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Partitive Nouns
Partitive Nouns
Definition
In grammar, a partitive is a word or phrase (such as some of or any of) that indicates a part or
quantity of something as distinct from a whole; also called partitive noun or partitive noun
phrase)
Partitives can appear before mass (or noncount) nouns as well as count nouns.
Etymology
From the Latin, "relating to a part"
Examples and Observations
"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but
you cannot fool all the people all the time."
(Abraham Lincoln)
"A lot of movies are about life; mine are like a slice of cake."
(Alfred Hitchcock)
"Now Murrell's eyes followed an ant on a blade of grass, up the blade and down, many
times in the single moment."
(Eudora Welty, "A Still Moment." The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty. Harcourt,
1980)
"Soap gumdrops, soap cigars, soap pickles, soap chocolates, and even a bar of soap
soap that dyed its user an indelible blue made life exciting for the friends of a Johnson
Smith addict."
(Jean Shepherd, A Fistful of Fig Newtons. Random House, 1981)
"Not a part of the rock or a speck of moss or a streak of some other mineral, it was one
of those stubborn bits of green felted cardboard that these rocks were always fixed on
inside of the boxes."
(Sharon Fiffer, Buried Stuff. Minotaur Books, 2010)
a blade of grass
a loaf of bread
a flock of sheep
a speck of dirt
Partitives are useful because they provide a means of counting uncount nouns."
(Sylvia Chalker and Edmund Weiner, Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar. Oxford
University Press, 1994)
Functions of Partitives
"Partitive expressions collocate strongly with particular non-count nouns:
a loaf of bread
two slices of bread/cake/cheese/chicken breast
a bar of chocolate/soap
a bit of fun
a piece of furniture
a stroke of luck
a spell of bad weather
. . . Partitive expressions commonly refer to the shape, size, movement or the amount of
something:
There's a whole stream of people queuing outside the post office.
He gave us a torrent of abuse.
. . . Some partitive expressions with -ful refer to containers or spaces which commonly hold the
item referred to. These include bowlful of, cupful of, fistful of, handful of, mouthful of, spoonful
of:
He gave me a fistful of cash. I don't know how much it was all together.
I always add a spoonful of salt to the pasta water.
The plural of such expressions is usually formed by adding -s after -ful."
(Ronald Carter and Michael McCarthy, Cambridge Grammar of English. Cambridge University
Press, 2006)
wad
NOUN
clove1
NOUN
Example sentences
1. 1.1[MASS NOUN]Aromatic analgesic oil extracted from cloves and used
medicinally to relieve dental pain.
Example sentences
Example sentences
3A clove-scented pink which is the original type from which the carnation and other
double pinks have been bred.
Example sentences
clove2
NOUN
Any of the small bulbs making up a compound bulb of garlic, shallot, etc.
past of cleave
cleave1
VERB
[WITH OBJECT]
the large chopper his father used to cleave wood for the fire
More example sentences
Synonyms
1. 1.1Split (a molecule) by breaking a particular chemical bond.
Example sentences
2. 1.2Biology
[NO OBJECT](of a cell) divide.
the egg cleaves to form a mulberry-shaped cluster of cells
More example sentences
3. 1.3Make a way through (something) forcefully, as if by splitting it apart.
they watched a coot cleave the smooth water
[NO OBJECT] an unstoppable warrior clove through their ranks
More example sentences
Origin
Old English clofan, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch klieven and German klieben.
Pronunciation:
cleave
Main definitions of cleave in English
: cleave1cleave2
cleave2
VERB
[NO OBJECT]literary
Rose's mouth was dry, her tongue cleaving to the roof of her mouth
More example sentences
Synonyms
1. 1.1Adhere strongly to (a particular pursuit or belief)
part of why we cleave to sports is that excellence is so measurable
More example sentences
bolt1
NOUN
Example sentences
2. 1.2A long pin with a head that screws into a nut, used to fasten things together.
Example sentences
3. 1.3The sliding piece of the breech mechanism of a rifle.
Example sentences
4. 1.4Mountaineering
A long pin that is driven into a rock face so that a rope can be attached to it.
Example sentences
Example sentences
Synonyms
jet1
NOUN
2A jet engine.
Example sentences
1. 2.1An aircraft powered by one or more jet engines.
a private jet
More example sentences
VERB
[NO OBJECT]
speck1
NOUN
1A tiny spot.
plank
NOUN
1A long, thin, flat piece of timber, used especially in building and flooring.
Example sentences
Synonyms
the session usually include a lot of core work, lunges, planks, and squats
More example sentences
strip2
NOUN
a strip of linen
More example sentences
Synonyms
1. 1.1A long, narrow area of land.
the offensive gained a strip of territory a mile wide
More example sentences
2. 1.2North American A main road in or leading out of a town that is lined with
shops, restaurants, and other facilities.
we went to a discount centre in a strip near where we work
More example sentences
3. 1.3[MASS NOUN]Steel or other metal in the form of narrow flat bars.
the company had purchased 67,423 kg of steel strip
More example sentences
2A comic strip.
lump1
NOUN
2British informal The state of being self-employed and paid without deduction of tax,
especially in the building industry.
there was a lump in her throat as she gazed down at her uncle's gaunt features
More example sentences
Jason decided to lie doggo and let Faraday take his lumps
More example sentences
heap
NOUN
scrap1
NOUN
1A small piece or amount of something, especially one that is left over after the greater
part has been used.