half-hearted

Quite frankly if anyone ever lobbed a bottle full of petrol at me and did it in such a half-hearted manner that it failed to ignite me their only achievement would have been to receive a lot of Cherry Blossom about their ribs and spine and the heel of my boot in a manner that they could cancel their dental insurance plan for the rest of their life.

Half-Hearted Enemies explores the ambiguous wartime relationship in this most curious of wars.

Even when he makes a concerted effort to exploit the unique textural possibilities of oil on canvas, the results tend to fall somewhere between the half-hearted and the overly slick.

Yet with its forthcoming fifth generation, it is a vehicle that has the same level of vibrancy as the model that first rolled out into the public eye at the 1964 World's Fair in New York, and not some sort of half-hearted attempt as it has the field to itself.

Even if that were true, it would be only a half-hearted attempt to consider the immediate needs of seniors when pricing prescription drugs.

In public, Bono has issued some half-hearted public denials, but even her spokeswoman, Cindy Hartley, told the press that it would be Bono's "ideal job."

Half-hearted efforts at compliance among urban school districts have kept the exodus to just a trickle.

(Western journalists were subject to stringent controls in Saddam's Iraq.) Compared to the efforts of these tyrants, Western democracies' attempts to control the media seem half-hearted, almost benign.

A senior official of Pakistan's military intelligence service said Wednesday the agency's commitment to fighting terrorism is total and not half-hearted.

Bitter Arsenal fans will no doubt say Anelka's part in it was no more than a hopeful punt up the pitch, but there's no doubt he is much more of a team player now than when he used to score for the Gunners and run off to the corner on his own for a half-hearted celebration.

As you make your way past the many security guards with metal detectors and very cursory bag searches--a rather half-hearted, almost Ionesco--inspired response to 9/11-you are confronted again and again with films that reveal the face of hopelessness but that refuse its barren totalities.

Britain's Elaine Ratcliffe, a two-time Curtis Cup player who won the 1999 Evian Tour Rookie of the Year title, says she has a half-hearted approach to this season's circuit.

The curious blend of a reactionary conservatism with a sentimental affinity to modernism, and the subsequent, half-hearted embrace of post-modernity might be acceptable if it were a conscious choice.

The churches have one course of action open to them which they have attempted in the past, but in a half-hearted way.

"With such a strong need for effective drug-abuse programs in the workplace, and the vast amount of help available," says Lindamood, "there's really no excuse fro developing and implementing half-hearted solutions."