expression Hear it!

expression Definition

ex·pres·sion (ek spres̸h′ən, ik-)

noun

  1. a pressing out or squeezing out, as of juice
  2. a putting into words or representing in language
  3. a picturing, representing, or symbolizing in art, music, etc.
  4. a manner of expressing; esp., a meaningful and eloquent manner of speaking, singing, etc. to read with expression
  5. a particular word, phrase, or sentence “catch cold” is an idiomatic expression
  6. a showing of feeling, character, etc. laughter as an expression of joy
  7. a look, intonation, sign, etc. that conveys meaning or feeling a quizzical expression on the face
  8. a symbol or set of symbols expressing some mathematical fact, as a quantity or operation
  9. a showing by a symbol, sign, figures, etc.
  10. Genetics the manifestation of a trait caused by a particular gene

Etymology: ME expressioun < L expressio < expressus: see express

expression Synonyms

expression

n.

  1. Significant appearance

    look, cast, character; see appearance 1.

  2. Putting into understandable form

    representation, articulation, utterance, verbalization, wording, symbolization, narration, exposition, formulation, interpretation, invention, creation, art product, declaration, materialization, commentary, diagnosis, definition, rendition, elucidation, explanation, illustration; see also composition 3, diction.

  3. A traditional form of speech

    locution, idiom, speech pattern; see phrase, word 1.

  4. Facial cast

    grimace, smile, smirk, mug, sneer, moue (French), pout, simper, grin, facial contortion, wry face; see also smile.

  5. Expressiveness

    feeling, emotion, affect; see eloquence 1, emotion.

expression Usage Examples

Preposition: of

  • gene: We first characterized the seed promoters suitable for the expression of foreign genes in appropriate sites of the rice seed.
  • dissatisfaction: The exact process for dealing with expressions of dissatisfaction with a mark will vary across departments; you should seek advice from your tutor.
  • emotion: At once a simple yet complex creation, a tuneful expression of personal emotion is a true creative challenge.
  • sympathy: We may confirm someone through a responsive smile, or a handshake, or an expression of sympathy.
  • interest: Closing date for Expressions of Interest is the 3rd April 2006.
  • opinion: Hope these expressions of opinion will never be published.

Converse of object

  • invite: At this stage we would like to invite expressions of interest from anyone wishing to attend, contribute to or host panels.
  • evaluate: This gives us an unambiguous way of evaluating expressions.
  • induce: The product of this reaction, RsbV, liberates B from its inactive complex with RsbW and induces expression of the general stress proteins.

Adjective modifier

  • facial: His facial expressions are sketched in my memory for life.
  • regular: How do I use a regular expression to strip C style comments from a file?
  • artistic: For almost forty years the long player has been the pinnacle of artistic expression in popular music.
  • algebraic: Expression If the subset has been defined by an algebraic expression, this will be here.
  • fresh: The Church of England is desperate to give birth to fresh expressions of church.
  • creative: Ultimately, as forms of creative expression have evolved, IP rights have evolved to protect them.

Modifies a noun

  • vector: The cDNA encoding this fragment of _- catenin was cloned into an E. coli expression vector.

Noun used with modifier

  • gene: BNP gene expression increases rapidly in response to stimulus.
  • arithmetic: Arithmetic Expressions Operands are linked by operators: + - / * ^ which can be binary or unary.
  • transgene: Adenovirus-mediated gene transfer of endostatin in vivo results in high level of transgene expression and inhibition of tumor growth and metastases.
  • protein: High throughput PCR primer design is then used to target specific protein domains and features allowing the team to produce fusion protein expression constructs.
expression Quotes

I came to the conclusion many years ago that almost all crime is due to the repressed desire for aesthetic expression.

—Waugh, Evelyn Arthur StJohn

Expression, for me, does not reside in passions glowing ina humanface or manifested by violent movement.The entirearrangement of my picture isexpressive: theplace occupied by the figures, the empty spaces around them, the proportions, everything has its share.

—Matisse, Henri EŁ  mile Beno|"  t

We should never make a god out of form.We should struggle for form onlyas long as it serves as a means of expression for the inner sound.

—Kandinsky,Wassily

Philistinism!öWe have not the expression in English. Perhapswehavenottheword because wehavesomuch of the thing.

