arriere-pensee

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

He spoke now without the slightest arrière-pensée of flattering her, and Sylvia in her sudden burst for self-expression was unconscious of him, save as an opponent in an argument.

From The Bent Twig by Fisher, Dorothy Canfield

The latter, at last, answered him, not condescendingly, as Alyosha had feared, but with modesty and reserve, with evident goodwill and apparently without the slightest arrière-pensée.

From The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky, Fyodor

Emerson uses the word here in the same sense as the French arrière-pensée, a mental reservation.

From Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Turpin, Edna Henry Lee

And yet Titian expresses this by no means exalted conception with a grand candour, an absence of arrière-pensée such as almost purges it of offence.

From The Later Works of Titian by Phillips, Claude

And I watched him tip the waiter without the least arrière-pensée on either side.

From Mr. Justice Raffles by Hornung, E. W. (Ernest William)