New answers tagged meaning
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Does 'we got each other' have the same meaning as 'we got each other's backs'?
This expression does exist in pop culture, for instance a song by R&B artist Chaka Kahn:
Walkin' hand and hand
As only lovers can
You must understand
We've got each other
They can scream and fuss
...
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Knowing who can be?
Context is important. From Love (John Lennon)
Love is you, you and me
Love is knowing we can be
We can be love, people! Theoretically, we can be [love], individually or as a unit; it's not really ...
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Do "did not have" and "had not" have the same meanings?
Yes, these have the same meaning.
As Huddleston & Pullum (2002) describe it, your second example is a case of "non-verbal negation," where the marker "not" is attached, not to ...
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Does "no more than two" mean I can choose just one?
This is one of the many cases in which taking pragmatics into account may lead to a different understanding from analysing something in terms of semantics alone.
'No more than two' logically entails ...
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Does "no more than two" mean I can choose just one?
"No" here is a degree modifier modifying "more." It specifies how many more than two you can take; the answer is "none." So the meaning is: the number of books you take ...
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Does "no more than two" mean I can choose just one?
You can't always use a math equation to parse English, but this one works.
X is the number of books.
X "no more than 2" is X <= 2.
Assuming there are no negative numbers of books, ...
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What does "I'll kill that cat" in the play Dinner for One mean?
After the line, he appears to fan fumes away from himself and away from his backside. This leads me to believe he has passed gas and is attempting to blame it on a cat (or in his drunkenness indeed ...
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"Discretion is the better part of valour" doesn't seem to make sense as a sentence
This saying has a curious history. Perhaps its most famous and influential iteration is by Sir John Falstaff, a comic character in Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part 1. Falstaff’s version inverts the usual ...
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In Indian English, did the word 'griffin' ever mean newcomer or novice?
The OED has a separate entry for griffin used in the sense of newcomer:
griffin, n.2 Etymology: Of uncertain origin: usually explained as a figurative use of GRIFFIN n.1, but
there is no evidence for ...
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In Indian English, did the word 'griffin' ever mean newcomer or novice?
Yes, the term griffin also griff is of Anglo-Indian origin:
(Anglo-Ind.) a newcomer to India who is ignorant of Anglo-Indian ways; orig. used of freshly arrived young officers but adopted through ...
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In Indian English, did the word 'griffin' ever mean newcomer or novice?
Yeah, it used to. That q.v. is telling you that there’s related information elsewhere in the text, so you have to ‘ctrl-f’ your way through Hobson-Jobson to the entry for griffin. We get:
Griffin, ...
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"Discretion is the better part of valour" doesn't seem to make sense as a sentence
I agree, but, writers, politicians, and the like, have to put a spin on it to convince the gullible (young) to clamor for war, and other, action. As well as try to convince themselves (the writers et ...
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"Discretion is the better part of valour" doesn't seem to make sense as a sentence
By discretion, the idiom is referring to choosing to be careful.
No it is referring to making sound judgements.
OED: discretion
II. Senses relating to discreet adj.
4.a. The quality of being ...
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"Discretion is the better part of valour" doesn't seem to make sense as a sentence
One thing you may not understand is that one thing can partake of another. Someone can be brave, but have that bravery tempered by circumspection—what some may call discretion. If it's a hot day, but ...
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Medicamentous vs medical
As MW explains, medicine can mean two things: "a substance or preparation used in treating disease" or "the science and art dealing with the maintenance of health and the prevention, ...
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A binge is on its own
I certainly haven't heard this usage of "binge" before. Typically you need to specify what activity was being done, since "binge" can refer to bingeing on a variety of things: ...
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A binge is on its own
Yes, the sentence There was a binge yesterday is both grammatically correct and clumsy and I'd venture so far as to say that few native speakers (certainly BrE speakers) would put things that way.
OED ...
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Knowing who can be?
I think yours a valid interpretation, and also agree with Anton's answer.
However, to address the more abstract phrasing, I would interpret it to not exclusively be a cause or reason for either 'being'...
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What is the difference between retrospective and retroactive?
It is pretty clear that the “-spective” suffix indicates “looking” and the “-active” suffix indicates “doing”.
The OED gives both adjectives as explanations for each other in some contexts, but not ...
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Meaning of " trapping "?
One of the meanings of 'trappings' is:
conventional adornment; characteristic signs:
trappings of democracy.
source
In the passage that you quote, "have all the trappings" is synonymous to ...
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Knowing who can be?
In brief:
I think, therefore I exist (Descartes)
We love, therefore We exist.
In full:
The lyric parallels a key philosophical writing of René Descartes.
A summary is:
1000 Word Philosophy
If you ...
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Can "even as" mean "because"?
even - adverb, emphatic, usually introducing a contrast or extreme: "The women collapsed and even some of the men fainted."
as - preposition -> that is in the manner or way of/that: &...
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What do 'flat-chested' and 'unromantic' mean when speaking of a house?
I read that using my antiquated/extremely-sexist-colored glasses.
In it, Holmes reached a neighborhood of plain, boring, unattractive but perhaps functional houses. If you live in a place with ...
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What do 'flat-chested' and 'unromantic' mean when speaking of a house?
It's a sexist-adjacent way to say the houses project forwards an uninspiringly minimal degree of three-dimensional structure while simultaneously featuring no significant artistic flourishes. Think: ...
