of |
1. prep. Expressing distance or motion. | |
2. prep. (now obsolete, or dialectal) From (of distance, direction), "off". | |
3. prep. (obsolete except in phrases) Since, from (a given time, earlier state etc.). | |
4. prep. From, away from (a position, number, distance etc.). | |
There are no shops within twenty miles of the cottage. | |
5. prep. (North America, Scotland, Ireland) Before (the hour); to. | |
What's the time? / Nearly a quarter of three. | |
6. prep. Expressing separation. | |
7. prep. (Indicating removal, absence or separation, with the action indicated by a transitive verb and the quality or substance by a grammatical object.) | |
Finally she was relieved of the burden of caring for her sick husband. | |
8. prep. (Indicating removal, absence or separation, with resulting state indicated by an adjective.) | |
He seemed devoid of human feelings. | |
9. prep. (obsolete) (Indicating removal, absence or separation, construed with an intransitive verb.) | |
10. prep. Expressing origin. | |
11. prep. (Indicating an ancestral source or origin of descent.) | |
The word is believed to be of Japanese origin. | |
12. prep. (Indicating a (non-physical) source of action or emotion; introducing a cause, instigation); from, out of, as an expression of. | |
The invention was born of necessity. | |
13. prep. (following an intransitive verb) (Indicates the source or cause of the verb.) | |
It is said that she died of a broken heart. | |
14. prep. (following an adjective) (Indicates the subject or cause of the adjective.) | |
I am tired of all this nonsense. | |
15. prep. Expressing agency. | |
16. prep. (following a passive verb) (Indicates the agent (for most verbs, now usually expressed with by).) | |
I am not particularly enamoured of this idea. | |
17. prep. (Used to introduce the "subjective genitive"; following a noun to form the head of a postmodifying noun phrase) (see also 'Possession' senses below). | |
The contract can be terminated at any time with the agreement of both parties. | |
18. prep. (following an adjective) (Used to indicate the agent of something described by the adjective.) | |
It was very brave of you to speak out like that. | |
19. prep. Expressing composition, substance. | |
20. prep. (after a verb expressing construction, making etc.) (Used to indicate the material or substance used.) | |
Many 'corks' are now actually made of plastic. | |
21. prep. (directly following a noun) (Used to indicate the material of the just-mentioned object.) | |
She wore a dress of silk. | |
22. prep. (Indicating the composition of a given collective or quantitative noun.) | |
What a lot of nonsense! | |
23. prep. (Used to link a given class of things with a specific example of that class.) | |
Welcome to the historic town of Harwich. | |
24. prep. (Links two nouns in near-apposition, with the first qualifying the second); "which is also". | |
I'm not driving this wreck of a car. | |
25. prep. Introducing subject matter. | |
26. prep. (Links an intransitive verb, or a transitive verb and its subject (especially verbs to do with thinking, feeling, expressing etc.), with its subject-ma | |
I'm always thinking of you. | |
27. prep. (following a noun (now chiefly nouns of knowledge, communication etc.)) (Introduces its subject matter); about, concerning. | |
He told us the story of his journey to India. | |
28. prep. (following an adjective) (Introduces its subject matter.) | |
This behaviour is typical of teenagers. | |
29. prep. Having partitive effect. | |
30. prep. (following a number or other quantitive word) (Introduces the whole for which is indicated only the specified part or segment); "from among". | |
Most of these apples are rotten. | |
31. prep. (following a noun) (Indicates a given part.) | |
32. prep. (now archaic, literary, with preceding partitive word assumed, or as a predicate after to be) Some, an amount of, one of. | |
On the whole, they seem to be of the decent sort. | |
33. prep. (Links to a genitive noun or possessive pronoun, with partitive effect (though now often merged with possessive senses, below).) | |
He is a friend of mine. | |
34. prep. Expressing possession. | |
35. prep. Belonging to, existing in, or taking place in a given location, place or time. Compare "origin" senses, above. | |
He was perhaps the most famous scientist of the twentieth century. | |
36. prep. Belonging to (a place) through having title, ownership or control over it. | |
The owner of the nightclub was arrested. | |
