| 释义 |
supposed to supposed to1. Intended, expected, or believed to do something. This new software is supposed to make things a lot more efficient, but I find it so confusing that everything is taking me twice as long! We're supposed to arrive around 3 PM, assuming our flights aren't delayed. 2. Required or obligated to do something. I was supposed to be home an hour ago—my parents are going to kill me! Please don't distract him, he's supposed to be cleaning his room. 3. Allowed or permitted to do something. (Chiefly used in questions and negative constructions.) You're not supposed to go in there! Are you sure you're supposed to be in here? See also: supposed Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. (It's) not supposed to. and (Someone's) not supposed to.a phrase indicating that someone or something is not meant to do something. (Often with a person's name or a pronoun as a subject. See the examples.) Fred: This little piece keeps falling off. Clerk: It's not supposed to. Bill: Tom just called from Detroit and says he's coming back tomorrow. Mary: That's funny. He's not supposed to. See also: not, supposed supposed to and someone or something is supposed toSomeone or something is meant to do something. (Frequently, in speech, supposed is reduced to s'posed. The words someone or something can be replaced with nouns or pronouns, or used themselves.) Mary: They didn't deliver the flowers we ordered. Sue: Supposed to. Give them a call. Sally: This screw doesn't fit into hole number seven in the way the instructions say it should. Bill: It's supposed to. Something's wrong. See also: supposed supposed to do somethingexpected or intended to do something; obliged or allowed to do something. You're supposed to say "excuse me" when you burp. Mom says you're supposed to come inside for dinner now. See also: supposed McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. supposed to1. Intended to; also, believed to, expected to. For example, This pill is supposed to relieve your pain, or You're supposed to be my partner. [Early 1300s] 2. Required to, as in He is supposed to call home. [Mid-1800s] 3. not supposed to. Not permitted to, as in You're not supposed to smoke in here. See also: supposed The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. See also:- not supposed to
- supposed to do
- talk in circles
- the swing of things
- muddle up
- muddled up
- bed in
- see daylight
- speak in circles
- break it down!
References in classic literature Let A to L represent the species of a genus large in its own country; these species are supposed to resemble each other in unequal degrees, as is so generally the case in nature, and as is represented in the diagram by the letters standing at unequal distances. After a thousand generations, species (A) is supposed to have produced two fairly well-marked varieties, namely a1 and m1. Variety m1 is supposed to have produced two varieties, namely m2 and s2, differing from each other, and more considerably from their common parent (A). After ten thousand generations, species (A) is supposed to have produced three forms, a10, f10, and m10, which, from having diverged in character during the successive generations, will have come to differ largely, but perhaps unequally, from each other and from their common parent. In the diagram I have assumed that a second species (I) has produced, by analogous steps, after ten thousand generations, either two well-marked varieties (w10 and z10) or two species, according to the amount of change supposed to be represented between the horizontal lines. The original species of our genus were supposed to resemble each other in unequal degrees, as is so generally the case in nature; species (A) being more nearly related to B, C, and D, than to the other species; and species (I) more to G, H, K, L, than to the others. But as the original species (I) differed largely from (A), standing nearly at the extreme points of the original genus, the six descendants from (I) will, owing to inheritance, differ considerably from the eight descendants from (A); the two groups, moreover, are supposed to have gone on diverging in different directions. And the two or more parent-species are supposed to have descended from some one species of an earlier genus. The Origin of Species Seeing what it supposed to be the finger of scorn pointed at it, the Unblotted Escutcheon turned black with rage. Fantastic Fables It is matter of common observation that "so-and-so does not know his own motives," or that "A is envious of B and malicious about him, but quite unconscious of being so." Such people are called self-deceivers, and are supposed to have had to go through some more or less elaborate process of concealing from themselves what would otherwise have been obvious. Our world is to be constructed out of what the American realists call "neutral" entities, which have neither the hardness and indestructibility of matter, nor the reference to objects which is supposed to characterize mind. The Analysis of Mind Now, during the past night and forenoon, the Pequod had gradually drifted into a sea, which, by its occasional patches of yellow brit, gave unusual tokens of the vicinity of Right Whales, a species of the Leviathan that but few supposed to be at this particular time lurking anywhere near. Moby Dick LXVIII CXXXIV Ferrars can have the smallest satisfaction in knowing that her son has money enough to live upon,--for THAT must be quite out of the question; yet why, upon her late behaviour, is she supposed to feel at all?--She has done with her son, she cast him off for ever, and has made all those over whom she had any influence, cast him off likewise. Sense and Sensibility Consider, I said, Glaucon, that even the badness of food, whether staleness, decomposition, or any other bad quality, when confined to the actual food, is not supposed to destroy the body; although, if the badness of food communicates corruption to the body, then we should say that the body has been destroyed by a corruption of itself, which is disease, brought on by this; but that the body, being one thing, can be destroyed by the badness of food, which is another, and which does not engender any natural infection-- this we shall absolutely deny? And the friend of the gods may be supposed to receive from them all things at their best, excepting only such evil as is the necessary consequence of former sins? Republic |