New answers tagged phrases
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gratisness
(••)
( ••)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)
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Zwicky, in Exceptional Degree Markers, describes the
too big of a dog
expression as being confined to [some] American dialects (p 113; see also footnotes). He seems to criticise the usage, saying that 'Clearly, of is now something more than a mere preposition. It's a virus.' He links to Abney (who claims it is dialectic) and Radford (who comments
'...
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How about "exemption from paymnet." I am not a native speaker of English, and I've stumbled on this link while looking for a nominal phrase with this meaning.
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"In never-ending pursuit" maybe.
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1) Whichever is less
Among very few things (two preferably)
2) Whichever is lesser
Used for comparing among two or more number of things
3) Whichever is the least
The thing which is less than all of the other things
Yes, they all may sound like they have the same meaning, and it's mostly up to you whatever sense you want to deliver to the ...
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The generalized "town [description]" effectively means "the person who is the biggest/best [description] in their/my town". Examples:
Town drunk, i.e. the person in a town who is known to be a drunkard.
Village idiot, i.e. the biggest (well-known) idiot in the village.
Hottie simply means "an attractive person" (most commonly a woman, but not exclusively ...
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You mean forever pursuit:
(The Infinite Pursuit - Neuroscience - Hackensack Meridian Health)
I encourage all survivors to be in a forever pursuit to continue improving.
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Yes, “thought it likely” in this case means the same as “supposed.” “Thought it was likely” is not an exact substitute.
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Generally speaking, the turn of the century refers to any century where the turn is occurring.
Context will tell which century it is.
Imagine, people in the year 999 experienced the turn of their century as being from the year 999 to the year 1000. The actual turn is ineffable.
Basically, it refers to the point where one century becomes another.
Just like:...
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It depends.
In British English, according to Wikipedia, you would call it the turn of the 20th century. The turn of the 20th century includes the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th.
In American English it can be as above, but it could also be referred to as the turn of the 19th century, i.e. viewing it as the century turning from the ...
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Both
The turn of a new century refers to the end and beginning of the new century. For your example (1899), it would signal the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th.
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The expression "pork chop in a can" is one I heard years before any of the dates mentioned in previous answers. It was a common reference to drinking ones supper.
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Exultation = the act of exulting; lively or triumphant joy, as over success or victory (Dictionary.com).
Elation = a feeling or state of great joy or pride; exultant gladness; high spirits (Dictionary.com).
Triumph = the joy or exultation of victory or success (Merriam-Webster).
Festivity = An experience or expression of celebratory feeling, merriment, ...
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There are several ways. For example, "over the moon" is a common expression in the UK.
https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Adverts/Question1540549.html
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How about boondoggle?
noun
1.
work or activity that is wasteful or pointless but gives the appearance of having value.
"writing off the cold fusion phenomenon as a boondoggle best buried in literature"
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Let us
"Let's" is a contraction of "Let us". Expand that, and the sentence is pretty straightforward.
Don't let us get you cheap
The meaning here is the literal meaning, but to understand it, you have to see the line in context. The character who says this, Barbara, is trying to get the other character, Bill, to mend his ways and join the Salvation Army.
...
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it's "allocate to {...}", not "allocate to be in {...}"
Having read the source paper, it's clearly a misuse of "to allocate":
to allocate (v): to give something to someone as their share of a total amount
However, you cannot "allocate" a thing "to be" something.
correct: I allocate 200 Gigabytes of storage to this program
but not
incorrect: I allocate ...
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You should consider the word "in" to have a better understanding, therefore the sentence would be "to be in" that is a very common idiom to refer to something that is inside somewhere.
I think this link will help you
https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/be+in
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superfluous
not necessary or relevant; uncalled-for (Collins at the free dictionary)
Your example:
I believe that pie charts of your spending are presented as being important and valuable, but they rarely result in actual better spending habits. Therefore, pie charts of your spending are superfluous.
This means that they are unnecessary.
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The term that comes to mind is fool's gold. "Something that seems more promising than it really is."
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How about dud?
informal - One that is disappointingly ineffective or unsuccessful.
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I would say that such pie-charts are of spurious value.
OED meaning of spurious - sense 3 is the important one:
Superficially resembling or simulating, but lacking the genuine character or qualities of, something; not true or genuine; false, sham, counterfeit:
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To be exact, an object that attains more attention and importance than it deserves can be called "overrated" in a single word.
"Overestimated importance" is an expression that can fulfill the same linguistic function.
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It seems to me that most of these answers are correct to a degree. I became interested in the phrase after coming across it in the folk-song "Mick Maguire". Here is the last verse (or last refrain):
Johnny come up to the fire come up you're sitting in the draught/
Can't you see it's ould Maguire and he nearly drives me daft/
Sure I don't know what gets into ...
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HOMOGRAPHS are words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. Heteronyms are a type of homograph that are also spelled the same and have different meanings, but sound different.
source
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The precursor phrase, 'burn in [one's] pocket'
Th antecedent to "burn a hole in [one's] pocket" was almost certainly "burn in [one's] pocket," as user66974's very useful answer points out. The phrase goes back considerably farther than the Phrase Finder quotation in that answer suggests. Phrase Finder cites the OED's instances of "your letter, which burnt ...
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It’s probably a variant of the old expression It’s a gas which ultimately referred to the discovery of nitrous oxide and its power to give euphoria to those who inhaled it:
Scientist Humphrey Davy noticed that nitrous oxide produced a state of induced euphoria which led to laughter followed by a state of stupor and, finally, a dreamy and sedated state. ...
