Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Verb Phrase 134. The verb phrase today is to water down. Okay. We have three meanings and we have three examples. So the first meaning is to dilute a liquid usually by adding water. Yeah. So you really you can water down anything, but we especially use it for alcohol. So let's look at a example number one here. You should water down that alcoholic drink for her. She cannot handle it, if it is too strong. So people often can water down alcohol. If the alcohol is too strong for them to make it like less strong. Or yeah basically. But you could water down anything by adding some other liquid to it. So we often say to water down. All right. Let's look at number two here. To weaken or make something less effective or not as strong. Okay good. So let's look at again the second example. By the time that bill passed through Congress it got so watered down that it didn't do half of what he was supposed to do. So maybe whoever wrote it it started off as very strong bill but remember you know in Congress the politicians they have to try to get the other side to agree to it so they get enough people to sign it. Sometimes they won't sign it unless you know , they may they compromise some and they lower it so then maybe they're making the bill a lot less strong or a lot less effective because they have to try to compromise with the opposing party. So in that sense we often say that the bill got watered down or somebody speech could, could have gotten watered down, if it was very strong. But maybe somebody didn't like some of the things in it so they might water it down. So in this way, we say that something could get watered down. It becomes less strong or possibly less effective. All right. Let's look at the third one here. To water something thoroughly like go to like rinse something or spray water over something. You can water it down. Sometimes it could be because something is too hot and you want to cool it down or sometimes it could be because you want to rinse or wash something off. So let's look at the third example here. Let's water down the driveway to get rid of some mud that got on it. So maybe this is somebody's driveway you know , usually it's some sort of you know , concrete or tar on it. But you know, maybe for somebody maybe a storm or something swept some mud on it or somehow mud got on it. So you might water it down . to rinse or wash the mud away, especially a lot of driveways sometimes are or could or might be on a slight slope or slant. It might be easier to you know, to water it down that way. Or like I said if something was too hot and you wanted to cool it down you might spray water on it you might water it down in that sense. Or if it was too dry, you needed to make it more moist. You might spray water on it just to water it down in that sort of sense. Okay. Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope it's clear. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.
A2 US water strong watered mud rinse spray English Tutor Nick P Verb Phrase (134) Water Down 14 1 anitawu12 posted on 2019/05/28 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary