New answers tagged meaning
0
"on this one" is synonymous with "in this matter (that we are considering)".
"You don't know the way through the maze? Follow me on this one."
"Making onion soup? Follow me on this one"
-1
i can clear this issue up. The term goes all the way back to COD 1. When playing the game i used (and still do use) the name Cupid Stunt. If you swap the initials then it makes a different phrase. (Name pinched from a Kenny Everett character). When i was killed by accident or by a fluke, then i would type in chat "YOU FUCKY LUCKER". This was then ...
2
The verb and noun in the meaning of "to tip / a tip" seems to have developed from the French coup/ couper = to/a blow, to/a hit, etc. in the metaphorical sense:
"John's death came as a blow." > John's death was a blow > John's death was a great upset.
From this, the meaning "upset" took a further figurative step - "...
0
I believe it is related to German Kippe, a word that occurs in Müllkippe (some sort of rubbish dump) and Aschenkippe (an ash heap). As such, it is a filthy waste heap, pit or area.
3
From Merriam-Webster's definition of next of kin (emphasis mine):
: one or more persons in the nearest degree of relationship to another person
Taking that meaning and inserting omitted words (in the particular context of a death), it can be paraphrased as follows:
Next [in line of inheritance and responsibility] of [the remaining] kin.
It's not talking ...
0
"No pre-plan has ever survived first contact with the ememy."
5
It is a typo or an OCR error for lamiae, the Latin plural of lamia. My hardcopy (the 2012 edition from Orb) has lamiae.
From Wiktionary:
lamia f (genitive lamiae); first declension
witch who was said to suck children's blood (sort of female bogeyman)
a sorceress, enchantress, witch.
Lamia was originally a Greek word, but there is no Greek plural, since ...
0
TL;DR "stable genius" is a historic term which means a genius without mental disabilities.
The phrase "stable genius" did not originate with Trump, it is a phrase that has been in limited use since at least 1959, which is the earliest use of the phrase I could find. It appears, for example, in the book Starship Troopers written by Robert ...
1
If I were to contrast digital with something, I would contrast it with material:
[Merriam-Webster]
1 a(1) : relating to, derived from, or consisting of matter
especially : PHYSICAL
// the material world
1 a(2) : BODILY
// material needs
1 b(1) : of or relating to matter rather than form
// material cause
// the ...
-1
I reckon 'botched' will be a better word than fragile.
Regards
2
There is a difference.
"About to" implies that the progression toward a change is already underway and that the change will, with reasonable certainty, occur shortly (though with the meaning of "shortly" being highly dependent on specific context). If a bridge is "about to collapse" then one expects that, short of Superman ...
1
How about unintegrated? From Cambridge:
integrate: to mix with and join society or a group of people, often changing to suit their way of life, habits, and customs
Based on this, integrated implies mixing with and joining society or a group of people, often changing to suit their way of life, habits, and customs. By the same token, unintegrated implies not ...
0
At first I felt the word had been misused, but looking at the etymology:
1727, "action of assorting according to quality," from French triage
"a picking out, sorting" (14c.), from Old French trier "to pick, cull"
(see try (v.)). There seems to be some influence from or convergence
with Latin tria "three" (as in triage ...
0
revisit, follow up with, or to use a baseball metaphor, touched base with.
Oh, also revisited with the CreditCard folks, we'll need...
Oh, also followed up with with the CreditCard folks, we'll need...
Oh, also touched base with the CreditCard folks, we'll need...
Basically he talked with them again, and got more to work from.
0
The author is making analogy to an emergency situation; quickly sorting through a collection to maximize gain in a small window of time. There is a sense of urgency.
This word is typically used in a medical emergency where life is on the line, such as an emergency room, and war. For example, in an armed conflict, let's say a helicopter flies in with a group ...
1
Come home/Go home isn't merely a style choice. The meaning is different. "Come home" communicate that you think the listener will be there and you've based plans on that. By default "go home" communicates the opposite. Choosing go in "then I'll go home" might communicate that you remember they're staying at their mom's tonight. ...
1
A mound is a hill that is or appears to have been put there artificially, while a hill represents an elevated location smaller than a mountain. National Park Service
Show an excerpt of the text for a more precise explanation.
