How To Use Understatement In A Sentence
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It also explores doublespeak in terms of rhetorical devices, namely, personification, dehumanization, metaphor, understatement and inflation.
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To say she was superstitious was an understatement - she would book every single Friday 13 th off work, and any day that looked inauspicious on her horoscope.
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To say that her resignation was a shock would be an understatement - it caused panic.
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The sequence is thus all the more powerful for its brevity and understatement.
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His admission that he was ‘disappointed’ was a diplomatic understatement.
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It would be an understatement to say that there was no swank.
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It has,' the Scotland manager says with understatement,'caused a bit of a stooshie.'
Times, Sunday Times
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To say the movie was bad is an understatement .
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To say she over-emoted is defamatory understatement.
Actress, Seductress
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Saying that shards of broken glass are razor sharp is an understatement.
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He has also stated that a new stadium for the club is a priority, which if anything is an understatement.
What Now for Liverpool?
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Handley JA always appeared with a halo above his head to mark his manifest saintliness, a point picked up with typical understatement in the essay on him.
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And yet that tradition's peculiar virtues - understatement, plainness, a willingness to explain one's ideas - create the effects here which will surprise Americans most.
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He lets it lie where it may (using the long-forgotten art form of understatement) - and boy, does the whole thing curl around your subconscious in deliciously disturbing ways!
The Surreal Office
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Grandson just turned eleven, to say he was excited is an understatement.
Big game tags
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Rupert Murdoch said that our traditional model is 'malfunctioning' - a classic understatement," Montgomery told today's
Adrian Monck
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To say he seems unworried would be an understatement.
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It's an understatement to say that I'm gratified by the response generated by the inaugural podcast.
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A uniformed ostiary ushered us into the reception area, a temple of understatement in exotic marbles and dark, gleaming woods.
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Led by playing of uncommon mellowness and timbral purity from clarinetist Anthony McGill, enhanced by the elegant understatement of veteran violist Michael Tree and the character-rich keyboard work of pianist Anna Polonsky, they brought out the genial warmth in Mozart's writing.
A superlative performance by the Schumann Trio
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It would be a massive understatement to say that Condorcet's forecast of advances in science, technology, and medicine has held up better than his anticipations of progress in ethics and politics.
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During its course, this class developed a highly competitive intramural athletic program, where competition was keen and spirited, perhaps a classic understatement.
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To say that these last years have been dispiriting is an understatement.
Balkinization
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The word tense at this juncture would be a grave understatement.
The Brotherhood of Man
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To call this tale eerie is a bit of an understatement.
REVIEW: The Dealings of Daniel Kesserich by Fritz Leiber
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Delight is an understatement, but he keeps it all under perfect control, parrying a host of questions with the aplomb which has won him many admirers, including Rupert Murdoch.
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Although to say the man was a big influence on me musically would be a gross understatement, I will personally remember Piggy best for his disarming demeanour.
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That New York City is not a peaceful place to live is the understatement of the year/month/century.
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Evans has a way of combining generous understatement with a big grin that is very endearing.
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In a masterful bit of understatement, Feinstein blamed [millions of dollars in losses] on “noticeably subpar” food and service.
Food Fight « Isegoria
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Well, calling this a grudging or a reluctant acceptance is a huge understatement, Bob.
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‘I watch from a distance now and am disappointed neither club is in peak condition,’ he said with understatement.
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At the risk of profound understatement, we note that abortion symbolizes more than merely an obstetrical procedure.
American Grace
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To say that the music is overblown and pretentious is rather an understatement.
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It would be a major understatement to say that scientific research on gerontophilia is scant compared to the study of other paraphilias, but scattered references do exist.
Slate Magazine
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Led by playing of uncommon mellowness and timbral purity from clarinetist Anthony McGill, enhanced by the elegant understatement of veteran violist Michael Tree and the character-rich keyboard work of pianist Anna Polonsky, they brought out the genial warmth in Mozart's writing.
