How To Use Cynical In A Sentence

Outwardly tough, aloof and cynical, she does a good deal of nail-chewing and fiddling with a cigarette as she decides whether Jack can be trusted.
Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist. George Carlin
The young man — fortified as he was by a natural cynical pride and passionateness — winced at this unexpected reply, notwithstanding. A Changed Man
I've obviously become rather cynical over time, but then when it comes to card tricks, my first thought these days is to look for the con.
While we can credit him for some degree of intellectual honesty in confronting the hypocrisies and irrationalities that govern so much of public life, religious and non-religious, Christopher Hitchens, in the end, could not offer a vision of true humanness because he dwelled in the cynical faculties of the mind without being adequately informed by the positive wisdom of the heart. Kabir Helminski: Christopher Hitchens is "Not Great"

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The director hopes to excite the faithful and (cynically speaking), get religious bums in cinema seats.
The only benefit of being cynical is that you can surround yourself with other cynical people. Times, Sunday Times
Tonight,Tim Goodman casts a cynical eye on TV ads.
Naturally trustful people must never be given a good reason to become cynical, for cynicism is the enemy of every honor system.
Pukhov, a careerist painter, sacrifices his artistic integrity by cynically painting potboilers to please factory and party committees.
Cynical adversary stances are not helpful - belief is necessary.
In these circumstances the town can become a hollow and cynical place. Times, Sunday Times
Americans tend to be pretty cynical about politicians and think corruption is widespread.
His philosophical musings were a complete departure from the cynical lies of his predecessors. Times, Sunday Times
I turned up a slightly cynical, badly-dressed student and left three days later, after a short spell in Southampton nick, as the blazing-eyed, still badly-dressed eco-bore I am today.
It revealed the cynical ways in which the "countercultural" music industry was transformed in the 1960s and 1970s by industry executives such as David Geffen and by performers such as Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. Trying to Find The Right Beat
The first to develop was legal realism - basically a group of really cynical judges.
It was a victory to bring a smile to the face of even the most cynical and world-weary sport-watcher.
He was a psychologist rather than a philosopher, and his interest and zest in life, in the relationships of simple people, the intermingling of personal emotions and happy comradeships, kept him from ever forming cynical or merely spectatorial views of humanity. Ionica
The premise is a cynical, even nihilistic one: people are the sum of their biological impulses, slaves to genes, pheromones, and the archipallium. "Unidentified Objects" by James P. Blaylock
Repenting there would come across as a cynical cultural cliché, suggesting he expects women to forgive him because he's genuflected to TV's high priestess. Tiger Woods should chat with David Letterman; Corso mum on Heisman
Others again, such as Christopher Hitchens, have been yet more cynical and critical when analysing the post-1945 era of co-operation.
His decision not to hold a poll is a "nakedly cynical" calculation that he can "bulldoze" the treaty into law. Archive 2007-09-01
The non-intellectual wing of the Christian Right Community has committed a sacrilege and blasphemy, (to say nothing of the secular crime of high treason), because they have accepted the fiction of a cynical team of writers, who depict the god they describe as a homicidal, Demonic, maniac, and touted these despicable properties as "holiness," and used that as an excuse to support and urge the slaughter of their chosen Muslim fantasy enemies. THE SHAMELESS END-DAYS FICTIONAL REPLACEMENT FOR REVELATION.
So I may be a cynical, hysterical, psychotic, twisted masochist.
The left is always warning us about the cynical vested interests of the military industrial complex allegedly manipulating public policy for their sectional gain.
This is a tough, cynical world with plenty of murders and world-weary cops trying their best to solve them.
Voters decided it was a cynical ploy. Times, Sunday Times
They also deny that delaying the pain until after the election is a cynical political ploy. Times, Sunday Times
Lengthy bonding scenes follow in which, inevitably, the hardened, world-weary, cynical bodyguard learns to love the winsome little blonde.
