Questions tagged [meaning-in-context]

This tag is for questions about the meaning of a word or a phrase in a specific context, which a dictionary cannot answer. Please give as much context as possible.

The tag is for questions about the meaning of a word or a phrase in a specific context. Use this tag when dictionaries cannot answer such questions. Remember to provide as much detail/context as possible, in particular mention your source and add the link if available.

Here are some questions tagged that provide sufficient details:

  1. What does “crank old Sabbath” refer to?
  2. “Crashing at the Y” What does it mean?
  3. How to understand “he'd be lucky to escape Azkaban” in this context
  4. What does “notoriety” mean here?
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What does 'the Twelfth' mean in Article 7 of the US Constitution?

I first encountered the sentences below on p 121, The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution (2004; but the newest edition dates at 2015) by Linda Monk. I rewrote the numerals using digits to ease reading. [ Source: ] The…
user8712
57
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9 answers

What does "Although the Second Amendment people" mean?

I don't quite understand what Donald Trump just said, especially the phrase in bold: "Hillary wants to abolish—essentially abolish the Second Amendment. By the way, if she gets to pick, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks.…
haile
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What is the meaning of "prairie-dog" in this sentence?

I read a sentence in Word by Word by Kory Stamper which was: People prairie-dog over the tops of their cubicles and call to their co-workers: "Hey, you going for a walk at lunch today?" Although I don't want to, but I feel that the word has been…
kelvin
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What does "resp." mean in these sentences?

The abbreviation resp. has been used a number of times in the following paragraph: For each of these problems (resp., tools), we start by presenting the natural concern underlying it (resp., its intuitive objective), then define the problem…
Masroor
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What does "on a day with no 'y' in it" mean?

Can anybody explain Warren Buffett's sentence for me, please? "The only time to buy these is on a day with no 'y' in it."
haile
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What is the meaning of Brown-Bagged it?

Some unknown guy punched Brendan. Brendan appeared before V.P Trueman. V.P Trueman: So you didn't know this boy? Brendan: No sir, never seen him. V.P Trueman: And he just hit you? Brendan:Like I said, he asked for my lunch money first. Good thing…
The Hawk
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What does "go blue" mean here?

I was watching Emmys when I heard the phrase "go blue" from Darren Criss who won the award for the lead actor in a limited series. He said: Congratulations to all of you. Thank you to the television academy. Go blue. You can find his speech here…
helen
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I can't imagine John is driving a car

Are the following sentences correct? and what is the difference in meaning? I can't imagine John drives a car. I can't imagine John driving a car. I can't imagine John is driving a car. I think the middle one is correct, but I don't understand…
Shannak
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2 answers

Unusual meaning of "wet"

In the movie "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" Jake was saved by the peculiar children while he was into a pub. An invisible child made pots and glasses fly all around and another start a fire on the pub's door. At about 36 minutes of…
genespos
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Does this have two meanings: 'how do you like your coffee'?

How do you like your coffee? Can I use the above sentence either on an offering situation that I ask if they like it black or with sugar, or during having situation that I ask if the coffee tastes good? When the latter is possible, can next both…
Listenever
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4 answers

Why doesn't the couple want to eat the dessert in this comic strip?

So, why do the couple not want to eat the dessert? Is it because they know their suggestions were in fact terrible?
user68458
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5 answers

In “a so-called "HPACK Bomb" attack”, if "so-called" is not sarcasm then what is it?

I was reading this CVE describing a vulnerability in the implementation of a compression algorithm used in HTTP/2. The summary says: A HTTP/2 implementation built using any version of the Python HPACK library between v1.0.0 and v2.2.0 could be…
Hay
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"a dollar and change". What does "change" mean?

The company, which is unprofitable, said that its average shopper spent less than $90 on the platform last year. That translates into revenue per shopper of a dollar and change. source The most reasonable meaning maybe was "smaller bills or…
Zhang
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"All the beach bodies were sold out"? Can a body be sold?

I've watched a video of Trevor Noah (Obama Calls For People To Vote Early In The Wake Of Postal Delays | The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, ~3:56), and get confused this sentence: "but then all the beach bodies were sold out". Noah explains that some…
Aquarius
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What is "the drop" in music?

This word appear in the comment of a video of Bach in YouTube: A: Which minute is the drop? B: When he and Mozart have the rap battle Clearly this is a joke, but I don't understand the meaning of the drop. I have looked up in Oxford Dictionary,…
Ooker
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