A superlative performance by the Schumann Trio
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– and "grouchy" is a gross understatement for the suffering that so many American citizens are now subjected to because of it.
'People have a right to be grouchy,' Axelrod says
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To say that I was surprised is somewhat of an understatement.
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To say marine life is abundant is to be guilty of a gross understatement.
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To say the movie was bad is an understatement .
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As an advocate for the cause, she is all the more effective for taking a line in wry understatement unusual in this context.
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More than half a century later the country has moved from understatement to groundless exaggeration.
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To say the game could have done with a goal then is understatement.
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To call this possibility a tragedy is an unacceptable understatement.
“noob” can’t be the millionth word « Motivated Grammar
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But the truth can be told with powerful understatement as well, in words and visual images that create empathy without turning the American people into paranoid voyeurs.
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To call that message "anti-intellectual" would be a comic understatement.
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The reading of his will raised some eyebrows, to riot in understatement.
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To call tabla a mere percussion instrument alone would be a vast understatement of its musical range, as one of the most revered of all classical Indian musical instruments.
KVR News: Top Stories
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To say that it is convoluted and extremely complicated is an understatement.
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Calling him an up-and-comer is an understatement - he's already a phenomenal actor who has been in quite a bit, you just haven't come to memorize his name and his face yet, but you will soon enough.
Interview: Chiwetel Ejiofor on Redbelt, Serenity, and Watchmen « FirstShowing.net
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To say that he has a knack for being at the right place at the right time would be an understatement.
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Through the windows, he had seen sunlight streaking the Georgica Pond - the name a deliberate understatement typical of the local gentry, it being more the size of a lake - like pigment upon a painter's brush: there was a sense about the light of incipience, of colour that was not yet vivid, of an idea not yet formed.
Black Blade
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The front line of sax, vibes and trombone may strike some as unconventional, but to say it works would be a bit of an understatement; more than sum of their parts, indeed.
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I think that's a serious understatement of the problem which annihilationism poses for itself.
Triablogue
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To say that she over-emoted is a defamatory understatement.
Actress, Seductress
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In fact, to say that the police were not impressed is an understatement.
Spectre of Scandal Raised After Charges Against Crown Dropped : Law is Cool
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Instead, it delivers a sinuous minerality larded with suave peachy fruit in perfectly poised understatement.
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Her delivery is mannered: grandstanding effects punctuated by hammily deadpan understatement and coyly rhetorical pauses emerging from a face cosmeticized into a comic mask.
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To say it was depressing is an understatement: even the most liberal-minded of viewers would have balked at the moral desolation of the scene.
Times, Sunday Times
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PESCA: And there was Coach Bob Bradley, a man for whom the word understated is an understatement, positively emoting.
U.S. Advances After Late Goal Against Algeria
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And for those determined enough to stand out from the crowd by virtue of understatement, that may well be enough.
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He informed us with massive understatement that he was feeling disappointed.
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Euphemisms rather use understatement … indirectness … the language of diplomacy.
Euphemisms are often misleading.
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This construction is technically called litotes; it's a form of deliberate understatement that is often used comically.
The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed
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There are even interviews with white riot policeman and executioners, but the power of the film belongs to the music, and ‘powerful’ is an understatement.
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It's a hilarious film full of gems of comic absurdity that are mixed in with nonchalant understatement.
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The slightly burnt taste recalls butterscotch as much as caramel, and calling the texture rich is a pitiful understatement: it is, in fact, so luscious that you want to fill a swimming pool with the stuff and dive in.
NYT > Home Page
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Spanish has no word for "understatement".
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The adage, that truth is often stranger than fiction, is a huge understatement.
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'To say that I was never the belle of the ball in my schooldays is the understatement of the century, but here ... can you imagine it, Storm, me actually outshining Barbara Benton and Helen Worthington both at once?'
Masters Of The Vortex
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By resorting to understatement, concrete and physical language, a poet contends against abstraction, generalization, hyperbole and the heroic language of hot-headed generals and bogus lovers alike.
