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#115732 11/13/03 01:08 AM
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sorry to be so wordy. But but...that's what a Wordwind does! And thank you so much forships were careened for repairs and for barnacle removal since barnacles slowed the ships down. Often ships would go into safe harbor where they were careened (tilted on their sides and secured with ropes to objects on land such as trees) so that repairs/cleaning could be carried out. This meaning had not even occurred to me!

I do think buried really does have to have an object. You could say they dug beneath a tree, but they buried beneath a tree just tastes wrong. (Xara, where are you?)


#115733 11/13/03 01:32 AM
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the difference may be clear in y'all's minds, but there is room for caroming aplenty:

To careen a ship is “to beach it for repairs in such a way that it will lean far over onto the curve of its bottom and side”; a generalized sense then, for ship or other vehicle, is “to tip or tilt to one side.” A figurative sense of careen is “to lurch and tip from side to side, as though out of control.” To career is “to race madly, at full speed, and possibly out of control.” This verb comes from the French noun for “a race course, especially a carriageway so used.” Both terms are Standard when applied to persons or vehicles proceeding rapidly and erratically: The wagon careened [careered] wildly down the hill. [AHD4]


#115734 11/13/03 01:33 AM
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I was surprised to discover etymology of "careen" is ultimately from Latin "carina" which is breastbone of a bird.
careen

SYLLABICATION: ca·reen
PRONUNCIATION: k-rn
VERB: Inflected forms: ca·reened, ca·reen·ing, ca·reens

INTRANSITIVE VERB: 1. To lurch or swerve while in motion. 2. To rush headlong or carelessly; career: “He careened through foreign territories on a desperate kind of blitz” (Anne Tyler). 3. Nautical a. To lean to one side, as a ship sailing in the wind. b. To turn a ship on its side for cleaning, caulking, or repairing.
TRANSITIVE VERB: Nautical 1. To cause (a ship) to lean to one side; tilt. 2a. To lean (a ship) on one side for cleaning, caulking, or repairing. b. To clean, caulk, or repair (a ship in this position).
NOUN: Nautical 1. The act or process of careening a ship. 2. The position of a careened ship.
ETYMOLOGY: From French (en) carčne, (on) the keel, from Old French carene, from Old Italian carena, from Latin carna. See kar- in Appendix I.
OTHER FORMS: ca·reener —NOUN

USAGE NOTE: The implication of rapidity that most often accompanies the use of careen as a verb of motion may have arisen naturally through the extension of the nautical sense of the verb to apply to the motion of automobiles, which generally careen, that is, lurch or tip over, only when driven at high speed. There is thus no reason to conclude that this use of the verb is the result of a confusion of careen with career, “to rush.” Whatever the origin of this use, however, it is by now so well established that it would be pedantic to object to it.



#115735 11/13/03 01:51 AM
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Ooof, I'm still trying to understand the first sentence.

Alongside the ship careened by the tropical shore, a group of pirates buried beneath a coconut tree.

Who the hell buried the group of pirates beneath the coconut tree?

Very confusing...mumble, mumble, mumble.



#115736 11/13/03 01:58 AM
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Dear belMarduk:"If you're not confused, you just don't understand the situation". (A Bumper Sticker long ago.)


#115737 11/13/03 05:09 AM
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In reply to:

According to a quick search I performed, transitive verbs must have a direct object. It is not optional.


I think this puts it backwards. We don't start with a transitive verb and say it must have an object. We start with a verb which has an object, and therefore we say it is transitive.

I looked up transitive in the Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar, and found this:

Some verb are virtually always transitive (e.g. bury, deny, distract).



Bingley



Bingley
#115738 11/13/03 12:08 PM
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RE:
Alongside the ship careened by the tropical shore, a group of pirates buried beneath a coconut tree.

I think it's very descriptive of a small nautical graveyard; (Comma included; was implied):

Alongside the ship careened by the tropical shore, (was) a group of pirates, buried beneath a coconut tree.

Otherwise, it's gibberish, lacks the requisite D.O.





Ron.


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#115739 11/13/03 03:46 PM
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Alongside: the ship careened by the tropical shore; a group of pirates buried beneath a coconut tree, a glass of wine and thou.

Sounds like Omar to me.

To career is “to race madly, at full speed, and possibly out of control.”

Then again, I know people who have their career well under control.


#115740 11/13/03 05:10 PM
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small nautical graveyard

Finally, someone who sees the same images I see. I was afraid I had an attack of 'mantleitis'.

red=faced edit
I wasn't mantled at all; ignored might be more like it.[sulky ]And then again, I wonder I am not ignored more often when I post with fingers in one thread and head in another. Was thnking of obtaining/be in possession of/procure .....


#115741 11/13/03 10:54 PM
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i got half way through this thread before i realised you weren't talking about transvestite verbs


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