No matter how important all three men were, Lord Mandelson informs readers primly, there is an "obvious distinction" between his influence, largely exercised behind the scenes, and that of "Tony, and then Gordon", who each became prime minister.
Slavery and gold became profitable for the Europeans; influence was largely exercised through individual settlers and there was no centralised administration and, in the meantime, Portugal had turned her attention to India and Brazil.
A lot of people don't know that many of the great discoveries in particle physics are largely exercises in statistical analysis.
Formal planning and forecasting are largely exercises in reading tea leaves.
During these largely pointless exercises, the point is to contribute using the mere gravitas of your presence, make other people's ideas seem like your ideas, and look like a true leader by questioning the efficiency of the whole process.
He is not happy that "through much of our time in government, my influence was exercised largely behind the scenes".
As I write this, Senator Bernie Sanders is conducting a largely pointless exercise on the Senate floor -- but one guaranteed to seduce the media into calling it a "filibuster" (look for the abundant references to Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, which can't be far behind), even though it is not.
Patry Hoskins had only "assisted in the largely mechanical exercise of collecting and organising the evidence which appeared to support the criticisms" in those letters, he said.
And although many news organizations have set standards for the use of Twitter by their journalists, reporters remain largely free to exercise their own, unedited news judgment.
One is largely an exercise in social science, the other an exercise in moral philosophy.
Largely nonsmokers who exercise regularly, eat well and have no symptoms of illness, they are less likely than the general public to have undetected problems, experts say.
