My theme for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge is contronyms. A contronym is a word with two or more opposite meanings, making it its own antonym. Click here to find out more about these quirky words.
The featured contronym for the letter D is draw. I thought buckle and clip had a lot of definitions, but draw blows them all away. With so many definitions for one small word, I’m sure there are several meanings that could be considered opposites.
When I was searching for contronyms, one place listed draw with the definitions ‘to open’ or ‘to shut,’ as in drawing the curtains can mean to open them or to shut them. After reading the various definitions for draw, however, I think both of those fall under the definition ‘to cause to move in a particular direction by or as if by a pulling force; pull; drag.' You might pull the drapes open or you might pull them shut, but that doesn’t really make this context of draw have opposite meanings because you are pulling regardless of the direction.
But going down the list I did find a few meanings I thought were opposites:
To contract, shrink
~ or ~
to pull out, stretch
~ and ~
To bring together
~ or ~
To pull apart
Essentially both these meaning pairs have to do with movement – moving inward or moving outward – it’s just that the perspectives are slightly different. Here is a color-coded super-short kind-of-gruesome story to illustrate various meanings of draw:
The advertisement offering free iPads draws a huge crowd abuzz with excitement about their good fortune. But their excitement turns to fear when aliens surround the prey caught by their trap. As the slimy green creatures draw closer, the crowd draws together for protection. The aliens reach in, drawing members from out the huddle. They play with their food like little kids. Who knew the human body could be drawn so far until it rips? The screams soon subside as this tale of greed draws to a close.
Hmmm… not really a prize-winning story there, but it does draw attention to the word draw. And since there are so many meanings for draw, I threw in a few extras that have nothing to do with the contronym connotations.
Are you familiar with contronyms? There are other ‘D’ contronyms out there, can you think of any? How Darling is Molly with her letter D?
I use Mollum to help control spam in the comments, and it's only supposed to challenge with a CAPTCHA if it suspects a comment might be spam. Comments make me happy, so if you happen to encounter a rare CAPTCHA, please persevere through the slight annoyance. Thank you!
My theme for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge is contronyms. A contronym is a word with two or more opposite meanings, making it its own antonym. Click here to find out more about these quirky words.
The featured contronym for the letter D is draw. I thought buckle and clip had a lot of definitions, but draw blows them all away. With so many definitions for one small word, I’m sure there are several meanings that could be considered opposites.
When I was searching for contronyms, one place listed draw with the definitions ‘to open’ or ‘to shut,’ as in drawing the curtains can mean to open them or to shut them. After reading the various definitions for draw, however, I think both of those fall under the definition ‘to cause to move in a particular direction by or as if by a pulling force; pull; drag.' You might pull the drapes open or you might pull them shut, but that doesn’t really make this context of draw have opposite meanings because you are pulling regardless of the direction.
But going down the list I did find a few meanings I thought were opposites:
To contract, shrink
~ or ~
to pull out, stretch
~ and ~
To bring together
~ or ~
To pull apart
Essentially both these meaning pairs have to do with movement – moving inward or moving outward – it’s just that the perspectives are slightly different. Here is a color-coded super-short kind-of-gruesome story to illustrate various meanings of draw:
The advertisement offering free iPads draws a huge crowd abuzz with excitement about their good fortune. But their excitement turns to fear when aliens surround the prey caught by their trap. As the slimy green creatures draw closer, the crowd draws together for protection. The aliens reach in, drawing members from out the huddle. They play with their food like little kids. Who knew the human body could be drawn so far until it rips? The screams soon subside as this tale of greed draws to a close.
Hmmm… not really a prize-winning story there, but it does draw attention to the word draw. And since there are so many meanings for draw, I threw in a few extras that have nothing to do with the contronym connotations.
Are you familiar with contronyms? There are other ‘D’ contronyms out there, can you think of any? How Darling is Molly with her letter D?
I use Mollum to help control spam in the comments, and it's only supposed to challenge with a CAPTCHA if it suspects a comment might be spam. Comments make me happy, so if you happen to encounter a rare CAPTCHA, please persevere through the slight annoyance. Thank you!
