Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills; A mill cannot grind with the water that is past; A miss is as good as a mile; A new language is a new life (Persian proverb) [5] A penny saved is a penny earned; A picture is worth a thousand words; A rising tide lifts all boats; A rolling stone gathers no moss
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below).
See English language idioms derived from baseball and baseball metaphors for sex. Examination of the ethnocultural relevance of these idioms in English speech in areas such as news and political discourse (and how "Rituals, traditions, customs are very closely connected with language and form part and parcel of the linguacultural 'realia'") occurs.
committed; involved in something betrothed English of or pertaining to England the English language (adj.) the foot-pound-second system of units [citation needed] (UK: Imperial) English (n.) spin placed on a ball in cue sports (UK: side) engineer: a technician or a person who mends and operates machinery one employed to design, build or repair ...
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
In general usage, the word "whiff" may refer to the movement or sound of air or wind, perhaps as an object moves through it. In baseball a whiff is when a batter swings and misses a pitch. Such usage in baseball is attributed by the OED to 1913. Perhaps derived from this, the term "whiff" has also come to mean trying and failing at something.
Reactance can occur when an individual senses that someone is trying to compel them to do something; often the individual will offer resistance and attempt to extricate themselves from the situation. Some individuals are naturally high in reactance, a personality characteristic called trait reactance. [1]
Austin pointed out that we use language to do things as well as to assert things, and that the utterance of a statement like "I promise to do so-and-so" is best understood as doing something—making a promise—rather than making an assertion about anything. Hence the title of one of his best-known works, How to Do Things with Words (1955).