Finding a suitable quotation for a dictionary entry is near impossible, because quotations used in dictionaries need to meet three main criteria: they need to illustrate the most common usage of the word; they need to use only words that are entered in that particular dictionary; and they need to be as boring as humanly possible. Writers generally want to catch and hold your attention, and so they write things that are full of narrative interest, clever constructions, and tons of proper names. These things are a delight to read, and because of that they make for the worst example sentences
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