what is a stotter? I could not find it in any dictionary. the context is: ...she asked us to write something. the last poem we did was to be on out philosophy on life. I did a ******* stotter on...
I'm reading "Treasure Island" by R.L.Stevenson and in Chapter III "the captain" says "I'll shake out another reef, matey, and daddle 'em again." What does daddle mean? I searched the verb "to daddle"...
I am translating a poem which sounds like this: Glasses on, suddenly she'd become herself -- She said she was blind without those thick lenses: her bulwark against the vide. Keeping them by her bed...
What does it mean when a face has "weather-lines falling into place" ? Does this mean the person's face is wrinkled? I found it in a poem beginning like this: "Glasses on, suddenly she'd become...
What's the name of the small window in the roof of a bus? I am thinking of the old types and not of the modern roof windows which function automatically. They were used especially for letting air...
In a conversation of two people, if one of them is trying to convince the other of something and comes with all sorts of things to give reason, but does not succeed and suddenly he or she says "I...
I am translating a text from Paul Auster and I encountered this expression "loss of face". The context is like this: a man leaves his pregnant wife and, after a while, when he thinks about returning...
I would like to know if there is another way of saying "magic sword". I am thinking of fairy tales, of the Charming Prince and of kings in general. Is it usual to say "redeeming sword" or "saving...
If a man has a large piece of land, but he does not like to work it and, instead, he drinks and plays his whistle a lot, being forced to sell his land bit by bit, can one say he "chops", "hacks",...
how do you name the place where a small river or a brook dissappears underground entering suddenly under the rocks of a cave? in Romanian this is "sorb" and probably "to absorb" might be related to...
I searched for this word in English and I couldn't find if it means also a kind of circular or oval hole formed by erozion in the bed of a river. If it helps, the French word is "marmite". I don't...
Here is a poem by Robert Hampson ["the memory of possible mourning"] which has no punctuation marks except one dot in the end. In order to get the meaning, I would like a native speaker place some...
What does the term "compound theft" mean? How can one define it? Here it is the context: Two burglars who had been active in south-western France for 18 months were taken into custody by police after...
