Questions tagged [meaning]
This tag is for questions related to definitions and nuances of meaning of a word or phrase.
16,887
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Can "and" be used between cumulative adjectives? Can the order be reversed? [closed]
I’m a little confused on cumulative adjectives. Everywhere I look, it says that you cannot put “and” between cumulative adjectives and the order cannot be reversed.
To me, it seems like you can put &...
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The meaning of " a class of disjoint sets, denoted hom(A,B), ..." [closed]
I'm studying a math book. There is a definition as seen below.
A category is a class C of objects (denoted a,b,c ...) together with
(i) a class of disjoint sets, denoted hom(a,b), one for each pair ...
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Are the words Bank (money) and Bank (river) related? [closed]
In one of our class discussions about the origins of the word Bank (Money), a guy guessed that maybe it comes from the Bank (the land alongside a river) since the sand gets deposited there, as an ...
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"and has as one of its Healthy People 2020 goals to “create social and physical environments that promote good health for all.”"
I would like to ask you about the bold-faced part in the following sentence:
(1) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines social determinants of health as “conditions in the places ...
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Definition and usage of "Non-reciprocal"
What is the precise meaning of "non-reciprocal?" Two definitions of "reciprocal" taken from the Merriam-Webster dictionary are:
shared, felt, or shown by both sides
serving to ...
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What is the sentence structure for this verse in John Keats' "The day is gone, and all its sweets are gone!"?
He writes:
When the dusk holiday—or holinight [—][some versions put another em dash here]
Of fragrant-curtain’d love begins to weave
The woof of darkness thick, for hid delight,
Should I read a ...
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Is objectual a word?
Is objectual a word? I could not find it in Merriam Webster.
I am trying to use it in a sentence like this:
A phrase signifies the objectual nature of thing in question.
Would I be stretching the ...
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What might the term "B-I-T-sweetie" mean in the context of Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes's play "The Mule-Bone"?
I am currently reading through Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes's 1931 play, The Mule-Bone, and I am rather puzzled by the term "B-I-T-sweetie," which shows up in this exchange in Act ...
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What on God's green earth are "pulley shoes"?
I keep running into sources talking about pulley-shoes, pulley-toe shoes, pulley-toes, &c. even though they don't always play well with Google OCR and are basically invisible to vanilla searches.
...
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Is there a word like "likeness" referring to a person's appearance, but their voice instead?
AI is topical at the moment, with some actors' likenesses being used as training data for some purpose or another. "Likeness", however, has the connotation of being about appearances, i.e. ...
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What is the difference between a "tympanum" and a "pediment"?
"Tympanum" and "pediment" have definitions that seem to be very close, but I have yet to see them both used to refer to the same object in an actual text.
Pediment is defined as:
...
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what we call the network with which we make phone calls?
It is always confusing to me what to call the network with which we make phone calls.
If mobile network regards to accessing internet with cellular data, then what network it is called to make phone ...
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What's the meaning of "tidy limbs" as a descriptor? [closed]
I am currently reading The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women. Near the start of chapter six it describes an individual as tidy limbed, what is the meaning of this phase?
...
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‘We curled through the library’?
Is there a word similar in sound to 'curl' or 'furl' or a connotation of either that applies in a sentence like “we curled through the entire library” to imply searching or something of the like?
I ...
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Use/precise meaning of th e word "ambition" [closed]
I recently received a newsletter from an entity I previously thought to be credible which is embarking on a brand/campaign around the concept of ambition which makes me wonder if my understanding of ...
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Meaning of ‘livid’
How the word livid came (according to Merriam-Webster) to have three different meanings (in addition to the default, 'furious', one)? As I see, it could mean
blue-and-black
pallid
reddish.
I mean, I ...
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Who is being fed in "Did hourly feed him by" from Walden, or, Life in the Woods? [duplicate]
There was a shepherd that did live,
And held his thoughts as high
As were the mounts whereon his flocks
Did hourly feed him by
From Walden, or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau
I'm confused ...
