take the edge of one's appetite

[vil]

Dear teachers,

Would you be kind enough to confirm the applicability of a new for me expression concerning an old gropings in a previous post.

To take the edge off one’s appetite. = To satisfy one’s appetite partially.

I found the following explanation in Answer.com.

Take the edge off one’s appetite = ease or assuage, make less severe, as in:
That snack took the edge off our hunger, or
Her kind manner took the edge off her refusal.

This term alludes to blunting the edge of a cutting instrument. Shakespeare used it figuratively in The Tempest (4:1): "To take away the edge of that day's celebration."

Thank you in advance for your efforts.

Regards.

V.

[Soup]

Hi vil

I agree with the definitions and examples you found. In addition, a sword has a sharp edge; sharp things are painful; to be hungry can also be painful, which is why a snack can take the edge off (of) one's appetite (i.e., reduce a person's hunger).

[vil]

Hi Soup,

Thank you for your prompt reply as well as for your support of my words.

Thank you for your living side by side. By the way would you be kind enough to tell me whether the last expression has a good meaning what I wanted to express or that isn't what I meant and that succession of words conveys nothing.

Regards.

V.

[Soup]

Hi vil

The saying 'your living side by side' doesn't translate into English all that well. Your explanation helped, but the saying's meaning is still rather fuzzy.

[vil]

Hi Soup,

Your answer perplexed me. It was my fixed belief that you will be able to interpred properly my idiom. What a shame. I got plucked. (I went wrong).

The latter few years a study English together with American missionaries 3 hours weekly. The cover title of the textbook is “Side by side”. I think that the meaning of the idiom “side by side” is just like as that one of the idiom “shoulder to shoulder.”

shoulder to shoulder = side by side and close together

In close proximity or cooperation, as in The volunteers worked shoulder to shoulder in the effort to rescue the miners. This expression originated in the late 1500s in the military, at first signifying troops in close formation.

For me studing English language is a work, a hard work which I perform together (or side by side) with you all: the teachers at the present forum and the great number of NES'.

Maybe this all sounds to you a little elevated and lofty but that way of life I call “living side by side” alias “living without stint, ready for action, prepared to help to others flawlesly and free of charge.

Let’s hope the present post will scatter in all directions the blurred and unclear points in my previous posts.

Regards.

V.