Drawing curtains

[pne]

I can't remember whether "to draw the curtain" means "pull the curtains away from the window so that you can look out" or "pull the curtains together so that the window is covered".

dictionary.com, quoting AHD, says that "draw" means "To move or pull so as to cover or uncover something: draw the curtains." and dict.leo.org translates "to draw the curtain" as both "den Vorhang aufziehen" and "den Vorhang zuziehen".

Can it really have both meanings, then? That is, is "draw the curtains, please" ambiguous, so that you'd have to look at the current state of the curtains to ascertain what it is that is wanted?

Comments

[karen2205]

I've only ever heard it used in the sense of 'close the curtains'.

[haela.livejournal.com]

my family always meant that drawing the curtains means to open them.

[nik-w.livejournal.com]

I've heard it used to mean both, but the vast majority of the time it has been used to mean closing the curtains.

[bluewingedcat.livejournal.com]

It is, indeed, an ambiguous statement that can have both meanings. In order to specify one or the other without requiring someone to look, you have to add 'open' or 'closed' (or some variant thereof) to the end of the sentence.

"She drew the sheet back."
"He drew the curtains closed."

[lexabear.livejournal.com]

I remember a series of kids' books featuring a governness named Amelia Bedelia who always took instructions literally. One of her tasks was "to draw the curtains," so she sat down with her easel... That's actually where I learned the phrase, so it always makes me think of it.

[denial-land.livejournal.com]

Unicorn + KOL love!!!

[lexabear.livejournal.com]

<3 !!!!

[denial-land.livejournal.com]

!

[allegrox.livejournal.com]

That's also where I learned the phrase, but I didn't get the joke because I didn't know of the other meaning of "draw". Our teacher had to explain it to the whole class, and nobody found it particularly funny.
I guess children's stories are sometimes best suited for adults.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

It's not a phrase in my active vocabulary outside of the expression "to draw a curtain over [a scene]" (meaning "to not give any further description").

[marikochan.livejournal.com]

I understand it to mean "close the curtains," but I very rarely either use the phrase or hear it used.

[ladyortyger.livejournal.com]

Huh. Never pondered that :)

[wingflutter.livejournal.com]

yeah as far as i know it refers to the opposite of what the curtains are at the time of speaking! :)

"mu"

[elgrande.livejournal.com]

Mal wieder 'ne ganz andere Frage: Kann man "mu" nur als Antwort auf Entscheidungsfragen verwenden oder auch auf andere Fragen wie "Was war vor dem Urknall"? n_true meinte, du könntest das wissen.

Re: "mu"

[pne.livejournal.com]

"Mu" ist nicht wirklich Teil meines aktiven Wortschatzes, noch habe ich es viel benutzt gehört.

Von daher beschränkt sich mein Wissen darüber im Wesentlichen auf das, was in dem Eintrag im New Hacker's Dictionary/Jargon File (http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/M/mu.html) steht, in dem ich zuerst über dieses Wort/Phänomen gelesen habe.

Dort steht, es bedeute Your question cannot be answered because it depends on incorrect assumptions—womit es auch auf "Was war vor dem Urknall?" eine Antwort sein könnte.

Auf Japanisch oder Chinesisch kann man nicht zur Beantwortung der Frage zurückgreifen, da diese "Deine Frage lässt sich nicht beantworten" Bedeutung in den Sprachen wohl unbekannt ist, auch wenn "mu" als Wort (ohne diese spezifische Bedeutung) über das Japanische aus dem Chinesischen kommt: Native speakers of Japanese do not recognize the Discordian question-denying use.

In Lojban gibt es übrigens ein ähnliches Wort: na'i (Kurzübersetzung/-erläuterung aus der offiziellen Wortliste: metalinguistic not).

[timwi.livejournal.com]

Just a few weeks ago I discussed this very same question with another non-native speaker (but one whose English is way more advanced than mine) and he, too, acknowledged that it can mean both, so he interprets "to draw the curtain" as an instruction to flip its state. He also said he doesn't use the phrase himself, and I'm amazed that many people in this thread, some apparently native speakers, said the same. If no-one uses that phrase, why hasn't it been declared archaic or obsolete yet? :)

[sovereigna.livejournal.com]

Close. However I guess if they're closed and someone asked you to draw them... Nup, I'd think they were weird. Definitely close. :)