New answers tagged meaning-in-context
2
Her agent would have been the person who found venues for her lectures and organised the business arrangements.
1
The fact that 'Hermanns' is capitalised tells you that it is a proper noun (a name). 'All the Herrmans that ever breathed (lived)' means 'Herrman, and all of the people like him or her (in some relevant way) that have ever lived'. Herrman would be someone that the writer expects the reader to have heard of. 'All the Lady Gagas' would be understood to mean '...
0
Yes, so refers to resigned. He is saying, in a very convoluted manner, that he feels more resigned to Lizzy's refusal because he is beginning to think she wouldn't have suited him anyway.
BTW, it's Austen with an 'e'!
2
To plot a route on a map is, in its most literal sense, to draw a line on it indicating the path you intend to travel; plot here is a verb in the same sense as plotting a graph. The phrase is also used metaphorically when nobody is actually drawing a line, or indeed has an actual map to draw on, but is deciding upon the course a planned journey of any sort, ...
0
Here is an interpretation -
Who is One, Quadberry or narrator?
It's the impersonal, general meaning of the word "one", as in:
"One must look both ways when crossing the street."
This is the same as "You should look both ways when crossing the street" or "Everybody should look both ways when crossing the street"
engage himself?
"to occupy oneself"...
0
As for the specific question being asked, you would be much more likely to encounter "profits show improvement over time", or some other variation using "over" (at least in US usage, I suppose elsewhere may differ).
1
Yes, the preposition "with" can be used as you propose.
From Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
on using "persist" in a sentence:
The reporter persisted with his questioning.
on recent examples from the Web:
The additional returns that investors demand to hold corporate bonds
are increasing as market volatility persists from coronavirus concerns
and ...
0
'May' in this context could be replaced with 'might' in contemporary English. E.g., "Let me alone, then, that my wrath may blaze up...," could be written as, "Leave me alone, then, so that my wrath might blaze up..."
1
The text you quoted is a bit hard to follow (it probably could have been written a bit better, in my opinion), but:
In terms of basic grammar, "the actors humble" is actually a contraction of "the actors were humble" (with the word "were" ellipsized out). This means that "humble" is referring to the noun "the actors".
Now, does "the actors" refer to the ...
1
A bit of a struggle, this one, isn't it? The words are a bit ambiguous, and the precise meaning isn't entirely clear. I will say that they first put out the light, meaning the electric light. "Two candles were lit on the table" could have either meaning that you describe, but my feeling is that the writer intends to say (since it isn't a "dark sitting") that ...
1
It is definitely weird-sounding. If you say my sister is showing me a sh*t you are definitely referring to a specific pile of fecal matter, and most probably one created ("taken," we would say) by your sister. Not likely to be what really happened. But if you leave out the a or put some in there instead, the word can refer to pretty much anything.
If you ...
1
Your feeling about the right form is correct. This sense of "some sh*t" is equivalent to "some stuff" or "some junk", meaning something something not important enough to be described.
4
This isn't really an issue of "Bible English" versus "modern English" or "religious language" versus "secular language", but simply that the word "may" has multiple definitions. You can find the same issue you're talking about in everyday writing today.
The word "may" can be an expression of hopeful intent. Like, "May you find happiness in your marriage".
...
18
First, a note on "biblical language." Feel free to skip ahead to the answer, below the horizontal rule.
Let's be careful when we talk about "biblical language." The Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) was originally written in Biblical Hebrew and Biblical Aramaic. The Christian New Testament was probably originally written in Koine Greek. These texts have been ...
2
‘May’ is often used in religious language as a wishful benediction, but — as you have seen — not always. The usage of ‘may’ is more like an indicator of ‘I want this to happen’. So the sentences would become ‘I want God to bless you’ and ‘I want your children to always be healthy and happy’, and lastly ‘I want my wrath to blaze up against them to consume ...
1
Contemporary, as dictionaries show, can have two meanings:
(1) existing or happening now
(2) belonging to the same, or a stated, period in the past
Since the piece is discussing events not long after 1881, I think it is clear that the second of these is intended.
