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Literary notes about enough (AI summary)

The word "enough" in literature functions as a versatile marker of sufficiency, degree, and limitation, adapting its usage to the context of each narrative. In some cases, as in [1] and [2], it qualifies a quality or amount—implying that there is an adequate or satisfactory level of sense or evidence—while in others, such as [3] and [4], it marks a measure of time or even an emotional restraint. Authors also employ "enough" to set boundaries or signal conclusions, evident in terse commands or statements like those in [5] and [6]. Additionally, the term is employed to intensify adjectives or describe characters in a way that encapsulates both adequacy and nuance, as seen in examples like Shakespeare’s in [7] and the descriptive comparisons in [8] and [9]. Thus, across a broad spectrum of literary styles—from the philosophically reflective to the colloquially brusque—“enough” functions as a handy linguistic tool to convey sufficiency, finality, or precise measurement of qualities and actions.
  1. You have sense enough: don't give way to drunkenness and incontinence of speech; don't give way to sensual lust; and, above all, to the
    — from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  2. For my purpose, this is, as I said, evidence enough.
    — from The Works of the Emperor Julian, Vol. 1 by Emperor of Rome Julian
  3. By and by took boat intending to have gone down to Woolwich, but seeing I could not get back time enough to dinner, I returned and home.
    — from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys
  4. She had not heart enough even to make herself pretty as usual by putting on a blue neck ribbon and dressing her hair in the most becoming way.
    — from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
  5. Enough of this.
    — from The Grand Inquisitor by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  6. But enough of this.
    — from De Officiis by Marcus Tullius Cicero
  7. Sir boy, let me see your archery; Look ye draw home enough, and 'tis there straight.
    — from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
  8. I do not know who is good enough for him."
    — from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  9. He was a smart enough fellow, though rough of speech and bearing.
    — from Dracula by Bram Stoker

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