english

alternative US English · alternative dated rare English

1. CanadaUSuncountableSpinning or rotary motion given to a ball around the vertical axis, as in pool, billiards or bowling; spin, sidespin.

   You can't hit it directly, but maybe if you give it some english.

   1 more example

   There was a magical way of putting English on the dice to result in a six.

   2005, S. Moran, Bronx Boy: Book One of The Zombie Island Trilogy, page 179

   Synonyms: side, spin, sidespin

2. broadlyfigurativelyuncountableAn unusual or unexpected interpretation of a text or idea, a spin, a nuance.

   Some drop science, while I'm dropping english.

   1988, Andre Romelle Young, “Express Yourself”, in Straight Outta Compton, performed by Dr. Dre, Ruthless Records

   1 more example

   Preston Sturgis in his Sullivan’s Travels (1942) put some english on the idea in a bit about a filthy, defeated, white chaingang that is invited to a rural black church for an evening of old movies.

   1993, Thomas Cripps, Making Movies Black, page 94

present singular third person englishes · participle present englishing · participle past englished · past englished · alternative US English · alternative dated rare English

1. alternativearchaicraretransitiveAlternative form of English.

   Eduard Sievers and his followers have, in recent years, raised the study of speech rhythm to the rank of a special science, which they call Schallanalyse, a name best englished as rhythmics.

   1930, Kemp Malone, “The Terminology of Anglistics.”, in The English Journal, volume 19, number 8, →JSTOR, page 645

comparative more English · superlative most English · alternative dated rare Inglish · alternative archaic Englishe · alternative US english · alternative dated rare english

1. Of or pertaining to England.

   During the war of 1914–18 the English working class were in contact with foreigners to an extent that is rarely possible. The sole result was that they brought back a hatred of all Europeans, except the Germans, whose courage they admired.

   1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn, Pt. I

   Synonyms: southron

2. English-language; of or pertaining to the language, descended from Anglo-Saxon, which developed in England.

   Those immigrants Anglicised their names to make them sound more English.

   1 more example

   Honest, honest, English is just a language of confusions.

   2020, Abi Daré, The Girl With The Louding Voice, Sceptre, page 187

3. Of or pertaining to the people of England (e.g. Englishmen and Englishwomen).

   The Uſuwrper [...] within a few miles Tanna's Fort, near the Engliſh ſettlement of Fort William.

   1765, John Zephaniah Holwell, Interesting Historical Events, Relative to the Provinces of Bengal, and the Empire of Indostan: With a Seasonable Hint and Perswasive to the …, volume 1, T. Becket and P.A. De Hondt, page 150

   2 more examples

   Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

   These first English migrants to Jamestown endured terrible disease and arrived during a period of drought and colder-than-normal winters. The migrants to Roanoke on the outer banks of Carolina, where the English had gone in the 1580s, disappeared. And a brief effort to settle the coast of Maine in 1607 and 1608 failed because of an unusually bitter winter.

   2019 November 25, Peter C. Mancall, “Pilgrims survived until the first Thanksgiving thanks to an epidemic that devastated Native Americans”, in CNN, archived from the original on 21 Jun 2021

4. Of or pertaining to the avoirdupois system of measure.

   an English ton

5. Non-Amish, so named for speaking English rather than a variety of German.
6. broadcastingDenoting a vertical orientation of the barn doors on a camera.

plural Englishes · alternative dated rare Inglish · alternative archaic Englishe · alternative US english · alternative dated rare english

1. countablein pluraluncountableThe people of England, e.g., Englishmen and Englishwomen.

   The English and the ROTW have a long history of conflict, periodically interrupted for tea.

   1 more example

   Cricket—a game which the English, not being a spiritual people, have invented in order to give themselves some conception of eternity.

   1979, Stormont Mancroft, Bees in Some Bonnets, p. 175

2. countablein pluraluncountableThe non-Amish, people outside the Amish faith and community.
3. uncountableFacility with the English language, ability to employ English correctly and idiomatically.

   Sorry, my English isn't very good. I wish I had better English.

4. A particular instance of the English language, including:
   1. countableuncountableThe English term or expression for some thing or idea.

      What's the English for 'à peu près'? It depends: how is it being used?

   2. countableuncountableThe English text or phrasing of some spoken or written communication.

      The specs are all correct, but the English in the instructions isn't as clear as it should be.

   3. countableuncountableA clear and readily understandable expression of some idea in English.

      Thank you, doctor. Now, please say that again in English.

      1 more example

      Data: I have completed my analysis of the anomaly. It appears to be a multi-phasic temporal convergence in the space-time continuum. Dr. Crusher: In English, Data.

      1994, Brannon Braga, Ronald D. Moore, “All Good Things...”, in Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 7, episodes 25-26, Brent Spiner and Gates McFadden (actors)

   4. countableuncountableSynonym of language arts, the class dedicated to improving primary and secondary school students' mastery of English and the material taught in such classes.

