Example sentences of "was unable [to-vb] the [noun] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | In the same way that the jobbing funeral furnisher was unable to undertake the obsequies of the nobility , likewise the top cabinet-makers would have refused some of their lesser clients , referring them to one of more able members of the trade . |
| 2 | In some of the cases the creditor was unable to enforce the security against the wife notwithstanding that no positive impropriety , such as undue influence or misrepresentation , had been committed by the husband . |
| 3 | Although he captured some knights and burned down the town , he was unable to take the castle . |
| 4 | The rain was so heavy now that he was unable to see the expression on her face . |
| 5 | Above him the smoke blackened the air so as he was unable to see the top . |
| 6 | She had always resented Luke , and feared the way he made her feel — because she must have sensed from the beginning the power he could and did have over her ; because he had deprived her of himself when he had had her dismissed from that very first job back in South Africa ; because something had led him to misjudge and despise her , and he was unable to see the truth ; because she had always known that he could break her heart … |
| 7 | The confessions , which were expected to be challenged by the defence , provided the heart of the prosecution case , as the victim was unable to remember the attack or to identify her assailants and forensic tests were inconclusive . |
| 8 | The distraught and guilt-ridden driver was unable to remember the number plates of the vans which he had tried to memorise at the time of the kidnapping . |
| 9 | SHOTGUN raiders fled empty-handed from a off-licence in Brodie Avenue , Garston , yesterday after the 84year-old licencee was unable to open the till . |
| 10 | But by the end of last year Mr Yanagitani had lost so much money that he was unable to honour the investment guarantees he had given to his clients . |
| 11 | Since this simple model was unable to explain the kind of uplift observed along rifted margins there were immediate attempts to modify it . |
| 12 | She rewrote their homework in respectable English but appeared , at that time , not to have inherited the family teaching compulsion , and was unable to explain the principle by which she was altering their grammar and syntax . |
| 13 | Shortly after his death , I was working a ‘ noon and night ’ at a local Working Men 's Club when the top of the bill — a Welsh comic called Dave Swan — was unable to do the evening performance , as he 'd been taken ill . |
| 14 | Another tom did the same thing , supplying his female with food while she was unable to leave the nest during the first days after producing her litter . |
| 15 | The president of the society , ninety-five year old Mr T W Ventress , was unable to leave the Whitby nursing home where he now lives to visit the 1987 show which I attended . |
| 16 | She was followed five minutes later by an angry Carole , suitcase in hand , who was to find that she was unable to quit the hotel until midnight . |
| 17 | She was unable to quell the acid in her voice . |
| 18 | Stealing a sideways glance at his profile , she was unable to quell the frisson of excitement which sharpened her perception of him . |
| 19 | The abolition of the wager of law in 1833 caused some revival in detinue but in view of the expansion of conversion , detinue only really remained necessary where the defendant was unable to redeliver the goods . |
| 20 | I was unable to spot the malai flag anywhere , which cheered me perversely . |
| 21 | Eliot was unable to renounce the world he knew . |
| 22 | MacDonald quickly departed , but Redgrave was unable to save the company . |
| 23 | The bystander was not aware of the crash button on the alarm fitted to the hangar wall , and finding the control room locked , she was unable to sound the alarm . |
| 24 | It can not have done the YF-23 any good that it was unable to kick the AMRAAMs out of its weapons bay on demand . |
| 25 | ‘ Our great founder laid down a rule in his will that anyone who went to prison would not have to pay his subscription during the time that he was unable to use the club premises , and that any unused portion of his subscription should be held over until his release . ’ |
| 26 | ‘ Now if the defendants were bound to charge the plaintiff for the carriage of his goods a less sum , and they refused to carry them except upon payment of a greater sum , as he was compelled to pay the amount demanded , and could not otherwise have his goods carried , the case falls within the principle of several decided cases , in which it has been held that money which a party has been wrongfully compelled to pay under circumstances in which he was unable to resist the imposition , may be recovered back in an action for money had and received . |
| 27 | Jean was unable to resist the impulse to return her smile . |
| 28 | I desperately tried to draw my sword but my belly was churning with such fear that I was unable to grasp the hilt . |
| 29 | Since having her children five years previously Eleanor was unable to shift the stone ( 14lb/6.5kg ) in weight she had gained . |
| 30 | ‘ When he was unable to spend the night with her she said she felt used and abused . |