Soon, he said, he would like to turn his attention to the pretied bow tie — from its fastener to its fabric.

The gradability of adjectives has important consequences for their grammatical behaviour.

They all sat about in the summer-house and in garden-chairs, and were very hatty and ruffly and sunshadey: Three ladies and the curate played croquet with a general immense gravity broken by occasional loud cries of feigned distress from the curate.

She danced with a loose flowing movement.