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What do 'flat-chested' and 'unromantic' mean when speaking of a house?
I agree with Kay Bunting, but here I think "flat-chested" specifically means lacking bay windows.
In Britain in general, and London in particular, bay windows are a common feature of houses. ...
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What does "fabulism" mean when used to describe one's accomplishments?
A fabulist or one who practices fabulism is one who creates fables or fabulous accounts of their accomplishments. They are spinning a tale of fantastic works and successes when their achievements are ...
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What does "fabulism" mean when used to describe one's accomplishments?
The YourDictionary site at https://www.yourdictionary.com/fabulism gives the meaning "A form of magic realism in which fantastical elements are placed into an everyday setting".
In this ...
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Is "samuraily" correct?
No, "samuraily" is not a correct or recognized word in English.
Instead, you could use the term "bushido" to refer to the knightly traditions of the samurai class in Japan. Bushido ...
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What is the meaning of famous?
Merriam-Webster defines it as "widely known". Exactly how it is well-known is not specific. It might be someone who would be recognized on sight, like Elvis, but not necessarily. Louis ...
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What do 'flat-chested' and 'unromantic' mean when speaking of a house?
I agree entirely with KateBunting's reading of the passage, but some further explanation might be interesting ...
The usual application of flat-chested is to women; for example, Cambridge Dictionary ...
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What do 'flat-chested' and 'unromantic' mean when speaking of a house?
I visualise the houses as having a perfectly flat façade with no decorative porches, balconies or bay windows; unromantic in the sense of being perfectly dull and ordinary.
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What is the difference between "would be needed" and "may be needed"?
To elaborate on a comment to another answer:
If we use may, it means "I don't know if more context is needed or not" and if we use will, it means "I need more context". But if we ...
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What is the difference between "would be needed" and "may be needed"?
"To determine whether sending a link actually occurred, more context would be needed"
Can we use may or will instead of would?
Would is closest to will in this instance.
You could re-word ...
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What is the difference between "would be needed" and "may be needed"?
Not really. Let me paraphrase a bit.
To determine if a link was sent, more context would be needed.
We have an event, and we don't know the result. But we want to do something to find the result. If ...
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What is the meaning of 'to shadow forth'?
Foreshadow seems more constrained to literary works whereas shadow forth, though antiquated appears to be more versatile within many actions. It holds the nuance of predicting future events by ...
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Who is a "person who makes notary action"?
I am a Colorado notary and notary training instructor.
Notarial acts vary by country, so, it is important to know the location of the notary. The OP profile shows he is located in Moscow, Russia.
...
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Accepted
“Why does a Moon-rock taste better than an Earth-rock?” joke meaning
Maybe because "meteor" sounds like "meatier" when you say it?
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Accepted
Is it correct to say something like "An issue is being had by them"
In general, "to have" cannot occur in the passive voice when used in this sense. Instead, "to be had" is an idiom defined by Collins as:
If you have been had, someone has tricked ...
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Is “senior year” a direct object or something else in “I played my senior year”? What about “perfect game” in “I threw a perfect game”?
In "throw a game" the thing you are throwing is a game, so it's a direct object. (The use of "throw" in this sense is figurative; it doesn't really matter that the game isn't ...
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Do we ever use "treatment with" instead of "treatment of"?
Do we ever use "treatment with" instead of "treatment of"?
Yes:
Treatment with antibiotics was ineffective.
Treatment of the disease was particularly cruel.
With and of are ...
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with something to recommend it
With something to recommend it modifies line (a distinction between good and bad algorithms). They need to find a point of distinction that everyone agrees is the right one.
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WW and OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
This is a reference to column name patterns in MS Excel. (edit: I now understand there is an alternative, more contextually-appropriate use for the same system—see below) In Excel, new columns are ...
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Semantic Difference between "Skill" and "Skills"
A skill may be seen as'[exceptional] ability' and, there, it may be used without of without a determiner.
When used to express a generalisation, it may be singular:
"He does it with skill." (...
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What does it mean "to drive something into a ditch"?
Also speaking as a native English speaker, when you've driven something into a ditch, this essentially means that you've messed something up so thoroughly that it can no longer be fixed.
Compare this ...
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What does it mean "to drive something into a ditch"?
It's essentially a variant of the phrase "to drive something into the ground." TfD defines that as follows:
To manage or maintain something very poorly, resulting in its destruction, ...
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What does it mean "to drive something into a ditch"?
As a native English speaker quite familiar with the term, I can say that it's a straightforward metaphor for driving off the edge of a road. Not all roads are built this way, but it's relatively ...
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What does "the fitness of things" mean?
This should get you started:
fitness, n.
2. b. the (eternal) fitness of things: a phrase extensively used in the 18th cent. with reference to the ethical theory of Clarke,
in which the quality of ...
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What does "Can I help you?" really mean?
Anton's answer already contains all the practical advice that anybody may need on how to react to this phrase, but for the purposes of this site it should be clarified that, when the phrase is used in ...
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Accepted
What's the difference between backward(s) and backwardly?
The only real difference that I can tease out, other than frequency trends over the years, is that backwardly can be more easily used comparatively than backward(s), the latter pair being less ...
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What does "the fitness of things" mean?
Although discussion of the detailed application of the phrase involves opinion, there is a general meaning that is not dependent on opinion. I therefore do not vote to close, but instead attempt an ...
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