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missdaredevil
Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 1670
Location: Ask me
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 Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 4:54 pm Post subject: 2 questions |
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He has a *high* tolerance for alchohol.
Is that how people say it?
What is the meaning of *taking names*?
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emile
Joined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 37
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| Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 5:04 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
He has a *high* tolerance for alchohol.
Is that how people say it? |
That's right
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| What is the meaning of *taking names*? |
I understand that to mean ticking names on a register (like the teacher at the beginning of class). In America, they call this a 'roll call'
my site: www.roadtogrammar.com |
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bud
Joined: 09 Mar 2003
Posts: 2111
Location: New Jersey, US
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| Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 6:01 pm Post subject: |
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| What is the meaning of *taking names*? |
"Taking Names" can mean "I'm writing names down and those people are in big trouble!" Maybe it comes from a teacher who's going to send a bunch of kids to the principal's office for punishment, or maybe it's from a police squad raiding a drug den. I really don't know, but now it's almost always used in a joking way... Maybe it's your 30th birthday party and you're getting teased a lot. Then you might say, "OK you guys, I'm taking names!" You'd probably say it slowly with feigned menace in your voice.
Emile, in a roll call you could tick names off (or check names off) as they respond "Here." You'd need the prepostion, though. |
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bud
Joined: 09 Mar 2003
Posts: 2111
Location: New Jersey, US
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| Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 7:43 am Post subject: |
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On second thought, I'm going to amend my answers a bit.
| bud wrote: |
| ... but now it's almost always used in a joking way... |
Let's change "almost always" to "often." It is sometimes used in a serious way.
| bud wrote: |
| ... in a roll call you could tick names off (or check names off) as they respond "Here." You'd need the prepostion, though. |
After thinking about this some more, I don't think "tick off" is usually used as a synonym for "check off."
"Tick off" usually means to recite a list of things easily from memory. It implies no pause for thinking. For example, the U.S. has 50 states, each with its own state capital. Few adults could tick off the names of each state and its capital. As another example, I once asked my grandfather what the population of his small town was. He answered me by ticking off the names of each resident - 98 in total. |
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