adjective
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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Ironically, of course, these atavistic impulses no longer correspond to reality.
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It becomes virtually impossible when your enemy is trying to inflame every atavistic passion in order to defeat you.
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It was abominable, atavistic and atrocious, big, black and brutal, cruel cold and callous, and so on.
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It was filthy work, but full of atavistic excitement and the promise of financial reward.
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Or a priest of some unknown religion who strides towards us, implacably set on some atavistic rite?
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She sensed it; she knew it in some atavistic way that had nothing to do with intellect.
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Then another feeling crept over me, a deep, almost atavistic longing.
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There is something quite atavistic about a group of people sitting down together to a good dinner.