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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).
The coup d'œil is a gift of God and cannot be acquired; but if professional knowledge does not perfect it, one can only see things imperfectly and in a fog, which is not enough in these matters where it is important to have a clear eye...To look over a battlefield, to take in at the first instance the advantages and disadvantages is the great ...
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind (Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948), leader of the Indian independence movement) An Englishman's home is his castle/A man's home is his castle; Another day, another dollar; Another happy landing; An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure; Any port in a storm
The words constituting idioms are stored as catenae in the lexicon, and as such, they are concrete units of syntax. The dependency grammar trees of a few sentences containing non-constituent idioms illustrate the point: The fixed words of the idiom (in orange) in each case are linked together by dependencies; they form a catena.
Deuteronomy 32:10: "He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye". Psalm 17:8: "Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings". Proverbs 7:2: "Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye".
If separating words using spaces is also permitted, the total number of known possible meanings rises to 58. [38] Czech has the syllabic consonants [r] and [l], which can stand in for vowels. A well-known example of a sentence that does not contain a vowel is Strč prst skrz krk, meaning "stick your finger through the neck."
27% of Americans are "frustrated” by their partner’s money habits. My wife asked me to pay her tuition — why couples who don’t see eye to eye on spending could end up in trouble
Tropes (from Greek trepein, 'to turn') change the general meaning of words. An example of a trope is irony, which is the use of words to convey the opposite of their usual meaning ("For Brutus is an honorable man; / So are they all, all honorable men"). During the Renaissance, scholars meticulously enumerated and classified figures of speech.