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Peter Coleman-Wright, making his role debut with the Royal Opera as the lampooned Beckmesser, attempts similar understatement.
Review: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at Royal Opera House
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she said, hitting the wrong note, making it sound like an understatement for his current situation.
A DARKENING STAIN
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`She can be a bit of a snob sometimes,' Sally said with gross understatement.
BETTER THAN THIS
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Imagine what the totals are for the Western world combined: Scary and revealing stuff that makes the word "overconsumption" seem like a gross understatement.
Peak Food: Blaming the Victims
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Apart from his many other talents, he is also master of the understatement.
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To say that his house was usually noisy, loud, and crowded would be an understatement.
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This replaced the open emotional force and physical excitement of ‘hot’ jazz with deliberate understatement and restraint.
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Whatever his private feelings, he came up with exactly the correct understatement for the Cenotaph.
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We both have an interesting 10 days coming up," said Alex Ferguson with studied understatement.
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The Dems will overreach" is the understatement of the year.
Specter faces angry crowd at town hall meeting
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To say that her resignation was a shock would be an understatement - it caused panic.
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‘I know you’re longing to escape’ said the hygienist, with admirable understatement, ‘but I just want to show you how to floss properly.
Tortures and Rewards « Tales from the Reading Room
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To say we were pleased is an understatement .
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Describing Palin as inexperienced is an understatement.
Think Progress » Jeb Bush: Sarah Palin lacks a ‘depth of understanding.’
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One of the ways he achieves the element of understatement is by usually talking quietly.
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In the revealingly mistitled Fat Girl, director Catherine Breillat once again conveys brilliant understatement in the guise of superficial shock, and effectively divides her audience by virtue of where they look.
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He called it a postscript but he had always had a taste for understatement.
THE DEVIL'S OWN WORK
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Peter Cameron tells sad stories with tender grace and understatement, as if his work were composed of panels of watercolor.
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To say that councillors are ambivalent about the idea is an understatement.
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I have known and worked with both Craig and Dave for many years, both as a fellow journalist and more recently as a PR person and to say they will be missed from the AV Week masthead is an understatement.
Sad Day for Aviation Week Readers - NASA Watch
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To say Kate panics is something of an understatement.
On Edith Wharton « Tales from the Reading Room
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I think that you'll find the word 'prohibitive' is an understatement.
NASA Finds The Metric System Too Hard To Implement for Constellation - NASA Watch
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This song set the tone for the downbeat understatement that the event traditionally displays.
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Swann spends nine months convalescing morosely, only snapping out of it when his housekeeper, played with tight-lipped understatement by Sarah Lancashire, buys him a camera.
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But if Jacquet de la Guerre was a mistress of the grand gesture, Campra's forte was delicate understatement.
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To say I was gobsmacked is something of an understatement.
My Son In Books « Tales from the Reading Room
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He informed us with massive understatement that he was feeling disappointed.
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Sipping an orange juice in a west London gastropub, he turns out to be a master of the admirable understatement.
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Matt Lewis reports that National Review thinks the pledge is "bolder" than Newt's Contract with America, while Erick Erickson trashes the plan with typical subtlety and understatement:
The Morning Plum
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He was a natural diplomat, too, cool as a breeze under pressure and a master of understatement.
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'We have not done quite well enough,' Macmillan said, with characteristic understatement.
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Unlike some competitors, which overdose you with their looks, this Bertone bodied Maserati is restrained understatement.
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Michael Caine really nailed the world weariness of his character, and his growing sense of anger and despair was completely sold through understatement.
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This song set the tone for the downbeat understatement that the event traditionally displays.
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The word 'spectacular' would be an understatement," one said.
News - latimes.com
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Either way, it is clear he was a writer who preferred hint and understatement, a wink instead of a nudge.
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To say that I am irritated by the fact I have to pay for their laziness is an understatement, but even more aggravating is the fact they pay their top execs so damn much.
