New answers tagged meaning
2
I think we are to parse the 'something' as belonging with the 'which characterises' rather than being the something that is caught or missed. I imagine that the same sentence written today would have a break of some sort following 'missing'. eg
The crowded street had all that prosperous air of catching or missing - something which characterises the town ...
1
The gutter is
a channel at the lower edge of a roof for carrying away rain, or a side of a road that is lower than the center of the road, where water and garbage collects:
That is, they become like the leaves, not only after they have fallen off the tree, but when they are clumped up as refuses.
"Sour", on the other hand, reads like a metaphor: ...
4
It may have a double meaning.
Perverse can iteslf mean
showing a deliberate and obstinate desire to behave in a way that is unreasonable or unacceptable
and
contrary to the accepted or expected standard or practice.
(both definitions from Oxford Languages via Google)
Depictions of the Madonna predominantly show her with downcast eyes either in modesty or ...
3
Bluntschli has spent fifteen years as a soldier, in "barracks and battles". He has lived a life of adventure, which for him has been a serious business, with his very life frequently at risk.
He suggests that Raina, being much younger than he is, has "her imagination full of fairy princes and noble natures and cavalry charges and goodness ...
2
If you had two people on a plain with a single hill, and one of them was to the east of the hill, that one would cease to see the sun at any earlier time than the other.
However, an astronomer calculating the sunset for a given longitude and latitude would not take into account such variation but only a mathematical definition of the horizon. These are the ...
4
Vicki observes that Dexter eats in an incredibly sloppy, even disgusting, way. She thinks that the worst thing about the entire situation is the way he eats; he could not possibly be any more off-putting. Nothing at all could match the awfulness of his table manners. So you are correct: Vicki is thinking that "now things can only get better," ...
3
‘Things can only get better’ is a general phrase expressing optimism for the future after bad experiences. Similar to ‘the only way is up’, it expresses the view that the worst is past and improving circumstances are inevitable.
This is a standard phrase with no particular special meaning in context.
(Edit: Having dug about a bit more at the plot of this ...
5
My reading of it is that it is a wry jab at the 'sort of people who make laws about lighting bicycle lamps'. The narrator judges them to be bossy sort of people who like their word to be law. Hence if the sun did not set at its appointed time they would demand that the sun provide them with an adequate explanation of his aberrant behaviour.
The rules ...
2
“Opportunity” by Walter Malone
As you might observe from some of my previous posts, I like to keep things in context; so, before addressing your question about the last two lines of this poem, I find it prudent to unpack the previous lines first for sake of continuity.
They do me wrong who say I come no more
When once I knock and fail to find you in;
For ...
5
Both parts of the phrase here are used in their dictionary meaning, but in a sarcastically sadistic manner, as with many things with Bonhart.
"To take pains" means to try very hard. One would think Bonhart was referring to having to cut the group's heads off and whatnot, but it's hardly a lot of work for him - he had just killed them all very ...
2
I think that this is intended as a deliberate, humorous mispronunciation of "domestic", which would be short for "domestic servant".
A possible origin would as a childish "eggcorn". In particular, a young child (many of whom have difficulties with "R") might mistake the word "domestic" for the word "...
3
I think the sentence refers back to what was said just a little earlier. Phyllis said "Don't be foolish. Sit down. Isn't washing one's head awful?"
So I think when she says "You are--aren't you?" she means to say "You are foolish, aren't you?". She's making fun of his feeble answer. I think it makes sense because she was also ...
17
Quoting Wikipedia
After the outbreak of World War I the Defence of the Realm Act was
passed by Parliament in 1914. One section of the Act concerned the
hours pubs could sell alcohol, as it was believed that alcohol
consumption would interfere with the war effort. It restricted
opening hours for licensed premises to luncheon (12:00 to 14:40) and
supper (18:...
9
The Oxford English Dictionary gives the following definition for 'Drumstick':
Used of a person. Obsolete.
The precise implication of this use in the 17th cent. is unclear, although with quot. 1602 cf. drum n.1 2b. Later examples generally have some implication of thinness or tallness.
None of the examples given are as late as the setting of the ...
3
A settlement of
six thousand pounds at four and a half per cent
means that £6,000 has been invested at a return of 4.5% interest on the capital. The interest is paid out to the investor, whoever the person the investor has ‘settled’ it on. In this case it is Mrs Larne who is so ‘entitled’.
The lady is about to receive the first of her quarterly ...
2
Apricot here is a color, the color of the horizon as the sun was setting.
2
Yes, it roughly means something like "a tiny bit" or "minimally".
It's an odd case where dictionary definitions aren't very useful since almost all the examples given are in negative clauses ("not in the least unfriendly", "wasn’t the least bit shy") - it's quite hard to find any examples of its usage in a positive ...
