Can you give me some examples of using the word 'ell'? It is quite an old word and it's not so well explained in dictionaries. I found it in a book by Frederick Douglass who quoted somebody else: "If...
Are there other ways of saying 'deratization team' or 'deratization services'? I've read that 'deratization' is quite an old-fashined way of putting it. (I'm not a native.)
When two women go to a restaurant, eat, then say good-bye, promising to write each other, even if they probably won't bother, and after that one of them says to herself 'still, another one down in my...
When somebody 'turns soft', does it mean he lost his mind? I encountered this expression in Treasure Island by R.L.Stevenson, at the end of chapter 28. Here is the fragment: ...I'm on squire's side...
this is part of a poem by peter ackroyd. my question is: what's the meaning of the line 'in the middle of stones' ? I have some ideas, but I don't wish to influence your answers. the inner light is...
This poem is not a translation, it's written directly in English. How does it sound? Warning: I am not an English native. :-) A camel is walking down the street And walks and walks She knows a...
Is there an English word which indicates a sudden and unexpected movement made for catching somebody or something? For example, when somebody waits in hiding to attack a bird and then grasps it. I am...
I am trying to translate some poems into English, but I am not always sure of every nuance of a word or expression. What do you think of the following one? dreaming a bird with two bodies was drawing...
What does piping mean in this fragment from Treasure Island by Stevenson? ...And I was going to sea myself, to sea in a schooner, with a piping boatswain and pig-tailed singing seamen, to sea, bound...