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In a comedy series a mother is buying her children (two kids) some shoes. They're too big for their feet.
Here's the conversation
Mom, these are at least two sizes too big
Perfect, you'll grow into them
When?
Oh, you're both way overdue for a spurt.
What does the last sentence mean?
Masih K
Posted 2016-11-20T09:43:28.633
Reputation: 1 073
15
The mother is talking about growth spurts, which occur during the teenage years.
growth spurt
PediatricsA period of rapid growth in middle adolescence
The mother is saying that she expects the children to have a growth spurt soon, so she'd rather buy shoes that are a little too big than ones they will grow out of before they have been worn for very long. As you said, it's comedy. Any parent who has seen a child quickly grow out of an expensive pair of tennis shoes might chuckle at her remark.
You probably already learned about these in health class, but for the sake of completeness, you can read more about growth spurts on Wikipedia.
J.R.
Posted 2016-11-20T09:43:28.633
Reputation: 108 123
@ J.R so,here ''overdue for something'' can be interpreted as something that's likely to happen soon? because the dictionaries say it means ''late or behind the schedule''. – Masih K – 2016-11-20T15:24:01.510
1Yes, that's right. It's behind schedule, or it should have happened already, so it's bound to happen soon. – BLT – 2016-11-20T16:35:18.143
@MasihK - That’s the idea. No one really knows when growth spurts happen anyway, so, in this case, it’s a fairly informal usage of the phrase. It means about the same as “a [growth] spurt could happen any time now." – J.R. – 2016-11-20T19:19:52.200
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Spurt, in this context, is referring to a growth spurt.
growth spurt
an occurrence of growing quickly and suddenly in a short period of time
—"Growth Spurt." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2016 (link).growth spurt
A period of rapid growth in middle adolescence; ♀ ↑ ±8 cm/yr ±age 12; ♂ ↑ ±10 cm/yr ± age 14; GS is orderly, affecting acral parts–ie, hands and feet grow before proximal regions, partly explaining adolescent clumsiness
—growth spurt. (n.d.) McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine. (2002). Retrieved November 20 2016 (link).
Ghoti and Chips
Posted 2016-11-20T09:43:28.633
Reputation: 255
That's a weird usage of ‘±’. – Anton Sherwood – 2016-11-21T09:27:31.437
Malcolm in the Middle, I think? – djechlin – 2016-11-21T03:25:22.660