Questions tagged [meaning]
This tag is for questions related to definitions and nuances of meaning of a word or phrase.
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When did “word” become a synonym of “promise” for the first time?
We know that the word word can sometimes be a synonym for promise, as in:
You have my word.
to mean:
You have my promise.
And I haven’t seen any other sentence structures that word is used to mean ...
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What is the origin and meaning of the female given name "Zorado"?
As far as I can tell this name crops up mid 1800s, and (informal analysis) looks like it peaks circa 1890-1915. In the present day I'd say it is extremely rare, but I can find living Zorado women and ...
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What's the meaning here of "until I would have frailed him"?
Jewel, the one she labored so to bear and coddled and petted so and him flinging into tantrums or sulking spells, inventing devilment to devil her until I would have frailed him time and time.
— As I ...
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What does this Peter Sellers sentence mean?
What does the sentence mean which Peter Sellers is here quoting from his grandad?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mbUdsQfSq0&t=294s
(I refer to the sentence he says immediately after you start ...
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What is the meaning of 'to summon the future'?
There is a quote from STAR TREK
Mirror Spock: One man cannot summon the future.
Capt. James T. Kirk: But one man can change the present.
What is the meaning of summon here?
predict or shape or maybe ...
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1
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Meaning of "bring them away" in Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure" (Act2, scene1)?
In act II, scene 1, of Measure for Measure, Elbow says:
Elbow. Come, bring them away: if these be good people in a Common-weale, that doe nothing but vse their abuses in common houses, I know no law :...
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maintain daily practices or daily encounters, or both
Yet, lasting peace rests on a complex and fragile web of daily
practices embedded in local settings and daily encounters that
individuals and communities maintain. People believe that these
practices ...
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What does "which" refer to in the context?
What does "which" refer to in the following sentence?
The final jurisdiction over what an intellectual is resides in culture, which becomes almost coterminous with a singular public opinion....
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The meaning of "at all"
In the following paragraph, does the author mean Linux distributions finally adopted ZFS or, they are reluctant/refuse to adopt ZFS?
Additionally, after a bit of an hiatus it’s once again possible to ...
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Meaning of "she has hern" in Faulkner's 'As I Lay Dying' [duplicate]
I am reading "As I Lay Dying" and have usually been able to look up the meaning behind the choice of words that Faulkner uses. However, I am unable to find a satisfactory definition of the ...
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Origin of the phrase "crazy as a coon"—is it racist?
Encountered most recently in the Procol Harum song "Lime Street." Does the phrase refer to a raccoon, or is the word here used in the sense of the slur?
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Usage of the words "but" and "without" in a particular author's context [duplicate]
It's a sentence from "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" after Mark Twain: "I never seen anybody but lied one time or another, without it was Aunt Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary&...
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What do you call one that believes God will always grant him/her his wishes? Instead trusting that God will ultimately decide according to His will [closed]
I am a chaplain working in palliative services. I have to document my visits and I am always searching for the right vocabulary that can accurately describe each patient's particular beliefs and ...
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Why does Anglican refer to the religious sect rather than any other aspects of “Englishness”?
It seems intuitively to mean “roughly English in style or form” in the sense of how Georgian or Edwardian means “evocative of the style prevalent in the era of [those respective monarchs]”.
Why does ...
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Does jewel sometimes have a negative meaning? [closed]
In the lyrics of song Sorry by Halsey there's this line:
I've missed your calls for months it seems
Don't realise how mean I can be
'Cause I can sometimes treat the people
that I love like jewelry
...
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What's the difference between "period" and "time" ? Is it more correct to say it rained at the right time, or the rain happened during the right pd.? [closed]
What's the difference between "period" and "time"? Is it more correct to say "it rained at the right time" or "the rain happened during the right period"?
...
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Does "until now" always imply that the action is finished?
Neither my wife nor I have English as our mother tongue, but we use English to communicate to each other, which sometimes causes confusion.
My wife often uses the expression "until now" to ...
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Understanding phrasal verbs [closed]
My background: When I was 14 ,I got a C2 level degree in American English. Now I am 22 and I have forgotten so much vocabulary I can't have a conversation in English anymore. I have restarted studying ...
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What is a 'filter box'? [closed]
What is a 'filter box', and why they are installed near pools?
I came across this word in a story by David Malouf, Towards Midnight. But unfortunately, I couldn't find a definition in any dictionary.
...
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Should the word "cousin" (without specifying which) be used to denote first cousins only or any "cousin"?
tl;dr If I'd introduce you to someone with "Say hi to my cousin Harry.", would you be surprised to later learn that it's my seventh second cousin twice removed because I used the word cousin ...
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Difference in logical inevitability between therefore/thus/hence
I am trying to figure out the difference in the degrees of logical inevitability that the words therefore, thus, and hence express, when used in academic scientific writing.
Glenn Paquette explains in ...
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Etymology and meaning of the word "stretch" in sentences like "We should eat before the final stretch"
What is the origin of stretch as it is used in the following sentence?
We should eat before the final stretch.
In this context, final stretch is used to mean 'last segment', or 'the effort needed ...
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Meaning of "Bore many gentlemen" in Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure"? [closed]
In act I, scene 5, of Measure for Measure, Lucio says:
Lucio. This is the point.
The Duke is very strangely gone from hence;
Bore many gentlemen (my selfe being one)
In hand, and hope of action: but ...
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"Keep it unchanged" vs. "Keep it constant" vs. "Keep it unchanging"
Using Google search, I found that the phrase "keep it unchanged" is very common while "keep it unchanging" is very uncommon and "keep it constant" is not so common. ...
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What disrespectful connotations does "redline" have?