37. prep. Belonging to (someone or something) as something they possess or have as a characteristic; (the "possessive genitive". (With abstract nouns, this inter | |
Keep the handle of the saucepan away from the flames. | |
38. prep. Forming the "objective genitive". | |
39. prep. (Follows an agent noun, verbal noun or noun of action.) | |
She had a profound distrust of the police. | |
40. prep. Expressing qualities or characteristics. | |
41. prep. (now archaic, or literary) (Links an adjective with a noun or noun phrase to form a quasi-adverbial qualifier); in respect to, as regards. | |
My companion seemed affable and easy of manner. | |
42. prep. (Indicates a quality or characteristic); "characterized by". | |
Pooh was said to be a bear of very little brain. | |
43. prep. (Indicates quantity, age, price, etc.) | |
We have been paying interest at a rate of 10%. | |
44. prep. (US, informal considered incorrect by some) (Used to link singular indefinite nouns (preceded by the indefinite article) and attributive adjectives mod | |
It's not that big of a deal. | |
45. prep. Expressing a point in time. | |
46. prep. (chiefly regional) During the course of (a set period of time, day of the week etc.), now specifically with implied repetition or regularity. | |
Of an evening, we would often go for a stroll along the river. | |
47. prep. (UK dialectal, chiefly in negative constructions) For (a given length of time). | |
I've not tekken her out of a goodly long while. | |
48. prep. (after a noun) (Indicates duration of a state, activity etc.) | |
After a delay of three hours, the plane finally took off. | |
a |
1. art. One; any indefinite example of; used to denote a singular item of a group. | |
There was a man here looking for you yesterday. | |
2. art. Used in conjunction with the adjectives score, dozen, hundred, thousand, and million, as a function word. | |
I've seen it happen a hundred times. | |
3. art. One certain or particular; any single.Brown, Lesley, (2003) | |
We've received an interesting letter from a Mrs. Miggins of London. | |
4. art. The same; one. | |
We are of a mind on matters of morals. | |
5. art. Any, every; used before a noun which has become modified to limit its scope; also used with a negative to indicate not a single one.Lindberg, Christine A. (2007) | |
A man who dies intestate leaves his children troubles and difficulties. | |
He fell all that way, and hasn't a bump on his head? | |
6. art. Used before plural nouns modified by few, good many, couple, great many, etc. | |
7. art. Someone or something like; similar to; Used before a proper noun to create an example out of it. | |
The center of the village was becoming a Times Square. | |
8. prep. (archaic) To do with position or direction; In, on, at, by, towards, onto. | |
Stand a tiptoe. | |
9. prep. To do with separation; In, into. | |
Torn a pieces. | |
10. prep. To do with time; Each, per, in, on, by. | |
I brush my teeth twice a day. | |
11. prep. (obsolete) To do with method; In, with. | |
12. prep. (obsolete) To do with role or capacity; In. | |
A God’s name. | |
13. prep. To do with status; In. | |
King James Bible (II Chronicles 2:18) | |
To set the people a worke. | |
14. prep. (archaic) To do with process, with a passive verb; In the course of, experiencing. | |
1964, Bob Dylan, The Times They Are a-Changin’ | |
The times, they are a-changin'. | |
15. prep. (archaic) To do with an action, an active verb; Engaged in. | |
1611, King James Bible, Hebrews 11-21 | |
Jacob, when he was a dying | |
16. prep. (archaic) To do with an action/movement; To, into. | |
17. v. (archaic, or slang) Have. | |
I'd a come, if you'd a asked. | |
18. pron. (obsolete, outside, England, and Scotland dialects) He. | |
19. interj. A meaningless syllable; ah. | |
20. prep. (archaic, slang) Of. | |
The name of John a Gaunt. | |
21. adv. (chiefly Scotland) All. | |
22. adj. (chiefly Scotland) All. | |
Thing |
1. n. (chiefly historical) A public assembly or judicial council in a Germanic country. | |
2. n. That which is considered to exist as a separate entity, object, quality or concept. | |
3. n. A word, symbol, sign, or other referent that can be used to refer to any entity. | |
4. n. An individual object or distinct entity. | |
5. n. (informal) Something that is existent or generally recognised. | |
Bacon pie? Is that a thing? | |
6. n. legal | |
7. n. Whatever can be owned. | |
8. n. Corporeal object. | |
9. n. (somewhat dated) The latest fad or fashion. | |
What do you mean you don't twerk, Stacy? It's the latest thing! | |