Shakespeare has established that Mercutio is a rather dirty-minded young rogue, cynical about love and sex, and inclined to find ways to ridicule and embarrass everyone he deals with, including his best friends, when he thinks they're being foolish or self-destructive or pursuing pleasures that don't include Mercutio. Did Viola, Rosalind, and Portia wax?
Many people have become cynical about the stage-managed debates between politicians which regularly appear on television.
I don't mean to sound bitter or cynical, but today I just can't help thinking that the world can keep on going to hell until I find a real marinara that I don't have to make myself.
He was cynically giving the audiences what they wanted and expected.
But I urge you more cynical movie buffs to give this classic a try.
Critics of the allowances system say it is a cynical ploy devised by pay consultants. Times, Sunday Times
It could be seen as a cynical ploy to avoid the move. The Sun
This particular image consultant appears to have neglected his own image, or maybe he is just happy with being cynical, self-centred, irascible and insufferable.
All these have been supposedly cynically instituted by the state capital complex.
The bad news, or the cynical view, is that they have done so only because it is not particularly onerous. Times, Sunday Times
But color blindness is itself a controversial concept: Some hold it as the highest ideal of true racial equality in a post-racial society, while others cynically dismiss it as a strategy for ignoring evidence of persistent racial discrimination. Wray Herbert: Colorblind? Or Just Blind to Justice?
There is a troubling darkness in its soul, which the righteous rhetoric and cynical evocation of God seem only to enhance.
She is so sarcastic and cynical that I am happy to take the smile off her face.
Jayne McKenna shines as her cynical unmarried sister, Sarah MacRae as her tarty daughter and Morven Christie as her magnificently selfish daughter-in-law. 'Men Should Weep' marvels
I've had a cynical attitude to relationships for 10 years.
Trying to keep from getting what she cynically called gooey, he shrugged. Captured by Moonlight
Pukhov, a careerist painter, sacrifices his artistic integrity by cynically painting potboilers to please factory and party committees.
For we offer, besides ourselves, a position that has not grown old under the weight of a gigantic, parasitic bureaucracy, a position untempered by the doctoral dissertations of a generation of Ph.D. s in social architecture, unattenuated by a thousand vulgar promises to a thousand different pressure groups, uncorroded by a cynical contempt for human freedom. Buckley Athwart History
No one's critical or cynical or jaded. Christianity Today
He had years of experience at taking his time and remaining unflustered at cynical questions and this bore fruit at this particular encounter.
And the longer Blix and co. fossicked around in search of weapons of mass destruction, the more cynical I became about the pretext. Boris in Iraq
It's easy cynically to suggest that some artists ' career and reputation would be bolstered by their own deaths.
Genta is careworn, beaten down by life, and no longer naïve enough to believe in Bushido, but he's not cynical.
Far from being cynical spoilsmen or naive incompetents, individuals whose presidencies provide studies in ineptitude, Garfield and Arthur emerge as men of considerable ability.
(For example, Eeyore is the cynical foil to every other Winnie the Pooh character). Superhero Nation: how to write superhero novels and comic books » Yogi’s Review Forum
But those are clichés only to those of cynical persuasion who assume that an ulterior motive lurks behind every altruistic act.
So, as a Republican commentator, he applauds from the press box his party's cynical power plays, as in a game of football. Nigel Hamilton: David Brooks: Soft in the Head
And her inquisitor was the so-called 'Birther Bishop', Anabaptist minister Ron McCrae, who is deeply opposed to Obama, and - say critics - cynically set out to trap her. Home | Mail Online
It is certainly fodder for cynical jibes about leopards and spots. Times, Sunday Times
He cynically ignited this class war as cover for the failure of his policies. The Sun
She was so hard, and so more than usually cynical and unget-at-able. Dangerous Ages
This sudden ‘concern’ is entirely cynical and has nothing to do with defending democratic rights.
