english

1. (in the plural) The people of England, e.g., Englishmen and Englishwomen.Examples: "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."countablein-pluraluncountable

2. (Amish, in the plural) The non-Amish, people outside the Amish faith and community.countablein-pluraluncountable

3. (uncountable) Facility with the English language, ability to employ English correctly and idiomatically.Examples: "Sorry, my English isn't very good. I wish I had better English."uncountable

4. (uncountable) A particular instance of the English language, including:Examples: "What's the English for 'à peu près'? It depends: how is it being used?"countableuncountable

5. (uncountable) A particular instance of the English language, including:Examples: "The specs are all correct, but the English in the instructions isn't as clear as it should be."countableuncountable

6. (uncountable) A particular instance of the English language, including:Examples: "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."countableuncountable

1. (transitive; archaic or rare) To translate, adapt or render into English.Examples: "[…] 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"archaicraretransitive

2. (transitive; archaic or rare) To make English; to claim for England.Examples: "While the man Clive—he fought Plassy, spoiled the clever foreign game, Conquered and annexed and Englished!"archaicraretransitive

1. (uncountable, Canada, US) Spinning or rotary motion given to a ball around the vertical axis, as in pool, billiards or bowling; spin, sidespin.Examples: "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."Synonyms: side, spin, sidespinCanadaUSuncountable

2. (by extension, figurative) An unusual or unexpected interpretation of a text or idea, a spin, a nuance.Examples: "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."broadlyfigurativelyuncountable

1. (transitive; archaic or rare) Alternative form of English.Examples: "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."alt-ofalternativearchaicraretransitive