ass

«ass» in Mova's school dictionary: a donkey, an animal like a small horse with long ears — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (an ass, asses)

meaning for a pupil

1) An ass is a donkey, an animal like a small horse with long ears. tree →

2) (rude, informal) Calling someone an ass means they are being stupid or silly. tree →

3) (rude, US) Ass is a rude word for your bottom, the part you sit on. tree →

sense in the lessons

In the Bible, Jesus rides into Jerusalem on an ass on Palm Sunday, and Balaam's ass speaks to him. In fables, the ass is often foolish. In old British books «Don't be an ass!» is a mild telling-off between friends, used by Toad's friends about him. The American bottom sense is rude and not for school.

examples

• The farmer loaded the ass with sacks of grain. tree →
• Jesus rode into Jerusalem on an ass. tree →
• Balaam's ass saw the angel before he did. tree →
• «Don't be such an ass!» said Rat to Toad. tree →
• In the fable, the ass wore a lion's skin. tree →
• He made an ass of himself at the party. tree →

note

Plural: asses. Phrase: «make an ass of yourself» (behave stupidly). The UK rude word for bottom is spelled «arse»; both are rude. For the animal, «donkey» is the everyday word.

In the corpora

• «Stop it, you silly ass!» cried the Rat.
• If there's nothing really the matter, the doctor will tell him he's an old ass».
• Toad runs, calling himself a conceited ass, looks back over his shoulder — and runs straight into the river.
• «What an ass I am!
• What a conceited and heedless ass!

Trees and pragmatics

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