carp
part of speech
noun (a carp, carp or carps); verb (carp, carps, carped, carping)
meaning for a pupil
1) A carp is a large freshwater fish that lives in lakes, ponds and slow rivers; goldfish and koi are kinds of carp. tree →
2) To carp is to keep complaining about small, unimportant things (informal, disapproving): «He's always carping about the food». tree →
sense in the lessons
In nature lessons, carp are pond and river fish; in Australia, introduced carp are pests that harm rivers. In Asia, koi carp are kept in ornamental ponds. Some families in Europe, including Ukraine and Poland, eat carp at Christmas Eve. In everyday talk, «stop carping» means stop grumbling. Phrases: «koi carp», «carp fishing», «carp about», «carp on».
examples
- We saw big orange carp in the pond. tree →
- Grandad caught a carp in the lake. tree →
- Koi are a kind of carp. tree →
- In Australia, carp are a pest in the rivers. tree →
- Stop carping about the weather! tree →
- He carped on about the noise all day. tree →
- Fat carps stared at the glass wall with stupid eyes. tree →
note
Plural of the fish is usually «carp» (one carp, five carp); «carps» is for kinds. The verb is regular and a bit formal or old-fashioned; «moan» and «grumble» are more common.
In the corpora
- Goldfish come from a wild carp in China, bred for their colours over about a thousand years.
- Koi are colourful carp bred in Japan, and some koi have been reported to live for over a hundred years.
- Goldfish come from a wild carp of East Asia, and people in China kept rare golden ones more than a thousand years ago.
- There they find Taffy making daisy-chains and Tegumai happily spearing small carp with his mended spear.
- Tegumai to his Tribe: «Can't a man break his carp-spear without the whole countryside descending on him?
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «carp» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.