If You Want To Be Safe, Don’t Mention My Birthday… « The Graveyard
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Yet this definition fails to explain instances of litotes, or understatement, which is often classified as a kind of irony.
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His method is understatement, indirection, irony.
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To say I am disappointed is an understatement.
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British people tend understatement whereas Americans towards hyperbole.
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Tom and I were stunned; in fact this is an understatement, as we have never received an apport directly like this.
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When Sumner gets it right, his understatement and blokeish froideur are one of New Order's greatest strengths.
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To say he likes the book is something of an understatement: ‘Confessions of a policy wonk.’
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She is at once fiercely competitive and ladylike, a fighter to the death and yet a model of polite understatement.
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That is not an understatement as what follows is both an incisive critique of much current missiology/ecclesiology as well as a challenge to boldly re-imagine what it means to do mission and be the church in a post-Christian age.
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It's a hilarious film full of gems of comic absurdity that are mixed in with nonchalant understatement.
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To say it has been a revelatory experience would be an understatement.
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This is a harrowing play made all the more poignant by its understatement.
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For those in need of a true soul album, loaded with understatement, look no further.
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To say we've beaten the odds against success is an understatement.
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To say that the music is overblown and pretentious is rather an understatement.
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I only read it for the first time last year and it's no understatement to say it was a life-changing read.
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However, for the organisers, contestants like Laura and those like her are a Godsend, because to say that beauty pageants are a magnet for criticism is an understatement.
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And to say that Simpson doesn't sentimentalize this role would be a massive understatement.
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I guess he must have had to work murderously hard at it during some stage in his life, but his gifts are so obvious and are worn so lightly and are so integrated with his persona that saying he is a ‘natural’ is a ridiculous understatement.
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The word 'whipsaw' might be an understatement to describe stock markets on Friday: up big at the start of trading, down big in midday trading and now U.S. indexes are up again - and substantially - in early afternoon trading.
The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed
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Drummer Joe Morello's outro solo on the vamp is a masterpiece of understatement that illustrates the shadings of the time signature rather than pounding it into the ground.
Matthew Kohut: Meltdown: The Year Jazz Threw Out the Rules
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To say that such a fate would be unpleasant would be an astronomically gross understatement.
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To say I'm disappointed is an understatement.
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The film was an exercise in stylish understatement, and was all the better for it.
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To say the movie was bad is an understatement .
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Similarly, Window in Time gains eloquence through understatement, with its earth-toned arrangement of tiny clay jugs, typesetter's cursive letterforms and color-stained wood blocks.
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Which was an understatement, for the farm presented an unlovely picture.
CONFESSIONAL
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Peppered with dry wit and classic understatements, this book is a delight to read and my copy shows it, bespattered with grease and finger marks and bent this way and that as I would literally go to sleep with it.
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As with all his films to date, his understatement proves to be his greatest strength.
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If anything, Wells's work is an understatement, because Ellsberg is beyond mythomania.
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It's a hilarious film full of gems of comic absurdity that are mixed in with nonchalant understatement.
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It has a very -- to use the word acrimonious is an understatement relationship with India.
CNN Transcript Dec 2, 2008
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The uncertain understatement of X that may arise from this source is comparatively small.
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Wild, whimsical and scary, to say Alabama 3 are unpredictable would be an understatement.
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So when that cabbie sits down to cheer on the British athletes this week and glimpses the giggling lassie from the back of his cab amongst the world's elite, he may consider that one of his biggest understatements.
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In China's high-context, morally-relative cultural universe, "understatement" -- i.e., knowing when to turn a blind eye to transgression -- is both a skill of advancement and contributor to social order.
Tom Doctoroff: Illegal DVDs in China: Here to Stay
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I would have thought that that was a deft piece of understatement of what he was actually doing.
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'A little strange'is a gross understatement.
