(plethora is a word that means many).
So I normally introduce certain words of phrases to my students then I explain them based on my view as to what the word or phrase means.
I often back this up by sending an 'official,' definition from the Cambridge dictionary or similar.
This morning, when talking to a German student, I used the phrase "chocolate box pretty," and I explained it to him.
I then aimed to 'back it up,' with the official Cambridge definition and was surprised to encounter a meaning that wasn't my understanding of the term.
My surprise only grew when I looked it up in other dictionaries, as no two sources seemed to agree on the exact meaning.
To me this expression means pretty, but conventionally so, as in the type of image one might see on a postcard.
Cambridge said it means 'boringly pretty,' and Collins said 'superficially pretty.'
The Collins definition is particularly bizarre, in my view, because it isn't possible for something to be 'deeply or profoundly pretty,' so the use of the word 'superficially,' seems really odd.
This happens quite a lot to me as well.
It can get problematic when some students trust their dictionaries absolutely, and refuse to believe that the native speaker is right and the dictionary is wrong.
Problem: the dictionary cannot adapt itself to this little thing called CONTEXT!
Native speakers are able to discern the meaning based on the context. A dictionary cannot do that.
Wordreference says that "Chocolate-box" means excessively decorative and sentimental, as the pictures or designs on some boxes of chocolate candy. It can also mean sentimentally pretty or appealing (Italki does not let me copy and paste it directly).
It is true that a word / expression might have different meanings or interpretations, and it is not always so easy to know if all the meanings shown in the dictionary are commonly used in the day to day.
I have a similar issue, especially when looking for the meaning of a verb that has many uses. Instead of trying to understand all the meanings of the verb, I focus on one or two interpretations and try to use them in examples.
For me, 'boringly pretty' is confusing but 'superficially pretty' is easier to understand; it's only pretty at first sight.
