Questions tagged [meaning-in-context]
This tag is for questions about the meaning of a longer passage of English. A SPECIFIC CONCERN must be emphasized.
5,000
questions
-1
votes
0
answers
14
views
'Structural Integrity Assessment' vs 'Structural Integrity Evaluation' [closed]
What are differences between the meaning of "structural integrity assessment" and "structural integrity evaluation"?
- 1
0
votes
0
answers
12
views
happens next vs would happen [closed]
The dog went barking at them
What is the difference between What happens next? and What would happen now? to complete the above sentence
- 99
3
votes
1
answer
172
views
Is "samuraily" correct?
Pahlavāni, knighthood, and samuraily may be different in forms of
cultural output, but all three are inherently from the same
historical essence.
Pahlavāni (پهلوانی) is a Persian word. In its ...
- 279
7
votes
5
answers
7k
views
What do 'flat-chested' and 'unromantic' mean when speaking of a house?
I am quoting from the Return of Sherlock Holmes, The Six Napoleons, by Arthur Conan Doyle:
In half an hour we had reached Pitt Street, a quiet little backwater just beside one of the briskest ...
- 725
0
votes
1
answer
83
views
What is the meaning of "to have" in old cartoons?
In old cartoons, particularly "Little Red Riding Rabbit" of Looney Tunes, characters say "to have" with a meaning that seems different to the modern sense. For example, in the said ...
- 109
1
vote
1
answer
50
views
Is "turn comments" or "turning comments" an idiomatic way of responding to feedback?
I have a coworker who consistently says they are "turning comments" to mean "responding to feedback." In particular, it comes up in code review. Someone makes a comment, and the ...
- 13
-1
votes
0
answers
37
views
to drive - who is the driver? [migrated]
In a sentence:
"I have to drive to the shop with my parents to buy a new phone"
Does the writer imply that they are driving the car or a parent might be the driver too?
- 11
0
votes
0
answers
16
views
"sentence pattern with preceding adjective" [migrated]
Lately, I came upon a sentence in a story I read, which caught my attention.
FEARFUL, THE HUNTER FLED THROUGH JUNGLE
It is understandable for me, if the sentence is modified as follows:
BEING ...
- 107
0
votes
1
answer
40
views
What is "prescriptive infirmity"? [closed]
Woman’s prescriptive infirmity had stalked into the sunlight, which had clothed it in the freshness of an originality.
What does woman's prescriptive infirmity mean in the above passage from Thomas ...
- 537
0
votes
1
answer
56
views
What does 'picket fence' mean here? [closed]
Today I was listening to a song from Fall Out boy called Miss missing you.
At one point in the song, they sing the line: "Baby you were my picket fence".
I know what a picket fence is, but I ...
2
votes
1
answer
49
views
What's the meaning of "jutul" ? Is it somehow related to "jotun" or giant? [closed]
When I saw the series Ragnarok, I saw that the word "Jutul" was used as the name for a fake family lineage which was actually "jotuns".
But intuitively, just picking the word "...
- 479
-1
votes
2
answers
8k
views
What does saying "without the service" mean when paying the bill at a restaurant?
I just heard an actor in a movie say "without the service" when paying the bill at a restaurant. (The movie was The Strays, from 2023 - navigate to 08:19 mins from start).
I assume it's ...
- 479
4
votes
4
answers
346
views
What is the meaning of kindled and sensitized in the following paragraph?
My native lanugage is Hindi, and I am not versed in English. I am reading a book and I came across the following paragraph:
Maybe most serious of all is when the fight-or-flight response becomes
“...
-1
votes
1
answer
33
views
Does anyone know what the word "Some" means here? [closed]
Just to context:
I've playing a gang context game and after a funeral the rival gang drives by shooting and then the characters that were at the funeral have the car blown up and then they have to run ...
- 127
-1
votes
2
answers
39
views
Little Dorrit Book the second chapter 2
A stiff commissariat officer of sixty, famous as a martinet, had then
become enamoured of the gravity with which she drove the proprieties four-in-hand through the cathedral town society, and had ...
- 537
0
votes
1
answer
42
views
Does “at the borders of” mean “out of” in this text?
Does “at the borders of” means “out of” in this text? If not, what is its precise meaning?
In such ways, theology became as yet marginalised, or even banned from
the university as no longer deserving ...
- 3,011
2
votes
1
answer
44
views
My hound "taking charge of my gun"
In Edgar Allan Poe's short story Landor's Cottage, published in 1849, the narrator, having started to feel lost during a "pedestrian tour" and anticipating having to spend the night outside, ...
