mere

“The mere prospect there could be a call is enough to chill agency heads,” Graham Steele, a former Treasury assistant secretary for financial institutions, told me.

From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2026

“His personal circumstances changed right as he finished,” Oppenheim noted, mere weeks after Bloom and Perry announced their engagement.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 14, 2026

Many scoffed at the mere suggestion, external of such success, but he was not too far out.

From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026

And yet Lind is shutting down free community walks that don’t profit from the name “Hot Girl Walk” — is she counting on the mere threat of legal action to get her way?

From Salon ● Jul. 7, 2026

This was no trivial setback, no mere snub; it was, to Bobby, the greatest insult he could imagine.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

She reset to hold, then wrestled back the break, allowing herself the merest of smiles.

From Barron's ● Jan. 31, 2026

His strictly regulated factory model brooks no challenges from his workers, and he employs an enormous security force to snuff out the merest whisper of pro-union sentiment.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 29, 2026

It’s funny how, being so expert at playing grand narcissists, you retreat from the merest hint of self-promotion.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2024

But Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is going out of his way to avoid even the merest whiff of complacency.

From BBC ● Feb. 16, 2024

These heroines were always willowy and managed to land in graceful postures of repose, and were revived with the merest passing of a decorated flagon of smelling salts under their noses.

From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly