affectations

His unforgettably spastic dance moves might seem like the therapeutic indulgence of a deeply repressed soul, but underneath his affectations is a rigid structure of control and order.

In concert: Francis and the Lights at DC9 2010

Those kind of affectations are going now, aren't say?

CNN Transcript May 10, 2002 2002

He had his own kind of affectations no doubt, and his own kind of tricks of debate; but he broke, and, thank God, forever the spell of the little man with the single eye glass who had frozen both faith and fun at so many tea-tables.

George Bernard Shaw 1905

I have been ashamed and vexed with myself fifty times for being so like a little girl, ... for seeming to have 'affectations'; and all in vain: 'it was stronger than I,' as the French say.

The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett Browning, Robert, 1812-1889 1898

Perhaps it would have produced more effect upon the Yorkshire divines had it come from one who had lived longer among them, and of the correspondence of whose life with his doctrines, they had better opportunities of judging; one whom, from long experience, they knew to be neither sullied by the little "affectations," nor "agitated by the little vanities of the world," whose strict observance of "those decencies and proprieties," which persons in their profession "owe to their situation in society," they had remarked through a long course of years.

Famous Reviews R. Brimley Johnson 1899

'affectations'; and all in vain: 'it was stronger than I,' as the

The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Vol. 1 (of 2) 1845-1846 Robert Browning 1850

Sometimes the affectations pay off, as when Jensen arrives at a meeting with Aisha wearing a pink tee shirt; his niece plays on a little league soccer team, and he wears the shirts in a show of support.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Losers (2010) 2010

Mostly, however, the affectations never elevate the characters to anything more than names.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Losers (2010) 2010

– I summoned my faultless powers of clairvoyance and concluded that this was one of those Shoreditch affectations that wasn't going to "take" in the real world; 18 months on, fashion mags are plugging a £320 Evisu sleeveless denim jacket and suggesting we get the "80s rocker look", Live Aid having famously been a high watermark of sartorial elegance.

Alexis Petridis: Heavy irony Alexis Petridis 2010

The cast puts everything they can into creating credible characters but manage little more than affectations, and nonsensical ones at that.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Losers (2010) 2010