Contemporary (Cambridge Dictionary)
3
"contemporary" has the basic meaning of "from the same time period". There are two derived senses: From the same time period as now (ie the time of writing) or from the same time period as then (ie at the time described). We have to use context to determine which sense is meant. This makes "contemporary" a difficult word to understand.
Here we are talking ...
1
No, it's ordinary "but".
"Somebody who is the most pronounced sceptic, but also the most honest sceptic".
0
Someone says, “me”. You do not know who spoke. Thus, you do not know who “me” refers to.
That’s deixis. Thus, “me” is a deictic reference.
Deictic time is not so simple, because we all have the same “now”. However, if you find “tomorrow” written in a page that has been torn out of a diary, you do not know when this “tomorrow” is. That is deictic ...
1
"Full form" here does refer to a whole body. It refers to the entirety of the thing being referenced. In this case the thing that has been referenced is the hands so full form would refer to the entire thing(we can assume here that it would be a human or similar) including the hands
The "chiefly" refers to the entire list that follows it. So it mostly ...
2
You have used ‘persist’ correctly. However, if the commission is undergoing criticism, it would be excellent to include that, as well as who is doing the criticism, if you haven’t mentioned it elsewhere. It would be good to include because it’s information that would help the reader understand two things: what the commission is persisting in spite of, and ...
0
In Australia…
I would understand “I am pretty sure” by the tone of voice used.
“I am pretty sure”, spoken in a held-back sort of way, would mean that I am now wondering if I was wrong, and I am inviting comment. Alternatively, it might be a polite way of suggesting that someone else is wrong — e.g. “I am pretty sure that… if we keep going down this ...
3
In the text, ‘the game’ is referring to wild animals; it is saying that your dog will chase after them if you’re cross-country skiing in valleys with wild animals, because the dog will want to chase after them. The wild animals (the game) will have little chance to escape from your dog.
Hope this helps!
0
To have someone or something under one's skin means to have a mental 'itch', an obsession, or preoccupation, towards the subject. As stated above it is often used to describe romantic feelings about someone.
2
It's a set phrase or idiom. If something or someone gets under your skin, it means you are constantly thinking or obsessing about that thing or person.
I cannot really speak for the quality of the Spanish translation. Using Google translate Te llevo bajo mi piel comes back into English as "I wear you under my skin". Given the metaphorical nature of the ...
1
To simper is to 'to smile in a silly or annoying way'; some dictionaries say 'smile in a silly, affected, or ingratiating manner'. To state that someone does these things is to say a negative thing about them.
Simper (Cambridge)
Simper (Merriam-Webster)
2
To "make something work" means to make it operate correctly. Like if I said, "My car wouldn't start, but I took it to a mechanic and he made it work again", I would mean that he got it to start and presumably run correctly.
Here he is talking about the connection between the brain and the spinal cord. He's talking about transplanting a person's head onto ...
1
The verb here is "to have". The simple past tense of "to have" is "had". The past perfect tense of "to have" is "had had". So one of these sentences is using the simple past tense and the other is using the past perfect tense.
The past perfect is generally used to indicate some past event happened before some other past event (so in this case, it ...
0
Those are both perfectly fine. There is no difference in semantics or nuance.
0
The use of "that" here is essentially the sense defined in 4a of https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/that:
4a: the one : the thing : the kind : SOMETHING, ANYTHING
// the truth of that which is true
// the senses are that whereby we experience the world
// what's that you say
That is, it means basically "...such as the one disclosed..."
...
0
The singular "time" here means one occurrence or event or "occasion" as Oxford mentions. "At a time" means "during each event." There may be some ambiguity in certain cases as others have pointed out, but the main idea can generally be determined from the context. If I take my pills four at a time, that could mean I'm swallowing all four pills in one gulp or ...
0
The briefest is often the best:
Five people responsible for the failure were fired.
This sentence leaves out "who were" after "people" -- a common way of keeping sentences brief. I use fired rather than dismissed to be clear that they lost their jobs, not just an assignment or rank.
1
A jury makes decisions based on provable facts, not from rumour or gossip.
