Example sentences of "was but " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | ‘ It 's slightly earlier than I thought it was but we 're OK still . ’ |
| 2 | Moreover , it was but a few minutes walk from the Junior School ( Roslyn ) , and only a little further from the senior school ( Westmount High ) to which Esther and Leonard were duly sent . |
| 3 | Leonard was but nine when his father died , and Esther 13 . |
| 4 | Leonard was but 21 when it was first published , though the poems were culled from his output from 15 to 20 years of age , according to an interview he gave to Andrew Tyler of Disc in 1972 . |
| 5 | Further , Israel was now a reality — ‘ next year in Jerusalem ’ for millions had been fulfilled ; but the reaction of the Arab world was very hostile — Suez was but months away , and glimmerings of its possibility ( and worse ) were evident . |
| 6 | They 've improved the chimney recently and it 's very much better than it was but we still get the smells . |
| 7 | His Cabinet experience , he unfolded , was but a small part of the assembled case . |
| 8 | — She was but fifteen : Her mamma was confused — with a little chagrin , Says , ‘ Where 's your attention , child ? |
| 9 | Illiteracy was but one of its multiple facets . |
| 10 | Some day the queen 's ministers will have to stop advising her to undertake another and yet another journey through the phantasmagoria of cheering crowds and empty ceremonies which mock the memory of a power that was but is no longer . |
| 11 | No one any longer recalls where this unusual dish had its origins ; indeed some people have been unkind enough to suggest that it was but recently invented by Mr Rory McGurk at the Dehydrated Rambler , on finding himself with too much ageing shepherd 's pie left on his hands . |
| 12 | She has made him more of an Expressionist than he really was but she has realised an essential truth : that Heartbreak House is a deeply poetic play about the death of liberal hopes and the cracking-apart of a civilisation . |
| 13 | He had severely limited the scope of his autobiography : ‘ I depict not what I was but what I see when I look back ’ , he told Eleanor Farjeon . |
| 14 | Dorothea realised that she did not know how old Alida was but it must be around her own age . |
| 15 | This was but a temporary setback , for after a rest and a defeat on his return he proceeded to win his next nine races , completely outclassing his rivals at distances from nine furlongs to two and a quarter miles . |
| 16 | Elice , ever a harbinger of gloom , was ready to point out that Athena Gardens was but one sector of Arcady . |
| 17 | The amiable West Indian realized that the man who served up the frothy coffee was not looking at his watch in order to see what time it was but more to indicate that he knew damned well what time it was — late , too late . |
| 18 | There was but a touch of the harsh , ironic but humorous Ulster accent that I knew , in the tones of his speech . |
| 19 | At least when he was not with her she now knew where he was but the comfort this brought her was not as complete as it might have been because he was also with Annunciata during those times . |
| 20 | She held out hope and it was taken eagerly and when with each letter the hope waned she was ready to support Mrs Browning 's own faith that death was but an extension of life and not to be feared . |
| 21 | Here was a face , buried in its cloud of hair , which looked more like a mask than a living thing , a mask such as might be worn on All Souls ' Eve to scare the children , all thickly white with painted black sockets for eyes and a mouth so crudely gashed it was but a slit . |
| 22 | It was but a small step from this to the ‘ social gospel ’ : one started with an application of the Christian Gospel to evils in society and errors in politics . |
| 23 | I asked her if she knew who William was but she always said no . |
| 24 | I do n't know what his game was but I did n't like it . |
| 25 | Because money from the off-farm jobs was put into the farm , it was difficult to ascertain what the trading position of the part-time farm actually was but the figures quoted are considered to be fairly near the mark . |
| 26 | Those were the days when what are now old-time good manners and fashions were the newest of the new , and Kate Cranston 's wasp-waisted Mackintosh Tea-room , the Willow , was but a sapling in the street it was named after — Sauchiehall Street means the Street of the Willows . |
| 27 | This was but a resumé of the botanical part of a much more detailed work to follow in due course . |
| 28 | Endill tried to see where he was but it was too dark and he waited , not daring to move , for the Headmaster to put on the lights . |
| 29 | Endill tried to find out what the plan was but Mr Crangle refused to say . |
| 30 | The comparatively peaceful existence of Fromebridge was but a few short years from being shattered , for in 1760 the mill came into the hands of Joseph Fairthorne and his industrious partners , William and John Purnell . |