Verb

(head)

(propose)

Verb

(propos)

To suggest a plan, course of action, etc.

To ask for a person's hand in marriage.

To intend.

* 1859 , (John Gorham Palfrey), History of New England , Preface (Google preview):

I propose to relate, in several volumes, the history of the people of New England.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-16, author= John Vidal

, volume=189, issue=10, page=8, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Dams endanger ecology of Himalayas , passage=Many of the proposed dams would be among the tallest in the world.}}

(obsolete) To talk; to converse.

* 1599 , (William Shakespeare), (Much Ado About Nothing) , :

HERO. Good Margaret, run thee to the parlour;

There shalt thou find my cousin Beatrice

Proposing with the prince and Claudio

(obsolete) To set forth.

* 1616 , (George Chapman) (translator), Homer's Iliad , book 11:

. . . so weighty was the cup,

That being propos'd brimful of wine, one scarce could lift it up.

Verb

(head)

(explain)

Verb

(en verb)

To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of.

*

The boy became volubly friendly and bubbling over with unexpected humour and high spirits. He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance. Nobody would miss them, he explained .

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03

, author=, volume=100, issue=2, page=106 , magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Pixels or Perish , passage=Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.}}

To give a valid excuse for some past behavior.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson

, volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Fantasy of navigation , passage=It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].}}

(obsolete) To make flat, smooth out.

(obsolete) To unfold or make visible.

* (John Evelyn) (1620-1706)

The horse-chestnut isready to explain its leaf.