They were fans, sycophantically praising even my lamer efforts.

But as the minutes ticked by, my lame effort to stave off terror faltered.

Mr. Aso's later lame efforts to clarify his words left their effect unchanged.

He pictured the two pretty faces at first puzzled, then embarrassed, while he stood making lame efforts to ingratiate himself.

'Perhaps the balloon is breaking up,' I suggested in a lame effort to revive our spirits.

Bridget makes a lame effort to chat about the war in Chechnya to impress her date.

"Pickles," Charlotte said, making a lame effort at covering.

No more lame efforts at humor.

He made a last lame effort to delay the experiment; but Basil was impervious to suggestion.

But except for some lame efforts by the Democratic National Committee, they have done nothing to make it happen.