Hot answers tagged meaning
33
There is a class of noun called, interestingly, Picture Nouns. These include picture, description, story, painting, and any other noun that refers to a representation of something else. There are hundreds, and they have very peculiar syntax, because they're very peculiar semantically. All nouns are representations of something else, but picture nouns are ...
15
The same Merriam-Webster link provides the answer further down.
At present sense 4 is found in print chiefly in letters to the editor and other informal prose, not in serious intellectual writing. The controversy over sense 4 has apparently reduced the frequency of use of sense 3.
10
From a linguistic and literary point of view, Prof. Lund's position is wholly absurd. It amounts to saying that the clause in question has no connection at all with what follows, which immediately raises the question "What's it doing there, then?" In literary studies, and in ordinary personal intercourse, too, one always assumes that what is written means ...
9
Although the sentence strictly talks of the owner of the picture when the speaker says "my picture", it is a common idiom for people to say my picture to mean a picture of me.
For example:
I got my picture taken for my work pass yesterday.
We hang pictures of all of the partners outside the board room. My picture is the one to the left of the ...
7
Originally, the proverbial bag of hammers was noisy (and by implication, unsubtle)...
They would come down on her with the celerity of a bag of hammers (1913)
(where celerity = speed, noise, lack of subtlety).
you should listen to yon engines of mine. They clatter like a bag of hammers (1923)
That usage was never particularly common - I can ...
6
The phrase is indeed ambiguous. My oldest friend usually means the one I have known longest, and it would be unusual to use it in the other sense, but it might happen.
There is not really a straightforward way of saying the other meaning: I would probably use eldest (which is only used in this sense), but my eldest friend, though clear, sounds odd to me, ...
6
An analogy here -
In the American South, it is not uncommon to say, "I'm going to learn you some manners!" when in fact the appropriate phrase is "I'm going to teach you some manners."
When two words identifying the same activity (in the case of infer / imply - extracting an implicit meaning from a text or teach / learn - to pass on knowledge in some ...
5
There cannot be a definitive answer in these kind of usage question, but here's some elements for an answer that is neither your A or B:
It's still a rank in the scout organisation;
In Webster, there's no mention of a sexual tone (whereas it
mentions the vulgar possible use of "beaver");
In the Urban dictionnary, only one out of six definitions
contains a ...
5
The sentence you give should be:
"Haven't heard anything from you in a while."
or
"Haven't heard anything from you for a while."
No difference in meaning in this case, at least, not to my knowledge in American English, and not in my idiolect. But there would in these cases:
I'll give this to you in a while. [Not now, but maybe tonight or next ...
4
The phrase here is "Take it to" rather than "take it to the hoes." The only thing that makes this a bit confusing is that the thing that the person is taking (or carrying) is probably not an object, but rather some objective, goal, or request. The speaker of the quote is suggesting that needing to get your freak on is best solved by taking that problem to ...
4
The first element of neighbor is indeed OE néah, "near", reflected in ModE nigh (and ModE near in fact descends from néar, "nearer", the comparative grade of néah).
But neighbor has been used since at least the 10th century to translate both BH רֵעַ and NT Greek πλησίον.
The Greek (which was also often used to translate רֵעַ and is used in contexts which ...
4
If meant as an idiom, I would say that the phrase was an error as it would seem to indicate that the person would be acting antithetically to how one would act with their gloves off, which, as you noted, would essentially mean that they would be fighting them in a fair manner in hopes of inflicting minimal damage (since the gloves are off phrase comes from ...
4
The distinction between for Duration and in Duration depends on where the Reference Time is. Reference time is an Instant in time, not a Duration; but Duration is measured from it.
In Duration refers to a time period Duration long that ends at the Reference Time
For Duration refers to a time period Duration long that begins at the Reference Time.
4
I'm trying to capture a vague idea floating in my head. Not sure I can explain adequately.
First off, both "in a while" and "for a while" are grammatical and idiomatic per se. However, to me, "for a while" would mean that their hearing from you is an ongoing process, which you interrupted for some time — or well, for a while —, but then resumed. ...
4
All of the reference are to bicycles.
...miniature mountain bikes, they're complete with hand brakes, knobbies and aluminum rims.
And when you're talking rolling resistance, they've got knobbies beat by a country mile.
...the course: racing slicks for roads, off-road knobbies for rugged hills.
