stuck
part of speech
verb form, adjective (stick, stuck)
meaning for a pupil
1) Stuck is the past form of stick: she stuck the stamp on. tree →
2) Stuck means not able to move: stuck in the mud. tree →
3) Stuck means not able to go on with something because it is too hard: stuck on a question. tree →
4) Stuck with something means having to keep it even if you do not want it. tree →
sense in the lessons
Maths: stickers stuck on pages (a past action that adds, often a rate per page); a car stuck in traffic for some time; being stuck on a problem — try another way, draw a picture, ask for help. Everyday: stuck in a lift, stuck at home, stuck in a tree.
examples
- She stuck 4 stickers on each page. tree →
- He stuck 12 photos in the album. tree →
- They were stuck in traffic for 20 minutes. tree →
- 3 of the balloons got stuck in the tree. tree →
- I'm stuck on question 5; can you help? tree →
- The cat got stuck up the tree. tree →
- The car was stuck in the mud. tree →
- The lid is stuck; I can't open the jar. tree →
- An arrow stuck in his breast! tree →
note
Past and past participle of stick. As «stuck on» it tells an action already done, often a rate per page. «Stuck in a tree» can mean some items are lost or no longer usable, so take them away. Safety: if you are stuck somewhere dangerous, stay still and call for help.
In the corpora
- Newcomers are busy and tired; the friendly thing is to say hello first instead of deciding they are «stuck up».
- A quote stuck on a picture of a famous face is very easy to fake; look for where the person really said it.
- A song stuck in your head is called an earworm; scientists call it involuntary musical imagery, and most people get them.
- Think of a tree frog stuck to a window at night.
- The name Diprotodon means two forward teeth: two big front teeth stuck forward from its lower jaw, good for biting off plants.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «stuck» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.