I was reading the article "Respectful code" on the JavaScript engine V8's website and found it surprising that the term "redline" is an example of terminology to be avoided. Why is ...
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'No one she recognized'. A slightly strange sentence [duplicate]
Good afternoon!
Can you please tell me the meaning of the phrase:
"No one she recognized"
The context is as follows: a woman is watching from afar a stranger who is swimming in her pool. ...
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What is the meaning of "plus" in "150,000 plus"? [duplicate]
For example:
Now the 150,000 plus small coffee shops here may need to concoct something else strong to hold their ground.
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Does "assess the use of two strategies by this business as an effective strategy" mean that both strategies have to be effective, or is it ambiguous?
I am currently discussing with someone whether this question means one or two things.
The question is as follows:
With reference to a business you have studied, assess the use of two strategies by ...
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What does "Sandbagging" (or sometimes sandboxing) mean as an expression in startup or sales and where is it coming from?
I have heard one meaning of it in the context of a personal goal is to set a too-easy goal (i.e., that you know you can easily achieve). I also heard it is coming from golf. Can someone shed more ...
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What's the meaning of noun + to + verb? [duplicate]
I can't understand, what does the following sentence mean and other similar sentences: (for example)
France to ban street scooters in Paris.
What does it mean, if we use "to" after the ...
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I am looking for the action verb in "…he having more plenteous ideas of the same order…"
I am reading Middlemarch by George Eliot. I encountered this long sentence and only understood the gist of it. I can't figure out the grammar style and I am looking for the verb of the subject "...
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What is the 'rank' in 'rank insubordination'?
The phrase "rank insubordination" is used at times (e.g. Washington Post, Salon.com, and University of East Anglia) to describe disregarding a superior's orders.
But what exactly is the rank ...
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Is this a cleft sentence?
Is this a cleft sentence or a "preparatory it"?
It was my tablet which I didn't realize had fallen off the bed and on the floor.
Is it correct?
I think it should leave out the structure &...
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Does a suffix need to be an affix?
I understand that according to Collins Dictionary, a suffix is an affix that follows the stem to which it is attached, as for example -s and -ness in dogs and softness. It has, however, a second ...
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What are the long metal things in stores that hold products that hang from them?
What are the long metal things in stores like Walgreens that hold things like gummy bears or nuts or hair clips? The metal things are straight and then at the end they curve up, and they are connected ...
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Meaning of "But the historical pattern of warfare remains inconclusive, frustrating, endlessly cyclical." [closed]
Here is a piece of text:
But the historical pattern of warfare remains inconclusive, frustrating, endlessly cyclical. States persist in warfare because the mechanics of the balance of power rarely ...
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Apparently patent redundancy in a "because" construction [duplicate]
Sentences such as the following can be found (language log).
The reason he left is because he was not respected. (1)
They can be transformed as follows.
He left [for the reason that/because] he was ...
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"establishment" vs. "facility" vs. "institution" [closed]
What are the differences and similarities among those three words? I looked them up in the dictionary and saw that their definitions are barely wide.
Could someone make it more specific? Thank you.
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What does "companion" mean in a book's title?
In the title of book The Cambridge Companion to Philosophical Methodology, does "companion" mean this books is a complement to another book?
Bing's dictionary says:
Companion
...
one of a ...
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What exactly is the meaning of the word "Feddy" here?
I've been playing a game and after completing a mission, one character ask to another the following:
How you doing on the feddy?
From the context, I assume that it's somehow related to money, but I'...
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Is it normal for women, or American women to use the word c*nt? Especially on public streams? [closed]
There is a particular Twitch streamer from a video game I played, MermaidonTap. If you subscribed and follow her, not all but most of her public streams, she uses "fuck" and a lot of the ...
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British school terminology "given yards"
In a recent Tom Scott video, an older gentleman who is currently serving as the town crier of Honiton recounts his childhood involvement in the "hot penny festival".
We used to wear gloves, ...
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Is there a term for two words together that would be an oxymoron, but aren't due to context or usage? [duplicate]
Like 'pretty ugly'. The most used meaning of 'pretty' is contradictory to 'ugly', and it could feasibly be used to mean something like (if it were an oxymoron), 'someone who may be considered ugly, ...
user485424
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What is the meaning of “PSP”? [closed]
This Daily Mail article (Was French patrol boat at fault for Channel migrant drownings?) refers to both PSP Pluvier and PSP Cormoran.
What does that term mean?
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Does "within 10 years from 12-Aug-2023" refer to before or after that date? [duplicate]
Does "within 10 years from 12-Aug-2023" mean 10 year interval before 12-Aug-23 or otherwise after that date?
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Orthodontry as a word
When you ask search engines or dictionaries, they don't seem to recognise the word 'orthodontry' and all point to 'orthodontics' and 'orthodontia'.
I suspect 'orthodontry' is a mash-up of either of ...
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Video Magazine or Magazine Video
Although the titular term needs no more explanation, as in the Wikipedia, Video magazines are a series of online videos that follow the print magazine format in which the reader/viewer consumes an ...
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Do you square root first or multiply first in this sentence? Thanks! [closed]
It is not a math question, because the text I have some questions about is like this:
The number is not less than the round down of square root of the total
quantity*1.5.
I have searched by Google ...
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Meaning and structure of "The vision to do today what is needed for tomorrow." [closed]
I would like to know the structure of the sentence and also meaning.
Is the vision subject? What in the sentence is what?
The vision to do today what is needed for tomorrow.
Can I understand.. like ...
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Is "foot to" an established, idiomatic phrase?
During my recent research I came across a document containing this line"
Hopefully all of my entries foot to the 4 attachments a lot better than the version I sent you on Friday. (original pdf ...
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