english

adj

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.”

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.”

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

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.”

   “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.”

   “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.”

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. Denoting a vertical orientation of the barn doors on a camera.

noun

1. (countable, in-plural, uncountable)The people of England, e.g., Englishmen and Englishwomen.

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

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

2. (countable, in-plural, uncountable)The non-Amish, people outside the Amish faith and community.
3. (uncountable)Facility 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. (countable, uncountable)A particular instance of the English language, including:

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

5. (countable, uncountable)A particular instance of the English language, including:

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

6. (countable, uncountable)A particular instance of the English language, including:

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

   “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.”

7. (countable, uncountable)A particular instance of the English language, including:

   “I loved reading until 7th grade English.”

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

8. (countable, dated, uncountable)A size of type between pica (12 point) and great primer (18 point), standardized as 14-point.
9. (Canada, US, alt-of, alternative, uncountable)Alternative form of english.

   “You are putting too much English on the ball.”

10. (Canada, US, uncountable)Spinning 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.”

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

11. (broadly, figuratively, uncountable)An unusual or unexpected interpretation of a text or idea, a spin, a nuance.

    “Some drop science, while I'm dropping english.”

    “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.”

name

1. (countable, uncountable)The 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.

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

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

   “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.”

   “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.”

2. (countable, uncountable)A variety, dialect, or idiolect of spoken and or written English.
3. (countable, uncountable)English language, literature, composition as a subject of study
4. (countable, uncountable)An English surname originally denoting a non-Celtic or non-Danish person in Britain.
5. (countable, uncountable)A male or female given name.
6. (countable, uncountable)A number of places in the United States:
7. (countable, uncountable)A number of places in the United States:
8. (countable, uncountable)A number of places in the United States:
9. (countable, uncountable)A number of places in the United States:
10. (countable, uncountable)A number of places in the United States:

verb

1. (archaic, rare, transitive)To translate, adapt or render into English.

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

   “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.”

   “Here, the poems are Englished by twelve different translators”

2. (archaic, rare, transitive)To make English; to claim for England.

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

3. (alt-of, alternative, archaic, rare, transitive)Alternative 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.”