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Is it a generalization?
According to Cambridge Dictionary the verb abhor carries a moral connotation (at least), indicating a strong feeling of detesting something on moral grounds:
abhor: to hate a way of behaving or ...
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Are the words "snarky" and "smarmy" a form of visual onamatopoeia? [duplicate]
I found these two common English words (snarky and smarmy) that seem like forms of a literary device. However, unlike onamatopoeia, the comparison is not made with sound, but rather it is more from ...
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A word that means "given to frequent censorship"?
I always assumed that the word censorious meant someone or something that is given to censorship. Like if you say that a community, an organization, or a person is overly-censorious, that means they ...
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Verb usage "-s"
In a Euronews headline I saw the following:
Frontex: What would happen if the EU border agency quit Greece?.
Shouldn't it be "quits Greece"? As far as I understood EU border agency is ...
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What is "troll food", and what is the etymology of this phrase? [closed]
In a comment I found online you can see,
I assume this answer is sarcasm, because you are not feeding the trolls, are you
However, I don't understand this comment. Clearly trolls are bad and online, ...
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Meaning of 'Thou shalt be pinched As thick as honeycomb, […].' in The Tempest
The Tempest, Act I, scene 2, lines 326-331:
For this, be sure, tonight thou shalt have cramps,
Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up. Urchins
Shall forth at vast of night that they may work
All ...
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Differences in meaning and formality of "when/if + verb(ing)" and "when/if + one + verb(s)"
I searched but couldn't find an answer because I don't know the relevant grammatical terms, unfortunately. Sorry if it has already been answered.
I am wondering about the difference between the two ...
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"The boil must be lanced if it is to heal"? [closed]
In Final Fantasy 16 (FFXVI), which has a medieval-ish setting, C says that "The boil must be lanced if it is to heal". I'm...not sure I understand the phrase.
For context, C is in a ...
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What is the definition of the word “spacell” from the novel Roadside Picnic?
I’m reading Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky and translated by Olena Bormashenko.
In this book the word “spacell” is used and I cannot find a definition.
Heavy clouds were hanging over ...
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Should I place a comma before “and” after listing 2 items [duplicate]
Like for example, “ Can I get a Glazed donut, and a cake pop “ or “ Do you guys have French fries, chicken nuggets, and burgers?
I keep getting confused because when I put “and” it feels like I don’t ...
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Meaning, origin, and usage of 'mitch' to mean lucky/unlikely
Wuthering Heights' Joseph is, in my opinion, one of the more annoying characters in the book, because of a) his temperament, and b) the opaque transcriptions of his thick Yorkshire accent and ...
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What does this string ('[they] have stood Miss Shepherd in the stocks for turning in her toes') in David Copperfield mean?
What does the bolded string (in David Copperfield) mean?
Why do I secretly give Miss Shepherd twelve Brazil nuts for a present, I wonder? They are not expressive of affection, they are difficult to ...
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What is meant by "to take the offence" in Act I, scene 1 of "Two Noble Kinsmen"?
In act I, scene 1, of The Two Noble Kinsmen, the first queen says:
1. Queen. We are 3. Queenes, whose Soveraignes fel before
The wrath of cruell Creon; who endured
The Beakes of Ravens, Tallents of ...
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What does 'lay'd-on' mean in Camillo's speech (scene 3, act 5 of "The Winter's Tale")?
In act V, scene 3, of The Winter's Tale, Hermione says:
Cam. My Lord, your Sorrow was too sore lay'd-on,
Which sixteene Winters cannot blow away,
So many Summers dry: scarce any Ioy
Did euer so long ...
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Can Tumbleweed be used to describe a tall, gangly, and clumsy person? [closed]
My friends and family call me Tumbleweed because I'm tall and clumsy, but sometimes I wander if there's more to it when my "friends" call me Tumbleweed. I was wandering if Tumbleweed can be ...
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What is meant by "the crotchet of the law" in chapter VIII of Milton's "The Doctrine & Discipline of Divorce"?
