words with contradictory meanings

graft

dense

"he could not understand the dense text because he was too dense"

mmmm not buying that one - both mean something like "impenetrable"

the buffalo buffalo etc

screen. to show (e.g. a film) & to hide.

good one!

patronise. makes me chuckle whenever it's used in the "get cash from" sense.

literally

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-antonym

You're talking about the common misuse of "literally" as "not literally", right? I don't think it officially has contradictory meanings?

let's ask the dictionary tsar

http://img1.etsystatic.com/008/0/8111024/il_570xN.472319187_3qwm.jpg

No-one's said my favourite one – fuse

siren

repress

was there a brief period in the 60s when "uptight" meant "cool"?

cf the stevie wonder song. why does he say "uptight" there??

adumbrate

Re: 'uptight,' a quick search unearthed this, from Tom Dalzell's Flappers 2 Rappers: American Youth Slang:

Uptight was another term meaning "very good," a very different connotation than that attached to the word in the hippie slang (inhibited) which survived at the expense of the mainstream meaning. The mainstream meaning was exemplified in the lyrics of a hit song by Little Stevie Wonder …

From context I always thought that uptight represented the life with the girl from the right side of the tracks with the butlers and maids. He has loose shabby clothes because he's poor. But he loves her and is happy about her and her uptight square world. That's just been what I've been going on.

Warhol & the Velvet Underground used "Up-Tight" in the cool sense in '66 as well (same year as the Stevie Wonder song). It is unusual how quickly and totally that word switched. Bet you don't find many positive "uptight"s after '67 even.

fuck the word "sanction". it always throws me when I read it in an article. contradictory as both a noun and a verb!

Refute:

1 : to prove wrong by argument or evidence : show to be false or erroneous
2 : to deny the truth or accuracy of - "refuted the allegations"

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, February 27, 2018 8:04 AM

#2 is new and insane to me.

contemporary!

anxious

how so

contemporary means at the same time as, so probably gives the info from context whether its contemporary to the subject or contemporary to the present time doesn't it?

Yes - in fact that is the case with every word listed here!

However, "Contemporary art" does not change its meaning depending on context as far as I'm aware

incense as a noun vs. incense as a verb

sensibility

OL i will confess that i can't puzzle out your last three contributions itt

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/anxious

makes the anxious one quite clear - worried / eager

id have to disagree with ascribing intent to the word like that tbh

to whom does one write

The two usages of 'incense' aren't directly contradictory but the noun has a pleasant connotation (generally speaking, as I know not everyone is a nag champa stan) as opposed to the negative connotation of the verb form.

OTOH I probably should've said 'sensible' (reasonable vs. given over to feeling) rather than 'sensibility'.

Brexit

ha

anxious meaning "eager" - yes but there's still anxiety in that negative sense - the eagerness is manifesting as a kind of nervous stress

incense - at root it's the same: fieriness

"bottle" in the British sense has two directly contradictory meanings. the noun means "courage" and the verb means to lose your nerve!

checks out

"but what about the Irish sense" i hear you seething

Does the verb form suggesting violence done with a bottle entail more courage or cowardice, I wonder

More contents of bottles usually

"dutch courage" originally referred to that nationality's predilection to glassing in an otherwise honourable brawl

(trivia 100% false obv)

Dutch = gin in that context i reckon

Patron - the owner or a customer of a restaurant.

Does the verb form suggesting violence done with a bottle entail more courage or cowardice, I wonder

It's rhyming slang: "bottle & glass" = class (I think), as in to have class (as a fighter); so to lose one's bottle, to bottle it.

fix

labour

"Terribly" can mean very well or very badly.

She's terribly educated vs She was terribly educated

gonna need a stewards enquiry on labour.

fix

As in "in a fix" = having problems?