I’d like to ask about the sentence from The Three Garridebs by Conan Doyle. Mr. Nathan Garrideb proved to be a very tall, loose-jointed, round-backed person, gaunt and bald, some sixty-odd years of age. I wanted to make sure what this loose-jointed means. Dictionaries say the word means.. A: su...

Reading a story by H. P. Lovecraft, I am unsure about the meaning of "breathing" in the following: There he would meditate upon the visions that filled his mind, and there devise the forms of beauty which later became immortal in breathing marble. The only thing that comes to my mind is that th...

In Watership Down the bird Kehaar is written with an accent and poor grammar when talking with the rabbits. A representative excerpt: "Meester 'Azel, vat you do? You no stay 'ere?" "They're tired out, Kehaar. They've got to have a rest." "Ees not to rest 'ere. Ees rabbits come." "Yes, but not ju...

In Richard Adams's novel Watership Down, the seagull character Kehaar is written with a distinctive accent unlike all other characters. Here's an example of a conversation between him and Hazel: "Meester Pigvig, 'e plenty good fella." "Yes, he is." "'E say you no getting mudders. Ees finish mudd...