all of which we know as positive virtues.†   (source)
  • You are cheerier, more positive, more polite, more generous, more inquisitive.†   (source)
  • "Positive," Georgia confirmed.†   (source)
  • "Smile with a greeting and make a positive first impression," a Burger King training manual suggests.†   (source)
  • At the same time, you'll also discover the transcendent account of a poet/artist who, with the help of a small, socially engaged core of community leaders and teachers, overcame his own deeply held pathologies to take on the great challenges of an oppressive and exploitative reality—and finding his own particular destiny with words, dedicated himself to making positive contributions in transforming that reality.†   (source)
  • "positive," and "outlets" meant, Bella grinned and nodded: "Yes, yes, exactly!†   (source)
  • They are positive events, full of the old 'can-do' spirit.†   (source)
  • The obsessive cleanliness of the room was the only positive sign of volition from Estha.†   (source)
  • It's better than it was," I tell her as we approach Lamp, trying feebly to put a positive spin on a catastrophe.†   (source)
  • Online, the video is already spiral-viraling away, and the reaction is surprisingly positive.†   (source)
  • I swear he takes a positive delight in it.†   (source)
  • Her scheme, worked out as we went along, turned out to be the second positive factor.†   (source)
  • In Part One of formal scientific method, which is the statement of the problem, the main skill is in stating absolutely no more than you are positive you know.†   (source)
  • If the test came back positive, whoa, our lives were about to change forever.†   (source)
  • B positive.†   (source)
  • On the positive side, there were these soft curls.†   (source)
  • Positive?†   (source)
  • I tell myself, Dede, concentrate on the positive!†   (source)
  • It contained a chapter comparing the two ways in which AIDS had been managed on the island of Cuba—the Cuban approach and the American quarantine of HIV-positive Haitian refugees, conducted in the early nineties on the Guantánamo naval base.†   (source)
  • "Uncle Jack, I think you've made a non sequitur but I'm not at all positive."†   (source)
  • Positive.†   (source)
  • He'd take a few days off regardless of the approaching season, and as he limped back to his house, he tried to put a positive spin on it.†   (source)
  • By contrast, her bodily functions seek positive awakening.†   (source)
  • Fezzik was positive.†   (source)
  • I crossed my arms, hoping to look stem and a little exasperated, but at the same time, I had to bite my lip to keep from showing a slightly more positive reaction.†   (source)
  • Yves always seemed, a moment before the act, tentative and tremulous; not like a girl—like a boy: and this strangely innocent waiting, this virile helplessness, always engendered in Eric a positive storm of tenderness.†   (source)
  • Some folks' polarities are negative, some positive.†   (source)
  • It was a rite that strengthened group identification and inculcated positive values.†   (source)
  • There, you see," he said peevishly: "I'm even afraid to make a positive statement.†   (source)
  • I'm positive he'll have a good time.†   (source)
  • Are you quite positive?†   (source)
  • He had done his test twice, he said, and both times the samples were positive to the Mayinga strain of Ebola Zaire.†   (source)
  • You do it and then there's no feeling positive about it afterwards.†   (source)
  • I'm positive my mouth flopped open like a moron.†   (source)
  • And what can we do to deliberately start and control positive epidemics of our own?†   (source)
  • The PSFs don't have the manpower to launch a full hunt for us, but I'm positive they've put two and two together about what you are."†   (source)
  • Just doing my time, and hoping to get out and get on with meeting the positive goals in my life.†   (source)
  • We all learn to respond to incentives, negative and positive, from the outset of life.†   (source)
  • She had to concentrate on the positive side of things.†   (source)
  • No one else was showing her any positive attention.†   (source)
  • Positive numbers if the girl is more outgoing; negative if the guy is.]†   (source)
  • There were gorges carved by water, and somewhere there were quarries, but I wasn't sure where to look for them cut into the mountainside, because I wasn't positive where I was myself—somewhere inland of the Seperchia was all I knew for certain.†   (source)
  • Petrov paused, telling himself to be more positive.†   (source)
  • In other problems we need to know whether these quantities are negative or positive.†   (source)
  • Instead, it relentlessly tries to stay positive, preparing people to make their own decisions.†   (source)
  • Seabiscuit will either be a positive starter tomorrow, or we will refuse his entry entirely.†   (source)
  • I once again have a positive mind, body, and spirit.†   (source)
  • Most of the articles and comments were positive, with clever headlines and a general tone of amazement that anyone would want to do what I did.†   (source)
  • We were cash flow positive after eighteen months.†   (source)
  • Returning to the pharmacy, she bought two more tests; both were positive.†   (source)
  • His report to the Chinese government would be most positive.†   (source)
