yield oneself to temptation/ feeling mean

[vil]

Dear teachers,

Would you be kind enough to give me your considered opinion concerning my interpretation of the expressions in bold in the following sentence?

Rudolf yielded to the temptation without feeling mean about it afterwards.

yield oneself to temptation = give oneself to temptation = succumb to temptation

feeling mean = feeling guilty

mean = guilty, culpable, shame-faced

V.

[emsr2d2]

Dear teachers,

Would you be kind enough to give me your considered opinion concerning my interpretation of the expressions in bold in the following sentence?

Rudolf yielded to the temptation without feeling mean about it afterwards.

yield oneself to temptation = give oneself to temptation = succumb to temptation

feeling mean = feeling guilty

mean = guilty, culpable, shame-faced

V.

To yield to temptation = to give in to temptation, so you're correct

I wouldn't use "mean" to feel "guilty" although "guilty" would actually have been a much better word than "mean" in the original. "Mean", to me, is used either for someone's behaviour when it's not nice, or when they don't want to spend money.

I don't like that boy at school. He's mean to me.
The sandwich only costs $1 but he's too mean to pay even that!

[vil]

Hi emsr2d2,

Thank you for your helpful indication of the proper usage of the adjective “mean’ as well as for your correction of my original interpretation of “yield to temptation”.

What do you mean about the usages of "mean" below?

He was very mean about the loan.

He's mean to everyone.

It was mean of her to say that.

V.

[emsr2d2]

Hi emsr2d2,

Thank you for your helpful indication of the proper usage of the adjective “mean’ as well as for your correction of my original interpretation of “yield to temptation”.


What do you mean about the following usages of "mean"?


He was very mean about the loan. - I'm not sure what you think this means. If you're talking about a bank manager refusing to give you a loan then you might say he was mean to say no. But being mean with money is usually a standalone adjective. "He's very mean. He won't buy me dinner" (Actually, in that example, "mean" could have either definition!)


He's mean to everyone. = He treats everyone badly.


It was mean of her to say that. = It was not nice of her to say that.


V.

See above. I think you've got it cracked with sentences 2 and 3. In sentence 1, I'm not sure what you meant as you can see.