sneeze
part of speech
verb (sneeze, sneezes, sneezed, sneezing); noun (a sneeze, sneezes)
meaning for a pupil
1) To sneeze means to suddenly blow air out through your nose and mouth with a loud noise, because something tickles inside your nose. tree →
2) A sneeze is the act or sound of sneezing. tree →
sense in the lessons
In health and hygiene, sneezes spread germs a long way, so sneeze into a tissue or your elbow, throw the tissue away and wash your hands («Catch it, bin it, kill it»). Colds, dust, pepper and pollen (hay fever) make people sneeze. In manners, people say «Bless you!» when someone sneezes. In science, sneezing is a reflex: your body does it without you deciding.
examples
- Pepper makes me sneeze. tree →
- Sneeze into your elbow, not your hand. tree →
- «Atishoo!» «Bless you!» tree →
- Pollen makes her sneeze in spring. tree →
- A sneeze can spread germs across a room. tree →
- He sneezed three times in a row. tree →
- Catch it, bin it, kill it: use a tissue when you sneeze. tree →
- It was just as if somebody was sneezing. tree →
note
Regular verb: sneezed, sneezing. The sound is written «atishoo» (UK) or «achoo» (US). Myth: your heart stops when you sneeze — it does not. You cannot sneeze with your eyes open easily, but it is a reflex, not a danger.
In the corpora
- A sneeze is a reflex that blasts air out of the nose and mouth to clear something irritating, like dust or pepper.
- The story that your eyes pop out if you sneeze with them open is not true; closing them is just a reflex.
- Sneezes spray germs a long way, so you sneeze into a tissue or your elbow, not your hands.
- In English-speaking countries people often say «bless you» after a sneeze, and the person says «thank you».
- A sneeze can spray droplets more than two metres, so you catch it in a tissue or your elbow.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «sneeze» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.