4
The words "access" and "excess" ultimately derive from Latin. The Online Etymology Dictionary has the following entry for access (emphasis added):
(...), from Old French acces "onslaught, attack; onset (of an illness)" (14c.), from Latin accessus "a coming to, an approach; way of approach, entrance," noun use of past ...
4
These lines are examples of metaphors - a figure of speech that equates two things for the purposes of comparison or symbolism, without the two being literally the same. The towel on the washing line is not literally a matador's cape, but the poem gives us the image that it is moving in the same way, thanks to the wind.
The movement in the wind of each piece ...
1
Set means, assuming these people are in a band, means the group of songs they perform. Rather than take a break after each song, or not take a break at all they take a break between each ‘set’.
‘Mazing’ just represents his pronunciation of ‘amazing’, some people say it that way. The mild stammer may be a factor but that isn’t necessary to explain the ...
0
I came across an article entitled Utility Futility, which discusses Britain's WW2 Utility scheme.
The article expands upon the word Utility and its associated negative meanings which were present before the commissioning of the scheme.
It could be that what Hughes had in mind were these negative, mockery meanings, which may had prevailed even after the ...
1
The phrase is essentially an abbreviated version of ‘a good deal of sense’, which online searches will show you is a common phrase in British English (and probably other Englishes as well). It has a slightly dated feel as a phrase, having increased steeply in popularity between the 1950s and 1980 then dropped away again:
6
Walkinshaw has just said that the two men who were with Markenmore were strangers. Chilford's response is:
You cannot be sure they were strangers. Markenmore might have known them from before, as he has business dealings with a wide range of people. You are assuming that Markenmore came to this area to meet his brother and sister. But it is equally probable ...
0
This is a supplement to the excellent answers already provided. The Tempest is one of 18 plays which were first published in the 1623 First Folio, so all subsequent editions derive from the Folio text. The differences in the various editions cited in the question all reflect decisions made by the editors of those particular editions.
A facsimile of the First ...
1
Not just metaphor. I think he may also be referring to that fact that while sailing you literally feel headwind more than tailwind. If you are sailing at a given speed you can subtract that speed from a tailwind, or add it to a headwind, and thats how much wind you will feel. I've heard this called 'apparent wind' by sailors.
2
I don't think Crow is the subject of a judicial scene. The title "Examination at the Womb-Door" suggests that Crow is being tested before he can be born. The last line, "Pass, Crow," reveals that Crow has passed the test and is able to pass the gate into birth.
The questions, then, aren't mocking or moral in nature. They are existential. ...
0
"dawning," in this context, could mean that the smile was growing more friendly, but given the reason, I suspect it means that Elizabeth deduced that the dawning awareness of the girl that she had seen Elizabeth on TV.
The "tin machine" does indeed mean that the machine was made of tin. Such machines are often cheap, compared to more ...
1
The "Pythagorean maxim" bit has several meanings.
First, it's a poetic way of saying that you are much more likely to encounter hardships (headwinds) than ease and comfort (winds from astern).
Second, it's referring to the fact that when sailing, it is possible to sail into a headwind (although its not as fast as having the wind at your back) but ...
1
Interesting info on where "hawk a loogie" might come from, which answers the original question as well I think.
To hawk a loogie is a slang phrase meaning to expectorate a glob of phlegm from the back of the throat. It comes in many variants. Hawk is often hock or hang, and loogie can be looey, louie, or lunger. The phrase is the coming together of ...
1
Neruda’s first two lines seems to set the tone for most of the rest of the poem
No te amo como si fueras rosa de sal, topacio
o flecha de claveles que propagan el fuego:
The “rosa de sal” connotes a beautiful/useful thing that forms on surfaces, while the rest are all showy, outer, things (for “rosa de sal” see wikipedia under “fleur de sel”).
These lines ...
0
As in English, the first month of the Spanish year is named after Janus, the Greek double-faced god, who looks behind at the past year and forward toward the new. Janus was also the god of thresholds, liminal spaces and doors, likely accounting for all the back and forth in the narrator’s words and the reference to the “key.”
Some more information from ...
7
In context, it surely means clearing phlegm from the throat and spitting.
There are a few meanings of the word "hawk", but just two main meanings (or collections of related meanings) as an intransitive verb, and one of them doesn't really fit here:
to hunt birds by means of a trained hawk (see hawk entry 1 sense 1) : to practice falconry
to soar ...
2
A couple of points in the question need clarification. First, Elinor's thoughts are not about Marianne's reaction to Willoughby's letter. They are in response to Marianne's view of Mrs Jennings, their well-intentioned but interfering hostess in London. Marianne is convinced that Mrs Jennings' kindly interest in her situation is simply driven by a desire for ...
