Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

He obsesses over pre-Victorian medical terms, with contested meanings, such as “quickening.”

From Slate • May 5, 2022

"But at the time it was necessary - in pre-Victorian times, they were used as open sewers."

From BBC • Oct. 4, 2015

Assisted by the mostly somber pre-Victorian clothes designed by Nancy Leary, the actors neatly and energetically morph from one individual to another.

From New York Times • Sep. 30, 2012

Statistical analysis of murder in 19th-century Britain is fraught with difficulties, owing to missing data and vague definitions, and the problems increase in the pre-Victorian era.

From The Guardian • Jan. 30, 2011

It was, we believe, a pre-Victorian pen which perpetrated this couplet on the House of Commons: ‘To wonder now at Balaam’s ass were weak: Is there a night that asses do not speak?’

From By-ways in Book-land Short Essays on Literary Subjects by Adams, William Davenport