All Questions
Tagged with british-english meaning-in-context
54
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1
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What does "some" refer to in the context? [closed]
In this article from The Economist it says:
As Britons took to holidaying in the actual Mediterranean, some began to decline; austerity and covid-19 finished them off.
The short line " some ...
1
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2
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435
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What does ‘capture by employees’ mean in 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑬𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒕 in the context of being a ‘vice’ of speculative activity in investment banking?
What is ‘capture by employees’?
In this past week’s January 26th issue of The Economist, the phrase capture by employees appears in a leading article* titled “The Humbling of Goldman Sachs” in this ...
-1
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1
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37
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Understanding the context of 'yes' in this sentence [duplicate]
Pretend I have the following conversation with somebody, either through internet text messaging or a verbal in person communication. The brief conversation is below.
I ask:
Would you like me to ...
6
votes
1
answer
124
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Does 'pre-empt' have 'presage, signal, or indicate' as one of its meanings in current British English usage?
A UK Ministry of Defence 'Intelligence Update' posted on Twitter on October 29, 2022, includes the following bullet point:
In the Russian national identity, [Prince Grigory] Potemkin is heavily ...
0
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2
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938
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“OSC” meaning in Jeffrey Archer’s UK police/crime novel set in the 1980s
you might need to call your OSC and find out if he can supply us with any details.’ ‘I can’t call Heath,’ said William. ‘He only ever contacts me.’
— Hidden in Plain Sight, Jeffrey Archer
From ...
7
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3
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451
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How is UK "bloody" understood in the US in 2022?
How likely is it for the average person in the US, with a reasonable cultural understanding of the world to realize that Sentence 1, "I have to finish that bloody project," is loosely a UK ...
0
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1
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112
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What does “in our children we lived again” mean?
From David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
He was full of eloquence. He gave us to understand that in our children we lived again, and that, under the pressure of pecuniary difficulties, any accession ...
0
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1
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348
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What does the expression "the school first XI rugger team" mean? [closed]
I found this sentence in a novel set in Cornwall. The complete sentence is:
Daddy is very proud that you have made the school first XI rugger team.
The boy in the team il 16 y.o. and he lives in the ...
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1
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189
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What does "Reverts to type in" means?
What does "Reverts to type in" means in this headline:
"Donald Trump reverts to type in debate – and it isn't 'magnificently brilliant"
0
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0
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79
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Not able to understand the meaning of a particular sentence
"When she joined the organization, my mother was an 18-year old, fair and green-eyed plump girl with a ready laugh. Most men around her were older to her-coming from varied backgrounds, rural, ...
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1
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75
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Meaning of the last paragraph ( in bold text ) [closed]
That night we were to have Mr Chamberlain as our dinner guest. ‘I am dining in very bad company,’ he observed, surveying us with a challenging air. We explained how inept and arrogant the action of ...
1
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2
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81
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Meaning of "no odds against success affected me"
Now I was in the right mood for these undertakings – failure being almost certain, no odds against success affected me.
It's used in the above sentence. Failure being almost certain means that sure ...
0
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0
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180
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"Don't they carry one back to all one's parties?"
In Katherine Mansfield's The Garden Party (1921), there is this question I cannot decipher semantically nor grammatically.
In this scene, this high-society family is preparing a garden party. Cream ...
0
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1
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60
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Can you please explain the significance of "problems" at the end of the sentence?
I wrote a mail asking for some job to be done at the earliest. I was replied with "I'll do it this afternoon, problems." I don't understand the meaning of that extra "problems" at ...
3
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1
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83
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"Animal skin treated" - what does "treated" mean in this context?
The skin of animals like cows, buffaloes, goats, crocodiles, snakes and camels are treated and used as leather to make belts, shoes, bags and purses etc.
Can you please explain the meaning of treated ...