the use of a word to modify or govern two or more words when it is appropriate to only one of them or is appropriate to each but in a different way, as in to wage war and peace or On his fishing trip, he caught three trout and a cold.
one of two marks « or » used in French, Italian, and Russian printing to enclose quotations.
a short oblique stroke (/) between two words indicating that whichever is appropriate may be chosen to complete the sense of the text in which they occur:
a dash one em long.
a short oblique stroke (/) between two words indicating that whichever is appropriate may be chosen to complete the sense of the text in which they occur:
a figure of speech in which a word is used to modify or govern two or more words although appropriate to only one of them or making a different sense with each, as in the sentence Mr. Pickwick took his hat and his leave (Charles Dickens)
[C16: via Latin from Greek: a yoking, from zeugnunai to yoke]
1580s, "a single word (usually a verb or adj.) made to refer to two or more words in a sentence," from Gk., lit. "a yoking," from zeugnynai "to yoke" (see jugular).