DWELL ON

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does dwell on mean? 

• DWELL ON (verb)
  The verb DWELL ON has 1 sense:

1. delay

  Familiarity information: DWELL ON used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DWELL ON (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Delay

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

dwell on; linger over

Hypernyms (to "dwell on" is one way to...):

hesitate; waffle; waver (pause or hold back in uncertainty or unwillingness)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

 Context examples 

Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Well, there’s no need for me to dwell on that part of it.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Reader, it is not pleasant to dwell on these details.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Clerval! Beloved friend! Even now it delights me to record your words and to dwell on the praise of which you are so eminently deserving.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

As for the moral turpitude that man unveiled to me, even with tears of penitence, I cannot, even in memory, dwell on it without a start of horror.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

And as to its recommendations to you, I fancy I need not take much pains to dwell on them.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

But Mrs. Markleham changed her chair for one next the Doctor's, and putting her fan on his coat-sleeve, said: No, really, my dear Doctor, you must excuse me if I appear to dwell on this rather, because I feel so very strongly.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

As Mr Shepherd perceived that this connexion of the Crofts did them no service with Sir Walter, he mentioned it no more; returning, with all his zeal, to dwell on the circumstances more indisputably in their favour; their age, and number, and fortune; the high idea they had formed of Kellynch Hall, and extreme solicitude for the advantage of renting it; making it appear as if they ranked nothing beyond the happiness of being the tenants of Sir Walter Elliot: an extraordinary taste, certainly, could they have been supposed in the secret of Sir Walter's estimate of the dues of a tenant.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Catherine could almost have accused Isabella of being wanting in tenderness towards herself and her sorrows, so very little did they appear to dwell on her mind, and so very inadequate was the comfort she offered.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

She was very far from wishing to dwell on her own feelings, or to represent herself as suffering much, any otherwise than as the self-command she had practised since her first knowledge of Edward's engagement, might suggest a hint of what was practicable to Marianne.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)