#3 語彙の用例: modulate, smother, extenuate, bereave, wrest

modulate

音や声を調節するという意味で使う。新聞などでは、やらげるとか変化させるなどでも使う。音や声とは限らない。「転調」は modulation。

コロケーション

• modulate [= soften / tone down] one's voice

• modulate [= regulate] the amount of 何々  

実例

While his advisers have tried to modulate his original comment, Trump suggested he had no reason to back off https://t.co/2WiiKzfUDr pic.twitter.com/YF4zXl76h6

— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 10, 2017

Using financial conditions to modulate the economy has proved supremely useful for the Fed in the past.

But other times, this signaling hasn't gone as well.https://t.co/jSxtAaQVgW pic.twitter.com/GBDjk9y1Tb

— Insider Business (@BusinessInsider) September 21, 2022

smother

suffocate, chokeなどと同様の意味。コロケーションを見ると怖いものばかりだが、実例にあるようにキス攻めにして息もつけないようにするという時も使う。

コロケーション

• smother A in [or with] B (AをBにどっぷり漬ける)

• be smothered with … (何々で窒息する)

• smother A with B （A をBを覆って消す）

• smother {a scandal / a crime / a proposal} (もみ消す)

実例

Here's why you should tune in to kids' discomfort around relatives who want to smother them in kisses. - @TODAYShow https://t.co/H7IV74PMvc

— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 19, 2018

語注： tune in to 何々 (何々に耳を傾ける、～をよくくみ取る)
子どもを見るなり、可愛がってあげたい親戚の気持ちは分かるが、子供の気持ちも考えようねという記事。

Fruit and veg come in their own natural wrapping. Why do we smother them in plastic? https://t.co/FUvFBg6x8N

— The Guardian (@guardian) June 28, 2017

“The public health reforms that eventually helped smother pandemic cholera in Iran a century ago likely hold the key to containing the coronavirus outbreak today.”https://t.co/iIrBv4F3y4

— Foreign Affairs (@ForeignAffairs) March 3, 2020

AMLO, Mexico's new president, is using his political power to smother Mexico—as Carlos Slim's economic power once did https://t.co/ihXldSnYKd

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) February 16, 2019

extenuate

裁判でよく出てきそうな語。情状酌量して罪を軽くするという意味。ラテン語で tenuis というのが thin という意味で、元々は身体とか肉とかを薄くするという意味だったらしい。

コロケーション

• 否定+ extenuate {one's deed / one's misconduct / one's guilt}

実例

"Downing Street and the Cabinet Office together have hundreds of rooms"

PM Boris Johnson adds he says this "not in anyway to extenuate my personal responsibility but to give context to these events"https://t.co/CvDhNJO7PZ pic.twitter.com/a1T2FvkPG9

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) May 25, 2022

bereave

the bereaved で遺族という意味なのは知っていたが、bereave という動詞が奪うという意味なのは知らなかった。deprive, rob, strip, dispossess と同じタイプですね。

コロケーション

• bereave A of B (A からBを奪う)

実例

動詞の bereave よりも圧倒的に bereaved 名詞 が多い。

A White House official said federal efforts to reach bereaved children will likely be conducted through state and local leaders and community-based organizations but declined to provide a timeline. (8/8)

— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 17, 2022

79 years on, WWII Japanese soldier's good-luck flag returns from US to his bereaved family https://t.co/ufyCgl04hD pic.twitter.com/VRooFaBEVc

— The Mainichi (Japan Daily News) (@themainichi) November 14, 2021

wrest

これは wrist (手首)と関係が深い語。手首をくるっと捻ってもぎ取るイメージ。古英語からいる古参。

コロケーション

• wrest A out of [or (away) from] B (AをBからもぎ取る)

実例

A record 3 million people have cast their ballots early in the Georgia runoff election. If Democrats win both races this week, they'll wrest control of the U.S. Senate from Republicans.

Here's what you need to know ahead of Tuesday 👇https://t.co/RzSEhJeKWI

— NPR (@NPR) January 4, 2021

"It is hard for many people to wrap their mind around the fact that Union Army soldiers fought to wrest Native lands away from multiple tribes, as part of the Union cause to create a free, white West," @megankatenelson writes: https://t.co/MWSN4q4aUO

— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) July 12, 2020