In book one, chapter VIII, of The Doctrine & Discipline of Divorce, it is written:
Upon these principles I answer, that a right beleever ought to divorce an idolatrous heretick unlesse upon ...
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Where does the term ‘Messers’ come from in reference to a group of people? [closed]
I’ve heard this term used in films and by British politicians
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What does 'treasure is tickle' mean in Philotimus?
In Philotimus (1583), the following passage appears on page 38:
Among all forts of conceyted fellowes, I reuerence the Esseni∣ans, as most cōtinent in pleasures, & contented wt nifles, for they ...
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What do 'fain' and 'unfained' mean in this paragraph from Milton's "The Doctrine & Discipline of Divorce"?
In book one, chapter VI, of The Doctrine & Discipline of Divorce, it is written:
Fourthly, Mariage is a cov’nant the very beeing wherof consists, not in a forc’t cohabitation, and counterfet ...
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Meaning of "hooked for life" [closed]
I was reading a book, the author described the scenery of a certain place, and then said: "You're hooked for life." The search engine told me it means, you have been fascinated by this ...
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Making clear the meaning of “Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise.” [closed]
Which of these two interpretations is correct about the following quote?
“Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise.” by Horace
If you want to become a wise person, do these three things: Begin, be ...
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Meaning of "cored down"
“The guy was a fruit, but he wasn’t hurting anyone,” Boutillier said. “So hi-ho-the-dairy-o, along come these three pusholes in their engineer boots and they steal his life. I’m going to put them in ...
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What is the meaning of "take something out of the trunk"? [closed]
He claimed to find the atmosphere vital and creatively invigorating. Perhaps there was something to this: he had taken his languishing novel out of the trunk for the first time in nearly a year.
It by ...
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"in the Hebrew it ..." vs "in Hebrew it ..." - what is the difference of meaning in this paragraph of Milton and in general?
In book one of The Doctrine & Discipline of Divorce, it is written:
The cause of divorce mention’d in the Law is translated some uncleannesse, but in the Hebrew it sounds nakednes of ought, or ...
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"Export settings" disambiguation and meaning
"Export settings" disambiguation and meaning.
The aforementioned quotation is ambiguous. As I see it, it could mean either of the following:
Export (verb) settings ---> Action of ...
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What is a "Big Wheel" in Animorphs 8: The Alien? [closed]
For context, Marco is bringing Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, an alien, to visit his house for the first time. Looking around the suburban US neighbourhood, Ax notices something, and the following ...
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Meaning of " in the wings " [closed]
The following passage is from the book The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren:
Yet, when you have a case
involving fire; the teleportation of
anvils, doors, and radiator ...
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What's the meaning of "hardly seem more implausible"?
In the following text, what does "the latter scenario could hardly seem more implausible" mean?
The result suggests one of two scenarios. One is that arctic foxes
gave rise to swift foxes, ...
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0
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"What's it worth"? [duplicate]
Recently I encountered the sentence "What's it worth?" in a book.
I cannot understand the structure of this sentence.
From my perspective, "worth" means "value" in this ...
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Are the following sentences possible to use (and also grammatically correct) and what meaning do they have? [duplicate]
I.
I thought he was swimming - I thought he swam for a while but found out it was a lie
I thought he is swimming - I thought he was swimming now, but he's not.
I thought he swam - I thought he once ...
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847
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What does "work away" mean? [closed]
What does "work away" in the fourth paragraph mean? At first I thought it meant "be away from home for work", but it also seems to mean "to put forth a persistent, diligent, ...
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Why does 'notion' mean 'sewing-related thing'
As eg from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notions_(sewing)
The term is chiefly in American English... was also formerly used in the phrase "Yankee notions", meaning American ...
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Mother tongue vs vernacular
Having been a non- native speaker, several times I had been asked to write my name IN VERNACULAR or IN MOTHER TONGUE during my college days. I couldn't tell apart the subtle difference and thought of ...
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