Literary notes about quite (AI summary)
The word "quite" in literature serves as a versatile intensifier or mitigator that can modify adjectives, verbs, or entire phrases, subtly adjusting tone and meaning. Authors employ "quite" to indicate complete satisfaction—as when Mr. Winkle is "quite satisfied" [1]—or to suggest near or partial states, as in expressions like "I can’t quite make it out" [2] or "I have not yet quite understood you" [3]. In some contexts it emphasizes certainty or absoluteness, seen in phrases such as "quite justified" [4] or "quite serious" [5], while in others it softens or qualifies the description, as in "quite contented" [6] or "quite different creature" [7]. This fluidity makes "quite" an effective tool in conveying nuance, whether the author aims for a measured understatement or an emphatic declaration.
- Mr. Winkle, with great self-denial, expressed himself quite satisfied already.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens - “I can’t quite make it out.
— from The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - But perhaps I have not yet quite understood you, Lebedeff?”
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Mr Lightwood will find that he is quite justified in taking leave of me here.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens - “Yes—quite serious,” replied the vicomte.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - ‘I am quite contented.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens - This child, in her short, tight old frock, climbing the stairs to the attic, was quite a different creature.
— from A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
