What is "surprising"

Usage examples of "surprising".

That cunning which is the wisdom of the worldling, and which he possessed in a very surprising degree, enabled him to adopt a course of conduct, look, and remark, which amply satisfied the exactions of the scrupulous, and secured the unhesitating confidence of those who were of a more yielding nature.

The really surprising fact in this case of the Galapagos Archipelago, and in a lesser degree in some analogous instances, is that the new species formed in the separate islands have not quickly spread to the other islands.

The divine sanction, which the Apostle had bestowed on the fundamental principle of the theology of Plato, encouraged the learned proselytes of the second and third centuries to admire and study the writings of the Athenian sage, who had thus marvellously anticipated one of the most surprising discoveries of the Christian revelation.

It is therefore not surprising that it should be inherited, at least to some extent, by plants having hypogean cotyledons, in which the hypocotyl is only slightly developed and never protrudes above the ground, and in which the arching is of course now quite useless.

And for a beautician, he did have a surprising grasp of world politics.

For a boy who had never wanted to be other than a housecarl like his father, this was surprising behavior.

In the law of real property, its rules of tenure and descents, its entails, its fines and recoveries, their vouchers and double vouchers, in the procedure of the Courts, the method of bringing writs and arrests, the nature of actions, the rules of pleading, the law of escapes and of contempt of court, in the principles of evidence, both technical and philosophical, in the distinction between the temporal and spiritual tribunals, in the law of attainder and forfeiture, in the requisites of a valid marriage, in the presumption of legitimacy, in the learning of the law of prerogative, in the inalienable character of the Crown, this mastership appears with surprising authority.

The squire who held her arm was still gazing slack-jawed at the merman, and it was with surprising ease that CC rammed her knee into his groin and wrenched her arm from his grasp.

John had turned off the entire staff after gaining the title- hardly surprising, for many of the old servants had carried tales of his childhood misdeeds to the earl.

Thus might they outspeed the tales of their coming, surprising the demons and their human servants.

Without following the modern fashion, prevalent in some surprising quarters, of ecstatically exaggerating the practical value of false beliefs in past and present times, we may admit that the cause of morality in the humblest sense of that term may sometimes have been served by the religious condemnation of all these matters as unclean, and of parenthood as, at the best, a second best.

Bruxton could have summoned Pennell to the main office during the day to have this talk, but surprising him in his own space after normal business hours was far better, for it showed him that there was no haven from the Bruxton reach.

Austral lands bear an inscription somewhat surprising: The simply cordiform map of Finaeus inscribes there: Terra Australis nuper inventa, sed nondum plene examinata.

With such clearly adaptive consequences for the culture, it is not surprising that the rule for reciprocation is so deeply implanted in us by the process of socialization we all undergo.

The best officers, the finest equipment, a surprising percentage of the wealth of the United Ankani Worlds went into those titanic, fantastically beautiful ships which touched down on an Ankani planet only long enough to refit, recrew and reprovision before blinking out again on a computed course into the dense starfields.