putty
part of speech
noun (putty — usually uncountable); verb (putty, putties, puttied, puttying — rare)
meaning for a pupil
1) A soft grey or white paste that is pressed into gaps, for example to hold glass in a window frame, and that goes hard as it dries. tree →
2) Any soft stuff that can be pressed and shaped easily, like the stretchy toy "silly putty". tree →
3) (idiom) "Putty in someone's hands" means a person who is easily persuaded or controlled by someone else. tree →
4) (verb, rare) To fill or fix something with putty. tree →
sense in the lessons
In everyday life and DIY, putty seals windows and fills holes in wood or walls before painting. In science, putty is a good example of a material that can change shape (it is "malleable") and then set hard. In stories, "he was putty in her hands" tells the reader that a character is easily won over, often by charm. Phrases: window putty, wood putty, silly putty, putty knife, putty in someone's hands.
examples
- Dad pressed fresh putty around the new pane of glass. tree →
- Fill the nail holes with putty before you paint the shelf. tree →
- My little brother stretched his silly putty across the table. tree →
- The putty takes a day to go hard. tree →
- The puppy looked up with big eyes, and Gran was putty in his hands. tree →
- We used a putty knife to scrape away the old putty. tree →
- In art club we shaped putty into tiny animals. tree →
- When he could see clearly he made out a mountain-like dragon whose heavy breast crushed the stones beneath it into putty. tree →
note
Usually uncountable: "some putty", not "a putty" (but "a putty" can mean a kind of putty). The colour "putty" means a pale greyish-brown. "Putty in your hands" is a fixed phrase, not about real putty. Do not mix up with "puddle" or "pudding".
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «putty» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.