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Phrasal Verbs / PHRASA~1

30. Focus on: participle adjectives formed from phrasal verbs, 2

As we saw in Section 14, the past participles of many phrasal verbs can be used as participle adjectives. The adverb all is sometimes used to emphasize participle adjectives with the meaning of very or completely. But the sentence must be logical — all is used only to emphasize a participle adjective that describes a condition that can be partial, less than complete, and so on. Look at this example with very and two ordinary adjectives:

makes sense: He's very sick. does not make sense: He's very dead.

The first sentence above makes sense because it is possible to be very sick, but the second does not make sense because it is not possible to be very dead.

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makes sense: The man is all spaced-out. does not make sense: The man is all locked in.

The first sentence makes sense because it is possible to be slightly spaced-out, but it is not possible to be slightly locked in (a door is either locked or it isn't).

When all is used with the meaning of very or completely in a sentence with a plural subject, it is identical in appearance to all's more common meaning of all the people, all the things, and so on.

The men are a// spaced-out.

This sentence is ambiguous: it could be understood to mean that every man is spaced-out or that the men are completely spaced-out.

Infinitivte

present tense

-ing form

past tense

past participle

lock in

lock in & locks in

locking in

locked in

locked in

1. lock... in p.v. When you lock people in, you lock a door or gate so that they cannot leave a room, building, or other place.

Seven people died because they were locked in the burning building.

It's dangerous to lock children in a car.

locked in part.adj. When people cannot leave a room, building, or other place because the door or gate is locked, they are locked in.

We're locked in — we'll have to break a window.

2. lock... in p.v. When you lock in an interest rate, price, time slot, and so on, you make it definite so that it will not change in the future.

/ met with the loan officer at the bank and locked in a mortgage rate.

If you want to use the condo at the beach this weekend, you need to pay a deposit to lock it in.

locked in part.adj. After you make an interest rate, price, time slot, and so on, definite so that it will not change in the future, it is locked in.

The farmer isn't worried about what happens to the price of soybeans because the price of his crop is locked in.