uncle

Word family

Related topics: Family, Sociology

un·cle /ˈʌŋkəl/ S2 W3 noun [countableC]

1 SSFthe brother of your mother or father, or the husband of your aunt 伯[叔，舅]父；姑[姨]丈 → aunt

I went to stay with my uncle and aunt for a few days.

我去和叔叔婶婶住了几天。

Uncle Philip

菲利普叔叔

I was very excited about becoming an uncle (=your sister or your brother’s wife has a child).

要做舅舅了，我很激动。

2. SSused by children, in front of a first name, to address or refer to a man who is a close friend of their parents 叔叔，伯伯〔儿语，用于称呼父母的朋友〕

3. say uncle American EnglishAmE spokenSSCADMIT used by children to tell someone to admit they have been defeated 叫叔叔〔儿语，用于要求某人认输〕

Examples from the Corpus

uncle• Uncle Roscoe• I remember two aunts and an uncle, all very dear to me, dying within a few months.• You shall visit your aunt and uncle.• Another uncle, Ignacio, offers to take Manuel Gustavo on as his own illegitimate son.• Suppose your favorite uncle proudly tells you that your birthday present is a subscription to the Salmon of the Month Club.• The years hold little joy for Jacob, who meets a crooked dealer after his own kind in his uncle Laban.• His maternal uncle, William Dauney, had been an architect in Aberdeen.• Come to that, she had only one uncle, her father's brother Eric, and she hardly ever saw him.• Which uncle had told him that was a fatal mistake?

Origin uncle

(1200-1300) Old French Latin avunculus “mother's brother”

un·cle noun

Chinese

Syllable

Corpus