New answers tagged meaning-in-context
2
Friendship improves with age. At first it may not be so good but gets better as age progresses. The reference to milk is like that of mother's milk, that which is essential for basic nourishment, which in old age is hard to come by. Adding the reference to a cordial, a welcoming cocktail, gives some adult tone to the description.
6
Ridin’ means riding. It is meant figuratively: It does not mean literally riding in the car, just “we are along with him- we support his candidacy.”
The term for dropping a sound (in this case g) is elision.
“Ridin” has the benefits of rhyming (close enough) with Biden and also having a folksy sound, which is part of the soon to be president’s persona.
EDIT:...
1
"an embryo (=fetus) may be "completely normal" or "dead" but not both."
The apparent contradiction is that the embryo was normal and yet it was dead.
Since children that are not normal, that have abnormalities, can be born and survive it is not a contradiction that one that is not alive could still be normal. You are referring ...
0
There were three:
James Spurgeon Scarborough Sr.
Sheriff of Lee / Kleberg County
James Scarborough II
Sheriff, Kleberg Co
James Scarborough III
Sheriff, Kleberg Co
2
It has nothing to do with surfing. It is supposed to be a skateboarding reference but it’s not a real one. King either did no research on the actual names of skate tricks or, as someone said above, invented new ones on purpose. He’s a great storyteller, but his weakest writing comes when he tries to write dialogue for kids or subcultures he has no ...
2
As best as I can tell, in this context, humour means 'mood or state of mind' (Lexico). So Prof. von Pettenkofer is using a very convoluted way, with unnecessarily 'big' words, to say that the study of bacteria is 'in', is fashionable, is something many people are obsessed by. The wittiness of the phrase comes from the convoluted phrasing.
3
No, "Gen" meaning lawyer is unknown to most dictionaries. (However they have other definitions for "gen" so it is allowed to be played.)
"gen" can mean "information". The OED says it originated as R.A.F. slang.
Other dictionaries have also "gen" used as slang for "generation".
1
I think these words can convey the sense of "supposed to be an explanation, but not verified yet":
hypothesis
explanation
account
model
framework
reasoning
rationale
justification
Or you can simply use "unverified theory"
In addition, you can also use these words, but for me they emphasize the connotation of a subjective interpretation ...
6
Whatever the link you make between typical and particular, you do not need to be worried that they clash in your sentence. particular simply modifies one of the categories "we were typical of". You can simplify and say:
We were, I think, typical both of A and, by contrast, of B.
where A is
a particular (certain, specific) class of pre-war ...
7
On the possible origin of the trope:
From Piperson at The Great Comic Book Heroes
Men in Tights - a history
When Superman first hit the scene with his blue and red tights it
created a shockwave around the country that it hit off the whole
superhero craze that is going on stronger than ever today with
blockbuster movies like Batman and the Avengers. Before ...
2
Typical means
having the distinctive qualities of a particular type of person or thing.
You have a certain class of pre-war Germans consisting of a group of people with certain characteristic. The writer is a typical example of those people, as well as the postwar country at large.
2
Short answer:
Vital emphasizes the organic origins or dietary benefits of vital wheat gluten, also known as seitan.
Long answer:
In the early 20th century, vital as an adjective was applied to food derived from plants or animals. The Oxford English Dictionary features an early example of this under definition 5 of "vital, adj. and n.":
Conferring ...
5
"vital wheat gluten" is a popular name for purified dried gluten powder, which can be mixed with water and eaten as a vegan meat substitute. It's also known as "seitan"
Seitan is a vegan meat substitute made by rinsing wheat dough to remove the starch. This leaves a dense mass of pure gluten protein that can be seasoned and cooked.
The ...
18
There is a bit of a history behind this...
The Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell used the allegation by Alastair Campbell that he had observed (John) Major tucking his shirt into his underpants to caricature him wearing his pants outside his trousers, as a pale grey echo of both Superman and Supermac, a parody of Harold Macmillan
Wikipedia
["Super-Mac&...
3
Cutting = a piece cut off from a plant that can be used to grow another plant of the same type
Cambridge Dictionary
In this case the cutting is an analogy for the idea of the show. Codron’s interest in the idea helped give life to it. It grew and expanded into the show that it eventually became. Just as a small cutting, if suitably planted, will root and ...