Still, you're always willing to give something new a try (cause the true cynic is cynical about cynicism, baby, ya dig?), so you set up that new FaceBook page. Archive 2007-12-01
Extensive efforts (intellectual, spiritual and structural) have been undertaken to establish this continuity and preserve it in light of the changing fabric of the human experience and to ignore these efforts in favor of some revisionist notion of religion as changing out of pure expedience is as cynical as it is ignorant. A Response to a Response
Although her economical style can sacrifice immediacy and intimacy, this is a fiercely indignant and justly cynical work. Times, Sunday Times
Did Mr Djindjic truly believe that Mr Karadzic deserved his support, or was the gesture utterly cynical?
Too many of us don't have them anymore, either because we're too self-centered or too cynical.
He's cynical about whether the new inquiry will get closer to the truth or whether it is mere window-dressing.
The ward bosses' unanticipated about-face was not motivated by conversion but cunning and deceit that cynically betrayed public trust.
Part of me is quite cynical but there's another part that wants to believe stuff like that.
This sudden shift in the focus of American politics should not be dismissed merely as a cynical election gimmick.
I'd rather stay my cynical, sarcastic, bitchy, and satirist self.
MEDICARE SCARE TACTICS: Republican candidates routinely and cynically charge that the reform law will "cut" $500 billion from Medicare - leaving the clear implication that benefits will be reduced. NYT > Home Page
The result is an invigorating, boisterous look at a group of wildly cynical and libidinous college brats.
Indeed, what is most troubling is that both sides to the dispute have cynically resorted to the rule of law only when it suited them.
The fascinating thing about him is he's not the cliched cynical and hard-boiled war photographer portrayed in Hollywood movies.
But as the blockbuster decade progressed, heroes got slicker, glibber, and more cynical. Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch
Cursing under his breath he aimed and missed, prompting a cynical laugh from Simon.
Some saw her apology as a cynical attempt to cling on to her job as MP with the party wanting to oust her. The Sun
Dashiell Hammett's cynical detective novel was published in 1929 and was immediately popular.
I told her that I could see her getting bored, cynical, disillusioned and angry if she joined the cops.
It's most likely a cynical one. Times, Sunday Times
Both Ratzinger and Cheney just happened to be already occupying positions where saying they just 'lucked' into a job is a cynical circumlocution - this has nothing to do with any American election (well, indirectly in terms of Vice President Cheney), but everything to do with perfect bureaucratic positioning. Is That Legal?: "Aryanization" and the Question of German "Coercion"
Fifteen years in the teaching profession had left him world-weary and cynical.
There is also no more cynical sport than football. Times, Sunday Times
New entrants have a shrinking sales pool to swim in – and News International can't launch a bragging, soaraway Sun on Sunday without looking crass and cynical. News of the World scandal: God's newspaper executive less than visionary
His nose was hawkish but it suited him, as did the high cheekbones and cynical quirk of his mouth.
He's a wee thing roosed!" remarked Sutherland, with a good-humoured yet slightly cynical grin. Blue Lights Hot Work in the Soudan
Whether Gore, cynically, committed himself to originalism to make some political hay is quite besides the point.
Seamus was already out of the car and, once free of it, resumed his cynical sneer.
They are those rare specimens whose loyalty is uncontrived and non-cynical. Times, Sunday Times
In this fearful and cynical climate, talk about space only brings our self-doubt and loathing to the fore rather than doing anything to tackle it.
Here Kanfer shines, getting all of Bogart in an evocative, inventive phrase: "wounded, cynical, romantic, and as incorrodible as a zinc bar. "Tough Without a Gun," by Stefan Kanfer is a new biography of Humphrey Bogart
Larsen's frost-blackened lips curved cynically
Everything bounces along with a youthful joy, devoid of cynical teenage angst, full of hope and dare we say it slightly soppy.
It is a cynical camouflage for problems caused by the boom and bust rhythm of capitalism, and the bosses' insistence that profits come before people.
