mouse
part of speech
noun (mouse, mice; for computers also «mouses»)
meaning for a pupil
1) A mouse is a very small animal with a long thin tail, round ears and sharp teeth. tree →
2) A computer mouse is a small tool you move by hand to point and click on a screen. tree →
3) A shy, quiet person is sometimes called a mouse. tree →
sense in the lessons
the third jumper in a jumping contest, compared to the frog; or animals counted; in stories mice are small, quick and clever; in science, a rodent and a mammal; phrases «as quiet as a mouse», «cat and mouse»
examples
- The mouse jumped 12 inches less than the frog. tree →
- How far did the mouse jump? tree →
- There are 6 mice in the barn. tree →
- How much farther did the grasshopper jump than the mouse? tree →
- The mouse ate some cheese. tree →
- Click the mouse to open the file. tree →
- She was as quiet as a mouse. tree →
- Our cat chased a mouse into the garden. tree →
- A mouse is a mammal. tree →
- The story is about a brave little mouse. tree →
- "Spare me!" begged the poor Mouse. tree →
note
A name in a comparison chain. «less than the frog» takes away from the frog's jump. Trap: the plural is «mice». Mice are rodents, like rats but smaller. Wild mice can carry germs, so wash your hands if you touch where they have been.
In the corpora
- Stories grow as they travel: one mouse in the kitchen becomes "the school's closing because of rats".
- Many cartoon characters, like Mickey Mouse and the Simpsons, have four fingers because it is quicker to draw and looks clearer.
- In Aesop's fable from ancient Greece, about 2500 years ago, a little mouse saves a lion by gnawing through a net.
- Elephants may jump at small sudden things, but the story that they are specially afraid of mice is a myth.
- It is very funny, and almost none of it is how real cats and mice live.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «mouse» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.