tidy

«tidy» in Mova's school dictionary: neat and in order, with things in their right places — 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

adjective (tidy, tidier, tidiest); verb (tidy, tidies, tidied, tidying; tidy up)

meaning for a pupil

1) Tidy means neat and in order, with things in their right places. tree →

2) To tidy (or tidy up) means to make a place neat by putting things away. tree →

3) A tidy amount of money means quite a lot (informal). tree →

4) To tidy up can also mean to put thoughts or feelings into good order. tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday life and at school, children tidy their bedrooms, desks and classrooms; «Tidy up time!» means put everything away. A tidy room is safer: toys and cables on the floor can make people trip. Tidy handwriting and tidy working out in maths make answers easy to read and check. In stories a tidy character is neat and careful.

examples

• Please tidy your room before dinner. tree →
• Her desk is always tidy. tree →
• Let's tidy up the toys. tree →
• Keep your working out tidy so you can check it. tree →
• His handwriting is tidier than mine. tree →
• A tidy floor means nobody trips over. tree →
• She tidied the books onto the shelf. tree →
• They made a tidy profit selling lemonade. tree →
• Mrs. Darling first heard of Peter when she was tidying up her children’s minds. tree →

note

Verb forms: tidies, tidied (y → ie), tidying (keep y). Opposites: «untidy», «messy». «Tidy up» is very common. «Tidy» is used more in British English; Americans also say «clean up» or «neat».

In the corpora

• Some families pay children for extra jobs, like washing the car, but tidying your own room is just part of living together.
• A tidy house helps buyers imagine living there and can sell faster or for more money.
• Many families visit graves to remember someone, tidy the spot and leave flowers; talking to the person there is normal.
• These words are mostly spin and hiding, not kindness: they make terrible things sound tidy, careful or even normal.
• Having a place for each thing and tidying a little every day makes things quick to find and stops people tripping.

Trees and pragmatics

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