Not once but several times has the libertine Neptune scandalously seduced punts and dinghies from the respectable precincts of Brammo Bay, and having philandered with them for a while, cynically abandoned them with a bump on the mainland beach, and only once has he sent a punt in return — a poor, soiled, tar-besmirched, disorderly waif that was reported to the police and reluctantly claimed. The Confessions of a Beachcomber
But even the most cynical agree that good fortune is the mark of every top-flight politician.
OH, it's easy to be cynical about the honours system. The Sun
The event is not coldly cynical or sneering, but humorous and engaging.
But the beau Sire doesn't disappoint even the most cynical of palates - this violent fluid comes in both brut and demi-sec varieties.
This potential bid is an example of cynical opportunism and should not be allowed to proceed. Times, Sunday Times
Mr. Breitbart says he suspects the accusations were just a cynical attempt by the left and elements of the media to "marginalize" the Tea Party movement. Rude for Reid
There is no doubt that the protest against the concert was a cynical ploy aimed at trying to revive the party's sagging fortunes.
Does that make me an epicurean cynic or a cynical epicurean?
They know that you are a bore or not a bore, a grouser or not a grouser, generous or mean, sentimental or cynical, an optimist or a pessimist, and that you have or have not a sense of humour. If I May
These are not, you have to believe, the cynically high-minded ravings of a politician who merely wants to get re-elected.
The capacity of history to absolve political actors is a cynical and immoral doctrine.
Henry Phillips possesses a sharp wit that is both endearing and crude, a somewhat cynical wit he has honed by performing for too many years in front of too many bored drunks in too many one-horse towns. Joseph Smigelski: Film Review: Punching the Clown
I don't think imagery of happy, peppy people is going to make people less cynical.
Where it doesn't, it feels cynically provocative. Times, Sunday Times
One man cynically sums up his seemingly magical ability to recruit women for his stable: "Any woman can be turned. It is all business."
Changes to human rights laws cynically exploited by lawyers are also being looked at with an eye to slapping on a geographical limit. The Sun
I guess my cynical nature is rearing its head here, because it looks to me like your position is emotive rather than reasoned.
They're quite cynical about some of this new technology.
What a cynical Mr Putin really wants is a Russian sphere of influence in Europe.
Few, indeed, wanted to be in the army: many openly, cynically, bitterly denounced the war.
It can definitely inspire a chuckle or two from even the most cynical and hardened otaku.
Indeed, the cynical may argue that in winning each of their last four games by less than a single score and an aggregate of a mere 14 points, Wharfedale are struggling at the top!
Your choice of associates is poor to say the least, and while you may be gullible, I'm just cynical. karle daine Army Rumour Service
He is cynical about careerists and operators who flourish under patronage.
This is a clear indication of the effectiveness of the cynical propaganda used by political and military leaders.
But in the next instant, Lance was back to his cavalier, cynical self.
In Mozart's joyous opera, fidelity is tested, emotions are betrayed and lovers deceived when a cynical gentleman challenges two fiancés to a bet.
How refreshing to see people not cynical but upbeat. Times, Sunday Times
This is the reason so many journalists become cynical and grumpy, and more than a few turn to drink.
When there are so many brand names and logos, you startcynically pondering the hypocrisy of the filmmakers, who are both slamming but also likely profiting from this blatant placement.
I am not suggesting that his apology was cynical or purely tactical.
Although her economical style can sacrifice immediacy and intimacy, this is a fiercely indignant and justly cynical work. Times, Sunday Times
My paintings and ceramics come from research on India's cynical notion of time and continuance.
In Bush's case, he used it cynically and destructively. Richard (RJ) Eskow: A President's Choice: Resist Wall Street's 'Shock Doctrine' or Keep Listening to the Usual Suspects
At times of extreme national, local and individual trauma, when is it acceptable to be cynical, critical or satirical again?
This last but one looks increasingly jaded, cynical and mercenary. Times, Sunday Times
The miners were no angels but the media was blatantly and cynically used as a propaganda machine for the government.