2
I tend to think that Neruda is talking about the possibility or potential of the man in the poem engendering a child with the unnamed woman and that, were this to occur, this potential child (or the life flowing through the child’s veins) would then, through her/his existence, “ground”him (a “sailor” who, instead, would like to have a woman waiting at every ...
2
Exactly. An "imbalance" would indicate a lack of proportion -- he loved her much more than she loved him.
I would say -- in view of the "knit meaning" -- that he used the past to interpret his present, so that it did not seem pointless and meaningless. This may not solve problems but it would lend them significance.
The anecdotes do ...
2
Both phrases are borrowed from Frank Hamilton Cushing's Zuñi Folk Tales (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1901).
Below is a passage that uses the word "háni" (in Átahsaia, the cannibal demon):
One bright morning in summer-time, the elder sister called to the younger, "Háni!"
"What sayest thou?" said the háni.
Based on this, háni would ...
20
“Three-part” means “three-quarter”:
three-part, adj. b. = three parts, n.
three parts, n. Three out of four equal parts, three quarters.
Oxford English Dictionary.
“Three-quarter moon” means “gibbous moon”, that is, a moon that is more than half but less than fully illuminated. A citation for this sense:
the greater part of the bright side is seen, and it ...
1
A three-part moon is, apparently, just the moon. As the Wikipedia page about the Triple Goddess that the question links to says, modern Pagan usage such as Wicca considers the moon's waxing, full, and waning phases to be three parts of a single deity, usually identified with Hecate. Another reference to the three-part moon goddess is in a post on the ...
0
Its sarcasm.
It can be broken down/understood this way:
You think its funny.
This could be a neutral statement, or a criticism.
In this case it feels like a criticism.
Notice the phrase "You think". Not it is funny or isn't, but "you think it is". They are drawing attention to the other persons belief/interpretation of it, not ...
3
This is meant sarcastically. A more accurate word than sarcasm would be antiphrasis. Antiphrasis is the rhetorical device of saying the opposite of what is actually meant in such a way that it is obvious what the true intention is.
1
You are correct, ordinary business of their lives means "usual activities of their lives." Business is not restricted to job here. It means, literally, the things that keep you busy or occupied, or the things that concern you, as in the phrase mind your own business. Garner specifies the sorts of things she means:
To marry, to have children; to ...
1
To "conduct the ordinary business of one's life" means to do the ordinary things that one does every day (or almost every day): going to work, return home after work, buying food, possibly walking the dog, etcetera. The text assumes that people habitually follow roughly the same route to work and back, go to the same few shops on a regular basis, ...
3
This is Australian spoken English and the phrase is fairly common. I would argue "I'm glad you think it's funny" in this context is meant both ways by the character. It's both "I'm glad you think it's funny" [because I don't] and "I'm glad you think it's funny" [because at least one person got enjoyment out of it]. They're not ...
28
One of the big problems in written English is representing spoken conversation.
When someone speaks, they typically emphasize certain words. HTML even provides a tag for this:
The placement of stress emphasis changes the meaning of the sentence. The element thus forms an integral part of the content. The precise way in which stress is used in this way ...
13
You're right, "I'm glad you think it's funny" is used sarcastically. It is almost always used in that way. For example, if I trip and fall and you start laughing, I might say to you: "I'm glad you think it's funny." Presumably Athena is laughing at Dexter's having been caught in a tedious conversation, and he is responding to her laughter ...
2
Here’s another translation of I.206:
While he [Cyrus] was busied about this labour [that is, bridging the Araxes], Tomyris sent a herald and said thus: “O king of the Medes, cease to press forward the work which thou art now pressing forward; for thou canst not tell whether these things will be in the end for thy advantage or no; cease to do so, I say, and ...
9
nut, n. 6.c. British slang. A fashionable or showy young man. Cf. knut n., nutty adj. 4. Obsolete.
1904 in Notes & Queries (1913) 26 July 78/1 I'm one of the nuts, one of the nibs.
1913 Punch 12 Feb. 115/1 Spring socks will be black and Spring ties a quiet blue. A strike of nuts is expected at any moment.
1920 W. J. Locke House of Baltazar xvii....
0
Gareth Rees's answer is of course correct in pointing out that (a) the poem is unlikely to be Herrick's, and (b) the version in the question is truncated and with the punctuation altered. However, the last verse does make meaning in both versions.
First, the version the question cites:
Cupid is winged, and doth range
Her country; so my heart doth change.
...
6
To make sense of the last lines, it might be proper to put them in thematic context of the first lines. This somewhat cryptic poem manages to succinctly weave together three different themes: women’s rights; slavery; and (in terms of Christian theology) the doctrine of man. Some external evidence would be the time period in which Dickinson lived (1830-1886) ...
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