In a statement, Hewlett-Packard called Mr. Hewlett's letter "an unsubtle attempt to prevent other shareholders from having their say, even before the proxy has been mailed."

Hanna saw this as an unsubtle attempt by the President to ensure that Hanna would not oppose him, and was slow to respond to his request.

Yet another unsubtle attempt to rehabilitate the fraudulent Laws and so hasten his return to front line politics.

It seemed that the unsubtle attempt to steer Elspeth down a particular course was the exception, and not the rule - and it appeared to him to have failed quite dismally.

Finally, there was a strong sense that the entire initiative amounted to an unsubtle Saudi attempt at post-9/11 rehabilitation.

But opponents criticized the measure as an unsubtle attempt by Congress to control the content of programming.

Thurlow had come directly from the hospital and Whelye's unsubtle attempts to get him to step aside from this case, to forget for the moment that he was also the county's court psychologist.

His uncle chuckled at his unsubtle attempt to change the subject.

"I was a little worried for a moment," Conway admitted, laughing at the empath's unsubtle attempt at reassurance.

To Kirk, the suit construction seemed an unsubtle attempt at intimidation of the enemy, its makers trying to suggest all the skin being flayed off a victim.