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Featuring solo parts for horn, piccolo, and clarinet, this is the one movement in the work that thrives on poignancy and understatement.
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Skinny ties, slicked pompadours, and lots of lace turn excess into an understatement of seismic proportions.
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To say I'm freaked out is an understatement, but as soon as I left a small drawing of a pentacle in the sand, the other Pagan respectfully stayed away from my area.
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Evan has a way of combining generous understatement with a big grin that is very endearing.
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You will have gathered by now that it would be an understatement to say he is no admirer of his subject.
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To call this Labour government "Orwellian" is an understatement.
Surveillance Britain (part xx)
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To say that this debacle was a debacle is a vast understatement.
A taste test for Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth
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To say that Palm has some catching up to do in this arena is an understatement.
CES: Verizon welcomes Palm Pre, Pixi phones
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I’ve had the chance to do a lot of LFGing in Ironforge lately, and to say it’s a crapshoot is a vast understatement.
MMOG Nation » A Theory on the Quality of Grouping
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Gone is sophistry, the elegance of understatement, the joy of imagining the concealed, regaling in the revealed.
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To say I'm slightly frisky is also an understatement.
Archive 2007-10-01
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‘It was quite a nasty fall,’ he explained, a thin smile forming on his lips in recognition of the understatement.
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It's a hilarious film full of gems of comic absurdity that are mixed in with nonchalant understatement.
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They listened appalled, while he sketched a brief account of their terrible experience of the afternoon, his inarticulation and understatement lending a much more awesome gravity to the tale than any more elaborate telling could have done.
Sweet Danger
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Intensity is what she is after and you don't normally get that by pulling your punches, though of course understatement and restraint can sometimes be equally effective.
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He informed us with massive understatement that he was feeling disappointed.
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By contrast, a window box that caught my eye recently can only be described as a tone poem to understatement: a severe planting of box fronted by ivy grown in a swag - simple, effective and extremely low maintenance.
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In his summing-up, he instructed the jury that "you may well think that hell on earth would not be an understatement of what the Gazans suffered in that time.
Lynch-Mob Justice
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Peter Cameron tells sad stories with tender grace and understatement, as if his work were composed of panels of watercolor.
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To say that business wear has changed in the past couple of years is an understatement.
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To say the man was large would be an understatement beyond all understatements.
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To say I crammed too many tomatoes into that small section is an understatement.
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The AP article notes, in muted understatement, "But the nature of some questions seems to validate concerns that they are suspected of being unfaithful to the church.
Transparency, Creativity, and Heresy
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To call him a character would be an understatement, but beneath the eccentric exterior lurked a diver with levels of discipline and skill I have rarely seen on my travels.
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To say I'm disappointed is an understatement.
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To say this suggests a widespread failure of socialisation is surely an understatement.
Times, Sunday Times
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‘It would be an understatement to say I was a bit dismayed, saddened and a little bit angry with the public airing of your views,’ he said.
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The study authors of the NICE trial offered this understatement "Our findings suggest that a goal of normoglycemia for glucose control does not necessarily benefit critically ill patients and may be harmful
Archive 2009-03-01
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To say the aircraft was squirrelly would be an understatement.
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Clearly, living so long and so intimately with other people has made him a master of the understatement.
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The family continues: So eagerly awaited that the term "eagerly awaited" is a ridiculous understatement, "The Sopranos" begins its sixth and reportedly final full season tonight on HBO, and advance viewing of the first four installments suggests that television's greatest drama series has only gotten greater.
March 2006
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It all made me start thinking about my days in Home Economics class with Mrs. B. To say that I was an unlikely candidate to excel in the womanly arts epitomizes the concept of understatement.
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'These figures are a bit disappointing.' 'That's got to be the understatement of the year.'
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However he carries it off with real pathos and at times almost heroic understatement.
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He is a master of understatement; all of his actors underplay their parts.
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At first called litotes or meiosis, such understatement came to be called irony, at least by the end of the sixteenth century.
IRONY