They cynically tried to trade off a reduction in the slaughter of dolphins against a resumption of commercial whaling.
You are definitely right, I am sarcastic, but I would avoid the term judgmental, cynical is more like it, but I think i have reason to be, walk into any coffee shop these days and 9 time out of 10 they will try to sell you something you don't want. NEW SOYMILK MAKER, NEW, CREAMIER SOYMILK RECIPE
Sadly, but predictably, the effort to re-enfranchise people with felony convictions has come under attack from demagogues claiming a cynical political motive for the effort.
Kitsch, I decided, is art that bears a cynical or dismissive relation to life.
Such cynical micro-analysts of human behaviour must suffer when the ravenous critic inevitably turns inward.
Must we be prosy if we are profoundly, uncynically sincere? Complete Project Gutenberg Works of George Meredith
Agreed that Zell's technique, which cynically is used but disavowed or denied when challenged, is old news. Balkinization
Even by the double-dealing standards of international diplomacy this is a breathtakingly cynical bargain.
Political parties in Canada are truly democratic organizations and don't deserve the cheap shots they constantly take from the media and from politically cynical sourpusses.
But what I wanted to mention was how much I enjoyed the recent Simpson's Super Spectactular that criticized all these writers who always want to "deconstruct" some long running hero in a grim and cynical way. Comics' Numerical Nightmare
Their self-obsession is matched only by their cynical contempt and disregard for anyone who is not part of their world.
Article 142 The lawyers of both parties shall respect each other in the court trial or negotiation, no one may use sharp-fanged , cynical or insulting languages.
He started laughing and mocked the old man with cynical derision.
His frantic attempts to finesse the withdrawal failed, and have been shown up as cynical attempts to gain political advantage for himself when he should have been trying to help the country instead.
And yet to pretend that Nathaniel is our sole salvation is too cynical.
The older, cynical character in the play is the perfect foil for the innocent William.
Ah well, I guess many of us are stupid and cynical and don't think things through when we are young.
The SP's new-found concern about collusion between the governmental right and the neo-fascists is thoroughly opportunist and cynical, grounded in narrow electoral considerations.
Can anyone reassure me I'm being unpleasantly jaded and cynical… or has it crossed other minds?
The surprising thing is that a declaration of this kind from Singleton is no longer dismissed with a cynical laugh.
The meeting may have been called by the Scottish Socialist Party but the audience of 30 or so consists of the curious and the cynical as well as card-carrying members.
Advertising like this is a cynical manipulation of the elderly.
I'm sarcastic, cynical, and completely untrusting.
Philipa Beng MSc is part of the tragically abandoned aspirant class - I sense that she would not enjoy the company of the single mums within my circle who are uncultured, ungrateful, grasping, rude and totally cynical about their motherhood status. A Fire Raging in Islington
Would it be cynical of me to suspect there is some deeper, chippier meaning at play here? Times, Sunday Times
It's unfortunate, not only because it seems to have stemmed from a cynical attempt to politick the disaster into a blow to Obama's approval ratings similar to that suffered by Bush after Katrina. Alyssa Battistoni: The Oil Spill is Not Like Katrina
Rawlins operates on the streets, filtering the ghetto life around him through a world view that is cynical to the point of world-weary.
Some observers interpret these symbols cynically, as opportunistic, basely commercial, unquestioningly nationalistic expressions of pro-war sentiment.
The year after the American-led coalition overthrew Saddam's dictatorship in 2003, al Qaeda in Iraq revealed a cynical plan to kill and maim Shiites to spark a sectarian war. Iraq's Tenuous Post-American Future
Even by the cynical standards of our dishonest political system, this is world-class chutzpah.
Many are cynical about democracy - they say it's a scam, and that the real decisions aren't taken in democratic institutions.
The Senator had no compunction about appealing to minority interests, cynically perhaps, but certainly effectively.
Persistent foul play or cynical moves such as deliberate handball would see the player sent to the sin-bin.
