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[ noun ] a special situation
Examples "this thing has got to end" "it is a remarkable thing" Used in print (John R. Sargent, "Where To Aim Your Planning for Bigger...)Have cost studies been made of every phase of your operation to determine what might be done if things get worse ? (Sports Age, 24:9...)But with all the changes in philosophy , dress and terrain - a_few things remain constant , including the devotion of Americans to the great field_sports , hunting and fishing . (Booton Herndon, "From Custer to Korea, The 7th Cavalry"...)The next thing he knew he was reporting for duty as commanding_officer of Troop_H , 7_th_Cavalry , in_the_middle of corps maneuvers in Japan . (Barry Goldwater, "A Foreign Policy for America"...)The thing to lose sleep over is what people , having concluded that we are weaker than we are , are likely to do about it . (Peter J. White, "Report on Laos"...)`` Our people have been used_to accepting things as they found them '' , he said . Related terms |
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[ noun ] an action
Examples "how could you do such a thing?" Used in print (R. F. Shaw, "The `Private Eye`"...)On_the_other_hand , the fictional detective does not break strikes or handle divorce cases ; no client would ever think_of asking him to do such things . (Kenneth Reiner, "Coping with Runaway Technology"...)In my own company , in_effect a partnership , although legally a corporation , I have been able to do many things for my employees which `` normal '' corporations of comparable size and nature would have been unable to do . This combined experience , on a foundation of very average , I assure you , intelligence and background , has helped me do things many well-informed people would bet heavily against . (Ralph B. Long. The Sentence and Its Parts: A...)In I have things to do the word things makes little real contribution to meaning and has weaker stress than do . In I have things to do the word things makes little real contribution to meaning and has weaker stress than do . Related terms |
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[ noun ] an artifact
Examples "how does this thing work?" Used in print (Randall Stewart, "A Little History, a Little Honesty: A...)`` The recognition of complicity is the beginning of innocence '' , where innocence , I think , means about the same thing as redemption . (Edward Jablonski, Harold Arlen Happy with the Blues....)When he was fifteen John_H._Mercer turned_out his first song , a jazzy little thing he called `` Sister_Susie , Strut_Your_Stuff '' . `` We 'd give him things to deliver , letters , checks , deeds and things like that '' , remembers his half-brother Walter , still in the real_estate business in savannah , `` and learn days later that he 'd absent-mindedly stuffed them into his pocket . `` We 'd give him things to deliver , letters , checks , deeds and things like that '' , remembers his half-brother Walter , still in the real_estate business in savannah , `` and learn days later that he 'd absent-mindedly stuffed them into his pocket . (H. A. Gleason, "Review of African language studies...)These things have been disseminated by other means , but always in the wake of extensive publication of analytic results . |
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[ noun ] an event
Examples : "a funny thing happened on the way to the..." Used in print (The Providence Journal...)The only performance which was too soft for me was that of Yvette_Mimieux , but since someone had to become the victim of despoilers , just to emphasize that such things do happen at these fracases , I suppose this was the attitude the part called_for . (Nathan Rapport, ""I've Been Here before!"...)Skeptics may deny the more startling phenomena of dreams as things they have never personally observed , but failure to wonder at their basic mystery is outright avoidance of routine evidence . (Frank Oppenheimer, "Science and Fear-- A Discussion...)Lucretius has remarked : `` The reason why all Mortals are so gripped by fear is that they see all sorts of things happening in the earth and sky with no discernable cause , and these they attribute to the will of God '' . (W. E. B. DuBois, Worlds of Color....)This , of_course , was the sort of thing that used_to take_place in Southern cities - putting white houses_of_prostitution colored girls in colored neighborhoods and carrying them on openly . (Francis Pollini, Night....)I know they 're waitin only for one thing : |
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[ noun ] a statement regarded as an object
Examples "to say the same thing in other terms" "how can you say such a thing?" Used in print (The Dallas Morning News,...)Ramsey has a thing or two to mutter about himself , for the Dallas defensive unit turned_in another splendid effort against Denver , and the Texans were able to whip the dangerous Broncs without the fullbacking of a top star , Jack_Spikes , though he did the team 's place-kicking while nursing a knee injury . (St. Louis Post-Dispatch,...)`` You often hear people talk_about team_spirit and that sort of thing '' , Benington said in a conversation after the ceremonies , `` but what this team had was a_little different . (Clement Greenberg, "Collage" in his Art and...)And the same thing , more_or_less , can be said of the contents of Picasso 's first collage . (David Stacton, The Judges of the Secret Court....)Wilkes was quite right about one thing . (Howard Fast, April Morning....)I put a_lot more trust in my two legs than in the gun , because the most important thing I had learned about war was that you could run_away and survive to talk_about it . Related terms |
