Sentence examples for it would be merely from inspiring English sources
The unapologetic and matter-of-fact acknowledgment of its characters' sex lives gives the series an aura of enlightenment (though it would be merely seamy if its ultrahorny men were heterosexual).
If it weren't playing for such substantial stakes, it would be merely forgettable; instead, for its trivializing of themes of such great and quasi-universal import, it makes my list of the year's worst films.
It would be merely interesting if it were not so important.
Grassi thought it would be merely a matter of a few years.
Without him, it would be merely the means by which you drew an hour closer to death.
If your story were only about a small Rocky Mountain town, it would be merely an amusing tale about silly people.
Dialogue, if it happened, would be merely the first knot in a giant carpet.
Without it, Okja would be merely weird rather than weirdly breathtaking, as Bong patiently shows the jarring, grisly nature with which the Superpigs meet their end; it isn't polemical, but it certainly takes an otherwise beautiful, eccentric film to a more harrowing place.
In Barack Obama's lexicon of prudential juggling, to go ahead and nominate Chuck Hagel now, after the opposition in the last two weeks has used the time it was given to grow, would be merely a "distraction" from the serious aims of his presidency.
