Crossword clues for expletive
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Expletive \Ex"ple*tive\, a. [L. expletivus, from expletus, p. p.
of explere to fill up; ex out+plere to fill, akin to plenus
full: cf. F. expl['e]tif. See Full.]
Filling up; hence, added merely for the purpose of filling
up; superfluous. ``Expletive imagery.''
--Hallam.
Expletive phrases to plump his speech.
--Barrow.
Expletive \Ex"ple*tive\, n. A word, letter, or syllable not necessary to the sense, but inserted to fill a vacancy; an oath.
While explectives their feeble aid to join,
And ten low words oft creep in one dull line.
--Pope.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1610s, "a word or phrase serving to fill out a sentence or metrical line," from Middle French explétif (15c.) and directly from Late Latin expletivus "serving to fill out," from explet-, past participle stem of Latin explere "fill out, fill up, glut," from ex- "out" (see ex-) + plere "to fill" (see pleio-).\n
\nSense of "an exclamation," especially "a curse word, an oath," first recorded 1815 in Sir Walter Scott, popularized by edited transcripts of Watergate tapes (mid-1970s), in which expletive deleted replaced President Nixon's salty expressions. As an adjective, from 1660s.
mid-15c., in grammar, "correlative," from Latin expletivus "serving to fill out" (see expletive (n.)).
Wiktionary
a. 1 Serving to fill up, merely for effect, otherwise redundant. 2 Marked by expletives (phrase-fillers). n. 1 A profane, vulgar term, notably a curse or obscene oath. 2 (context linguistics English) A word without meaning added to fill a syntactic position.
WordNet
Wikipedia
Expletive may refer to:
-
Syntactic expletive, a word that performs a syntactic role but contributes nothing to meaning
- Expletive pronoun, a pronoun used as subject or other verb argument that is meaningless but syntactically required
- Expletive attributive, a word that contributes nothing to meaning but suggests the strength of feeling of the speaker
- Profanity or swear word, a word or expression that is strongly impolite or offensive
Usage examples of "expletive".
With another expletive, this one directed at the smirking toad at her side, she stomped to the end of the dais and down the short set of stairs.
He let out an expletive when she began to work the base of his cock with her hand.
After looking down at her glossy bowed head for a moment, Christos released a strong expletive and fell onto his knees beside her.
Kent said, as a particularly outraged expletive echoed along the hall.
He whistled an expletive and stopped trying to find a Universal word to describe akhenets.
Once the darkness came he began muttering expletives at everything about his life that he found disappointing.
He jerked his head round, heedless of the phaeton, and the next instant the wheels of both vehicles were locked, and much more violent expletives were issuing from the lips of the down-the-road man.
Stansfield watched him walk back and forth, shaking his fist and letting a stream of expletives flow from his mouth.
Jeff blinked, and straightened a little, obviously aware that some expletives are not in universal circulation.
By the time we reached our destination my husband had shed ten years, and as we made our way through the chaos of the Cairo train station he was the old Emerson, shouting orders and expletives in fluent Arabic.
Though embroidered with expletives and complaints, the gist of his speech was simple enough.
His expletives were extremely mild compared to those he heard every day, but they were of his own devising.
English to understand the torrent of undeleted expletives that Stoke was hurling in her direction.
Arabic expletives as his best Amn Al-Khans battalion was decimated by the ISET and the F-16s.
For five minutes, Kohler paced and cursed his friend, conjuring expletives and variations of expletives only another Brooklynite could reassemble.