bag
part of speech
noun (bag, bags); verb (bag, bags, bagged, bagging — to put in a bag; to grab; to criticise)
meaning for a pupil
1) A bag is a soft container you carry things in, made of paper, plastic, cloth or leather. tree →
2) A bag is the amount a bag holds: a bag of sweets. tree →
3) To bag something is to put it in a bag, or to grab it for yourself: I bagged the front seat. tree →
4) (casual) «Bags» (UK, Ireland, Australia) or «dibs» (US) claims something first: «Bags the window seat!» tree →
5) (casual) «Bags of» means lots of: bags of time. «Not my bag» means not what I like. tree →
6) (casual, Australia, NZ) To bag someone is to criticise them or make fun of them. tree →
7) (rude) «Old bag» is a nasty name for an older woman; do not use it. tree →
8) (formal) The exam voice says «receptacle», «container», «sack», «parcel». tree →
sense in the lessons
a container; often one of several equal groups («3 bags, each has 4» = 3 × 4) or what a total is split into («equally into 3 bags» = divide); in everyday life school bag, shopping bag, lunch bag, sleeping bag, tea bag, schoolbag, «pack your bags»; in casual talk «bags I go first», «bags of time», «in the bag» (sure to happen); in safety never put a plastic bag over your head; in the exam voice «receptacles», «containers each containing»
examples
- There are 3 bags. Each bag has 4 stamps. tree →
- A box has 20 balloons and a bag has 19 balloons. tree →
- Rita puts 18 sweets equally into 3 bags. tree →
- Each bag holds 5 oranges. How many oranges are in 6 bags? tree →
- Don't forget your school bag! tree →
- We packed the groceries into bags. tree →
- I bought a bag of chips for the trip. tree →
- Plastic bags can hurt sea turtles, so we reuse them. tree →
- Bags the front seat! tree →
- relax, we've got bags of time, bus is at 9 tree →
- We're 3 goals up, the game's in the bag. tree →
- A total of 18 confectionery items is distributed equally among 3 receptacles; determine the contents of each receptacle. tree →
- These are magic bags which never grow empty. tree →
note
A container is not a clue by itself. Trap: «N bags, each has M» is multiply, «puts … equally into N bags» is divide, and «a box has … a bag has … how many fewer» is subtract. Count the things in the bags, not the bags, unless the question asks for bags. «bags of time» is a lot of time, not a number of bags; «in the bag» means sure to win. «Bags!» is a claim, like «dibs». «a receptacle» in an exam is just a container.
In the corpora
- Vivid example: in Melbourne, cousin Jess moves into her first rented flat with a bag of old plates from Gran.
- Almost everything people make was designed by someone: chairs, signs, logos, books, phones, bags and clothes.
- A floating plastic bag looks like a jellyfish to a leatherback, which is one big reason to keep plastic out of the sea.
- Sea turtles eat jellyfish, and floating plastic bags look like jellyfish, so turtles sometimes swallow plastic, which can block their stomachs.
- Detection dogs are trained to sniff out things such as drugs, explosives, fruit carried in bags, money and even some illnesses.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «bag» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.