On Sat, 2002-09-07 at 11:16, Quel Qun wrote:
> I am just a French native, so please allow my lack of knowledge about
> all you said before ;) I really did not think it would generate such a
> traffic.
>
> However, I carefully looked at my Harrap's and I cannot find "to full"
> anywhere. I wish one could grep these things...
>
> I tried the on-line Merriam-Webster's but the only form it knows is "to
> fill-up".
>
> I sincerely don't want to clog the ML. Just kill me offline if I am
> being stupid, or let's keep the subject for a later release.
As has been mentioned: this is a UK English idiomatic usage. You won't
find it in US dictionaries. You won't find "to full", either, since the
verb is to "to fill". "Full up" isn't a verb - to full up, I full up,
you full up, etc - it's used as an adjective ("it is full up"). In a
large UK English dictionary, I expect you'd find the usage "full up",
probably under the entry for "fill" or "full". I'd check OED.com, but I
can only use that when i'm at university (ahhh, lovely site licenses).
Regardless; if you check archives you'll find UK English speakers saying
it's fine and Americans going "what the hell are you UK people on
about?" :)
--
adamw
