Sentence examples for if not plain from inspiring English sources

But while Westerners gushed over her bravery, the reaction in Pakistan was decidedly tepid, if not plain hostile.

There's always been something a bit daft - if not plain discriminatory - about the cut-off age of 25 for the writers programme.

Equating poverty and antisocial behaviour is shockingly naïve, if not plain cruel – a point recognised by the Home Office when it issued guidance against using PSPOs to target people in desperate need.

That it took the government so long to figure it out would only have reinforced his conviction that officialdom is willfully perverse, innately illogical and slow, if not plain stupid.

It became a cornerstone of that era's feminist movement, but it wasn't until the late 1970's that changing sexual protocols finally rendered the club's winking-bachelor ambience anachronistic, if not plain silly.

Moreover, the Greens are a pro-Europe party that is consistently gaining ground in Germany, and elsewhere across the union, so it is too simplistic if not plain wrong to blame the Greek crisis for the CDU's slide in popularity – or for the SDP's climb to near parity with it.

Footnote 9 If the language is not plain, it may be a violation of defendants' right of due process to enforce it.

It is best to use elastic that consists of rubber covered with woven fabric which looks much like a round shoelace, not plain rubber: if it is stretched too hard or pulled against a semi-sharp surface, the rubber within will generally break but the overall cord will just overstretch, not break.

If the water is rough, you should not plain.

They entrench insecurity, fuelling not only the original causes of flight but creating new dangers impeding access to protection – if not denying plain survival.

Its leaders were pushing Gov. Michael O. Leavitt to put someone from the industry on the commission, lest the interests and desires of those who sell and drink booze be underrepresented, if not just plain misunderstood.