Questions tagged [meaning]
This tag is for questions related to definitions and nuances of meaning of a word or phrase.
14,504
questions
0
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1answer
53 views
Understanding a sentence about electrical switches
Obviously, an LBS does not support the protection over the costs of a CB, as it is designed to meet the requirements of IEC 60947-3 only.
So how should i understand this correctly? I need to ...
0
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0answers
28 views
Change of subject in respect of “in order to”
"In order to" or the shortened version "to" always require that the subject of the main clause and subordinate clause are the same (cf. https://englishstudypage.com/grammar/using-in-order-to-in-...
2
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0answers
52 views
What does “Nothing is too good for him to eat.” mean?
I don't exactly know what it means. Which is the correct form below?
All are good enough for him to eat.
There is not any good thing (or food) for him to eat.
From The Forsyte Saga: The Man ...
0
votes
1answer
40 views
can we use 'assign' like this?
In my article, there's a part that I want to say that we should keep some of our old buildings because of its historical value and implement our city development plans in another area. so is this ...
1
vote
3answers
168 views
What is the English equivalent for “для особо одарённых”?
There is a steady expression in Russian: "для особо одарённых". It can be used in such context:
Повторяю для особо одарённых...
Straight translation is "I repeat for the gifted". But in general it ...
-1
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0answers
40 views
What's the meaning of “put on your mac” and “put on your heels”?
I'm A Dog - D.Brown
"Put on your Mac, put on your heels"
From point-blank range you shoot to kill, yeah
Wonder if you know how I feel
Like it's just you and me in here, yeah
Hello kitty you're so ...
0
votes
1answer
38 views
What is the meaning of “administrative”? [closed]
In IAS full form : Indian Administrative Services. What is the meaning of administrative ?
0
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1answer
55 views
“Compass” as in “compass their ends” — meaning in context
Anatomy of the sentence:
Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing
I know this is the origin of "all that is necessary for evil to ...
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votes
0answers
33 views
Please help me with this [closed]
My questions are below in bullet points but Firstly I would like to let you know about something that may help you better understand what I am trying to write as well as being able to help me better.
...
1
vote
1answer
30 views
What does the phrase “offers no provision” mean?
The Wikipedia page for Hart Island says that
The only access to Hart Island is by ferryboat. Hart Island and the pier on Fordham Street on City Island are restricted areas under the jurisdiction of ...
1
vote
1answer
36 views
How did you use that information to help solve/solving the problem?
I have recently read someone saying:
- How did you use that information to help solve the problem?
so my question is, what's the grammar rule that makes this right as opposed to
- How did you use ...
0
votes
1answer
43 views
What is the difference between words “notability” and “significance”?
I've seen somewhere that "notable" is related to a person or a concrete thing, while "significant" is related to a sign or a symbol. Is it correct?
-1
votes
1answer
40 views
Is medicine a humanity?What does the humanity here refer to?
Humanity’s dramatic progress against specific infectious diseases has far outstripped the pace of investment in good health care systems, responsive governance, dependable infrastructure, and the ...
-1
votes
0answers
34 views
What does “I want the boat flipped” mean? [closed]
I'm not sure about the meaning of "I want the boat flipped". It is the Captain of yacht talking to his crew. Can it mean that he wants his crew to thoroughly clean the boat?
0
votes
1answer
60 views
What does “the stable saving truth” in this passage mean?
A computer would wait forever to receive my command but would process it the very moment I hit Enter, no questions asked. No teacher had ever been so patient, yet so responsive. Nowhere else—certainly ...
-1
votes
1answer
39 views
I want to know the meaning of the phrase below [closed]
Things will have their first or second agitation: if they be not tossed upon the arguments of counsel, they will be tossed upon the waves of fortune; and be full of inconstancy, doing and undoing, ...
0
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0answers
4 views
He could scarcely provide a more striking contrast to [migrated]
Sandeep Mathrani starts as the office-rental firm’s chief executive today. He could scarcely provide a more striking contrast to WeWork’s founder and ousted boss, Adam Neumann. With no prior ...