1
Some plants are propagated by cutting off a branch (then referred to as the cutting) and re-planting it. In this case, whatever "the cutting" refers to is starting to grow. See wikipedia.
1
Part of the pun may be that in the United States, the color red is associated with politics of the right, and cou de rouge (without the -p but pronounced the same way coup is) can also be translated as “red neck.” Rednecks tend to vote for right-wing political candidates.
1
Both are the same (and the sentence should have a comma):
"[The] Last time we went to the shop" is an adverbial clause:
"[The] Last time we went to the shop, we bought eggs = We bought eggs on the last occasion that we went to the shop."
In essence, it does not differ from
"Yesterday, we bought eggs" or "We bought eggs ...
2
It means that not a line can be dispensed with, removed, cleared, forgotten in such a way as for this loss to go unnoticed.
5
Laden is neutral. You can see the difference in meaning by looking at the same sentences but with a truly negative word such as burdened:
The trees were burdened with fruit.
This difference is especially noticeable when the verb is paired with what would usually be a positive noun (like money):
They are laden with money
(This frames it desirably)
They ...
4
Laden is neutral:
1745 T. Warton Five Pastoral Eclogues 20 Where..clust'ring nuts their laden branches bend.
(The quantity of nuts is obviously a good thing.)
1868 T. T. Lynch Rivulet (ed. 3) clxii. 198 Now mount the laden clouds, Now flames the darkening sky.
(The clouds are laden with rain - a storm is coming - which is not a good thing.)
1897 ...
1
In the given context, otherwise than means that the person has only seen the library open before, and is now seeing it closed.
Try replacing with 'other than'. They mean the same thing and are both grammatically correct, though 'otherwise than' embellishes the sentence a little more.
A few helpful links: Glosbe definition, Macmillan Dictionary definition
2
otherwise = in the other way or differently
than = compared to something
otherwise than = differently or in the other way compared to something
You never saw the library differently or in the other way compared to "wide open".
"differently/in the other way" modifies "saw"
differently from "wide open" means in the way ...
0
There are several pronouns, such "which", "that", etc., that have no possessive version. If you need to have a possessive version, you'll have to rely on "whose" (putting 's after a pronoun is not correct). However, if you can rewrite the sentence to avoid it, that may be preferable. For instance, for your second example, you ...
0
The maker of the sentence may have meant the meaning of "consider/think about".
about "entertain"
invite sb to eat/drink with you
The Bradfords always entertained lavishly at Christmas.
They entertained us to lunch in their new house.
interest/amuse sb
Everyone was thoroughly entertained.
She entertained us with stories of her travels....
1
An Elephind newspaper database search for "cold pizza" yields 196 matches—193 from the United States and 3 from Australia. The vast majority of the results are from college newspapers, which makes sense because most mainstream, general-circulation daily newspapers later than the early 1930s are excluded from the search results (for copyright ...
3
Your behind is your backside or buttocks, commonly ass: Work one's ass off.
Also, in this context, work your tush or tail off, bust your hump or chops
Per Hot Licks: "Work hard, to the point of exhaustion." The adverb off indicates to the extreme.
1
The zero-marking used by newspapers in such contexts as yours or in any formal written texts does not fit any entry in the rules given by ordinary grammars. In Wikipedia I found this entry that is not really related to your contexts, but might give us a hint to why the "zero-article" was used in some of your sentences:
The zero article is also used ...
2
The key to understanding this is to understand model or, in particular, a statistical model.
A model describes a set of data or observations. To take a trivially easy example, if we have a set of data {1,2,3,4,5}, one model is to say that the average is 3.
This might lead a naive modeller to predict that the next observation is likely to be around 3.
A ...
1
Sublimation in psychology is the ...
process of deflecting sexual instincts into acts of higher social valuation
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublimation_(psychology))
Women writers, as their male heroes, were transforming their sexual drive into a social endeavour, however the rewards that society bestowed upon males, even within the context of ...
1
Let's go with Oxford Online Dictionary on this one.
"Outdoor" is defined as "used, happening or located outside rather than in a building", however, "open" in the sense you intend, is defined as "not surrounded by anything; not closed in".
In other words, "outdoor" refers to anything which is not inside a ...
