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Examples

  • Secretary of Defense Panetta, who's known as a flinty-eyed budget cutter, is acting like the military's defender-in-chief in his new post, even though he and his new deputy secretary, Ashton Carter, also a budget hawk undoubtedly realize that the Pentagon is facing some serious slashing and burning.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2011

  • Legends, the flinty-eyed generals knew, could be dangerous things.

    the wry writer | speculative fiction with a humorous slant! | Page 2 2010

  • Punch makes a great comic foil for Diaz's flinty-eyed scheming, as does John Michael Higgins, who plays a principal with a dolphin fixation who is easily manipulated by the slinky Elizabeth.

    Marshall Fine: HuffPost Review: Bad Teacher Marshall Fine 2011

  • Legends, the flinty-eyed generals knew, could be dangerous things.

    Kissed By Venus 2009

  • With deepening despair I listened to flinty-eyed Alexis offer apologies instead of ideas.

    Ten Minutes, That's It Benjamin Kral 2010

  • "Look, he waited for us," she said, scooping the cat into her arms, which was not an easy thing to do since he stiffened himself into a straight-legged, flat-eared, flinty-eyed scowl of a cat.

    Massage 2010

  • News: MURPHY, Texas - A sting in which police teamed up with 'Dateline NBC' to catch online pedophiles was supposed to send a flinty-eyed, Texas-style warning about this Dallas suburb: Don't mess with Murphy.

    Archive 2007-06-24 Bill Crider 2007

  • Soon, it became clear there was a new set of rules to be followed, an etiquette dictated by one of the flinty-eyed girls at the table Ryan would never be invited to sit at in the cafeteria.

    The Comeback Season Jennifer E. Smith 2008

  • In politics, especially of the American variety, this means you're either a bleeding-heart, pinko, atheistic commie or a flinty-eyed, redneck, heartless fascist.

    The fallacy of binary thinking Janet Ursel 2008

  • Soon, it became clear there was a new set of rules to be followed, an etiquette dictated by one of the flinty-eyed girls at the table Ryan would never be invited to sit at in the cafeteria.

    The Comeback Season Jennifer E. Smith 2008

Comments

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  • My take on this phrase is "coldly calculating"; as in someone cooly appraising a given situation for whatever (usually financial or material) gain is in it for himself.

    July 17, 2011

  • Having a very serious quality or manner.

    June 18, 2014