0
votes
1answer
55 views
Is there a name for the phenomenon that something becomes less so as it becomes more popular? [closed]
Apologies in advance if this is silly.
I've come to think that some things become less so as they become more popular. I'm wondering if someone ever wrote/talked about this and if it has a name.
For ...
1
vote
0answers
41 views
Which is the meaning of “living in chop”?
I am reading a science-fiction short story and I met this sentence that I can't understand.
"living in chop”
You can read the the whole sentence in the attached file.
What does it means?
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0answers
31 views
Meaning of the slang word “yep” [closed]
When I use the word yep my girlfriend tells me it means no. She might be seeing just the dismissive part of the question.
What I've found just now is that it means yes to the question and no that you ...
-1
votes
0answers
32 views
'what would make you think that' vs 'what make you think that' [migrated]
What would make you think that?
What make you think that?
What meaning does would add? I don't know well how to use "would".
I understand a little when it's used as a past principle of will,
but ...
0
votes
2answers
36 views
Confusing use of 'up to'
You can cancel the tickets up to thirty minutes before the scheduled departure of the train.
Is the use of 'up to'semantically correct? Or, is 'at least' more appropriate to replace 'up to'?
Should ...
-1
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0answers
19 views
what does it mean?All presents and acouted for [closed]
I saw that in first Episode of The Pin and Jake's adverture Seoson 1..what does it mean?
1
vote
1answer
44 views
As a noun, does the word 'laic' operate as a synonym for the word 'layperson'? [duplicate]
Based off of my Internet searches, it is not quite clear to me in what way this word operates.
Collins Dictionary, according to the page at which I looked when I looked up the word 'laic', said that ...
1
vote
2answers
64 views
“To the extent of” in this context
Often it is suggested that the differences amount only to personal
preference. However, not all of the descriptions are equally able to
describe all observations of the real world. To the extent ...
1
vote
1answer
80 views
“Will you be at home tomorrow?” and “Are you going to be at home tomorrow?”. What is the difference? [duplicate]
Can't undrestand what is the real difference between "Will you be at home tomorrow?" and "Are you going to be at home tomorrow?". Both variants are grammatically correct. Maybe it is some meaning ...
0
votes
0answers
41 views
'In tone' meaning [migrated]
I've read a text aboat early friendship effect on relationship with siblings. This text is in the book 'Vocabulary for IELTS'.
In a sentence it says:
And children who as preschoolers were able to ...
0
votes
2answers
111 views
What is the meaning of “We have outfoxed the fox, which makes us very bloody foxy.” in the TV series Misfits?
In the episode 5 of season 1 of the British television series Misfits the character Nathan Young says:
We have outfoxed the fox, which makes us very bloody foxy.
Transcript.
What does it mean in ...
9
votes
2answers
2k views
What does “Manistan” mean?
The word is in Chapter two of Rebecca Solnit's Men Explain Things to Me (have to read this for a class).
It seems to be a new word that was coined by Hamida Ghafour, but I can't find anything about ...
0
votes
0answers
36 views
Should we avoid using the word Endeavor when unlikelihood of success is implied?
When I was investigating the difference between the verbs Endeavor and Strive, I read a description which sounded quite ambiguous to me (possibly because I’m not a native English speaker). The exact ...
0
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0answers
25 views
I thought it was the other way around vs I would've thought it was the other way around [migrated]
"I'm the chick and Chandler's the duck."
"I would've thought it was the other way around."
These sentences are from the television show Friends.
I think instead of the second sentence, using I ...
0
votes
1answer
45 views
conferring - to confer - meaning
I'm from Brazil and here the word confer (conferir) has the same meaning as check.
But in the dictionaries online I couldn't find this meaning in its definition:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/...
0
votes
2answers
61 views
He laughs best who laughs last
He laughs best who laughs last.
Can anyone tell me what the above sentence means?
From the structure of the sentence, the clause 'who laughs last' is the object of the verb 'laugh' and 'best' is ...
0
votes
0answers
40 views
What does “a lesser human being” mean?
