Discussion Groups / English Usage / September 2008

Almost every report I read refers to the two breakaway Georgian
enclaves.
What do you understand by 'enclave'?
--

One slang definition of
"drag"
is'
"disappointment, pity, nuisance"

What does "working at the Gap" mean?

Any assumptions on what "stock probe" could mean
in
"If the cops weren't there to restrain him with a stock probe"
Also, how about:

Here's a draft of my law school personal statement.  I found it very
difficult to write about myself and am not pleased with what I have so far.
I must find a way to reduce it to two or three double spaced pages and make
it both entertaining and compelling, compelling in the sense ...

I wanted to get White Smoke for my new computer.  I pay they send me
a
phony registration code, which the White Smoke program says, is no
good.  I ask for

How do you say when someone gives a message to someone but
metaphorically?
For example in "What drives many women away from men is that they
think that looks for men are everything, or at least this is the

In a moment of totally surreal curiosity, I wondered who might own the
domain name "englishteaching.com", so I typed it into my browser.
On the resulting page, I found a link with the following intriguing link
text:

Have you seen/heard of "dry ice" being used in such settings?
------
[In a nighclub]
DJ Twenty spurted a blast of dry ice cross the loneliness of the empty

In today’s NYTimes, an op-ed piece with the wrong word:
The Wrong Fight
By Rachel Kleinfeld
Rachel Kleinfeld is the executive director of the Truman National

I'm a Yank listening to a British audiobook,  "Hard Frost" by R. D.
Wingfield, a mystery-detective novel.  Already several times, not far
from the start, the book talks about a 7 or 8 year old boy who left
his house with his "guy".   Guessing it's like a stuffed animal a kid

Hello, AEU!
In words like "cooperation," if one were to be fancy about it, where
would the umlaut go, over the first "o" or the second?
Is it "cöoperation" or should it be "coöperation"?

Could "dead gen" mean "dead generator/brain dead?"
------------
See that over there?
What?

In the context of stroboscopes, what does "turning a dial" mean?

What does it mean, "did you get a kick out of it?"
Thanks in advance!