vouchsafe

«vouchsafe» in Mova's judaism dictionary: To give or tell something kindly, as a favour, or as if… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

verb (vouchsafe, vouchsafes, vouchsafed, vouchsafing)

meaning for a pupil

1) (formal, old) To give or tell something kindly, as a favour, or as if from a high position: he vouchsafed no answer. tree →

2) (church, old prayers) To grant: «Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin.» tree →

sense in the lessons

An old and formal word met in classic books and old prayers. In stories it often appears with «no»: «she vouchsafed no reply» means she gave no answer at all, often proudly. In Alice in Wonderland the Caterpillar hardly vouchsafes Alice any answers. Old Anglican prayers like the Te Deum use it for God granting things.

examples

• The Caterpillar vouchsafed no reply. tree →
• He vouchsafed only a nod. tree →
• «Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin.» tree →
• She did not vouchsafe a single word about her trip. tree →
• The king vouchsafed his blessing. tree →
• The cat vouchsafed us one glance and walked away. tree →
• Sometimes they wrote letters to the Princess, but no answer was vouchsafed to them. tree →

note

Regular verb, formal and old. Say vouch-SAFE. In modern speech say «give» or «tell».

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «vouchsafe» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.