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“Percy's been acting very oddly this summer,” said George, frowning. “And he has been sending a lot of letters and spending a load of time shut up in his room… I mean, there's only so many times you can polish a prefect badge… You're driving too far west, Fred,” he added, pointing at a compass on the dashboard. Fred twiddled the steering wheel.

The thing I don't quite understand from that sentence:

What does "only so many times" convey exactly? Is it saying Percy didn't get many chances to polish a prefect badge?

-- Excerpted from Harry Potter.

dan
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    Possible duplicate of There's vs There are – FumbleFingers Oct 24 '18 at 11:45
  • You're only supposed to ask one question per post. For your second question, the answer is *Yes. An utterance such as There's only so many ways to skin a cat* means there are *a limited number* (=not very many) ways to do the action specified. – FumbleFingers Oct 24 '18 at 11:47
  • @FumbleFingers, How about I remove the first one and leave the second one only? – dan Oct 24 '18 at 11:52
  • @FumbleFingers I don´t think that the answer to the second question is "yes". "Did Percy get many chances to polish a prefect badge?" We don't know, that information is not in the quoted text, neither explicitly nor implicitly. Is there a limited number of ways to polish a badge? Yes. – RubioRic Oct 24 '18 at 11:52
  • @FumbleFingers, I have edited my question. Do you think it's ok now? – dan Oct 24 '18 at 11:56
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    @RubioRic: The answer is *Yes - What Dan thinks (that Percy didn't get many chances to polish a prefect badge) is correct. This idiomatic usage can easily be found in dictionaries - [only so much/many:](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/only-so-much-many) used to say that there are limits to something.* – FumbleFingers Oct 24 '18 at 12:07
  • @FumbleFingers Thanks! I haven't found that definition in the dictionaries I have been looking up. – dan Oct 24 '18 at 12:17
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    @RubioRic: Oh, sorry. Looking at the context again I see that Dan has slightly misunderstood exactly *what* is being defined as "limited" here. Presumably no-one's actually preventing Percy from polishing his badge, so we can't really say he "doesn't get many chances". It's just that after doing it *some relatively small number of times*, Percy will find that "badge-polishing" loses its novelty value (it will no longer relieve his boredom, make him feel important, or whatever). – FumbleFingers Oct 24 '18 at 12:32
  • @FumbleFingers That's what I meant. Maybe I didn't explain myself clearly. – RubioRic Oct 24 '18 at 12:35
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    @RubioRic: No - you're right. I was only thinking of the meaning of the idiomatic construction *only so many times [one can do something]*, and didn't bother to check whether Dan's "restatement" was accurate as regards the precise detail of what was being described as "limited". – FumbleFingers Oct 24 '18 at 12:44

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The phrase "only so much/many" means there's a limit to what follows. In this context, George is commenting on how much time Percy is spending alone, and also making a joke about his stuffy attitude; Percy could, in George's opinion, amuse himself for a long time just by polishing his prefect badge, but even that can't account for it all, because even Percy would lose interest eventually - there's "only so many times" he can polish it.

Alan T.
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