The teen horror film and the teen comedy are both about as shallow and cynically complacent as film genres can be.
In other words: diegesis as storification of self and past; the marvelous; and the non-cynical view of reality these engender. Archive 2009-07-01
Has Arsene been pragmatic/cowardly, or have Milan been cynical in knackering/replacing the turf on the wings according to ITV. AC Milan 4-0 Arsenal – as it happened | Barry Glendenning
She was cynically amused by the fact that Lorimer seemed so familiar with this form of ingress into the Salamanca manse.
Call me cynical, but given that MCB attacked MPACUK earlier this week see here I wouldn't be surprised if MPACUK invented this "misquote" to hit back. Archive 2006-10-01
Given the healthy advance booking, the play knocks on the head the cynically despairing argument that all the London public wants is musicals and movie stars.
Grubby politicians kiss babies; but these two cynical opportunists have chosen to exploit emaciated infants with distended bellies as the visual soundbite for 2005.
The big anti-war marches encapsulated a cynical mood and a sense of disengagement - and these are hardly ideal sentiments on which to build a mass movement.
It's a fast-moving, hip and cynical tale with no longueurs and has a real cinematic sweep to go with its expert choreography.
His cool urbanity is perhaps the only constant among performances that include cynical secret agents, gregarious playboys, rugged adventurers, refined gentlemen, humble schoolteachers, and psychotic killers. Five People Born on March 14 | myFiveBest
It is easy to see him as a cynical and cunning threat who could harm himself and others, and who could potentially inspire others like him. Times, Sunday Times
The statistics are shocking - and they demolish any arguments put forward by the cynical pro-smoking lobby.
Much ado about nothing, maybe, but when it comes to nosey and cynical journalists, few believe there can ever be smoke without fire.
They then discover that the 'nanny state' is not interested in that kind of nannying at all and that "keeping people in their own homes" is not some philanthropic exercise but a cynical financial ploy. Politics news, UK and world political comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk
Now it might sound a wee bit cynical to suggest the board waited until it had the mandate to demutualise before it told members they wouldn't be getting quite as much as expected.
I think movie stars just do charity work to get publicity - but maybe I'm too cynical.
Even the intervention of the US Supreme Court was treated in a cynical and light-minded fashion, rather than as a turning point in American political history.
There are fey frowns and cynical or innocent smiles.
They chose their name artfully—cynically, even—appropriating the term the militants used to signify all the social and political ideals they had invested in America’s unexpected and epochal revolution. Robert Morris
It's something that has preoccupied humans since the dawn of time, but are people more cynical today? The Sun
By deliberately adopting the stylistics of sentimentality in his screenplay, Cameron recalls yet another, less cynical time in Titanic.
It only went to prove the truth of his father's cynical statement: no good deed ever goes unpunished. HE SHALL THUNDER IN THE SKY
He told chums he wanted to raise his profile for more telly gigs by cynically getting voted to endure the challenges. The Sun
The cynical will say it is just another tack for selling his book. Times, Sunday Times
The music became spacey and the vocals are like a child whispering cynical nothings in your ear.
Matt Salmon illustrate perfectly why voters today are so cynical about politics.
The critic recently slammed her ‘obscene’ boniness, which she felt cynically exploited real-life victims of famine, illness and genocide.
Their lies are so cynical and downright evil that their cloud of stench fogs out the REAL ISSUE. Google backs up DNC after GOP claims of Goldman conspiracy
No less shabby is the cynical way the banks used the courts as a delaying tactic. Times, Sunday Times
A lot of people are cynical and believe it's a money-making exercise, but it's not.
I'm going to try real, real hard to not be especially cynical - nothing's worse than a fusty, cranky sourpuss who was there when it really mattered.
Maybe not even cynical, maybe just female practicality which can stoop with clearest conscience below the level of the lowest stratagem.
In New York it was just a raunchy, cynical hour and ten minutes.

How To Use Cynical In A Sentence

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