A porter in a British hotel comes upon an American tourist impatiently jabbing at the button for the lift.
"Sir, the lift will be here in a moment."
"Lift? Lift?" replies the American. "Oh, you mean the elevator."
"No sir, here we call it a lift."
"Well, as it was invented in the United States, it’s called an elevator."
"Yes sir, but as the language was invented here, it’s called a lift."
- large indian or se asian deciduous tree yielding this. [portuguese from malayalam]
TEAL
n. (pl. Same) small freshwater duck. [origin unknown]
TEAM
spirit n. Willingness to act for the communal good.
- —n. - set of players forming one side in a game.
- two or more people working together.
- set of draught animals. —v. - (usu. Foll. By up) join in a team or in common action (teamed up with them).
- (foll. By with) match or coordinate (clothes). [old english]
TEAR
—v. (past tore; past part. Torn) 1 (often foll. By up) pull apart or to pieces with some force (tore up the letter).
- a make a hole or rent in this way; undergo this (have torn my coat; curtain tore). B make (a hole or rent).
- (foll. By away, off, at, etc.) Pull violently (tore off the cover; tore down the notice).
- violently disrupt or divide (torn by guilt).
- colloq. Go hurriedly (tore across the road). —n. - hole etc. Caused by tearing.
- torn part of cloth etc. be torn between have difficulty in choosing between. Tear apart 1 search (a place) exhaustively.
- criticize forcefully.
- destroy; divide utterly; distress greatly. Tear one's hair out colloq. Behave with extreme desperation. Tear into colloq. - severely reprimand.
- start (an activity) vigorously. Tear oneself away leave reluctantly. Tear to shreds colloq. Refute or criticize thoroughly. That's torn it colloq. That has spoiled things etc. [old english]
- n. - drop of clear salty liquid secreted by glands from the eye, and shed esp. In grief.
- tearlike thing; drop. in tears crying. [old english]
TEAT
n. - mammary nipple, esp. Of an animal.
- rubber nipple for sucking from a bottle. [french from germanic]
TECH
n. (also tec) colloq. Technical college. [abbreviation]
TEEM
v. - be abundant.
- (foll. By with) be full of or swarming with (teeming with ideas). [old english, = give birth to]
- v. (often foll. By down) (of water etc.) Flow copiously; pour (teeming with rain). [old norse]
TEEN
attrib. Adj. = *teenage. [abbreviation]
- suffix forming numerals from 13 to 19. [old english]
