Our puny efforts to stop the flood were futile.
The mountaineer struggled to get a proper purchase on the slippery rock.
In this purgatory, he could expect no help from his comrades.
If you are to be purged of the charge of contempt of Congress, you must be willing to answer the questions previously asked.
If the purport of your speech was to arouse the rabble, you succeeded admirably.
As purveyor of rare wines and viands, he traveled through France and Italy every year in search of new products to sell.
You should be ashamed of your pusillanimous conduct during this dispute.
Although there are some doubts, the putative author of this work is Massinger.
The gangrenous condition of the wound was indicated by the putrid smell when the bandages were removed.
The detectives searched the area for the pyromaniac who had set these costly fires.
The mortician put pyre on the corpse before burning a corpse.
He was a pest; always bothering people.
The super computer's price was prohibitive.
Do not be misled by the exorbitant claims of this quack; he cannot cure you.
Most mammals are quadrupeds.
As we quaffed our ale, we listened to the gay songs of the students in the tavern.
Up to her knees in mud, Myra wondered how on earth she was going to extricate herself from this quagmire.
He was afraid that he would quail in the face of danger.
Her quaint clothes and old-fashioned language marked her as an eccentric.
Unable to give the candidate full support, the mayor gave him only a qualified endorsement.
His qualms of conscience had become so great that he decided to abandon his plans.
When the two colleges to which he had applied accepted him, he was in a quandary as to which one he should attend.
We will have to place this house under quarantine until we determine the nature of the disease.
The police closed in on their quarry.
They quarried blocks of marble out of the hillside.
The authorities acted quickly to quash the student rebellion, sending in tanks to cow the demonstrators.
Because of the captain's carelessness, the ship crashed into the quay.
As the ship left the harbor, he became queasy and thought that he was going to suffer from seasickness.
The police used fire hoses and teat gas to quell the rioters.
His classmates were repelled by his querulous and complaining statements.
They stood patiently in the queue outside the movie theatre.
Do not quibble; I want a straightforward and definite answer.
After this geyser erupts, it will remain quiescent for twenty-four hours.
He was impressed by the air of quietude and peace that pervaded the valley.
Noel Coward displayed the quintessence of wit.
You are unpopular because you are too free with your quips and sarcastic comments.
By a quirk of fate, he found himself working for the man whom he had discharged years before.
In his conquest of Europe, Hitler was aided by the quislings who betrayed their own people and served in the puppet governments established by the Nazis.
Robin Hood reached back and plucked one last arrow from his quiver.
His head is in the clouds; he is constantly presenting these quixotic schemes.
Will Rogers' quizzical remarks endeared him to his audiences.
The senator asked for a roll call to determine whether a quorum was present.
To Philip, each new day of his internship was filled with excitement; he could not dismiss his rounds as merely quotidian routine.
He was a rabid follower of the Dodgers and watched them play whenever he could go to the ball park.
My father was a gifted raconteur with an unlimited supply of anecdotes.
He felt sorry for the ragamuffin who was begging for food and gave him money to buy a meal.
You may rail at him all you want; you will never change him.
"How can I go to the ball?" asked Cinderella. "I have no raiment fit to wear."
He wore his hat at a rakish and jaunty angle.
Listening to the teacher ramble, Judy wondered whether he'd ever get to his point.
We must examine all the ramifications of this problem.
When the plant begins to ramify, it is advisable to nip off most of the new branches.
The house was built with ramps instead of stairs in order to enable the man in the wheelchair to move easily from room to room and floor to floor.
The rampant weeds in the garden killed all the flowers that had been planted in the spring.
"From the ramparts we watched" as the fighting continued.
The boys propped up the ramshackle clubhouse with a couple of boards.
A rancid odor filled the ship's galley and nauseated the crew.
Let us forget out rancor and cooperate in this new endeavor.
Although the sponsor of the raffle claimed all winners were chosen at random, people had their suspicions when the grand prize went to the sponsor's brother-in-law.
The memory of having been jilted rankled him for years.
As we heard him rant on the platform, we could not understand his strange popularity with many people.
Hawks and other rapacious birds prey on variety of small animals.
In team teaching, it is important that all teachers in the group have good rapport with one another.
The mountain climbers had difficulty breathing in the rarefied atmosphere.
The sergeant's raspy voice grated on the recruits' ears.
Before the treaty could go into effect, it had to be ratified by the president.
While Watson was a man of average intelligence, Holmes was a genius, whose gift for ratiocination made him a superb detective.
All attempts at rationalization at this time are doomed to failure; tempers and emotions run too high for intelligent thought to prevail.
Do not try to rationalize your behavior by blaming your companions.
His raucous laughter irritated me and grated on my ears.
The marauding army ravaged the countryside.
Though critic John Simon seldom has a good word to say about contemporary plays, his review of All in the Timing was a total rave.
A sigle thread pulled loose, and the entire scarf started to ravel.
The revenous dog upset several garbage pails in its search for food.
Steeper than a gully, less precipitous than a canyon, a ravine is, like them, the product of years of erosion.
The owners intend to raze the hotel and erect an office building on the site.
His program was reactionary since it sought to abolish many of the social reforms instituted by the previous administration.
The realm of possibilities for the new invention was endless.
Death, the Grim Reaper, cuts down men and women, just as a farmer cuts down the ripened grain.
We offer a rebate of ten percent to those who pay cash.
She rebuffed his invitation so smoothly that he did not realize he had been snubbed.
A coven of witches beside a tree is a possible rebus for the town Coventry.
The defense lawyer confidently listened to the prosecutor sum up his case, sure that she could answer his arguments in her rebuttal.
Donkeys are reputed to be the most recalcitrant of animals.
Unless you recant your confession, you will be punished severely.
Let us recapitulate what has been said thus far before going ahead.
Adventure-loving Huck Finn proved a receptive audience for Tom's tales of buried treasure and piracy.
The slow recession of the flood waters created problems for the crews working to restore power to the area.
Prison reformers in the United States are disturbed by the high rate of recidivism; the number of persons serving second and third terms indicates the failure of the prisons to rehabilitate the inmates.
Although he had been the recipient of many favors, he was not grateful to his benefactor.
The two nations signed a reciprocal trade agreement.
If they attack us, we shall be compelled to reciprocate and bomb their territory.
The recluse lived in a hut in the forest.
Every time we try to reconcile our checkbook with the bank statement, we quarrel. However, despite these monthly lovers' quarrels, we always manage to reconcile.
He read many recondite books in order to obtain the material for the scholarly thesis.
If you encounter any enemy soldiers during your reconnaissance, capture them for questioning.
About to recount the latest adventure of Sherlock Holmes, Watson lost track of exactly how many cases Holmes had solved and refused to begin his tale until he'd recounted them one by one.
The boy's only recourse was to appeal to his father for aid.