  • Looking at her in that little black dress and those big boots I was positive she was the woman for me.†   (source)
  • It wasn't a positive association.†   (source)
  • I know as I climb into the SUV, crank the engine, that what's left of Kristina will have to battle the reemergent Bree, that despite my plan to come back and pick up where I left off, only more positive and energized to go forth, get my GED and a great job, find a nice little place, make my own way, the odds of things ever being quite right again are clearly, completely, not in my favor.†   (source)
  • It isn't until the fifth stage of grief that the memories of them stop hurting as much—when the recollections become positive.†   (source)
  • I was almost 100 percent positive she was going to say no. But instead a funny look came over her face and she said I suppose so, yes!†   (source)
  • And it's almost a real smile, though I can't be positive, because I've never really seen him smile.†   (source)
  • I had reached some positive ground zero; the world was new and open to me.†   (source)
  • I will concentrate on my positive and not my negative, e.g., I will think less about my nose and more about my quite attractive teeth. saturday January 2nd 11:30 a.m.†   (source)
  • Despite his positive demeanor, after an hour with the Geographica even Charles had to admit he was at a loggerheads with it.†   (source)
  • He didn't have to say a word "I'm afraid I can't be very positive, Lindsay," he said, meeting my eyes.†   (source)
  • I was watching the scene through the open door, enthralled with the colors of the counterpane and the positive riot of color in the old man's face.†   (source)
  • This time she was positive she had not dreamt it, but because of the weight of her unborn child it took her almost a minute to reach the corridor.†   (source)
  • It's Minister Borden, panting, in a gray plaid suit, with a thumbnail-sized "I am a Positive Thinker" pin on his right lapel.†   (source)
  • As Parmenides would put it, the negative would change into the positive.†   (source)
  • So as I get ready to go, I feel quite bouncy and positive.†   (source)
  • Early that morning I had to do a simple breast lump excision, and if the biopsy was positive, then a mastectomy and auxiliary node dissection.†   (source)
  • Nothing positive.†   (source)
  • They have the same blood type—B positive.†   (source)
  • "Well, uh, I can't be positive."†   (source)
  • "The press has treated us well, and our families in Monterrey deserve the positive news," Cesar told his ace pitcher.†   (source)
  • Having flourished in my own authentically kvetchy way, I believe that we would be better off if we let everyone be themselves--positive, negative, or even somewhere in between.†   (source)
  • "I see I didn't make a very positive impression when last we met, citizen."†   (source)
  • Are you positive?†   (source)
  • Quickly, Hall did a basolyte test for blood: it was positive.†   (source)
  • Are you positive?†   (source)
  • The general also forbids in the most positive terms [Greene had written in his orders of July 28] the troops easing themselves in the ditches of the fortifications, a practice that is disgraceful to the last degree.†   (source)
  • You're not only gonna be useless, you're gonna be a positive liability unless you get some rest, preferably sleep.†   (source)
  • Not even the more positive reports, ones that criticized society with headlines such as SOCIETY FAILS or SHE NEVER GOT THE HELP SHE NEEDED, could dilute her standing as public enemy number one—a mass murderer who in one fit of insanity had executed three honourable citizens.†   (source)
  • The letter ended with a positive statement.†   (source)
  • "You screened positive," he said.†   (source)
  • Coach Meyer's comments to us afterward were positive, but I was struggling with the loss.†   (source)
  • She thought she heard a mention of the Spiral Labyrinth, but she wasn't positive.†   (source)
  • Nothing big was happening tonight, she was positive.†   (source)
  • Now there was a positive statement, she thought with a frown.†   (source)
  • They concluded that over the past quarter-century teachers have become more positive in their opinions about the structure of Black English, but that their attitudes depended heavily on the philosophy of the school, and on how many black students they had.†   (source)
  • "Okay, then," Miri says, trying her best to keep it upbeat, positive.†   (source)
  • I wanted to be positive The Ten was not mentioned.†   (source)
  • Now he has the chance to help them in a more positive way.†   (source)
  • He came home after two weeks cheerful and positive.†   (source)
  • Privately, Tappan was positive something could be done.†   (source)
  • Positive and negative.†   (source)
  • I have to admit that I'm not totally positive about this decision yet—and I can't even say for sure that this is a real conviction from God (not like my vow to remain a virgin), but I do know that I'm seriously concerned as to whether dating is a very healthy thing for me to participate in, just now anyway.†   (source)
  • But the thousands of letters and scores of diaries I have read for the latter part of the war do not support the thesis of a decline in positive expressions of ideological and patriotic commitment among veterans who had enlisted in 1861 or 1862.†   (source)