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As OP has noted in a comment, the origin of the phrase may have originated in James Joyce's 1914 anthology Dubliners, specifically the short story "An Encounter" (emphasis mine, link to story here):
When I had been sitting there for five or ten minutes I saw Mahony’s grey suit approaching. He came up the hill, smiling, and clambered up beside me on the ...
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I believe that the person saying that the money is burning a hole in his pocket wants to convey a message that he has money and has had money for quite some time. Maybe a man would say this to woo a woman or say it to bluff another into thinking that he has meant to pay a debt. “Oh I meant to pay you, this money was burning a hole in my pocket but I haven’t ...
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'Fishing for information' might be what you're looking for
17.to seek to obtain something indirectly or by artifice: to fish for compliments; to fish for information.
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The phrase safe and sound was used before the 14th century and before Shakespeare. It is in the story of the prodigal son taught by Jesus in the Bible. Read Luke 15:27.
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A search of newspaper databases turns up one match that is slightly older than the 1907 instance cited in Hugo's answer. From "Musical Notes," in the [Adelaide, South Australia] Register (August 21, 1905):
Even famous experts are said to be occasionally at fault in identifying old violins. However, among the characteristic features of a Stradivarius ...
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A poseur1 is:
someone who pretends to be something they are not, or to have qualities that they do not have:
You look like a real poseur in your fancy sports car!
1 Cambridge Dictionary
Often spelled informally/colloquially as poser (see Urban Dictionary:
A poser is someone who tries to fit into a profile they aren't. People who try to give off ...
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Do you mean: "Mystic Arts" is the subject of the PhD studies?
Doctor Strange holds a PhD in mystic arts
Or is "Mystic Arts" the name of the university where the PhD was awarded?
Doctor Strange earned PhD from Mystic Arts U
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This could be an variation on the more common phrase
"That ship's already sailed"
This generally refers to a missed opportunity. For example, if you were planning on applying for a job, and then heard that someone had already got it, you might say,
"Well, looks like that ship has already sailed".
Here the ship is a metaphor for the job, but more ...
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Yes. A ship that never left port is used to address a variety of things.
A person who has never moved out of their comfort zone, doesnot venture forth, has not weathered life, hasnot left home, has not experienced life beyond their immediate existence, hasn't 'sailed" - can refer to sex, relationships, etc.
A ship that has never left port usually never will. ...
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An answer by Colin Fine to the duplicate question What’s the origin of the phrase “pay attention”? Did one have to pay monies for this historically? reports that the earliest instance of "pay attention" in the Corpus of Historical American English is from 1822. I have found a number of instances from England and Scotland that are considerably older than that....
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"One plus one is three."
"Hm."
"Hm" is most neutral and least upsetting I've heard.
If you say "right" or "sure," most people will understand you don't take them seriously and they may just get mad.
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Sensitive works here.
highly responsive or susceptible: such as
easily hurt or damaged
especially : easily hurt emotionally
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There are lots of applicable terms. Fragile is common, and is frequently used for someone prone to mental shocks as well as physical. Fragile has plenty of synonyms like delicate, frail, weak, flimsy and brittle, which you can use as the mood takes you.
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The final phrase does not need "that is" but it's unclear whether you expect to receive it or send it before that date. Better would be to add a verb to the latter half and make it a complete clause.
"I will send a copy of my renewed passport as soon as I receive it; that is, I will send it before the 14th of May."
Alternatively, you could reword the ...
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Present perfect progressive tense refers to an action that has occurred in the past and is continuing in the present and/or will continue into the future. Assuming that is what you intend to convey, the sentence is correct as you have written it.
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"This xxx character" can be a little derogatory, depending on the context.
For example, "My son has started hanging around with this Joshua character and ever since his school marks have suffered".
However, if you know Joshua and you are obviously friends, then I think it is fine to say: "Since I got to know Aditya, I had been hearing about this 'Joshua' ...
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Live no more implies die. Whereas it's true that a person would die without air, the point of your sentence is that mankind depends on air as much as fish do on water, so no more belongs before the phrase live without air.
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The Merriam-Webster dictionary doesn't really give a good explanation of this.
From the Oxford Dictionary Online
British, informal slope off: Leave unobtrusively, typically in order to evade work or duty.
‘the men sloped off looking ashamed of themselves’
So it means to leave unobtrusively, under the cover of darkness.
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One word for this would be self-serving:
self-serving (adjective):
serving one's own interests often in disregard of the truth or the interests of others
Synonyms:
egocentric, egoistic (also egoistical), egomaniacal, egotistic (or egotistical), narcissistic, self-absorbed, self-centered, self-concerned, self-infatuated, self-interested, self-...
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Once upon a time, in England, it used to be that we had to climb on board a bus, train or ship. I guess that board means something like a platform. So, we say we're (travelling) on a bus, train or ship.
You cannot go on board a car, but we still say "all aboard!" especially for ships, trains and buses. And we need a boarding pass when we travel by air. ...
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To be the face of something is to be the feature, embodiment or recognised representation of the thing. It can apply to a person (e.g. J.R.'s comment of Steve Jobs as the face of Apple), or even to a concept, as shown in the example given in the following definition:
the face of sth
what you can see of something or what shows:
Poor quality is the ...
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In the context of the article you linked to, that phrase typically means to be a person that a company's brand and public image revolves around. Steve Jobs was this for Apple when he was still alive. A lot of people saw Jobs as what Apple as a company stood for.
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Early instances of 'mother's ruin' as 'gin' not previously noted
Several early instances of "mother's ruin" as a slang term for "gin" have not been noted in previous answers.
First, from Charlotte Cameron, A Woman's Winter in Africa: A 26,000 Mile Journey (London, 1913):
I stare in fascinated horror. He [the steersman] passes it [a bottle of gin] on to ...
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