Questions tagged [phrase-meaning]
Use this tag for questions about the meaning and/or usage of a particular phrase, which a dictionary cannot answer.
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Why does the fictional character use the pronoun "thou" instead of "you"?
In the novel "Emma" by Jane Austen, Mr. K says:
“Another thing must be taken into consideration too—Mrs. Elton does not
talk to Miss Fairfax as she speaks of her. We all know the difference ...
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Proverb request: A person who is very stubborn
In India, we say, "It was a one legged hen."
"This saying may have originated from an incident where a king's cook ate a chicken leg while preparing biryani. When the king asked about ...
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What is the origin and meaning of 'rise and shine'?
What is the origin and meaning of 'rise and shine'? If the sun rises, it must shine. When is it used?
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Is it correct to say "Do all your friends tuck in like that?"?
My daughter's school uniform includes a school shirt and a school skirt. A schoolboy's uniform includes a school shirt and a pair of school shorts (the design of the shirt and shorts are different ...
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Proverb request: "Live within your means."
This is a saying in India. It literally means:
"spread your legs only as much as the blanket allows."
It is advice to live within your means. Avoid overspending and taking on debt to avoid ...
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"See how I feel"?
What I’d like to do is get a couple of fights and rent a nice house. You want to go to the gym sometime? Maybe we could work out again, see how I feel. I was in bad shape last time.
Does this mean &...
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"The same hated one"?
"And so Tully, relating the story of his marriage, crawled through the afternoon, separating nuts from clods until all nuts were the same hated one thrown forever into the bucket."
Does it ...
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Meaning of “Put itself in the wrong”
I would like to ask for help with understanding of “Put itself in the wrong”.
The whole sentence is “With propensity to put itself in the wrong, he only informed us very brifely.
What is the meaning ...
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word choice: athletics or athletic meeting
Are the following phrases both okay in American English? How do they differ in meaning, if at all?
athletic meeting
athletics meeting
The Cambridge dictionary has the following phrases:
an ...
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meaning of "as... as could be"
They stood chatting together as naturally as could be.
I understand it means:
They stood chatting together naturally to X extent.
but does
x = the most natural degree they can achieve（implying they ...
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Why can we say "Where is THERE?" but not "Where is HERE?" to find out about a place?
On TV, a woman who thinks she is sent from outer space is talking about how she exchanged souls with something from the space. Here is a part from the conversation:
Presenter: Where did your soul go ...
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Though able enough? Compatible?
He was trying to be compatible. Though able enough, he felt he was a lover more from duty than from inclination. With his wife he had not had to try. From her he had met with reprimands for ...
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get yourself set up
On TV, someone is warning how to avoid scammers in buying concert tickets. She says:
"....but for this weekend get yourself set up, only buy from the registered official sites, and do not get ...
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What is the difference between the three sentences?
Exhausted by the work,Jane got a cup of coffee and sat down.
Jane,exhausted by the work,got a cup of coffee and sat down.
Jane got a cup of coffee and sat down, exhausted by the work.
What is the ...
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" did" or "do"?
"What did you want to do that for?”
“You can count on me right down the line,” he said.
“You want to knock your brains out?”
“You can count on me. Don’t you believe me?"
"I get along ...
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What does this translated phrase convey "The heart refuses to obey."?
Dil hai ki manta nahin
is a phrase from a popular Hindi song and movie of the same name. Literally translated, it means "The heart doesn't listen" or "The heart refuses to obey."
...
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Do you say "I will look/watch out for my friend that needs to be protected" or "I will look/watch out for the one that might hurt my friend"?
What is the meaning of the preposition "for" in "watch out for" and "watch out for"?
This are examples from dictionaries
You should look out for pickpockets. (in this ...
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What's the meaning of "running us off an embankment"?
I married white next time and all he was good for was running us off an embankment. Marrying him was the biggest mistake of my life. He had unnatural desires. (Fat City, Leonard Gardner · 2017)
Does ...
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What's the meaning of "right off" here?
“What did you say? Listen, I don’t have to take that. You’re liable to get backhanded right off that stool someday.”
“See if I care one bit. That's all I need. Go ahead if it'll make you happy. Knock ...
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What's the meaning of "he can score" here?
From the the novel "Fat City":
“That’s right, sure, they won’t go for just anybody.”
“If the right guy comes along he can score.”
“Everybody’s got a mate somewhere.”
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What does the phrase "Never has someone been so wrong for being so right" mean?
I came across this comment on a YouTube video:
Never has someone been so wrong for being so right
What does this phrase mean? Is it saying that the person is actually right but everyone thinks they ...
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Is it rude for me to say to my grandma, "you are easy on the eyes"?
Collins dictionary says
easy on the eye informal: pleasant to look at; attractive, esp sexually
I have just watched "Fly Me to the Moon".
In the film, a woman said to her friend about a ...
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doing the dirty
On television I heard an American woman say about her pregnant teenage daughter: "I thought she was a neat girl, not doing the dirty."
I assume that "doing the dirty" is a rather ...
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Do we use the verb "eat" or "cry" alone to express sudden actions?
Does it sound right to say "The man was talking to the woman when she cried" and "Suddenly, out of nowhere, a big fish ate my finger"?
I guess "cry" and "eat" ...
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Let's talk about this
Looking for better understanding about the below phrase.
Let's talk about this.
Is this phrase used to explain anything in step by step way?
