Example sentences of "could not [vb infin] [conj] [verb] " in BNC.
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| 1 | As an air-raid had just begun they could not leave and had to remain in an ambience where , as they now acutely realised , they were not wanted and did not belong . |
| 2 | I could not speak nor breathe , and fell on to the sofa . |
| 3 | She could not speak or understand much , and her character was greatly changed . |
| 4 | William Agnew , although he could not speak and relied entirely on sign language , was a forceful personality and moved about amongst the rich merchants of Glasgow . |
| 5 | Throughout his life , Agnew could not speak and relied entirely on sign language and fingerspelling , but was a highly articulate man — he penned a great number of articles in Scottish and national newspapers giving his views on the introduction of oralism into British schools . |
| 6 | ‘ I asked him why and he said because he could not talk or swallow , ’ she said at the time . |
| 7 | When she came to Calvary , ‘ she fell down because she could not stand or kneel , and rolled and wrested with her body , spreading her arms abroad ’ , because she had a vision , or hallucination , of the Crucifixion . |
| 8 | Creggan had never in his short life felt so desolate , and try as he did he could not rest and fall asleep . |
| 9 | Creggan could not rest or sleep , for out of the racing seas beneath their stance seemed to come troubled memories and images of a place where he once was , and eagles he once knew . |
| 10 | In what is believed to be the first case of its kind in Scotland , the teenager alleges that after more than a year of taunting and physical attack she could not continue and left the Royal High School . |
| 11 | Soon he could not move or speak , or open his eyes . |
| 12 | She could not move or speak . |
| 13 | The Dyaks of Borneo , for instance , have always referred to the orangutan as the " man of the forest " , treating him at least with the dignity accorded to neighbouring tribes , whereas the Europeans , on examining the first Tierra del Fuegans brought back to the West , could not decide whether to classify them as humans or animals . |
| 14 | Speechless for a moment , Ashley could not decide whether to scream , cross her arms protectively over her chest , or to hit him . |
| 15 | This motive , which became prominent when inquisitorial methods waned and extra-judicial confessions became an important , and in many instances by far the most important , weapon in the prosecution 's armoury , was particularly weighty at a time when the accused could not rebut or explain away the confession by giving evidence on his own behalf . |
| 16 | The popular press could not compete and has been pushed more and more into the ‘ human interest ’ dimension , interviewing friends and relations of players , stoking up dressing-room feuds and seizing upon the sex lives of the young , virile , and wayward . |
| 17 | I could not sleep but lay on my back staring at the blackness , listening to the wind and one of the lads snoring . |
| 18 | I became very weak , I could not sleep or feel any hunger or desire to speak to anyone . |
| 19 | I could not sleep or eat . |
| 20 | While the Germans presented their situation as a disaster , they overlooked the fact that one of Danzig s major and continual problems had been that it could not grow or thrive purely on the traffic of its immediate Prussian hinterland . |
| 21 | Consider Richard Hooker 's declaration : ‘ God hath his influence into the very essence of all things , without which influence of Deity supporting them their utter annihilation could not choose but follow ’ ( Laws , ii . |
| 22 | And he could not choose but love him . |
| 23 | Cadfael could not choose but feel some sympathy for one whose dubious but daring enterprise had come full circle , and now threatened him with disgrace and punishment ; all the more as Cadfael himself had just been spared a possibly similar exposure . |
| 24 | If coal was just another industry or a medium-sized company in the private sector whose product was not as much in demand as previously , or had been superseded by another product that it could not make or compete with it , that industry or company would slim down or might even close altogether — with the same tragic effect on families and communities as has been seen in the coal industry . |
| 25 | ‘ She started to grow very short of breath then and the decline was more and more rapid until she could not walk or move around . |
| 26 | Communal farming , however , was still important to those who could not acquire and enclose private farms . |
| 27 | On admission he had an extremely sore throat and could not eat or speak . |
| 28 | If they could not exercise that power themselves , or count on the eastern empire to do it for them , then they would find it where they could . |
| 29 | The Court of Appeal held that both claims could not succeed and disallowed the first ( that being the smaller claim ) . |
| 30 | just now , for instance , I could not sit & do nothing , since that only irritates my brain ; & it was then only my pipe that enabled me comfortably to read Rousseau 's ‘ Julie ; or the New Heloise ’ . |