So the question
Is there, in reality, anything, as lawyers would say, to go to a jury with?
means
Is there enough evidence to convince anyone that [sceances, levitation etc] are genuine?
1
Holy compound sentence Batman.
Yes. Or at least they should not be disregarded.
But even an imposture may call for unmasking, And popular delusions howeverabsurd, are often too important to be neglected by the wiser portion of mankind .
Could be
()Popular delusions () are () too important to be neglected by the wiser portion of mankind .
But note ...
1
To answer this question we need to learn some basic terminology in typography:
type: The term type is used generally to mean letters and other characters assembled into pages for printing or other means of reproduction
Leading: (it's pronounced LEDing - as in the metal lead)Leading is the spacing between the baselines of type. The term leading is ...
0
"put simply" or "simply put" is used for saying that you are just giving the basic facts about a complicated situation.
source
0
The word "level" appears four times in that story. The first appearance is at the beginning, where it appears in the first sentence "... the level Nebraska plain...".
In the sentence you quote, it means that he walked across the land, which is very flat.
32
John Milton was an important poet in the 17th century. He is most well known for a long epic poem called Paradise Lost which describes the creation of heaven and hell and the story of the Garden of Eden.
In Milton's description of Hell it is a rocky place with mountains, though these are not particularly important to the poem. Satan builds his palace on a ...
-1
Simply put means simply put/expressed in words
Refer:
https://www-macmillandictionary-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.macmillandictionary.com/amp/dictionary/british/put-simply-simply-put?amp_js_v=a3&_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQFKAGwASA%3D#aoh=15849518022687&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww....
0
I've glanced at the source text,
google search "The End of the Day"
It does mean what you said, but it means a little more when expressed negatively. It means there were nine days that he must wait before his next appointment.
The focus of the statement is on the nine days, which is a frustrating delay because he is looking forward to the appointment.
If ...
1
Imagine someone who wrestles pigs or alligators or pythons for a living, having to pin them down in the mud of their habitat. That's literally "down in the mud", where the worker gets all dirty doing their work.
Imagine someone who has to deal with criminals, as a bounty hunter must. He probably gets dirty in another sense. That's figuratively "down in the ...
1
The creator of the program is being interviewed. He is talking about how he controls the way his program will appear to viewers. He says that when the program is presented on different devices (computers or television sets), the appearance may change due to different settings, such as brightness and contrast, that the viewer can change.
He simplifies his ...
2
It simply means that she took two steps at a time. To better visualise it she skipped one step each time she took a stride.
1
More of A and less of B: speaking of a mixture of two things, he says there will be more of A in the mixture and less of B.
A is "the freakier side"
B is "the geekier side".
The word "side" means approximately "aspect" or "character".
Both "freakier" and "geekier" are comparatives, but that's not important. It would mean the same if it said "more of the ...
1
The second sentence strikes me as atypical English usage. A more typical way of writing it would be "She ran up the steps two at a time", meaning that she ascended two steps with each stride. Although "stair" can be used as a singular noun, the word "step" is used far more often for that purpose. If someone goes "up the stairs" from the first to the ...
0
You used persist (to continue an action regardless of an opposing action) accurately here because the opposing action has been identified at the being of the statement. Leave out the opposing action described in 'Despite the criticism' and the reason they persist would be less clear.
1
Imagine a spectrum of things listed in order from most to least likely to have a certain characteristic. In your example it is somewhat less intuitive, since there are only two things mentioned, rather than an entire list, so let's make up a similar example. Let's say we are talking about people hugging Dorothy. We might create a spectrum as follows:
You ...
1
No. It only means she will not host seances. It could imply she would still do seances, but not as a professional (or in the capacity of accepting money or compensation). I include this implication because in this context the paragraph applauds her skill as a medium during seances, which is in contradiction to the highlighted phrase.
1
Both work the same, but option 2 sounds much more natural. Option 1 makes you sound like a robot, so I would recommend avoiding it.
(This response is specific to American dialect, so it may or may not apply to you.)
21
It's a singular "she", so it's not about pairs or groups of children running. "Two at a time" refers to the stairs. She is skipping alternating steps, ascending two steps with each stride.
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