As always! Thank You.
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That is a statement from the West Mercia Police there
On TV, they are talking to a woman whose father killed her mom. When they are talking the police sent a statement about what they had done before the incident. The TV presenter read it and said:
"...
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"English speaking cafe" OR "English spoken cafe"?
There are some cafes where learners go to chat and improve their speaking skills by talking to people. In these cafes, only English is spoken and local language is not used, which is a good way of ...
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What does "the sad gang" mean?
In "Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes" Rob Wilkins writes:
I was definitely a reader of Terry Pratchett. An avid
one, in fact – one whose appearances in the queue at Pratchett book
...
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Do we use "land on one's feet" when we make an effort to get out of a bad situation or we get out of it by luck?
Cambridge dictionary says
land on your feet idiom
to be in good condition after a difficult experience:
She lost her job last year, but she landed on her feet and found
another one a week later.
...
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What does "Blow this" mean from the move "The Secret Dare to Dream"?
I screen recorded the portion of the movie to help you understand the context.
I have 2 questions in here.
Does "blow this" means to cancel the engagement? I could not find any suitable ...
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I was totally off on you
On a TV show, the guests are shown 5 people and are listened to them with a short sentence, who could sound as UK or US accents, and the guests are expect to guess where they really are from. One of ...
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What connotation does "break out the checkbook" have?
I think "break out" means (verb transitive) (idiomatic) to bring out, use, or present as explained in here
or To present something for use, especially something that had been stored out of ...
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Proverb request - for counseling newly married couples
Is there a proverb in English to advise married couples to ignore small arguments?
In a South Indian language there is a proverb:
When pots and pans meet, there would be some noise..
It implies that ...
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"Not many can say that is there."
A 105 year old lady is telling about her feelings. She says:
I mean I have lived here 105 years. Not many can say that is there. No. 105 year.
BBC- elderly lived in the same house for 105 years (see:...
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The crisis by Thomas Paine 2: Questions about the paragraph of "Tories: ... kept a tavern at Amboy..." [closed]
I once felt all that kind of anger, which a man ought to feel, against
the mean principles Q0 that are held by the Tories: a noted one, who kept
a tavern at Amboy, was standing at his door, with as ...
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What does the word exception mean in this phrase?
I was reading an article on Burmese pythons in Florida and came across this sentence:
“Because of their large size, adult Burmese pythons have few predators, with humans being the exception”
What ...
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Is "Non-Trivial amount of work" a correct phrase?
I have been saying "Non-Trivial amount of work" for several years now to imply "sizeable/large chunk of work".
I am pretty sure I learned this phrase like hundreds of other phrases ...
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Does "go with the flow" have 2 meanings?
According to Cambridge Dictionary
go with the flow: to do what other people are doing or agree with the
opinions of others:
When you’re new in a school, it’s easiest to just go with the flow for
a ...
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Life lands you at the deep end
We were discussing the meaning of a sentence in Spanish in the corresponding sister site but it results that it was an automatic translation of an English one taken from Quora
For me, Europe is the ...
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Does "a mental condition" mean "a mental state" or "a mental problem"? If it means both, are both senses common?
My assumption is that both senses are common and what a mental condition means depends on the context. For example:
My mental condition isn't good these days. I'm under a lot of stress. (mental state)...
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What is the meaning of "I've been bound up lately."?
What is the meaning of "I've been bound up lately."?
Is that related to the constipation or to the fact that he has been involved in lots of stuff. I have not found in the dictionaries the ...
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How do we know which sides are the width, height, thick, length...?
This is a heater in a standing position. How do we know which side is the width, height, thickness, length, etc.?
Is this picture correct?
Or is this one correct?
How do we know what to call each ...
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Idiom request : a very small amount compared with what is needed
I'm looking for an English equivalent to the Hindi phrase:
Feeding cumin seeds to a camel.
Cumin seeds would not sate a camel's hunger. In fact, it is as good as giving nothing.
This phrase can be ...
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What is the difference between "the problem about", "the problem of", and "the problem with”?
An acquaintance who is learning English as a second language was asking this question. Even though I am a native English, I am not entirely sure how to answer it.
Here are some examples that I managed ...
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So we have heard!
When you want to say that you have come to know of a certain information from others, I have seen people first narrate what they have heard and then finally say something like, "so I have heard ...
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The meaning of "save by tower" from "A Dog of Flanders"
I found that "save" means "except for" in a dictionary. But I don't understand why after "save" comes "by" in a sentence below.
I quoted some sentences.
...
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What is the difference between "Donald Trump just got shot at!" and "Donald Trump just got shot!"?
(i) Donald Trump just got shot at!
(ii) Donald Trump just got shot!
I saw a tweet with the former text but it was edited as the later then.
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location of dance classes
The pie chart description says "location of dance classes", which confuses me. I don't know it's 48% of what? Does the pie chart represent dance classes or participants?
48% of dance ...
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Does "I rushed to do homework" mean I quickly went to my homework and did it at any rate (maybe be fast or slow) or I did the homework quickly?
The dictionary says
rush to do something: to do something very quickly and without delay
I rushed to pack my suitcase before she came back.
He rushed to help his comrade.
Does "I rushed to do ...
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Phrase request for the idiom "frog in a well"?
I was arguing with my Indian friend, and he called me frog in a well in my native language (hindi)
I had not heard that phrase before, and found it very clever and on-point (not for me, but in general)...
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