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[ noun ] any attribute or quality considered as having its own existence
Examples : "the thing I like about her is ..." Used in print (Schubert Ogden, Christ Without Myth....)Can the church risk assuming that the `` folly '' of men is as dear to God as their `` wisdom '' , or , as is also commonly implied , that `` the foolishness of God '' and `` the foolishness of men '' are simply two ways of talking_about the same thing ? (Mr. America, 4:6...)Now good definition is one thing that all_of us can acquire with occasional high-set , high-rep , light weight workouts . (Organic Gardening and Farming,...)One of the most attractive things about avocados is that they do not require processing of any kind . (High Fidelity, 11:10...)In_the_end , however , the thing about this performance that is most striking is the way it sings . (W. E. B. DuBois, Worlds of Color....)The characteristic thing about this church was its Amen_corner and the weekly religious orgy . Related terms |
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[ noun ] a special abstraction
Examples "a thing of the spirit" "things of the heart" Used in print (William G. Pollard, Physicist and Christian....)Instead , the audience can sit_back at_ease and , from the perspective of an enlightened time which no_longer believes_in such things , enjoy the dead seriousness with which the characters in the play take the witches and devils which are under discussion . The tragic irony of the play is that the very belief in and concern with a devil who could be met in the woods and combatted with formulae set_out in books was the very thing that prevented them from detecting the real devil when he came among them . (High Fidelity, 11:10...)From a technical standpoint , the string playing is good , but the Pro_Arte people fail to enter into the spirit of things here . (Bonnie Prudden, "The Dancer and the Gymnast"...)Taking first things first , let 's understand the sport called gymnastics . (Tristram P. Coffin, "Folklore in the American Twentieth...)If one wishes to discuss a literary figure who uses folklore in his work , the first thing he must realize is that the literary figure is probably part of this ignorant American public . Related terms |
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[ noun ] a vaguely specified concern
Examples "several matters to attend to" "it is none of your affair" "things are going well" Used in print (The Dallas Morning News,...)`` I think the big thing about the game was that our kids for the third straight week stayed in there pitching and kept the pressure on . (Organic Gardening and Farming,...)Pansies do n't have to be coddled ; they 'd rather have things rugged , with only moderate protection on the coldest days . (Richard I. McCosh, "Recreation Site Selection"...)Many things need to be checked . (Edward P. Lawton, "Northern Liberals and Southern...)When I question them as_to what they mean by concepts like liberty and democracy , I find that they fall_into two categories : the simpler ones who have simply accepted the shibboleths of their faith without analysis ; and the intelligent , cynical ones who scornfully reply that these things do n't count any_more in the world of to-day . (Joyce O. Hertzler, American Social Institutions;...)The significant things in it , at the higher religious levels , are the inner emotional , mental , and spiritual occurrences that fill the pressing human needs of self-preservation , self pacification , and self completion . Related terms |
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[ noun ] an entity that is not named specifically
Examples "I couldn't tell what the thing was" Used in print (Helen Hooven Santmyer, "There Were Fences"...)Time is a queer thing and memory a queerer ; the tricks that time plays_with memory and memory with time are queerest of all . My great_grandmother , I have been told , made her garden her great pride ; she cherished rare and delicate plants like oleanders in tubs and wall-flowers and lemon verbenas in pots that had to be wintered in the cellar ; she filled the waste spots of the yard with common things like the garden_heliotrope in a corner by the woodshed , and the plantain_lilies along the west_side of the house . (Harold Searles, "Schizophrenic Communication,"...)Thus he may be referring to some concrete thing , or incident , in his immediate environment by some symbolic sounding , hyperbolic reference to transcendental events on the global scene . (H. A. Gleason, "Review of African language studies...)Improvement , however , is urgent , and at_least three things will be needed . (Jim Thompson, The Transgressors....)`` Not a danged thing but rattlesnakes , so I reckon I 'll get the boss rattler to help me '' . |
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[ noun ] a special objective
Examples : "the thing is to stay in bounds" Used in print ("Editorials"...)He has gained only one thing - he has exploded a 50 - megaton_bomb and he probably has rockets with sufficient thrust to lob it over the shorter intercontinental ranges . (Bonnie Prudden, "The Dancer and the Gymnast"...)It is more than just lack of dance training that is our problem , for just as gymnastics can learn from dance , dance has some very important things to learn from gymnastics . (Guy Bolton, The Olympians....)Mystery - that was the thing . Related terms |
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[ noun ] a persistent illogical feeling of desire or aversion
Examples : "he has a thing about seafood" "she has a thing about him" Related terms |
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