2
As Xanne has pointed out in the comments, this a set phrase regularly used in the documents of the U.S. Congress. Its intended meaning is:
objections of the president[, which present arguments] to the
contrary[,] notwithstanding.
What makes the phrase objections to the contrary confusing is that objection to X, normally means that the objection consists of ...
2
This is legal language
On this site I found this sentence which made me understand the expression better:
The question is, Will the House on reconsideration agree to pass the bill, the objections of the President to the contrary notwithstanding?
which means that the bill may be passed despite the objections of the President not to pass it (to do the ...
0
The simplified construction is
You can see it being pushed to its limits by a real driver.
One can see a man driving or you can see a car being driven. In the second case, the verb "to drive" is used in the passive voice, continuous aspect.
Here you can find out more information about the expression see someone/something do/doing something.
0
To me, distribution in the colloquial sense is the opposite of the statistical distribution. When you say "distribution of wealth", you are implying that some have more wealth than others. When you talk about distributing alms to the poor, you are attempting to level something that is inherently unequal.
Allocation also lacks the connotation of ...
1
Helen Burns may be taken a metaphor for an extremely optimistic, long suffering, forgiving and kind-hearted version of Jane Eyre. Or perhaps taken as a foil of that sort for Jane’s more pragmatic and realistic outlook on events and life.
On the contrary (a pole apart from Helen - polar opposites), Bertha Mason may be seen as a metaphor for an opposing ...
7
"Thin blooded" is a very old expression meaning "vulnerable to the cold."
This has, as you note, no connection to blood thinners
1
Rugger often stands for Rugby Football, usually called Rugby, in informal English. And that makes sense in combination with team.
'Made the team' means 'joined the team'.
The first team is the best of the teams in the school.
And XI stands for the number of players in the field, 11 in this case, so a reduced size team, as explained in a comment by @...
2
When need is used as an auxiliary verb, it means that you're under obligation or necessity to do something. Adding not reverses this, it means you're not required to perform the action. M-W says:
be under necessity or obligation to
you need not answer
"need not" is often used somewhat idiomatically to mean that not only is there no requirement, ...
3
Crabb's Synonymes [sic] has the following entry which explains the difference between these synonymous terms:
However, Yet, Nevertheless, Notwithstanding.
These conjunctions are in grammar termed adversative, because they
join sentences together that stand more or less in opposition to each
other.
However is the most general and indefinite; it serves as a ...
-1
For what it is worth, I think the metaphor, in all likelihood, has to do with the koala bear's "stuffedness". Normally you would expect a bear to wolf down huge amounts of food, but a koala bear on the contrary subsists strictly on eucalyptus, which is low in calories. Nature has bestowed it with the defensive mechanism against the toxins released ...
2
"this" refers to the fact that they sleep a lot.
It is simple nonsense to say that scientists believe they sleep a lot because they are nature's teddy bears. I think this narration is intended to be humorous and we are expected to laugh at this. I don't find it funny and I'm not sure anyone would.
This is really not worth trying to analyse as it is ...
answered Dec 23 '20 at 11:15
chasly - supports Monica
34.1k1 gold badge49 silver badges92 bronze badges
1
It is unnecessary to repeat the definitions of game that may be found easily, for example, in
Merriam Webster
The use of the word here is similar to that of Eric Berne in his book The games people play
Penguin Books
Life is seen as a game that involves a mix of entertainment, rules and competition.
Victorian social codes are seen as rigid and convention-...
-1
Let us start with still
= despite that
Cambridge dictionary
It is akin to:
Nevertheless = despite what has just been said or referred to
Cambridge dictionary
The author’s use of were obliges me to put the following explanation in a past tense.
Harry is described as having recollected last year’s birthday, looked ahead to the next day’s birthday, expected ...
1
When one says something "doesn't happen every day," one means that the event happens rarely, and that one should take notice of it or celebrate it, despite whatever else is going on.
Harry is in a miserable situation with his mild-to-moderately abusive family and doesn't expect much worth celebrating. Still, tomorrow is the only eleventh birthday ...
1
This is a common sentence; there is no complication about it, and moreover it is a pattern for thousands of sentences.
You don't get married everyday. ( You didn't get married everyday.)
It's not Christmas everyday. (It wasn't Christmas everyday.)
You don't drink fifty year old whiskey everyday.
It means that whatever the event that is being mentioned in ...
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