I have trouble with this word; it seems like it has a nearly endless array of different uses. Many of them seem to come down to the idea of taking something away, but some of them seem to, at best, have a very indirect meaning to this core meaning.
This is one word where I wish Clozemaster could be more flexible, and include more sentences with this word to get at the multiple meanings it has.
Have you tried the sentence search? There are probably more sentences using the word in other collections; you can then add those to your own collection.
That makes sense, but it’s more work. I also don’t always know which words would be better for including multiple sentences, vs. which ones are such that one sentence is probably sufficient.
Ideally, I would like there to be a centralized authority who consults native speakers in the target language, who are fluently bilingual in the language the course is taught in, and these people could decide which words are such that multiple sentences would be better, and then they could pick and choose sentences to cover the full range of meanings.
Clozemaster is pretty damned good as-is, but I’m always thinking of ways it could be made better, and this is one of them.
It is especially important for words common enough that you really need to master all meanings to be fluent, but uncommon enough that you’re not going to get passive exposure to the alternate meanings through the other sentences in the “Fluency Fast Track” if that makes sense.
Don’t forget to flush the toilet.
I found this discussion on Reddit (in German) where people from different parts of Germany and Austria comment on whether they would use spĂĽlen or abziehen for flushing the toilet.
It seems that this particular usage for abziehen is common in some regions and absent in others, with many German native speakers saying that they have never heard abziehen used in this way.
I think it is simply going out of use.
“Abziehen” made sense when you had the water reservoir high on the wall and a chain with a handle coming down. I cannot even remember when I last saw that. Today there is usually nothing to “pull”.