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I'm not sure about this put to sleep thing. Maybe I haven't had enough to do with babies in recent years in UK! I think it is fine, but Carboy has read the definitions, and if he says it is ok then it certainly is.

Oddly, I think that some people also use the expression "put down" for putting their children to bed.

Put to sleep does not mean kill. It is a euphemism, and sleep is often used as a euphemism for death. It is a problem if we start assigning literal meaning to the metaphorical use of a word or phrase, forgetting its real root.

More multiple idiomatic meanings (is that the right use of idiomatic?) ---

My old dog was suffering; it was a kindness to have him put down.

Put down that book and come and do some work!

The manager thought he was so clever, but I put him down with one comment.

"Management", no doubt. I hear such expressions from my (Indian) colleagues in US - used to shrug them off as "Americanisms":

* "It has a long tail" - issue defying closure, defect that is lingering on and on
* "Mr. So&so will be met and offering socialized" - we will tell him about our offering
* "We'll do a deep dive into that subject" - will go into the details later
* "I'll circle back and take the feedback" - right now I don't give a damn about what you say - will hear you out later

Found in a restaurant in Bangalore.
At least they are being honest here lol:

I think these people need to be put down.

I leave the interpretation of the phrase, in this context, entirely up to others :cool:

Past 2 days on all news channels were flashing the following:
Air India Flight overshoots runway. Air India Flight falls into Valley. Air India Flight goes up in Flames.
BBC and CNN reported 'Indian Plane runs off the runway and falls into valley.' Indian Plane crashes'
Do we really know the difference between Flight and Plane / Aircraft?
You book a flight and board an Aircraft/ a plane. A plane takes off lands and a flight gets cancelled.
But, we here in India use flight for indicating both flight and a plane.

Putting to sleep is also used in this context, at least here. May be also in the US.

"My old dog was suffering a lot. So I reluctantly had him put to sleep".

I have seen many of my friends usually end up using the 'ed form of words to indicate past tense even when there is different word for it like for ex: freeze->freezed.
It's not like they don't know it but when speaking they end up up using the incorrect word.

Yes. Both Thad also said that this is the right usage. Only thing is that we do not believe that this is the only usage. "I put my kid to sleep early today" is also perfectly fine. In the dog case, sleep is used as an euphimism for kill.

Not always, just as waters is the plural of water at times.

On the wider topic, a common Indian misuse is 'can able to' and 'can not able to'. Can has the ability to give the full meaning without the support of able.

I hear some of my friends use the phrase "anyways..."
Is it correct? Shouldnt it be "Anyway" ?

Another term i have heard being used is "Anywhich ways.. " :O Is there even such an expression?

Waters is used in only a few contexts. A bit like fishes (the normal plural being fish). Software on the other hand is akin to sheep and sheeps is not used even when referring to different kinds of sheep.

I too think that anyways is wrong and that the correct word is anyway.

'Any which way' seems to come from 'any which way you can' which IIRC comes from a movie. To my mind "any which way" has the same hue as "by hook or by crook" or at least "any means".

cheers,

My thinking is that flight is the route or passage. I do not think it correct to say that the flight crashed; it was just one plane that did.

But one can say, "He's coming on the BA flight from London tomorrow." so maybe this is open to further debate?

I think that any which way is American, but I suggest that we apply the principle of not using extra or superfluous words, and that we do not use it.

Anyways may be colloquial or regional English. Again, best to avoid

I'm thinking that software is like sheep. Some nouns have an option: both fish and fishes is ok for the plural of fish. Can you give an example where you find softwares correct?

(and nobody, please, mention data! ;))

I know this is open to argument, but I am certain I have seen this in a few contexts - as in 'my company works on assembly level, open source and Microsoft softwares'. I understand it is more common in legal parlance.
A couple of quick references I could find, here: education.nic.in/cr_piracy_study/cpr5.asp (an education dept. site, can't be wrong lol:)

And here: S60 Softwares - Download S60 Softwares - Symbian Softwares
And...
KC Softwares
Softwares

Cheers.

In each of those instances, "software" would seem right to me, and softwares wrong. Interestingly, even my Firefox spell[ing] checker flags it as wrong.

I wonder if the chain went

software -> wares -> warez -> softwares

And, I've just thought: we don't have hardwares either! Not in the computer sense, nor in the older ironmongery sense.

Do remember: just because something is used doesn't make it right. I could show you examples on the BBC News site every day!

+1 to all of the above.

Could not have put it better.