2
It's an example of the phrasal verb "get by", meaning to "meet the minimum requirements" to survive or accomplish something.
In your sentence, it effectively means, "A lot of us like a small, sleek computer case to meet our need to enclose our computer without any extra features but such a case can be extremely hard to find".
...
1
I looked at Merriam-Webster, Oxford, and even Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. "Ill-qualified" is not a word offered in any of these dictionaries. However, the use of a hyphen connects the two words and makes a new adjective with a combined meaning, like "just-shined Chevy" or "My I-literally-just-cleaned-him dog went in the ...
6
According to the Phrase Finder article on this expression,
"A 'chip on your shoulder' is a perceived grievance or sense of inferiority."
That definition of "a chip on [one's] shoulder" is not original to Phrase Finder, although the site doesn't specify the source. In any case, I think that the wording comes from Oxford Dictionary of ...
-1
can it be used as a synonym for a fight?
Yes, because any word can be used in any way with whatever intended meaning one wants. This is how language evolves.
Many people, if not all, will consider it to be a wrong usage, however. The word contortion does not have the acceptation of 'a fight'. As a consequence, at least some of your audience is bound to be ...
1
When speaking to someone, I would say that it is all about where they are as the listener.
Talking to your spouse:
If you are at your home with your spouse, you are going to the office
If you are at the office and your spouse is at your home, you are coming home
Talking to your boss:
If your boss is at their home and you are at your home, you are going to ...
1
To "adopt" does not merely mean to use. In order to adopt, you must start using it.
to take up and practice or use
Emphasis mine.
For instance, during the Neolithic, humans used both agriculture and fire, but they only adopted agriculture, since they had long used fire.
1
"Quixotic" is rarely used literally to refer to Don Quixote specifically these days; without additional context, I would understand this to mean that whoever is the subject of this phrase has a quixotic attitude (aka stance) to something.
Merriam-Webster defines quixotic as
foolishly impractical especially in the pursuit of ideals
especially: ...
0
The basic meaning of crunch is to put something under pressure, especially to chew something crunchy with you teeth, like potato chips; or to crunch leaves (or snow) on a path underfoot as you walk; or crunch a piece of paper in your hand into a ball before you throw it away. And crunches are like sit-ups, the exercise you do for your abs. So crunching ...
0
In these sentences,
"Compelling" = "Attractive / Convincing / Encouraging": meaning that using computers in education is probably a good idea, and the benefits are obvious/clear and desirable.
"Privilege" = "A right which can be taken away" or "A arbitrary and unearned right"; Stylistically works better in ...
1
Then simply means the next thing that happened was... They could be quite routine things.
"I got up, then had breakfast, then took the dog for a walk."
We would use afterwards to refer to something that happened after a significant action or event.
"I spent the afternoon working hard in my garden. Afterwards, I was too tired to do anything but ...
0
Both would and could are modal auxiliary verbs.
The following two quotes are from Michael Swan's Practical English Usage:
We use could for 'general ability' — for example to say that somebody could do something at any time, whenever he/she wanted.
and
...we use past tenses and would to 'distance' our language from reality.
When using could, it implies ...
1
One definition of "crunch" is:
Process large amounts of information or perform operations of great complexity, especially by computer. [Lexico]
so "crunching numbers" essentially means:
Performing operations with numbers.
The part about "knuckles" isn't as simple.
The author seems to be using "crunching" ...
0
You are taking this too literally.
Essentially, they are saying:
If this video gets [at least / a minimum of] 5 likes, I will record a part 2.
2
Crunching numbers is usually taken as doing a lot of calculations in order to find an answer.
But I have no idea why the knuckles will hurt. It sounds like the man was literally "crunching on" the numbers with his knuckles.
1
“A” is just being used normally as an article.
If we shave down the sentence to just the necessary words we need to answer this question, we get:
Johnson allows TikTok a London HQ.
All this means is that TikTok is now allowed to build an HQ in London.
You could also think of this as:
Johnson allows TikTok [to build] a London HQ.
15
This is really hard to answer because it depends on the speaker's and the listener's point of view. It can also depend on their imagined points of view at the future time the action is planned to happen.
I will go to the office and then go back home.
The speaker and listener are both away from home and away from the office. Or, the listener will not be at ...