The last gives it away: the word refers to ...
3
"(something) gets me" is a catch phrase, everytime is an intensifier that suggests 'I can never get used to it'.
Eric Partridge in A Dictionary of Catch Phrases explains that gets me!
that gets me! is recorded in HLM, 1922, as a 'picturesque' phrase. Meaning: 'That annoys me': recorded by the DAE for 1867; current in Britain c. 1919-39. P.B.: but ...
3
In the UK, I've never heard this term used other than in a totally innocuous way.
Chambers gives this as the only meaning:
eager beaver noun, colloq someone who is exceptionally enthusiastic or willing
ODO also gives only a similar innocuous definition
So here, it either retains only its innocuous meaning and/or I'm not up-to-date with the youth ...
3
Let me try to answer this without getting into a discussion of my own opinions about gun control. :-)
To an extent I'll agree with StoneyB: If the words have no meaning, than why did the writers put them there? But judges will sometimes declare that some of the text in a legal document is what is legally called "surplusage", that is, words that have no ...
3
The past-participle form of a verb is often used as an adjective. For example:
The written word
The fried food
The contrived example
The past-participle form of a verb is often the same as the past-tense conjugation (fried, contrived, but not written). If the past-participle form of a verb is used as an adjective very often, or the adjectival meaning ...
3
There is the expression "mad as a bag of hammers" that means "crazy". I imagine that's where the film gets its name from.
Other phrases with the same meaning:
"mad as a box of frogs"
"mad as a bag of spanners"
"mad as a March hare"
2
"During" indicates that something is happening at the same time as some other ongoing action. Notice that this includes the implication that something is actively happening. So you might say you were doing something during the baseball game. For example, "I was knitting a sweater during the baseball game." But you would not say that something DIDN'T happen ...
2
A person is rarely a cynic. Cynicism is a transient attitude which is modified in the light of changing conditions and can be just as healthy as skepticism. The implications above that one may switch from one to the other without intervening new information and consideration, is ridiculous. I had hoped that my diatribe would have made this clear.
The ...
2
It's the 2nd definition, particularly the bit after the colon.
to commit especially to a final destination or fate (a writer
consigned to oblivion)
Of course, you're getting into circular definitions a bit there. Consign means to commit, which means to consign. Oddly enough every online dictionary I checked has this same issue.
2
In software engineering 'front end' refers to the user interface. It is based on the idea that the part of the system that the user interacts with is the front of the system.
In electronics and signal processing the 'front end' refers to the electronics used to capture signals from the 'real' world into the electronic or digital domain.
This is the front ...
2
In common usage, there is a subtle difference between the two:
Imply tends to refer to meaning that is intended by the author/speaker.
Infer, on the other hand, tends to refer to meaning that is gleaned by the reader/listener.
For this reason, if communication is taking place effectively, the information implied by the speaker should be inferred by the ...
2
The author is implying that Cologne is extremely malodourous (seven and seventy evil savours is a poetic way of putting it) but the smell in Cologne is immensely preferable to the niff he is currently describing; by comparison the smell in Cologne is very pleasant: was a posy-bed [compared] to it.
2
What makes an item of food is a biscuit or a cake is something that the UK government contested in court as part of the Jaffa Cake trial. The Tribunal came to the following conclusion:
The product’s name was a minor consideration.
Ingredients:Cake can be made of widely differing ingredients, but Jaffa cakes were made of an egg, flour, and sugar mixture ...
2
From an American point of view, none of the terms biscuit, cake, or cookie is an appropriate descriptor for ships biscuit, which is also known as hardtack and by other terms. The image below is from wikipedia's article about hardtack.
The article says
Hardtack (or hard tack) is a simple type of cracker or biscuit, made from flour, water, and ...
2
In English, unlike many other languages, two negatives make a positive. So, there isn't no X means there actually is some X available.
However, in some dialects, notably US slang, double negations are be used. These are usually in the form of there ain't no rather than there isn't no. For example
There ain't no cure for love
Strictly speaking, that ...
2
The first one would be a more frequently used and seen one. Or you can always say "It's dimmer than the day outside." or just "It's dim outside". The second one is grammatically correct too . So, no worries and just stick to what you prefer. Unless, you are worried that the other party's understanding of vocabulary is not as good as yours, then you should ...
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