It required a deft hand and deep knowledge of the barbaric mind effectually to handle such diverse weapons; but he was a past-master in the art, knowing when to conciliate and when to threaten with Jove-like wrath. ❋ Unknown (2010)
The lock had evidently been gaffed by a past-master. ❋ Unknown (2010)
Saying George is our greatest comedian is a way to shorthand the range and depth of his comedy - though he was also a past-master of what he called 'micro' or observational comedy - and to set him apart to this extent: now that his work is complete, he's the one to beat. ❋ Unknown (2009)
It is a form of psychological terrorism, and Obama is a past-master at it. ❋ Unknown (2008)
But Ralph Nader is a past-master at confronting financial malfeasance and has had a detailed list of prescriptions from the first day of this crisis. ❋ Unknown (2008)
And I have not stayed thy swimmings in the lake, nor thy wanderings in the wood, and thou hast learned bowshot there, till thou art now a past-master in the craft: and, moreover, thou art swift-foot as the best of the deer, and mayest over-run any one of them whom thou wilt. ❋ Unknown (2007)
Brown is the past-master of technical spin and complex, shifting-sand arguments wrapped inside deceptions wrapped inside spins wrapped inside cosy little lies. ❋ Unknown (2007)
Two other convicts, brought with la Pouraille from La Force within these twenty-four hours, had at once acknowledged and made the whole prison-yard acknowledge the supremacy of this past-master sealed to the scaffold. ❋ Unknown (2007)
Useless to hurry Hilary, a past-master in saving time. ❋ Unknown (2004)
And, while he was a reasonably skilled trader, he had a past-master in his crew. ❋ Lackey, Mercedes (2004)
He worked off the painful impression that they might make upon him in violent scenes in which he was a past-master of eloquence, or in crafty intrigues. ❋ Unknown (2003)
You will not, of course, be surprised when I say that there was in it none of his good qualities, since he is a past-master in the art — incidentally quite superficial — of handling a certain style of which, at your age, you cannot have acquired even the rudiments. ❋ Unknown (2003)
In the words of one historian, “Ulzana learned much about the arts and tactics of raiding from Nana, the old past-master, by following him with the troops and observing his methods and stratagems.” ❋ David Roberts (1994)
His tone left little doubt as to his opinion of those diehard reactionaries who brooked no interference, an odd reaction from one who was himself a past-master of brookmanship of this nature. ❋ MacLean, Alistair, 1922-1987 (1966)
She was the acknowledged past-master of doughnuts; and her pickled cucumbers done in salad oil were dreams of delight. ❋ Unknown (N/A)
Orphan Asylum; the latter had come to look on at the first essay on the ice of her daughter, Madame de Thomery; the former, to judge the skill of her brother, General the Marquis de Prerolles, past-master in all exercises of strength and skill. ❋ Various (N/A)
Bourget is, indeed, the past-master of "psychological" fiction. ❋ Various (N/A)
Worldling to the last extreme, depraved to his very core; past-master in the art of Parisian high life; an unbridled egotist, thinking himself superior to everything because he abased everything to himself; and, finally, flattering himself for despising all duties, which he had all his life prided himself on dispensing with -- such was his father. ❋ Various (N/A)
