Example sentences of "[verb] [be] merely " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | In many cases , the traits of resignation and the low inspirations that Lewis describes are merely responses to the situation in which the poor find themselves and will therefore change if the situation changes . |
| 2 | He 'd been merely indulging in an amusing diversion to pass the time . |
| 3 | What we seek is merely evidence that Pound did n't go to Sicily with a closed mind . |
| 4 | But if what is sought is merely a gross comparison between the damage of corporate and ‘ conventional ’ crimes , then the current level of official information available provides sufficient facts to get the ratio in perspective . |
| 5 | Of course , the street of which I speak is merely the ten or so blocks that comprise the theatre district , and which , in the public imagination , has always been known as ‘ The Great White Way ’ . |
| 6 | In the second place , the correlations that are produced are merely statements about associations , and tell us nothing about the direction of cause and effect . |
| 7 | ( i ) Which of the notations introduced in 2.6.3(ii) is used is merely a matter of personal difference . |
| 8 | What rush hour exists is merely a breeze of bicycles . |
| 9 | Whether the same average onset of gastric ulcer and Dieulafoy 's type of bleeding is merely coincidential or suggests some common pathophysiological cause remains to be answered . |
| 10 | And it is the same attitude of world-weariness and sophistication that socializes each generation of students and new teachers into believing that their own blends of ill-formed idealism , intermittent enthusiasm and nagging doubt about the true value of what they are doing are merely the embarrassing stigmata of the beginner , to be covered up as much as possible , and grown out of as soon as possible . |
| 11 | He was a North-countryman , and the bluntness of his approach to many issues should be considered , I think , as a traditional North-country attitude , exaggerated at times to the point of obtuseness ; it may have been merely a defence mechanism . |
| 12 | Any tenderness between the two of them would be a sham as far as he was concerned , merely serving to emphasise the absence of love , and perhaps like her he felt that a relationship characterised by so much other feeling ought to be loving as well , that the depth of desire he felt for her should have been merely a facet of love instead of the whole . |
| 13 | It is submitted that in the former case the approach would probably be modified by the basic duty of fidelity to the extent that confidentiality would be lost only if the employer could be said to have shown wilful disregard to the quality of the confidence , rather than having been merely negligent . |
| 14 | There is no doubt that performance can be improved in many cases , but the fundamental question has to be asked whether such foliar feeding or boosting is merely making up and filling a gap left by normal cultivation that is not as good as it could be . |
| 15 | For one thing , the Labour Party leaders would not contemplate an alliance with the Communist Party , which they rightly feared was merely aiming to use Labour to gain political support and which was involved in almost needless violence against the supremely unimportant British fascists . |
| 16 | From this viewpoint , gametes and the genes they carry are merely a device whereby organisms produce offspring like themselves . |
| 17 | In it Pomponius reflects on the difficulty of enforcing modal legacies , and the fact that very often the obligation they generate is merely moral rather than legal . |
| 18 | Any tumultuous exterior I offer is merely to draw the crowds . |
| 19 | Now in between those two extremes , the notion on the one hand that somehow national character is biologically predetermined , and the other that what nations do is merely accidental , erm you 've got the whole area of erm education , state control of the media , newspapers , erm even prisons and armies , conscription , things of that kind , which actually fashion erm national character for , not forever , but for the period in which those forces are in control , and that is a particular message that the youth of that country is receiving . |
| 20 | This pleased his Peripatetic opponents who asserted with Aristotle that sinking or floating was merely a matter of shape . |
| 21 | The turbine had arrived from the works , and also the alternator , which by now I had learned was merely another name for a generator , though of a fancier kind as it made AC whereas a generator made only DC . |
| 22 | I am referring , after all , to a series of very minor errors on my part and the course I am now pursuing is merely a means of pre-empting any ‘ problems ’ before one arises . |
| 23 | Who laughs is merely someone |
| 24 | First of all it had been merely a sense of unease , an occasional visitor . |
| 25 | The pretence that his , Surkov 's , opening had been merely a dream was a pathetic cliché . |
| 26 | However , all serious historians have noted that the 1925 decisions had been merely a formality , more honoured in the breach than in their application . |
| 27 | At first the sounds coming from Kensington had been merely confusing ; they heard the phone go down , heard Quinn shout ‘ Stay there ’ at someone , then a series of bangs , confused shouts and cries from McCrea and Somerville , then a series of regular bangs , as if someone was kicking a door . |
| 28 | Ellen and I both assumed that Sweetman 's interest in Wavebreaker had been merely that of a prospective charterer who wanted to reconnoitre the boat 's amenities . |
| 29 | At first it had been merely a matter of borrowing her mother 's scarves and veils , draping these around herself or twisting them into turbans and sashes . |
| 30 | He had been merely stating ‘ a professional opinion ’ . |