English term
mean
I looked up for 'mean' in the Merriam Webster online dictionary and found that this adjective has a lot of meanings such as:
4. lacking dignity or honor : BASE: a mean motive
5a : penurious, stingy: He's very mean with his money.
b : characterized by petty selfishness or malice: a mean surly man
c : causing trouble or bother : vexatious: a mean soil to work
d : excellent, effective: plays a mean trum
The question is, how does the reader understand what kind of person Rafter is?
Is he an excellent litigator? Or a stingy one?
Could I say for instance about my teacher: He's the meanest teacher of English I've ever known" meaning the best one?
Thank you in advance.
| 4 +5 | nasty, vicious, ruthless |
Yvonne Gallagher
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PRO (2): Yvonne Gallagher, philgoddard
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Responses
Ireland
right word, right place. everytime
Native in: English (Variants: US, Canadian, Irish, UK) 
Works in: French to English, Spanish to English, English, and 1 more.
nasty, vicious, ruthless
basically ruthless, disagreeable, unpleasant
https://books.google.ie/books?id=VAuF-A4OdesC&pg=PA10&lpg=PA...
I read the first chapter to get an idea of the character. As you see, "mean" has lots of meanings and connotations so context is needed to work out which meaning it is.
I thought first of all that it was excellent, first-rate, to match "effective" but after reading, it turns out he is described as
"tough and scrappy" p3
fearless, as he glares at the hostage taker while the other look at their feet
unliked or disliked (he'd be the first sacrificial lamb)
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Note added at 59 mins (2021-10-27 10:58:42 GMT)
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So it seems he is someone who is effective by getting results but doesn't really care how he gets them. Don't have time to read any more but that's my impression anyway
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Note added at 3 hrs (2021-10-27 13:52:47 GMT)
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if you want to use superlative you can say: nastiest, most vicious or most ruthless
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Note added at 5 days (2021-11-01 12:08:23 GMT) Post-grading
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No problem! Yes, lots of different meanings possible so difficult without reading prior context carefully (and why I think it's "pro"). Glad to have helped
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Note added at 5 days (2021-11-01 12:10:28 GMT) Post-grading
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BTW "scrappy" means argumentative, or pugnacious. Definitely not a very pleasant individual
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liz askew
52 mins
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Many thanks:-)
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Orkoyen (X)
1 hr
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Many thanks:-)
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Tony M
: As it uses the superlative, it wouldn't really mean 'good', as I'd at first hoped. 'Tough' could be a good one here. / I don't know how it's being used on P3? 'Tough' in the sense of hard, difficult.
2 hrs
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Thanks! "tough"already used on p 3 "tough and scrappy" in that sense
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philgoddard
2 hrs
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Thanks:-)
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Tina Vonhof (X)
4 hrs
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Thanks:-)
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Daryo
: I think that here it's more about being "single-minded/determined", the "unpleasantness" being more a secondary side-effect of that.
2 days 11 hrs
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I disagree.
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Discussion
miserly
close-fisted
parsimonious
penny-pinching
cheese-paring
ungenerous
penurious
illiberal
close
grasping
greedy
avaricious
acquisitive
Scrooge-like
miserable
tight-fisted
stingy
tight
mingy
money-grubbing
skinflinty
cheap
grabby
hungry
near
niggard
vulgar slangtight as a duck's arse
tight-arse
tight-arsed
tight-ass
tight-assed
2.
unkind
nasty
spiteful
foul
malicious
malevolent
despicable
contemptible
obnoxious
vile
odious
loathsome
disagreeable
John Grisham · 2010 · Fiction
For thirty years he had been a ruthless litigator, the meanest, nastiest, and without a doubt one of the most effective courtroom brawlers in Chicago.
"meanest" here is a negative characteristic.