10. n. (in the plural) Clothes, possessions or equipment. | |
Hold on, let me just grab my things. | |
11. n. (informal) A unit or container, usually containing edible goods. | |
get me a thing of apple juice at the store; I just ate a whole thing of jelly beans | |
12. n. (informal) A problem, dilemma, or complicating factor. | |
The car looks cheap, but the thing is, I have doubts about its safety. | |
13. n. (slang) A penis. | |
14. n. A living being or creature. | |
you poor thing; she's a funny old thing, but her heart's in the right place; I met a pretty blond thing at the bar | |
15. n. That which matters; the crux. | |
that's the thing: we don't know where he went; the thing is, I don't have any money | |
16. n. Used after a noun to refer dismissively to the situation surrounding the noun's referent. | |
Oh yeah, I'm supposed to promote that vision thing. | |
17. n. (informal) That which is favoured; personal preference. (Used in possessive constructions.) | |
18. n. (chiefly historical) A public assembly or judicial council in a Germanic country. | |
19. v. (rare) To express as a thing; to reify. | |
causing |
1. v. present participle of cause | |
cause |
1. n. (often with of, typically of adverse results) The source of, or reason for, an event or action; that which produces or effects a result. | |
They identified a burst pipe as the cause of the flooding. | |
2. n. (especially with for and a bare noun) Sufficient reason for a state, as of emotion. | |
There is no cause for alarm. | |
The end of the war was a cause for celebration. | |
3. n. A goal, aim or principle, especially one which transcends purely selfish ends. | |
4. n. (obsolete) Sake; interest; advantage. | |
5. n. (obsolete) Any subject of discussion or debate; a matter; an affair. | |
6. n. (legal) A suit or action in court; any legal process by which a party endeavors to obtain his claim, or what he regards as his right; case; ground of action. | |
7. v. To set off an event or action. | |
The lightning caused thunder. | |
8. v. To actively produce as a result, by means of force or authority. | |
His dogged determination caused the fundraising to be successful. | |
9. v. To assign or show cause; to give a reason; to make excuse. | |
envy |
1. n. Resentful desire of something possessed by another or others (but not limited to material possessions). | |
2. n. An object of envious notice or feeling. | |
3. n. (obsolete) Hatred, enmity, ill-feeling. | |
4. n. (obsolete) Emulation; rivalry. | |
5. n. (obsolete) Public odium; ill repute. | |
6. v. To feel displeasure or hatred towards (someone) for their good fortune or possessions. | |
7. v. (obsolete, intransitive) To have envious feelings (at). | |
8. v. (obsolete, transitive) To give (something) to (someone) grudgingly or reluctantly; to begrudge. | |
9. v. (obsolete) To show malice or ill will; to rail. | |
He has(...)envied against the people. | |
10. v. (obsolete) To do harm to; to injure; to disparage. | |
11. v. (obsolete) To hate. | |
12. v. (obsolete) To emulate. | |
or |
1. conj. Connects at least two alternative words, phrases, clauses, sentences, etc. each of which could make a passage true. In English, this is the "inclusive or." The "exclusive or" is formed by "either(...) | |
In Ohio, anyone under the age of 18 who wants a tattoo or body piercing needs the consent of a parent or guardian. | |
He might get cancer, or be hit by a bus, or God knows what. | |
2. conj. (logic) An operator denoting the disjunction of two propositions or truth values. There are two forms, the inclusive or and the exclusive or. | |
3. conj. Counts the elements before and after as two possibilities. | |
4. conj. Otherwise (a consequence of the condition that the previous is false). | |
It's raining! Come inside or you'll catch a cold! | |
5. conj. Connects two equivalent names. | |
The country Myanmar, or Burma | |
6. n. (logic, electronics) alternative form of OR | |
7. n. (tincture) The gold or yellow tincture on a coat of arms. | |
8. adj. (tincture) Of gold or yellow tincture on a coat of arms. | |
9. adv. (obsolete) Early (on). | |
10. adv. (obsolete) Earlier, previously. | |
11. prep. (now archaic, or dialect) Before; ere. | |
ill |
1. adj. (obsolete) Evil; wicked (of people). | |
2. adj. (archaic) Morally reprehensible (of behaviour etc.); blameworthy. | |
3. adj. Indicative of unkind or malevolent intentions; harsh, cruel. | |
He suffered from ill treatment. | |
