New answers tagged meaning
2
The capital letter indicates that ‘Spring’ is being used in the sense “the season between winter and summer”.
How can something be both “as young as Spring” and “as ancient as Spring”? This is a paradox, and to resolve it we have to think of Spring in two different ways. Spring is “young” because it is the first season of the calendar year, and because it ...
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This link shows a copy of the Nuremberg iron maiden where you can clearly see its campanulate qualities https://literature.fandom.com/wiki/The_Squaw
Noah's Ark sets were a popular item in the 19th and early 20th centuries; the book Youth Cultures in America [2 volumes]edited by Simon J. Bronner, Cindy Dell Clark. states:
Animal shaped toys carved from ...
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"Bar" means "except for," "with the exception of."
"I guess I've not had enjoyment like this since I left Noo York. [Except for] a scrap with a French sailor at Wapping-an' that warn't much of a picnic neither."
"Bar" in this sense is still widely used.
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The implication seems to be that Dr Buford preferred to spend time gardening instead of being a social climber. We don't have much more information about him in the story, so this passage is nearly all we have to go on, but:
"his obsession was anything that grew in the ground"
This suggests he was a keen gardener, like his daughter Miss Maudie:
Miss ...
22
Here’s a bit more context from chapter 6:
He [Frodo] turned round and listened, and soon there could be no doubt: someone was singing a song; a deep glad voice was singing carelessly and happily, but it was singing nonsense:
Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo!
Ring a dong! hop along! fal lal the willow!
Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo!
...
0
Laconic:
using or involving the use of a minimum of words : concise to the point of seeming rude or mysterious
So basically, it's indicating this piece doesn't require a lot of words to express itself. "Laconic" also tends to imply that this terseness is intentional.
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Jack Finch is teasing Miss Maudie, playfully but unsuccessfully trying to annoy her.
To get somebody's goat, as Matt Thrower said in comments, means to make them annoyed or angry. As it says at the start of the paragraph, Miss Maudie and Jack Finch had known each other since they were children. He feels that she teases him a lot (he is "the first person she ...
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The (1976) second reprint on archive.org refers to it as a brass thurible. Given that the word brass is notched, it's possible that your version was OCR'd from the archive version.
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The earliest use in literature that I could find of this now fairly common Jewish saying seems to be from Victor Gollantz's (1953) "My Dear Timothy" and which offers this explanation;
In the crowded lobby people, before they went in, wished one another
"well over the Fast", meaning by it "I hope the fasting won't make you
ill".
This being the case, ...
0
TL;DR: The speaker does not actually want to be a pagan.
In this sonnet, the octave describes the spiritual inadequacy of modern life, and the sestet describes a more attractive but still untenable alternative. The question that is implied by the poem is thus: since we have lost our spiritual relationship with Nature, and since we cannot go back to paganism,...
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Da Vinci's drains
As remarked in a page of Notes and Queries (I found this at Wikisource, but I'm not sure exactly what document it's a page from!), this simply refers to the fact that Leonardo da Vinci was a famous hydraulic engineer.
In particular, he worked on draining the Pontine Marshes and made a plan to divert the River Arno. Although now most ...
3
To answer one of your questions, Googling, I found a version of Aurora Leigh that had a footnote referencing Matthew 2:3. Looking this up, we find that Matthew 2:2-4 reads
So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received ...
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TL;DR: ‘Helium’ is a misprint for ‘hellum’ which is a dialect spelling of ‘helm’.
Let’s get the easier parts out of the way before we tackle ‘helium’. The Toad is a “sloop, of 8,825–10,000 registered tonnage”. I don’t really understand this description—a ‘sloop’ is normally a sailing vessel with a single fore-and-aft rigged mast, but a vessel of 10,000 ...
5
Maggie was making it clear that the chickens were for meat, not for eggs. But Sarah loved them as pets, and the author is telling us that he/she knew that this would happen. It's not a joke, it's more of a fond comment about Sarah's kind nature.
3
It's hyperbole, suggesting that a huge sum of money had been spent on cosmetic dentistry. You can also tell from the reference to his height and the floppy blonde hair that Barry is creating a character from a relatively wealthy background.
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"sniper material" means somebody who is naturally cut out to be a sniper. You hear it fairly commonly in a complimentary form as in "he's university material". Here it's being used as an insult, it's saying he's a natural born psycho killer.
Collins online dictionary gives:
a person who has qualities suitable for a given occupation...
That boy is not ...
1
The title is obviously also a homage to, or play on, Rabbit Redux by Updike. The word redux has been more commonly used since its publication.
Wiktionary says this:
The word may have re-entered popular usage in the United States with the 1971 publication of the novel Rabbit Redux by John Updike,[1][2] although it had previously been used in medicine,...
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Suckled here means 'raised', or 'brought up '. Outworn means old-fashioned or outdated. So it means 'I'd rather be a Pagan brought up in an outdated religion'.
So might I means "then (or thus) might I". But 'So' also has a sense of 'if'.
"I had been happy if the general camp,/Pioneers and all, had tasted
her sweet body./So I had nothing known."[Othello ...
0
As per the comments, and so that we have an answer present, "horse" is a slang term for heroin, so the simile being used is comparing the road to a hypodermic needle, and Oedipa as a dose of a drug, but one which would not be missed if not present.
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I think he says that he would take the ring out of pity for the hobbit.
He talks about the weakness of the hobbit (being a small and fragile creation) which would make him (Gandalf) want to help him out of pity and his personal desire to do good.
However, he knows taking the ring would also corrupt him, and only the innocence of the hobbits can carry the ...
3
These are ordinary English words and phrases that you should be able to find in a dictionary, for example:
when (also if) it comes to it and variants: when (or if) the time comes for essential, decisive, or important action; should it become (absolutely) necessary; ultimately.
Put (a person) to it. To force, challenge, or require (a person) to do ...
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What Gandalf is saying is that he would be tempted to take up the ring to have the power to help other people, rather than because he desires power for personal gain, or for the sake of having power.
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The context of this sentence is Gandalf’s description of the search for Gollum:
‘But I am afraid there is no possible doubt: he had made his slow, sneaking way, step by step, mile by mile, south, down at last to the Land of Mordor. […] Alas! Mordor draws all wicked things,
and the Dark Power was bending all its will to gather them there. The Ring of the ...
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I've read the Wikipedia summary of the story and I'm sure your interpretation is the only likely one. After describing the violence and cruelty of the man, Mrs. Ronder is clearly not expressing regret at his leaving her alone. At first glance "deserted me for others" doesn't seem quite right, but I think it is a euphemism.
She is simply saying 'he slept ...
2
To the tally of my soul
A tally is indeed a state of correspondence or agreement, but still a question remains: What's the tally of a soul? In other words: What does the soul of the narrator corresponds to?
The answer is found earlier in the poem:
And the voice of my spirit tallied the song of the bird.
And again at the last strophe:
The song, the ...
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