Talk:give it some welly
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RFV[edit]
The following discussion has been moved from Wiktionary:Requests for verification.
This discussion is no longer live and is left here as an archive. Please do not modify this conversation, but feel free to discuss its conclusions.
Sole sense given: To apply great physical effort to (something). From the few examples I've seen, this seems to mean to "give some gas (to a car)". DCDuring TALK 00:23, 11 July 2011 (UTC)
- This is quite common in the UK with this precise meaning. --Mglovesfun (talk) 11:36, 11 July 2011 (UTC)
- Loads of quotes in G.books for all sorts of different situations that are not cars or motors. I also noticed "It likes a lot of welly". Could this be added to the definitions at welly?. -- ALGRIF talk 12:04, 11 July 2011 (UTC)
- Withdrawn. I had done a defective Google search that missed the fairly common usage. I added UK context and a car-specific sense which didn't fit the sense given. Did this originate from another idiom, or in sports? DCDuring TALK 12:19, 11 July 2011 (UTC)
- It could be that the entry should be at a different form. For example, give it welly, though that form is unnatural and almost non-existent. In any event, this verb phrase not only inflects, but also has variation with "some" replaced by other determiners, as is typical with complex idioms incorporating nouns, such as those in Category:English predicates. A usage note for such variation might be better than a lot of redirects to show the range of possibilities. DCDuring TALK 12:35, 11 July 2011 (UTC)
- I also notoiced put some welly into. A definition in an idiom dictionary gave do something energetically, though enthusiastically might fit some citations. A potted etymology in ELLE girl (!) connects the phrase to wellington boots and says it originally meant giving a powerful kick (in soccer) or pressing hard on the accelerator pedal (in car racing). — Pingkudimmi 15:21, 11 July 2011 (UTC)
- It could be that the entry should be at a different form. For example, give it welly, though that form is unnatural and almost non-existent. In any event, this verb phrase not only inflects, but also has variation with "some" replaced by other determiners, as is typical with complex idioms incorporating nouns, such as those in Category:English predicates. A usage note for such variation might be better than a lot of redirects to show the range of possibilities. DCDuring TALK 12:35, 11 July 2011 (UTC)