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War and Peace vocabulary
564 vocabulary words, including people, places, music, artists, etc.
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peccadillo
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synonyms: venial sin, contretemps, solecism ???
► definition
Definition:a trifling sin or fault
► uses
Uses:
Not only, however, is the fatuity of Napoleon depicted— his ill-temper, his peccadillos of conduct— but Tolstóy attacks him at his central point— his faith in himself. For Tolstóy, Napoleon, precisely because he is a “leader,” is so limited in his freedom of action that only that capacity for self-deception which is the special characteristic of the conqueror type can give him the illusion that he is commanding events rather than surrendering to them.
Leo Tolstoy. War and Peace: With bonus material from Give War and Peace A Chance by Andrew D. Kaufman . Simon & Schuster
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At the very least some minor sexual manipulation, some bygone peccadillo now denied him, prohibited by law and punishable by amputation.
Margaret Atwood. The Handmaid's Tale (1986)
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His mind wandered off from his book to worlds far removed from the English prude: to wanton peccadilloes and salacious practices condemned by the Church. He grew excited.
Joris-Karl Huysmans. À Rebours.
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