During the period on the lizard raft with no way to do anything about it my beard had grown to a respectable length.

What was more, he observed that the place was "full of Englishmen who speak the English tongue correctly . . . avoiding more blasphemy than necessary, and taking a respectable length of time to getting outside their drinks".

The Telegraph reviewed it unfavourably, noting that they "would be unremarkable were it not for the body of work that lies behind it" and that there was "an element of padding to make it a respectable length".

It was not nearly the size of the wharf rat I'd encountered under the Hoboken dock, but a respectable length nevertheless.

If an alien starship has been orbiting Jupiter for any respectable length of time, the entire ring and moon system would be contaminated by now.

The ring of hair that had grown over-long on his journey from Ramsey had been trimmed into tidiness, and the down of dark gold curls within it had grown into a respectable length to blend with the brown.

His hair was beginning to reach a more respectable length for a swordsman's, but it curled up in a tiny bun instead of making a ponytail.

With frozen hands she tugged them back to a respectable length.

His hair had been short when Roland stepped into his life (the better to sail through customs, my dear, and what a great big joke that had turned out to be), and was a still a respectable length.

For example, he says that he would very much like to record the Berg Violin Concerto ('another piece that's difficult to programme'), but the trouble is finding a coupling that will bring the disc up to a respectable length.