Talk:watertight alibi

watertight alibi
Looks like sum of parts to me. ---&#62; Tooironic (talk) 03:19, 21 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Agreed; its meaning can be entirely deduced from the entries for watertight and alibi. The red links to airtight alibi and iron-clad alibi only confirm my suspicions. Orthogonal (talk) 03:58, 21 March 2015 (UTC)
 * The choice of an adjective is often problematic for a non-native speaker. This case is a good example. While alibi is perfectly understandable in Finnish, it may not be the first combination that comes into one's mind when trying to find a translatable pair of words to descibe a "very good alibi". I personally would be inclined towards using either  or . These would be understandable in English without problems, but how do I know? The entries for solid, firm or perfect do not directly support the hypothesis that they could be used in this particular sense. And how do I know which translation of pitävä to use? Besides "solid" and "firm" it may in various contexts translate as "proof", "holding" and even "liking". Today it occurred to me that the Usage notes -section of the entry "alibi" (in this case) would be a perfect place to provide this sort of information and wrote this note:
 * A very good alibi might be described e.g. as perfect, watertight, airtight, solid or iron-clad.
 * I believe that this sort of approach could help us to get rid of a number of bordercase SOP/no-SOP and translation-target arguments. What do you guys think? --Hekaheka (talk) 05:30, 21 March 2015 (UTC)
 * We actually already cover this in some usage notes; adjectives that are commonly used with X include... Renard Migrant (talk) 11:00, 21 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Oh and delete. Renard Migrant (talk) 11:00, 21 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Yep, delete. I already deleted "watertight alibi" from the derived terms list of "alibi". --Hekaheka (talk) 13:55, 21 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Keep, it's not the usual sense of watertight, but it's common enough to warrant retention. Donnanz (talk) 14:13, 21 March 2015 (UTC)


 * Delete as SoP: the usual metaphorical use. Our watertight entry mentions "contract" and "regulation" as other possible nouns. Equinox ◑ 14:54, 21 March 2015 (UTC)


 * Delete per nom, transparently SOP to the broadly understood metaphorical sense. bd2412 T 22:29, 21 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Delete per Equinox. - -sche (discuss) 06:09, 22 March 2015 (UTC)

Deleted. bd2412 T 18:52, 31 March 2015 (UTC)