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What is the meaning of "share our frustration with" in the following sentence,

Many of our fellow shareholders share our frustration with Apple’s capital allocation policies.

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Does it mean "Many of our fellow shareholders and we are frustrated because of Apple's capital allocation polices" ?

Does "with" in the sentence mean "because of"?

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  • 2
    Yes, you have it correct. – Ben Mar 6 at 11:07
  • If so, what is the exact difference in meaning between "Many of our fellow shareholders share our frustration with Apple’s capital allocation policies" and "Many of our fellow shareholders share our frustration because of Apple’s capital allocation policies"? – user22046 Mar 6 at 11:27
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    Because "share" is a verb, it makes "because" ambiguous. Have they chosen to share our pre-existing frustration (which might be caused by something else) because of apple's policies? No. . . . Actually they don't share anything, they have their own separate frustration which happens to be similar in nature. The "share" is an idiomatic way of saying they have similarities, and doesn't mean anything actually passes between them. – Ben Mar 6 at 11:38
  • If so, the frustration might be cause not by "Apple’s capital allocation policies" but by "something else" ? – user22046 Mar 6 at 12:10
  • For example, if she was playing, her legs were seriously injured. So she slept in bed and she had a flu while sleeping. In this situation, can we use the following expression? -->"She was in bed with a flu." ( she was lying in bed not because of flu, but because her leg is hurt, she was lying in bed. And she had a flu lying in bed.) – user22046 Mar 6 at 12:37
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It means that the writer is frustrated about the capital allocation policies, and are asserting that other shareholders are also frustrated about that. You can use a lot of prepositions there:

share our frustration at Apple's capital allocation policies
share our frustration with Apple's capital allocation policies
share our frustration concerning Apple's capital allocation policies
share our frustration regarding Apple's capital allocation policies

To share an emotion is an idiomatic way of of saying you experience something similar. It comes up a lot - "I share your pain", "perhaps you will share my anxiety", "we all share your concern". When you assert that you share someone's emotion, it's intended to create a sense of empathy and fellow-feeling, to make someone feel heard and understood. It can be used to manipulate people. When used about a third party, as here, it is used to assert that you have a lot of support.

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When you and your fellow shareholders share your frustration, you both feel frustrated at/by/with something.

Both sides in the dispute appeared very frustrated at the lack of progress.

We were frustrated by the long delays.

Sometimes he gets really frustrated with his violin playing.

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