SMBC Comics Forum

Papa Smurf. (In most translations known as the Grand Smurf, or something similar.)

I feel blue.

A certain quote from Snow Crash. Couldn't find it, even though I downloaded an English copy off the internet. Didn't really need it. Wasted hours.

A synonym for "to lock a lock". Haven't found anything sensible.

'To secure a lock'?

Can one say this for locks on doors?

It's not as common, but it makes sense. You can also just say 'to lock a door' if that fits.

That would give me a duplicate again, of the door being closed and the door being locked. But I just got an idea: the key is being turned in the lock. (It's about the sound.)

You can bolt a door, if it's got a deadbolt on it. Depending on how flexible you want to be with the key bit.

Ah, bolting ... that works even better than locking, thanks .

OR you could go intricate, the lockinf mechanism clicking over that sort of business.

I utilised some of my anatomy study, which may count as research kind of

Next up: Researching the difference between scuff, scuffle and shuffle. Dictionaries claim they all mean schlurfen.

<Must not get distracted by this minor thing and spend hours googling and wikiing.>

I'll just pick one randomly, and if you all don't understand my story because of this, then that's too bad.

scuff - is brushing against something, you can scuff your shoe against a wall

scuffle - is usual a disturbance, like a fight but on a small scale. Think of two people trying to grab a stapler off each other, that would be a scuffle

shuffle - either walking without removing your feet from the ground (so just using small, quick slides with each foot to get forwards) or mixing something up. You shuffle a playlist so you don't have to listen to all the artists at once, or shuffle a deck of playing cards before dealing

carbonstealer wrote:scuffle - is usual a disturbance, like a fight but on a small scale. Think of two people trying to grab a stapler off each other, that would be a scuffle

What, that doesn't mean schlurfen at all Them lying dictionaries!

shuffle - either walking without removing your feet from the ground (so just using small, quick slides with each foot to get forwards)

Yeah, that's what I need.

Now: slate computers. Do people think of it as a generic term or as a product of a certain brand. (The former. Which is good for my story.)

Depends on the part of the world, I guess, as I have only ever heard them called Tablet PCs. And it's definitely a generic term, although as always with Apple products it's always called an iPad and never a tablet/slate/whathaveyou.