What does an author mean with a certain phrase or word?

With the last phrase I raised my eyes to him.

Who knows, but there is one problem with the phrase.

Only he reports the search without coming up with the phrase.

This will not begin with the phrase "the long and short of it."

And so it ended, with the phrase she knew had all power over me.

She wondered where she'd come up with the last phrase.

You might be familiar with the phrase "Put your best face forward."

From the morning of my first memory I have been made sick with phrases.

More often than not, it turns out, they conclude with the same phrase.