- 2,419
-1
votes
1
answer
162
views
What does 'cosmic unfairness' mean? [closed]
What is the meaning of 'cosmic unfairness' in the passage below?
The existential torment and cosmic unfairness of being interested in someone romantically who isn't romantically interested in you.
I ...
- 197
9
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Meaning of “a dizzard”
I’m working on translation of an American novel, dating back to the late 19th - early 20th centuries, and the main character came from a local little Vermont town.
The author describes him as “old ...
- 91
0
votes
2
answers
52
views
Do you "follow" a process, or "use" a process? [closed]
I am writing instructions for a global company that is implementing a new management process. Should I tell employees to "use" the new process? Or is it correct to say "follow" the ...
- 1
1
vote
2
answers
74
views
What does “fortune” mean in “seek one’s fortune”?
“Fortune” has 2 meanings (per Google):
luck or chance, as in the wheel of fortune
a large amount of money
So what does the expression “seek one’s fortune” mean?
Neither of the above make sense in ...
- 161
0
votes
0
answers
25
views
What's the meaning of “a good downfall”?
I would like to know the meaning of “a good downfall” Is it a good, successful downfall/happy end or a properly deserved downfall-justice? So we like the stories about the King Shit who deserves a ...
- 1
0
votes
1
answer
30
views
What is the meaning of “things will stay the course” and “That progress is a forward”?
Please, what does “things will stay the course” and “That progress is a forward” mean in this context?
The source: Botticelli in the Fire, page 98;
Nuh Uh, take it from me-
It is not as easy to tell ...
- 1
2
votes
1
answer
101
views
What is the function of "the world over"
A few weeks before I had been an unknown school-teacher in Dayton, a little town in the mountains of Tennessee. Now I was involved in a trial reported the world over. (The Trial That Rocked the World ...
- 45
0
votes
1
answer
66
views
What is the meaning of the phrase "don't let the garden bugs bite"?
I've watching a TV show called My Wife and Kids and there's a scene in which Michael Kyle says
I'm gonna get some sleep. Night-night. Don't let the garden bugs bite.
I've searched Google for "...
- 35
-2
votes
1
answer
54
views
What does decimate mean here?
This is caption of a post from The New York Times:
Tens of thousands of inmates have joined a mercenary group fighting with the Kremlin’s decimated forces in Ukraine. Some of them are returning to ...
- 101
3
votes
1
answer
96
views
What does "but" mean in this context?
This context comes from the movie Gangs Of New York by Martin Scorese.
Take him for a boat ride, John. Who knows, but he might save your life again.
(The person speaking knows that John's life was ...
- 281
13
votes
5
answers
2k
views
What does "invalidate" mean in "this did not include these invalidated home"?
This context comes from the book "Black Rednecks And White Liberals"
The heavy drain, physical and mental, in keeping squadrons on the East African coast was reflected in the loss of 282 ...
- 281
1
vote
4
answers
99
views
What does "sweep on" mean in this context?
This context comes from the book "Black Rednecks And White Liberals" by Thomas Sowell.
Eventually, such strong feeling were aroused among the British public that anti-slavery petitions with ...
- 281
1
vote
1
answer
131
views
does anyone know what's the meaning of "busta straight busta"? [duplicate]
I've playing a game called gta san andreas and in the second mission the character of the game says this sentence
busta straight busta
according to the urban dictionary:
A busta is somebody who ...
- 35
-2
votes
1
answer
59
views
What does "some" refer to in the context? [closed]
In this article from The Economist it says:
As Britons took to holidaying in the actual Mediterranean, some began to decline; austerity and covid-19 finished them off.
The short line " some ...
- 301
1
vote
2
answers
138
views
What does ‘capture by employees’ mean in 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑬𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒕 in the context of being a ‘vice’ of speculative activity in investment banking?
What is ‘capture by employees’?
In this past week’s January 26th issue of The Economist, the phrase capture by employees appears in a leading article* titled “The Humbling of Goldman Sachs” in this ...
- 301
0
votes
3
answers
51
views
Meaning of a certain passage from Charles Dickens Little dorrit Chapter 35 [closed]
Good gracious, Arthur—Doyce and Clennam!’ cried that lady, ‘who would have ever thought of seeing such a sight as this and pray excuse a wrapper for upon my word I really never and a faded check too ...
- 537
-1
votes
2
answers
40
views
What is the meaning of this sentence about analytic papers? [closed]
The authors, Yale professors Richard Nelson and Sidney Winter, were best known for a series of intensely analytic papers exploring Schumpeterian theory that even most PhD candidates didn't pretend to ...