  • Joe is about 5 feet 10 inches in height, of a chestnut color, bald head, with a remarkable scar on one of his cheeks, not positive on which it is, but think it is on the left, under the eye, has intelligent countenance, active, and well-made.†   (source)
  • Instruct sounds like such a positive word, but he doubts whether Ray's wife, even now, would believe in that saying.†   (source)
  • Positive ones go on the wall, negative on the floor over there.†   (source)
  • "Besides," he adds, "I want to work withreal kids, not posh little geniuses…kids who actuallyneed positive male role models in their lives…"†   (source)
  • The most we can expect of men who cannot be reelected is the negative merit of doing no harm, instead of the positive merit of doing good.†   (source)
  • But it was working, and now he had brought in two rival tribes simultaneously with positive results.†   (source)
  • I was tempted to try it, but I think I'll stick to Aunt Thelma's kind of positive beliefs.†   (source)
  • From now on, I'm thinking positive, and I'm giving you that favor you asked me to give you yesterday.†   (source)
  • No way this guy could make a positive ID.†   (source)
  • Are you positive you don't like him?†   (source)
  • Or by being smashed, or subjected to solvents, or positive entropy through other means—I find the concept disturbing.†   (source)
  • Their success has been grounded in incredible increases in productivity, which is a positive way of saying that factories produce more with fewer workers.†   (source)
  • …stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's…†   (source)
  • Positive.†   (source)
  • I'm positive you could.†   (source)
  • I told Phil that it would be a chance for us to show America a family that loves each other and was, dare I say, positive in so many ways.†   (source)
  • Cuts, scrapes, flu, colds, hypochondriacs, people with minor urinary tract infections they were positive were the first signs of syphilis.†   (source)
  • Can't be positive, but if he keeps on to the northwest like this and then turns west, well, that'll bring him smack into Mandalay.†   (source)
  • As writers and readers, as sinners and citizens, our realism and our aesthetic sense make us wary of crediting the positive note.†   (source)
  • With several days of rest and feeling more positive about urban America, I was ready to leave the neat suburb of Mountain Brook, just outside Birmingham, where I had been invited to spend some time in the home of Roger and Pat McGuire.†   (source)
  • They could not he positive of what had happened, except that the area of destruction extended for eight miles from Orlando airport, encompassing College Park and Rollins College, and another explosion had centered on McCoy Air Force Base.†   (source)
  • At the worst, Stormgren did not see that any positive harm could be done.†   (source)
  • Silence, positive and thorough, fell.†   (source)
  • I made a humming noise and gave him a vaguely positive look.†   (source)
  • Since reasoning with you has failed, I must now take positive action.†   (source)
  • DRUMMOND It's sad that we aren't all gifted with your positive knowledge of Right and Wrong, Mr. Brady.†   (source)
  • She knew he could never be positive how long he'd be away, and for a long time she'd seemed resigned to it--resigned even to his failing to phone for sometimes weeks at a time.†   (source)
  • "Your cousin," she said in a positive voice, "cannot come over here and marry one of my Negroes."†   (source)
  • How could he be positive about anything?†   (source)
  • Marxism is a positive science, a theory of reality, a philosophy of history.†   (source)
  • He says there'll be a positive reduction by the time you get to latitude fifty or sixty.†   (source)
  • DAISY: [to MRS. BOEUF] Are you positive?†   (source)
  • James Blaine, when his tears were dry, was to write of the Sumner eulogy that "it was a mark of positive genius in a Southern representative to pronounce a fervid and discriminating eulogy upon Mr. Sumner, and skillfully interweave with it a defense of that which Mr. Sumner, like John Wesley, believed to be the sum of all villainies " Southerners to whom Charles Sumner symbolized the worst of the prewar Abolitionist movement and the postwar reconstruction felt betrayed.†   (source)
  • On fine days there is danger of some sad meeting, the positive danger of it.†   (source)
  • Reich is about to become a Galactic focal point… A crucial link between the positive past and the probable future.†   (source)
  • She was very happy: that was perhaps her only positive quality, for there was nothing else distinctive about her, though at twenty-five she was at her prettiest.†   (source)
  • And I'll say yes when I'm positive he wants to marry me."†   (source)
  • Piper tried to stay positive, but privately she had told Leo how worried she was.†   (source)
  • The car went into a screaming slide and she shrieked aloud, suddenly positive of her own death.†   (source)
  • Well, unless Mom told him, because I'm positive she does."†   (source)
  • Jason hesitated, as if it was hard for him to put a positive spin on that.†   (source)
  • You might not be positive, but I feel it.†   (source)
  • And we're not one hundred percent positive.†   (source)
  • You can't be positive.†   (source)
  • Stay positive.†   (source)
  • I'm positive now.†   (source)
  • Are you positive about that?†   (source)