3
go and come is used in relation to the location of the speaker or the listener:
I am at the office. I will be going home in an hour.
Your mate might ask you in that regard on the telephone: What time are you coming home? [Your mate is at home. Your mate is the speaker.]
You might answer that: I'm coming home soon. However, you might also say: I'll be home ...
13
From the point of view of a person at your home, you are "coming home".
From the point of view of a person at your office, you are "going home".
What about your own point of view as you go? It could be either, depending on
how you are thinking of it.
-1
Together, these crank up the tension between engaged scientific
criticism and maintaining trust in science."
Maintaining trust in something is passive. You just do it and hope that your trust is justified. If you are engaged in something, then you are actively taking part in it.
For example a person of a religion may trust God and the truth of God's ...
0
Instrumental is a transferred epithet here: strictly speaking the view is not itself instrumental, but it treats education as something instrumental. Once that is realised, a dictionary definition can be plugged in without any difficulty: the view treats education as a means to some end. The implied contrast is with treating education as something that is ...
-1
It is a non-grammatical corruption of "Mercy's sake", a variation on "Lord's sake".
And see What is the meaning of the phrase "Land Sakes"?
3
The sword and the gun are part of the ritual of joining the Mafia although it appears that some clans use a knife:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initiation_ritual_(mafia)
In Sicily:
an aspiring member must take part in an initiation ritual [...]. he
describes the initiation ritual he underwent in the spring of 1893:
I was invited to take part in a secret ...
2
How early in the morning did you send the e-mail? Perhaps the person who replied would have started it straight away, and guessed that they would have finished it that morning if they had, but they can't start on it until the afternoon, because they have problems to deal with, and they must deal with those problems first.
2
You have a bad copy of the play. The correct verb is wring. One wrings out wet cloth items by twisting them to squeeze out some or most of the water or other liquid. The action requires some strength, and the metaphoric use is implying that the speaker is easily capable of overpowering the other person (can wring him out). Also there is a hint of an insult (...
0
hold up
to continue in the same condition without failing or losing effectiveness or force
She's holding up well under the pressure.
Similar to stand up
0
There is a good example of adding qualifiers:
Two shops were in competition in a street. The owner of shop A put up a sign “CHEAPEST IN THE STREET!” Shop B then put up a sign “CHEAPEST IN THE TOWN!” So A changed his sign to “CHEAPEST IN THE COUNTRY!” And B’s response was “CHEAPEST IN THE WORLD!” A replied with “CHEAPEST IN THE UNIVERSE!” B thought for a ...
1
The question Do you [dynamic verb] ...? is asking about current behaviour. Do you do drugs? means Do you currently do drugs? And Do you eat at restaurants? means Do you currently eat at restaurants?
So, answering with Yes! simply means that you currently do drugs. Whether the current behaviour started long ago or just recently cannot be inferred.
Answering ...
0
Let's look at your first example (the one about drugs). The second example is, for our purposes, the same.
Do you do drugs?
This question is technically a polar (yes-no) question that essentially means:
Do you do drugs now?
The word "now" means that someone should answer based on their current habits.
Therefore, the answer "yes" ...
0
I am not sure what the context is meant to be in the film. In the US, having an air about one’s self is synonymous to having an aura or quality of an exceptional nature. This aura or quality can be either good or bad depending on the context or other qualifying statements. Just as long as the quality emanating from the person is pervasive enough to be ...
0
There is, in fact, a subtle difference, but for typical everyday purposes, this difference is of no importance.
The remark in question concerns a disposition, a tendency, a feature of somebody's personality. The person has that feature continuously; it is built into the person's character. However, most of the time the disposition is dormant; when the person ...
0
1 and 2 above both refer to a more detailed observation; either it stood out to the observer (2), or the audience should take care to make it stand out to them (1). The subject helps disambiguate the meaning here, because it identifies who acted or to whom the action happened.
1
"That's me" is much more informal as contractions are. "That would be me" is more formal, or mock-formal which is what I suspect is happening here. The latter is used for humorous effect.
6
In your particular example there is a difference.
You react best under pressure. This is an asset.
This states that your reaction under pressure is unequivocally considered an asset. While the first version...
This can be an asset.
infers that it is considered an asset in some set of circumstances. That's because the use of "can be" implies ...
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