corner
part of speech
noun (corner, corners); verb (corner, corners, cornered — to trap)
meaning for a pupil
1) A corner is the point where two sides or edges meet. A square has 4 corners. tree →
2) A corner is the place where two streets meet. tree →
3) A corner of a room is where two walls meet. tree →
4) To corner someone is to trap them so they cannot get away. tree →
sense in the lessons
maths: corners of shapes counted (a triangle has 3, a square 4, a cube 8; also called vertices); also a place, as in «the store on the corner»; sport: a corner kick in football; everyday life: the reading corner, turn the corner; stories: the cat cornered the mouse; safety: look out for cars at street corners
examples
- A square has 4 corners. tree →
- How many corners does a cube have? tree →
- She put a flower in each corner of the garden. tree →
- The shop is on the corner of the street. tree →
- A triangle has 3 corners. tree →
- The book is in the corner of the room. tree →
- The cat cornered the mouse. tree →
- He took a corner kick. tree →
- The shrivelled frog still sat in the corner alone. tree →
note
In shape problems the count of corners is fixed by the shape (triangle 3, rectangle 4, cube 8). Trap: «a post at each corner» of a closed shape needs as many posts as corners, not one more. A circle has no corners.
In the corpora
- Vivid example: in a Leeds corner shop, Auntie Bev holds up a magazine: "SOAP STAR'S SECRET HEARTBREAK!
- Picture a beach after a storm: among the seaweed lies a black leathery pouch with curly corners.
- Snakes bite people mostly when they are trodden on, grabbed or cornered.
- Ants carry their dead to a far corner to keep germs away.
- Granny puts conkers in the corners «for the spiders», and the cartoon squirrel remembers every nut it buries.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «corner» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.