Like a cold mist rolling off a moor, pressure seeps through cracks in confidence, and it can start before the first tee shot.
It was a rare crack in her confidence.
But I detected a crack in his confidence when we watched his father depart Takotna, carrying a bag lunch prepared for him by the townspeople.
But on Friday, Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner known for his Texas-size swagger, revealed something altogether unfamiliar: a crack in his confidence.
In a country of S.U.V. drivers, an oil price shock accompanied by 24-hour coverage of hostilities in Iraq could be enough to put a crack in consumer confidence and weaken what has been the main pillar of the recovery so far: consumer spending.
Then, there was Humpty Dumpty -- sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty, had a great fall -- but he couldn't go the doctor as he had no health insurance, so he went to his local dive bar and got smashed, now with a crack in his self-confidence.
Any cracks in the confidence that AIG knows what it is doing in derivatives would be highly damaging.
Gross exposure has grown from $435 billion to $544 billion.Any cracks in the confidence that AIG knows what it is doing in derivatives would be highly damaging.
A three-time candidate for the United States presidency, he has become an eternal also-ran, and the spreading cracks in his confidence lead to a shattering public breakdown.
High-powered microscopes have been scanning Federer for the last 12 days at the US Open, searching for hairline cracks in his confidence, and there were occasional moments in his quarter-final against James Blake when perfection was sullied.
The United States government is able to borrow money at very low interest rates because Treasury securities are regarded as a safe investment, and any cracks in investor confidence have a long history of costing American taxpayers a lot of money.