—Arnold, Matthew

I did not say anything. I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious and sacrifice and the expression in vain.We had heard them, sometimes standing in the rain almost out of earshot, so that only the shouted words came through, and had read them, on proclamations that were slapped up by billposters over other proclamations, now fora long time, and I had seen nothing sacred, and thethings that were glorious had no gloryand the sacrifices were like the stock-yards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it.

—Hemingway, Ernest Millar

Expression is the dress of thought.

—Pope, Alexander

Les oeuvres les plus belles sont celles o  u' il y a le moins de matie'  re; plus l'expression se rapproche de la pense¤  e, plus le mot colle dessus et dispara|"t, plus c'est beau. Je crois que l'avenir de l'art est dans ces voies. The most beautiful works are those that have the least content; the closer the expression is to the thought, the more indistinguishable the word from the content, the more beautiful is the work. I believe that the future of art lies in this direction.

—Flaubert, Gustave

Hisexpressionmayoftenbe called bald†but it isbaldas 34 the bare mountain tops are bald, with a baldness full of grandeur.

—Arnold, Matthew

In them one can see the spontaneousöand often aestheticöexpressionof a peoplereflected, not ina gilt- framed drawing room mirror, but in an honest glass held up to the face of a nation.

—Rockefeller,Winthrop

He had no nose, properly speaking, but a large beak of preposterous widthlessness, which gave his whole face the expression of falling gravely downstairs, and quite obliterated the unimportant chin.

—cummings, e e pen name of  Edward Estlin Cummings

   The concentration camp isthefinal expressionof human separateness and its ultimate consequence. It is organized abandonment.

—Miller, Arthur

I have always looked upon decayas being just as wonderful an expression of life as growth.

—Miller, Henry Valentine

Each individual work serves as an expression of our most personal state of mind at that particular moment and of the inescapable, imperative need for release by means of an appropriate act of creation: in the rhythm, form, colour and mood of a picture.

—Feininger, Lyonel

Technology is not an image of the world but a way of operating on reality. The nihilism of technology lies not only in the fact that it is the most perfect expression of the will to power†but also in the fact that it lacks meaning.

—Paz, Octavio

All governments use force and all assert that they are founded on reason. In fact, whether universal suffrage prevails or not, it is always an oligarchy that governs, finding ways to give to'the will of the people'the expression which the few desire.

—Pareto,Vilfredo

Bubber was the first man I heard use the expression,'it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.' Everything, and I repeat, everything had to swing.

—Ellington, Duke (Edward Kennedy)

She developed a persistent troubled frown which gave her the expression of someone who is trying to repair a watch with his gloves on.

—Thurber,James Grover

Italy is a geographical expression.

—Metternich, Prince Clemens Lothar Wenzel

Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.

—Shaw, George Bernard

Ihold a beast, anangel and a madmanwithinme, and my enquiry is as to their working, and my problem is their subjugation and victory, downthrow and upheaval, and my effort is their self expression.

—Thomas, Dylan Marlais

   Assume a particular state of development in the productive facilities of man and you will get a particular form of commerce and consumption. Assume particular stages of development in production, commerce and consumption and you will have a corresponding social constitution, a corresponding organisation of the family, of orders or of classes, in a word, a corresponding civil society. Assume a particular civil societyand you will get particular political conditions which are only the official expression of civil society.

—Marx, Karl Heinrich

She's the sort of woman who lives for othersöyou can always tell the others by their hunted expression.

—Lewis, C(live) S(taples)

The 50s face was angry, the 60s face was well-fed, the 70s face was foxy. Perhaps it was the right expression: there was a lot to be waryabout.

—Waterhouse, Keith Spencer

A perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire.

—Shaw, George Bernard

A man of genius has a right to any mode of expression.

—Pound, Ezra Loomis

The artistic temperament is a disease that afflicts amateurs. It is a disease which arises from men not having sufficient power of expression to utter and get rid of the element of art in their being.

—Chesterton, G(ilbert) K(eith)

It was the supreme expression of the mediocrity of the apparatus that Stalin himself rose to his position.

—Trotsky, Leon originally Lev Davidovich Bronstein

   Thereisnothing moreunbecoming a manofquality than to laugh;Jesu,'tissuchavulgarexpressionofthepassion!

—Congreve,William