What is the meaning of "Very" in this sentence:
He started flailing professionally and found out how hard it is to deal with the very treatment he himself once dished out.
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"Flailing professionally"? O_o Could it be "failing"? – CowperKettle Mar 6 '16 at 19:31
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2very is used for emphasis in the sentence. He found out how it is to deal with the treatment - not any other, but the exact treatment that he himself once dished out. vocabulary.com/dictionary/very, dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/very#british-1-2-1 – MAKZ Mar 6 '16 at 19:34
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@CowperKettle Possibly flail - flounder; struggle uselessly. "I was flailing about in the water.", though I didn't check the linked article. – user3169 Mar 6 '16 at 19:48
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2The word very has been used in the sentence to emphasize the noun treatment; it conveys the sense of exact or the same. – Khan Mar 6 '16 at 20:11
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1I'm voting to close this as a question answerable from any dictionary. – StoneyB on hiatus Mar 6 '16 at 21:29
In your excerpt
the very treatment
is a shorter way to say
the very same treatment
as he himself once dished out