      I loved reading until 7th grade English.

      1 more example

      This reflects that in English, students learn a range of text types, such as procedures, editorials, poetry, and not just academic essays.

      2018, Clarence Green, James Lambert, “Advancing disciplinary literacy through English for academic purposes: Discipline-specific wordlists, collocations and word families for eight secondary subjects”, in Journal of English for Academic Purposes, volume 35, →DOI, page 109

      Synonyms: language arts

5. countabledateduncountablemediaA size of type between pica (12 point) and great primer (18 point), standardized as 14-point.

   Synonyms: Mittel, Augustin

6. CanadaUSalternativeuncountableAlternative form of english.

   You are putting too much English on the ball.

plural Englishes · alternative dated rare Inglish · alternative archaic Englishe · alternative US english · alternative dated rare english

1. countableuncountableThe language that developed in England and is now spoken in the British Isles, the Commonwealth of Nations, North America, and many other parts of the world.

   How do you say ‘à peu près’ in English?

   5 more examples

   English is spoken here as an unofficial language and lingua franca.

   She speaks English, French, and German. English is her first language.

   English is a world language: it is widely used in dozens of countries and is studied in at least a hundred more.

   Gracias. Adios. Yes, thank you very much. I am most grateful. Thank you. [Hangs up phone.] It used to be, if foreigners didn't understand, you'd shout at 'em until they did. Now they speak better English than we.

   1998 May 6, Douglas Watkinson et al., “Death in Disguise”, in Midsomer Murders

   Westerners have never quite understood the reverence in Japan for fugu, alternately known in English as puffer fish, globefish or blowfish, of the family Tetraodontidae.

   2020 December 4, Ligaya Mishan, “The Appealing and Potentially Lethal Delicacy That Is Fugu”, in The New York Times Style Magazine, archived from the original on 01 Jan 2021

2. countableuncountableA variety, dialect, or idiolect of spoken and or written English.

   1 more example

   I began to write stories using all the Englishes I grew up with: the English I spoke to my mother, which for lack of a better term might be described as “simple”; the English she used with me, which for lack of a better term might be described as “broken”; my translation of her Chinese, which could certainly be described as “watered down”; and what I imagined to be her translation of her Chinese if she could speak in perfect English, her internal language, and for that I sought to preserve the essence, but neither an English nor a Chinese structure.

   2003, Amy Tan, “Mother Tongue”, in The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life, page 278

3. countableuncountableEnglish language, literature, composition as a subject of study
4. countableuncountableAn English surname originally denoting a non-Celtic or non-Danish person in Britain.
5. countableuncountableA male or female given name.
6. A number of places in the United States:
   1. countableuncountableA town, the county seat of Crawford County, Indiana; named for Indiana statesman William Hayden English.
   2. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Carroll County, Kentucky.
   3. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Brazoria County, Texas.
   4. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Red River County, Texas.
   5. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in McDowell County, West Virginia.

present singular third person Englishes · participle present Englishing · participle past Englished · past Englished · alternative dated rare Inglish · alternative archaic Englishe · alternative US english · alternative dated rare english

1. archaicraretransitiveTo translate, adapt or render into English.

   Here, the poems are Englished by twelve different translators

   2011, Colin Cheney, 'Where Should I Start with Tomas Tranströmer?'

   3 more examples

   […] when a man expresses in Latin a Thing to be taken by Wrong, and englishes it; […] but if he declares on a Latin Word, which has no perfect Signification, nor so elegant as it might be; yet upon his Englishing of it whereby the Plaintiff's Meaning appears to the Court, the Plaintiff shall recover, and the Jury shall be intended to give Damages according to the Declaration in Latin, not having Respect to the Englishing; but when there is a proper Latin Word to express the Thing taken, there if the Plaintiff declares by another Word, it is not good.

   1735, William Wylde, “Chanel v. Robotham (1605)”, in The Reports of Sir Henry Yelverton, Knight and Baronet, translation of original in French, page 68

   […]severe prohibuit viris suis tum misceri feminas in consuetis suis menstruis, etc. I spare to English this which I have said.

   1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, New York: New York Review Books, published 2001, →ISBN, page 214

   Mamma is an adaptation of a French farce by Mr. Sydney Grundy, made in the time when his chief claim to recognition as a playwright lay in his ingenious aptitude for Englishing the un-Englishable.

   1901, The Speaker, the Liberal Review - Volume 3, page 654

2. archaicraretransitiveTo make English; to claim for England.

   While the man Clive—he fought Plassy, spoiled the clever foreign game, Conquered and annexed and Englished!

   1880, Robert Browning, “Clive”, in Dramatic Idylls: Second Series, page 12, lines 7–8