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1500 questions
33
votes
12 answers
A word that refers to saying something in an attempt to anger or embarrass someone into doing something that they don’t want to do?
I’m looking for a word to refer to the act of trying to embarrass someone to the point that they do something they don’t want to do.
Example: Let’s say all of your friends are jumping off of a cliff into a lake, but you don’t want to, for whatever…
MooNieu
- 639
33
votes
19 answers
Is there a sentence that begins with “them”?
An online retail store is asking its customers to construct a sentence beginning with them in order to win a voucher. I just can't believe there's any such sentence, at least I don't know of any!
I've had enough laughs with friends coming up with…
user191110
- 1,556
33
votes
8 answers
"How do you solve a problem like Maria?"
The nuns in the 1965 movie "The Sound of Music" are singing about Maria, who is difficult to deal with:
How do you solve a problem like Maria?
Being non-native (and only seeing a still frame of the scene) I thought it meant "How does Maria solve…
Christian Macht
- 441
33
votes
3 answers
Why is it "take a leak?"
Why is the sometimes-used expression to urinate "take a leak" or "take a piss", instead of "give a leak" or "give a piss".
I looked it up using a search engine, and didn't find any good answers.
End Anti-Semitic Hate
- 2,123
33
votes
2 answers
Is there an etymological explanation for the silent ‘g’ in “paradigm”?
Whenever I come across the word paradigm, I have to make a small conscious effort not to pronounce the letter ‘g’.
In Italian, it is spelled paradigma and each letter is individually pronounced i.e. /pa·ra·dìg·ma/. But in English, paradigm is…
Mari-Lou A
- 91,183
33
votes
10 answers
Is there a term for a masked / veiled question to find sensitive information?
I came across a phrase for a type of question which is designed to discover someone's religious background, particularly in the context of sectarianism and divided societies but can't for the life of me remember it.
For example, if you are in…
Squiggs.
- 433
33
votes
4 answers
Is there an idiom for someone who nods and listens usefully?
I had a coworker who would occasionally say something like, "I can't solve this problem. Would you play Wooden Indian for me?" (referring to the carved figures that used to stand outside cigar stores) His meaning was: I need to talk through this…
Sarah the Coder
- 331
33
votes
3 answers
Meaning of "bull" in Byron's "this is no bull, although it sounds so"
From Byron's Don Juan:
One with her flush'd cheek laid on her white arm,
And raven ringlets gather'd in dark crowd
Above her brow, lay dreaming soft and warm;
And smiling through her dream, as through a cloud
The moon breaks, half…
CowperKettle
- 3,649
33
votes
7 answers
How many people are in the sentence "My friend, John, and I went shopping"?
My friend, John, and I went shopping.
My friend John and I went shopping.
I believe we need to wrap our friend's name in commas (first sentence example), but wouldn't that make it three people?
RossAlexander
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33
votes
17 answers
Word request: a period of time in which someone's best work was done
I'm looking for a word or phrase similar to "opus magnum" or "masterpiece", but refering instead to a period of time in which a scholar or artist made their greatest achievements.
For example:
Mozart held a variety of positions throughout his…
CharlieB
- 441
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- 7
33
votes
11 answers
How do you spell wifi / Wi-Fi / WiFi?
This is probably related to whether one should capitalize Internet or not. I am looking for the correct spelling of wifi when referring to a wireless connection to the Internet. I want to tell the users of my iPhone app that they cannot use their…
JoJo
- 887
33
votes
13 answers
Why do I instinctively want to use the present tense with a conditional?
My boss is not a native speaker of English, so he often asks me to correct his writing. The problem is, he wants me to explain why I make changes, and doesn't accept "it just sounds better that way" as an answer. Usually, I come up with some…
Marthaª
- 32,910
33
votes
6 answers
Who is “That Guy”?
I found the term “that guy”, used as “He embarked on a career as a 'that guy',” in the following sentence of the article of the New Yorker (Feb. 7, 2011) titled “the Most Interesting Man in the World”:
In a recalls of a contentious exchange with…
Yoichi Oishi
- 70,211
33
votes
18 answers
What's the verb to describe a good guy becoming a bad guy?
I am looking for a verb to describe the action of a good guy becoming a bad guy. There is a word for it in my mother language, but I am not sure if there is a word for it in English.
The verb, which could be literally translated as 'become bad,…
user239460
- 1,259
33
votes
17 answers
Word for the opposite of a feature in software development. An unwanted feature
I'm wondering if there is a word for a software feature which is not wanted and negatively impacts the software/business using it?
In my mind is not a bug as a bug is where something doesn't work as intended. In this case the "feature" functions as…
Luke Cousins
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