I want to understand what the speaker meant in this sentence.
You’re a lesser human being.
Actually I've checked with this site but I don't really understand that meant.
Could anyone give me a ...
0
votes
0answers
18 views
'I thought i have known you.' and 'I thought i had known you' [migrated]
Which sentence is grammatically correct and what does the sentence mean? I'm a bit confused about the sentence can be mixed with present and past tense or not?
1
vote
2answers
54 views
The meaning of “if you can't make it anymore”
When I was reading Twitter, I found the sentence using “can't make it anymore”.
I could get it out what the sentence means but I couldn't get any result in google about the meaning of “can't make it ...
3
votes
3answers
45k views
What is a “pony soldier”?
In New Hampshire yesterday, presidential candidate Biden called a voter a "lying, dog-faced pony soldier".
In this context, what is meant by a "pony soldier"?
5
votes
5answers
965 views
In “experience teaching”, is “experience” a noun adjunct?
In an MIT textbook from 2007 the author, Robert G. Gallager, writes in the preface:
My original purpose was to write an undergraduate text on digital communication,
but experience teaching this ...
0
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0answers
37 views
Net as an abbreviation for network?
I'm wondering if net is a suitable abbreviation for network. On the one hand, it sounds fine for me (maybe because I'm used to this terminology from the internet or similar). Apart from that, common ...
0
votes
1answer
57 views
What does “extended” mean? [closed]
What does "extended" mean below? Extended to whom or what? Is this meaning of "extended" esoteric? At Politics SE, Jontia commented
But in this context extended means granted. The UK does not have ...
0
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0answers
22 views
Nobody at the table said so[meaning here] [migrated]
I read this passage in I heard you paint houses:
The night before my testimonial dinner, Russ and I had a sit-down with Jimmy. We sat at a table at Broadway Eddie's, and Russell Bufalino told Jimmy ...
-1
votes
2answers
52 views
Can the word “deepen” be replaced by another word in the article title? [closed]
When glimpsing the title "Is Russia eyeing Belarus takeover? Integration talks deepen", I think the word "deepen" is ambiguous and guess it means "worsen". Perhaps the reporter uses a confusing word ...
0
votes
3answers
101 views
What does “maintain a definition” mean in this passage please?
The Census Bureau, the data angency charged with creating statistics on household incomes and their distribution, does not maintain an official definition of middle class status. This is because there ...
-1
votes
1answer
62 views
What does “Chap” when it describes a person? [closed]
Hello I am a student and I was wondering what "chap" means in this particular form.
Because you ‘re not the kind of father a chap could go when he is in trouble
These words are from the play "...
0
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0answers
35 views
What does “ a humorist of no small parts” mean in this sentence please?
It was in this letter that he mentions how More, himself a humorist of no small parts, had given him the original idea for his "Praise of Folly" and very likely it was the good-natured horse-play of ...
7
votes
3answers
1k views
Need help to explain “set a-rattling the sabers of”
Austin had distanced himself and his colonists from American filibusters in dramatic and determined fashion, but the sad escapade set a-rattling
the sabers of many a newspaper editor in the United ...
1
vote
2answers
103 views
Show somebody to something
The verb "show" doesn't need any preposition. We show somebody something. So what does this structure mean:
Show somebody to something
For example:
They show me to a cent.
What I feel is it is ...
0
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0answers
50 views
“Studied at” vs. “Went to”
What is the difference between the two.
I realize "went to" might be a bit less formal but both are correct, aren't they?
For context, while in class I said to the teacher "I went to (name of school) ...
1
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0answers
48 views
Using colon in display of numerical time DURATION
What was Jeff's time?
+--------+----------------------+
| Person | Time taken (minutes) |
+--------+----------------------+
| Jeff | 0:06 |
| John | 0:07 |
| Peter ...
1
vote
0answers
40 views
What’s the difference between “Happy with something” and “satisfied with something”?
I wonder if there is a difference between “happy with” and “satisfied with”. Are they exactly same?
For example, given sentence: Are you happy with my choice?
But I think it is also okay to say “Are ...
