paradoxical

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“
[13 The number of slaves in Upper Canada was also diminished by what seems at first sight paradoxical, that is, their flight across the Detroit River into American territory.

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Definitions (6)

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  1. Of the nature of a paradox; characterized by paradoxes; apparently absurd, yet true. The mind begins to boggle at immaterial substances, as things paradoxical and incomprehensible. South, Sermons, IX. iii. Paradoxical though the assertion looks, the progress is at once towards complete separateness and complete union. H. Spencer, Social Statics, p. 482.
  2. Inclined to paradox or to tenets or notions contrary to received opinions: applied to persons. Goropius after his wont paradoxicall. Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 41. In philosophy, where truth seems double-faced, there is no man more paradoxical than myself. Sir T. Browne, Religio Medici, i. 6.
  3. Paradoxical contraction in physiology, the contraction of the muscles innervated by one branch of the sciatic consequent on stimulation of the other branch: it is due to secondary stimulation of the first branch through electrotonic variations.
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Examples (50)

  • If this sounds a bit paradoxical, there is more to come. —  Chattanooga Pulse
  • Though this sounds paradoxical, there are 3 reasons that justify this. —  SeekingAlpha.com: Home Page
  • Yet, even more paradoxical is the fact that Stan, who is apparently the developer, responds fairly quickly to email requests for support. —  VersionTracker: Mac OS X
  • The story is all about the desperate, paradoxical, and necessarily self-deceptive quest for literary distinction. —  The Valve
  • And it's very interesting, why they get paradoxical -- because, according to quantum physics, forms of distinctions start to break down. —  unalog
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