5
votes
4
answers
453
views
Meaning of words "bake" and "painting" in context of cars
A sticker near the door inside a car said:
Exposing a battery to intense heat may cause deterioration. Do not
bake over 158F/30min or 176F/20 min in painting.
I understand the first sentence, ...
- 51
1
vote
1
answer
34
views
Contextual meaning of 'sought to legitimize the city's social strivings by evoking a history the city did not truly posses' [closed]
This sentence below was a GRE question and the two italics and bold words are the actual answers to the text completion. Still, I do not understand what the sentence is trying to say. My understanding ...
-1
votes
1
answer
29
views
Meaning of 'it does not deny ambiguity', 'truth may bear all lights', 'of divine ends'? [closed]
From the passage:
Great comic art is never otherworldly, it does not seek to mystify us, and it does not deny ambiguity by branding as evil whatever differs from good. Great comic artists assume that ...
4
votes
2
answers
106
views
Figurative meaning of the (verbal) phrase "(play at/run) kittly-benders"?
A kittly-bender is « an area of yielding or broken ice on a body of water; also fig; hence v phrr run kittly-benders, play at ~ to run or skate over such ice as a sport » (DARE):
1871 Hale How to Do ...
-2
votes
1
answer
50
views
Exclamation point at greeting [closed]
Question:
What is the context of the structure "Hi name!" ?
Some time ago, I saw this, and after some research, I found out that this is grammatically valid Exclamation point in a greeting.
...
- 1
0
votes
0
answers
23
views
Is there an adjective for a word that contains multiple connotations as implied by its contextual usage? [duplicate]
I recognized in the process of writing this clause,
Resulting in the discretion of death as we know it
That the “discretion of death” could encompass a range of semantic vectors depending on how one ...
- 1
0
votes
2
answers
61
views
What do ‘some boastful bass’ and ‘had got him hard and fast’ mean in Dickens?
This passage is from chapter 32 of Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens, with the phrases I’m curious about set in bold:
Occasionally, a vocal strain more sonorous than the generality informed the ...
- 537
3
votes
1
answer
502
views
What does coat of no cut and no time mean?
This reference to the coat of no cut and no time, the unfortunate gentleman gasped forth, in a scarcely audible voice, and with his clenched pocket-handkerchief raised in the air.
What does "...
- 537
2
votes
2
answers
76
views
Howked up meaning
I'm reading a book which has the following quote
I have notions of reading the whole of Corpus Juris and Pandects in
no time at all; but these are getting dim as the Cambridge scheme
has been howked ...
- 246
-1
votes
3
answers
89
views
Can the possessive “my” be dropped before father/mother? [closed]
Imagine you are reading and/or watching some hoity-toity broad speak from the ye olde era. Would it be wrong for them to say:
“Father would never allow for it!”
Or:
“What plagues mother now?”
In ...
- 9
0
votes
2
answers
84
views
How to understand, "had things gone" and "had we had gotten" in a given sentence?
In this transcribed radio interview, I saw two sentences as follows:
He said had things gone as forecasted a few days ago, it could have been much worse.
You know, had we had gotten that 3 to 6 ...
- 1
-2
votes
1
answer
65
views
What does "work in feet and inches" mean?
The sentence is
I still work in feet and inches and have a confirmed allergy to all things computerised.
Link: https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/6022787.really-fit-long-life/
Does "...
- 17
0
votes
2
answers
49
views
What does the verb "appeal" mean in "John appealed to Mary to be brave."? [closed]
The verb appeal has two quite distinct definitions and it seems that both could fit in my sentence.
1 : to arouse a sympathetic response an idea that appeals to him
2 : to make an earnest request
...
- 163
1
vote
2
answers
73
views
Can abstract concepts have different meanings?
I was reading a blog about what abstract ideas are. In one part of the blog, it mentions:
Another way to think of abstract thinking is to look at broad concepts that may have different meanings to ...
- 11
1
vote
2
answers
123
views
Meaning of this sentence from Ulysses by Joyce
I am not a native speaker and I fail to understand the meaning of the word "monks" (and even whether it is a noun or a verb) in the following quote, from the third chapter of Proteus:
The ...
- 19
0
votes
3
answers
75
views
To someone's consternation meaning
To his consternation, when he got to the airport he found he'd forgotten his passport.
(Source: Consternation Meaning: Cambridge Dictionary)
Much to her parents' consternation, she had decided to ...