  • If we could but be positive… be sure that, as she grows, she will be able to stay concealed from the human world—not endanger the safety of our obscurity ….†   (source)
  • Are you positive?†   (source)
  • Are you positive?†   (source)
  • I'm positive we're on Mars.†   (source)
  • The man in the drugstore tells me the results are positive.†   (source)
  • And the rest of the world might also hold a more positive view of Americans.†   (source)
  • The atmosphere was more positive now than before; it felt good to them to be in action.†   (source)
  • I was more positive than ever that this was what Alice would give me.†   (source)
  • To more positive matters: the Clinic here is run along very clean and efficient lines, and is exploring various lines of treatment, including water therapy; and might act as a model for my own project, should it ever come to fruition.†   (source)
  • Later, when I developed more confidence in my immunity to his affliction, I became interested in this debris in a more positive way and began to jot down the fragments amorphically, that is, without regard to form, in the order in which they occurred to me.†   (source)
  • Her zings were positive, and she recorded a brief announcement for her video feed, talking about the surprise in finding out this unfortunate role some distant part of her bloodline played in this grim historical moment.†   (source)
  • John Marshall had said much the same thing, and so had John Quincy in some of his correspondence with his father, but as Adams was to write, the assurances of Gerry—"my own ambassador"—were "more positive, more explicit, and decisive."†   (source)
  • "You're positive she's won't turn up?"†   (source)
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show 10 examples with meaning too rare to warrant focus
  • They'd survived the siege of Leningrad, the modern St. Petersburg, and I found it fascinating how she could have lived through something so horrific yet be so positive and gentle with the world.†   (source)
  • Then one of them will ask me, "This was last winter, Miss Wilkes, how could you be so positive?"†   (source)
  • You mean, I should try to channel her enthusiasm into positive outlets?†   (source)
  • I could live and work in here if I go positive for Ebola.†   (source)
  • "Yes," she said, and she sounded so sure it startled me: like she could be so positive while hardly knowing me at all.†   (source)
  • "And I'm O positive--a universal donor," Naka whispered back.†   (source)
  • Thanks for being so positive in my life.†   (source)
  • He also knew that anger rarely led to positive outcomes.†   (source)
  • "I'll just nuke some O positive, if you don't mind."†   (source)
  • Had he done so, however, he would have been in the spirit of Parmenides and made heavy go to light, that is, negative to positive!†   (source)
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show 40 more examples with meaning too rare to warrant focus
  • It was also positive for blood.†   (source)
  • It's about people who were so brave, and so positive, and treated so badly.†   (source)
  • And when this intellectual predisposition co-exists with the actualities of Ulster and Israel and Bosnia and Rwanda and a host of other wounded spots on the face of the earth, the inclination is not only not to credit human nature with much constructive potential but not to credit anything too positive in the work of art.†   (source)
  • Now that I know about that mind-reading gadget I understand why a psychiatrist on this end could be so positive it would never function again.†   (source)
  • There was no positive prohibition upon motoring at that time.†   (source)
  • And I proved the male human body-it has a too positive, too special shape, you know, not to be hurt-it could be finished up pretty fast.†   (source)
  • When did you suddenly become so positive?†   (source)
  • What I'd really like is a nice mulled glass of O positive."†   (source)
  • "Why don't we celebrate my new residency over a glass of O positive?†   (source)
  • We might find this division into positive and negative poles childishly simple except for one difficulty: which one is positive, weight or lightness?†   (source)
  • By lunchtime, Vlad was ready to head home and spend the day in front of the television with a bag of potato chips and about five hundred bags of O positive, trying to defend the fate of the Earth against whatever evildoers were currently lurking inside his PlayStation.†   (source)
  • There was something so positive about its disappearance that only the instinct of caution made them give it a moment to come up again; it didn't come up.†   (source)
  • Yes, no positive action.†   (source)
  • Louis, the attic dweller; Rhoda, the nymph of the fountain always wet; both contradicted what was then so positive to me; both gave the other side of what seemed to me so evident (that we marry, that we domesticate); for which I loved them, pitied them, and also deeply envied them their different lot.†   (source)
  • Could she not have refused, if she was so positive at the time that she was so very moral?†   (source)
  • Our friend, who is also a business man, was so positive.†   (source)
  • Are you so positive I poisoned Marfa Petrovna?†   (source)
  • CHAPTER XIII It may be thought the Doctor was too positive, and Mrs. Almond intimated as much.†   (source)
  • But you're so positive you know all the lore of the forest.†   (source)
