half-insolent

And she began to move about the room in an aimless, half-insolent way.

Initials Only 2003

“It seems so odd,” she replied, with her usual half-honest half-insolent unreserve, “that you and I should now be so much on a level, visiting in the same sphere; having the same connections.”

Villette 2003

She felt as if Gail Maddox, with her brilliant, careless sentences, and her half-insolent confidence, owned everybody there much more than _she_ did: and she felt little and underdressed and outclassed to a point where even Gail might pity her, and probably did ....

The Wishing-Ring Man Margaret Widdemer 1931

He did not answer me, but turned to the head assistant, whom he had already assured me was a fully-trained nurse, and in a half-insolent, half contemptuous tone of voice, said: Do you understand her?

Prisons and Prisoners: Some Personal Experiences 1914

If she had been a woman to desire in the queenly, half-insolent indifference of manner with which she had first met him, how much more of charm lay in this piquant gaiety, in the warm sweetness of her softer and more pliant mood!

Bucky O'Connor William MacLeod Raine 1912

Still it was an interesting face, clever, assured, half-insolent.

Captivating Mary Carstairs Henry Sydnor Harrison 1905

He had a few surface graces, and on occasion a certain half-insolent forcefulness of manner which in a curious fashion was almost becoming.

Hawtrey's Deputy Harold Bindloss 1905

Our dialects are apologetic things, half-ashamed, half-insolent.

From a Cornish Window A New Edition Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch 1903

There was always something attractive to him in this young man's broad, good-looking face, with its crisp dark hair, and half-insolent good humour, now so clouded.

Complete Project Gutenberg John Galsworthy Works John Galsworthy 1900

There was always something attractive to him in this young man's broad, good-looking face, with its crisp dark hair, and half-insolent good humour, now so clouded.

The Dark Flower John Galsworthy 1900