Antonia: navigate

Question

Hello,I have more questions about the meaning of the following phrases:1) Jeffrey had learned enough from watching him to know hot to navigate his way around.It refers to computer and the Internet. Jeffrey is logging on the Internet.Does navigate mean to navigate the Internet or ''he knew something about computers", in general?2) In his inbox he found requisite young teens (why requisite?because everybody gets one mail like that sooner or later?)3) to push one's buttons (when you say sb that you know will hurt the other person you pushed his button?)4)What does it mean: "Some girl done got snatched up." (Why done? does it mean raped here or just some kind of auxilary verb?5) She licked her lips, holding her tongue.Thank you

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Antonia, I do wonder what you're reading! Women chained to the floor, drugged, threatened with pliers! Now they're getting snatched up. Good heavens!

Okay, back to business:

1) To use navigate in this sense means "find his way around" - able to get done what he needed to get done using the computer.

2) I expect that the use of requisite is as you have described - sooner it later it happened to everyone; it's not necessarily a requirement so much as an inevitable.

3) This is a great expression. You push someone's buttons by deliberately talking about or doing something you know that person is sensitive about. For example, to a vegetarian, you talk about how good your steak was. You don't usually use this in a way that describes being hurtful so much as just getting them excited. Another simliar expression is yanking someone's chain.

4) This is completely nonstandard English. Was the speaker someone portrayed a poor and rural? Wasn't there a thread recently about hillbillies and rednecks? This is the type of speech that would be ascribed to them. She was kidnapped, I believe.

5) To list both of these things at the same time certainly mixes metaphors. To hold your tongue means to not speak, especially when you have an urge to do so. However licking your lips is another metaphor that means eagerly anticipating something. It could be literal in this case - but if so, I'd have used another metaphor for keeping silent. Together they're inadvertently funny.

Clive · Answer

Hi Antonia,

Well, you have a wide variety of expressions here!

1) Jeffrey had learned enough from watching him to know hot to navigate his way around.

It refers to computer and the Internet. Jeffrey is logging on the Internet.Does navigate mean to navigate the Internet or ''he knew something about computers", in general? It could mean either,depending on the context.

2) In his inbox he found requisite young teens (why requisite?because everybody gets one mail like that sooner or later?) I don't understand this one. Perhaps I'm missing the point here. A'teen' is short for a teenager. Is 'Young Teens' the name of a magazine of some kind? If so, it should be capitalized. 'Requisite' means needed, necessary. It should probably be preceded by an article. Odd English.

3) to push one's buttons (when you say sb that you know will hurt the other person you pushed his button?)If I push the button on the microwave, I know the result I will get. If 'I push your button', I know the result I will get. It could be either good or bad. eg I know how to make you angry or happy.

4)What does it mean: "Some girl done got snatched up." (Why done? does it mean raped here or just some kind of auxilary verb? To ****** something up means to grab it, to take it. It isn't necessarily sexual in nature. 'She done cooked dinner' is a dialect form of saying 'I cooked dinner'. This type of speech pattern, I believe, is characteristic of some people in the South(-eastern) USA.

5) She licked her lips, holding her tongue. 'She held her tongue' is an idiomatic way of saying 'She wanted to speak but remained silent'. I assume that's the meaning here, because to lick your lips while literally holding your tongue sounds rather difficult, ha-ha.

Clive

Kajjo · Answer

Hi, Antonia,
3) "to push his buttons": Jeffrey intends to make the guy really angry and loose his self-control. Successfully, as you know.

4) Clive's description fits perfectly. The guy speaks a strong accent anyway with all of his wrong grammar and "y'all" stuff.
"done got snatched" means so much as "is missing" here. No rape meant so far, because the police always visits the felon if another girl in the area turns missing.

Kajjo

LeicesterLad · Answer

As Clive touches on, "pushing ones buttons" can be positive as well as negative, although when used in a positive way it often extended to "pushing the right buttons" (at least in BrE). For example a girl might say of her boyfriend:

"I'm going to cook John a lovely dinner tonight and wear my sexiest dress to get him in the mood! I know how to push all the right buttons!"

Of course John could just as well cook for her!

Anonymous · Answer

Hi everybody,

Thank you for helping me.

Clive, teens in this context means *****-sites or e-mails sents by them.

to Leicester Lad:

John could wear **** underwear, too

Antonia

Antonia: navigate

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