  • Later she wasn't so positive perhaps; she thought there were no Gods; no one was to blame; and so she evolved this atheist's religion of doing good for the sake of goodness.†   (source)
  • Why so positive?†   (source)
  • It was revolting to one so sincere and natural, so pure of heart, and so much disposed to ingenuousness as Mabel Dunham, to practise deception on a friend like June; but her own father's life was at stake, her companion would receive no positive injury, and she had feelings and interests directly touching herself which would have removed greater scruples.†   (source)
  • She is very pitiable; but then there was no positive engagement; and the air at the coast will do her good.†   (source)
  • To sum up, in conclusion, that which can be summed up and translated into positive results in all that we have just pointed out, we will confine ourselves to the statement that, in the course of nineteen years, Jean Valjean, the inoffensive tree-pruner of Faverolles, the formidable convict of Toulon, had become capable, thanks to the manner in which the galleys had moulded him, of two sorts of evil action: firstly, of evil action which was rapid, unpremeditated, dashing, entirely…†   (source)
  • But Charles is so positive!†   (source)
  • Not to speak of other objections, it exposes the romance to an inflexible and exceedingly dangerous species of criticism, by bringing his fancy-pictures almost into positive contact with the realities of the moment.†   (source)
  • I entertained no positive fears about our household, because we were in the midst of white families who would protect us.†   (source)
  • They love order, without which affairs do not prosper; and they set an especial value upon a regular conduct, which is the foundation of a solid business; they prefer the good sense which amasses large fortunes to that enterprising spirit which frequently dissipates them; general ideas alarm their minds, which are accustomed to positive calculations, and they hold practice in more honor than theory.†   (source)
  • They were the first entitled, after Mrs. Weston and Emma, to be made happy;—from them he would have proceeded to Miss Fairfax, but she was so deep in conversation with John Knightley, that it would have been too positive an interruption; and finding himself close to Mrs. Elton, and her attention disengaged, he necessarily began on the subject with her.†   (source)
  • …I am ashamed): I got to the point of feeling a sort of secret abnormal, despicable enjoyment in returning home to my corner on some disgusting Petersburg night, acutely conscious that that day I had committed a loathsome action again, that what was done could never be undone, and secretly, inwardly gnawing, gnawing at myself for it, tearing and consuming myself till at last the bitterness turned into a sort of shameful accursed sweetness, and at last--into positive real enjoyment!†   (source)
  • The dimness went on deepening into obscurity, and that into positive darkness, but without deterring the bolder spirits upon the knoll.†   (source)
  • Arthur had felt a sudden relief while Adam was speaking; he perceived that Adam had no positive knowledge of the past, and that there was no irrevocable damage done by this evening's unfortunate rencontre.†   (source)
  • By a species of pious fraud, for which no doubt the worthy priest found his absolution in the purity of his motives, he declared that, while no positive change was actually wrought in the mind of Middleton, there was every reason to hope the entering wedge of argument had been driven to its head, and that in consequence an opening was left, through which, it might rationally be hoped, the blessed seeds of a religious fructification would find their way, especially if the subject was…†   (source)
  • "And after all," he went on, in an impatient tone, trying to defeat his own scruples as well as hers, "I am breaking no positive engagement; if Lucy's affections had been withdrawn from me and given to some one else, I should have felt no right to assert a claim on her.†   (source)
  • He begged to be shewn the house which his father had lived in so long, and which had been the home of his father's father; and on recollecting that an old woman who had nursed him was still living, walked in quest of her cottage from one end of the street to the other; and though in some points of pursuit or observation there was no positive merit, they shewed, altogether, a good-will towards Highbury in general, which must be very like a merit to those he was with.†   (source)
  • I must do THIS justice to Mr. Willoughby—he has broken no positive engagement with my sister.†   (source)
  • But when Catherine saw her in public, admitting Captain Tilney's attentions as readily as they were offered, and allowing him almost an equal share with James in her notice and smiles, the alteration became too positive to be passed over.†   (source)
  • No positive engagement indeed! after taking her all over Allenham House, and fixing on the very rooms they were to live in hereafter!†   (source)
  • To have sustained no positive loss.†   (source)
  • He, however, was so positive they were giants that he neither heard the cries of Sancho, nor perceived, near as he was, what they were, but made at them shouting, "Fly not, cowards and vile beings, for a single knight attacks you."†   (source)
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