Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

limber

/ˈlɪmbə(ɹ)/ adjective, verb, noun

Forms limberer limberest limbers limbering limbered

  1. adjective Flexible, pliant, bendable. “He's so limber that he can kiss his knee without bending it.”
  2. verb (transitive) To cause to become limber; to make flexible or pliant.
  3. noun (military) A two-wheeled vehicle to which a wheeled artillery piece may be attached for transport. (Some versions have built-in storage bins for ammunition. Either the limber itself or the ammunition box may also be called a caisson.)
  4. noun (in the plural) The shafts or thills of a wagon or carriage.
  5. noun (nautical, in the plural) Gutters or conduits on each side of the keelson to allow water to pass to the pump well.
  6. verb (obsolete) To prepare an artillery piece for transportation (i.e., to attach it to its limber.)

Synonyms

limber up supple

Antonyms

unlimber

Etymology

Unknown; possibly related to limb or limp + -er, as seen in clever, slipper (“slippery”), waker (“alert”), etc.

For the obsolete limmer, from Old Norse limar (“branches”), plural of lim.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun pl.
  2. noun The shafts or thills of a wagon or carriage. [Prov. Eng.]
  3. To attach to the limber; as, to limber a gun. To limber up, to change a gun carriage into a four-wheeled vehicle by attaching the limber.
  4. adjective Easily bent; flexible; pliant; yielding. Milton.

Etymology [For limmer, Icel. limar branches, boughs, pl. of lim; akin to E. limb. See Limb a branch.]

Etymology [Akin to lim, a. Limp, a.]

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “limber”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details