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Flowersa Posted 14 years ago
Vocabulary
Threw into sharp relief the nightmare
Hi, What is "Threw into" in this context?
"McCain was friendly with the Clintons. He meant them no injury. But for his across-the-aisle colleague, the conversation threw into sharp relief the nightmare scenario that was causing so many Democrats such angst: that Hillary would skate to the Democratic nomination"
"McCain was friendly with the Clintons. He meant them no injury. But for his across-the-aisle colleague, the conversation threw into sharp relief the nightmare scenario that was causing so many Democrats such angst: that Hillary would skate to the Democratic nomination"
Top answer
What is "Sharp relief" here? I understand the rest, although lots of questions about this part thanks "But for his across-the-aisle colleague, the conversation threw into sharp relief the nightmare scenario that was causing so many Democrats such angst: that Hillary would skate to the Democratic nomination"
- What is "Sharp relief" here?
- I understand the rest, although lots of questions about this part thanks "But for his across-the-aisle colleague, the conversation threw into sharp relief the nightmare scenario that was causing so many Democrats such angst: that Hillary would skate to the Democratic nomination"
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4 Answers
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What is "Sharp relief" here? I understand the rest, although lots of questions about this part thanks 
"But for his across-
"But for his across-
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'Throw (something) into sharp relief' = make (something) appear very clearly; make the opposite (of something) appear very clearly. 'Relief' means 'silhouette', roughly.
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"threw into sharp relief" means that the situation wasn't relaxed (in fact it was a nightmare). So the conversation helped to relax (threw into sharp relief) a situation of tension. So "threw into" means something like "transform"/"morph" (from tension to relax) or "change", and this type of change is not soft but energic, vigourous, sudden (hence the use of throw).
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Sorry, but that is not it at all, Anon. 'Relief' has nothing to do with relaxation. It is a term referring technically to the projection of a 3-dimensional image upon a flat surface, though I attempted to simplify the idiom by using the word 'silhouette'.
I really wish that anonymous posters, whose credentials are completely unknown, would not throw in gratuitous, unreliable comments.
I really wish that anonymous posters, whose credentials are completely unknown, would not throw in gratuitous, unreliable comments.
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