lily

«lily» in Mova's school dictionary: A tall plant grown from a bulb, with large trumpet-shaped… — 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 (a lily, lilies); also a girl's name (Lily)

meaning for a pupil

1) A tall plant grown from a bulb, with large trumpet-shaped flowers, often white, orange or pink. tree →

2) A water lily: a plant with round floating leaves and flowers on ponds. tree →

3) Lily is a common girl's first name; in word problems Lily is a person who has, buys or shares things. tree →

4) (formal, old) «Lily-white» means very white or, in a stiff or ironic way, completely innocent: «He is not lily-white in this matter.» tree →

5) (euphemism, old) Lilies are flowers for funerals, so «send lilies» can softly mean someone has died. tree →

6) (casual, Cockney rhyming slang, rare) «Lily» can stand for «lily-white» (= «light» or «bright»); a pupil may never hear it. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science, lilies are flowering plants with clear parts — petals, stamens with pollen and a pistil — so they are used for labelled flower diagrams. In safety, lilies are very poisonous to cats, even the pollen. In stories, frogs sit on lily pads. In maths word problems, Lily is a girl who owns the amounts: «Lily has 12 stickers». In casual talk: «Lily's mum», «at Lily's» (at Lily's house). In the exam voice: «the girl hereinafter referred to as Lily». Phrases: «water lily», «lily pad», «Easter lily», «lily-white», «gild the lily» (spoil by adding too much).

examples

• The frog jumped from one lily pad to another. tree →
• Mum put white lilies in a vase. tree →
• Lily pollen stains clothes orange. tree →
• Water lilies float on the pond. tree →
• Lilies are very poisonous to cats, so keep them away. tree →
• We cut open a lily to find its stamens and pistil. tree →
• Lilies grow from bulbs planted in the ground. tree →
• My friend Lily has a dog called Max. tree →
• Lily has 12 stickers and gives 4 to Sam. tree →
• going to Lily's after school, she's got 3 new games (casual) tree →
• Lily, you muppet, you've dropped half of them! (rough, friendly) tree →
• A pupil, hereinafter referred to as Lily, possesses 12 stickers and relinquishes 4; determine the quantity remaining. (formal exam) tree →
• The Queen gathered together the lilies. tree →

note

Plural: lilies (y → ies). As a name it has a capital: Lily. Not every plant called «lily» is a true lily (the lily of the valley and water lily are different plants). As a name it tells who owns the amounts, not what to do with them; «Lily's» can mean Lily's house. «Gild the lily» means spoil a good thing by adding more. Safety: keep lilies away from cats.

In the corpora

• You remember Sam, Mia, Jake and Lily, but you never had a body or sat on a chair.
• Sam, Mia, Jake, Lily, Connor, Chloe and Maddie were characters, and real people are richer than any story.
• Lilies are very poisonous to cats; even pollen licked off their fur can damage the kidneys.
• Lily lists adjectives: big, red, happy, quickly.
• Lilies are very poisonous to cats, even the pollen.

Trees and pragmatics

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