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A aggravate – Some have argued that this word should not be used in the sense of "to annoy" or "to oppress", but only to mean "to make worse". According to AHDI, the use of "aggravate" as "annoy" occurs in English as far back as the 17th century. In Latin, from which the word was borrowed, both meanings were used. Sixty-eight percent of AHD4's usage panel approves of its use in "It's the ...
Non-standard: The actor should be economic in his use of movement. elicit and illicit. Elicit is a verb that means to draw out, evoke or obtain. Illicit is an adjective that refers to something illegal or improper. Standard: The lawyer hopes to elicit convincing testimony from the witness. Standard: Police found a large amount of illicit drugs.
Words with specific British English meanings that have different meanings in American and/or additional meanings common to both languages (e.g. pants, cot) are to be found at List of words having different meanings in American and British English. When such words are herein used or referenced, they are marked with the flag [DM] (different meaning).
Clichés and idioms should generally be avoided in favor of direct, literal expressions. Lion's share is often misunderstood; instead use a term such as all, most, two-thirds, or whatever matches the context. The tip of the iceberg should be reserved for discussions of icebergs.
Both dictionary entries at Wiktionary and encyclopedia articles at Wikipedia may start out as stubs, but they are works in progress, to be expanded. Wikipedia articles should begin with a good definition, but they should provide other types of information about that topic as well. The full articles that Wikipedia's stubs grow into are very ...
9 Phrases To Use Instead of Automatically Saying Yes 1. "Let me check my schedule and get back to you." Dr. McGeehan suggests keeping it short—there's no need to get into your whole to-do list.
Ain't meaning didn't is widely considered unique to African-American Vernacular English, [16] although it can be found in some dialects of Caribbean English as well. [17] It may function not as a true variant of didn't , but as a creole-like tense-neutral negator (sometimes termed "generic ain't "). [ 16 ]
Pseudo-anglicisms can be created in various ways, such as by archaism, i.e., words that once had that meaning in English but are since abandoned; semantic slide, where an English word is used incorrectly to mean something else; conversion of existing words from one part of speech to another; or recombinations by reshuffling English units.