4. adj. Unpropitious, unkind, faulty, not up to reasonable standard. | |
ill manners; ill will | |
5. adj. Unwell in terms of health or physical condition; sick. | |
I've been ill with the flu for the past few days. | |
6. adj. Having an urge to vomit. | |
Seeing those pictures made me ill. | |
7. adj. (hip-hop slang) Sublime, with the connotation of being so in a singularly creative way. | |
8. adj. (slang) Extremely bad (bad enough to make one ill). Generally used indirectly with to be. | |
That band was ill. | |
9. adv. Not well; imperfectly, badly; hardly. | |
10. n. (often pluralized) Trouble; distress; misfortune; adversity. | |
Music won't solve all the world's ills, but it can make them easier to bear. | |
11. n. Harm or injury. | |
I wouldn't want you to do me ill. | |
12. n. Evil; moral wrongfulness. | |
13. n. A physical ailment; an illness. | |
I am incapacitated by rheumatism and other ills. | |
14. n. (US, slang) PCP, phencyclidine. | |
Will |
1. n. (American football) A weak-side linebacker. | |
2. v. (rare, transitive) To wish, desire (something). | |
Do what you will. | |
3. v. (rare, intransitive) To wish or desire (that something happen); to intend (that). | |
4. v. (auxiliary) To habitually do (a given action). | |
5. v. (auxiliary) To choose to (do something), used to express intention but without any temporal connotations (+ bare infinitive). | |
6. v. (auxiliary) Used to express the future tense, sometimes with some implication of volition when used in the first person. Compare shall. | |
7. v. (auxiliary) To be able to, to have the capacity to. | |
Unfortunately, only one of these gloves will actually fit over my hand. | |
8. n. One's independent faculty of choice; the ability to be able to exercise one's choice or intention. | |
Of course, man's will is often regulated by his reason. | |
9. n. One's intention or decision; someone's orders or commands. | |
Eventually I submitted to my parents' will. | |
10. n. The act of choosing to do something; a person’s conscious intent or volition. | |
Most creatures have a will to live. | |
11. n. (law) A formal declaration of one's intent concerning the disposal of one's property and holdings after death; the legal document stating such wishes. | |
12. n. (archaic) That which is desired; one's wish. | |
13. n. (archaic) Desire, longing. (Now generally merged with later senses.) | |
He felt a great will to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. | |
14. v. (archaic) To wish, desire. | |
15. v. (transitive, intransitive) To instruct (that something be done) in one's will. | |
16. v. To try to make (something) happen by using one's will (intention). | |
All the fans were willing their team to win the game. | |
17. v. To bequeath (something) to someone in one's will (legal document). | |
He willed his stamp collection to the local museum. | |
towards |
1. prep. alternative form of toward | |
2. adv. In the direction of something (indicated by context). | |
3. adj. Near; at hand; in state of preparation; toward. | |
the |
1. art. Definite grammatical article that implies necessarily that an entity it articulates is presupposed; something already mentioned, or completely specified later in that same sentence, or assumed already | |
I’m reading the book. (Compare I’m reading a book.) | |
The street in front of your house. (Compare A street in Paris.) | |
The men and women watched the man give the birdseed to the bird. | |
2. art. Used before a noun modified by a restrictive relative clause, indicating that the noun refers to a single referent defined by the relative clause. | |
The street that runs through my hometown. | |
3. art. Used before an object considered to be unique, or of which there is only one at a time. | |
No one knows how many galaxies there are in the universe. | |
God save the Queen! | |
4. art. Used before a superlative or an ordinal number modifying a noun, to indicate that the noun refers to a single item. | |
That was the best apple pie ever. | |
5. art. Added to a superlative or an ordinal number to make it into a substantive. | |
That apple pie was the best. | |
6. art. Introducing a singular term to be taken generically: preceding a name of something standing for a whole class. | |
7. art. Used before an adjective, indicating all things (especially persons) described by that adjective. | |
Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable. | |
8. art. Used to indicate a certain example of (a noun) which is usually of most concern or most common or familiar. | |
No one in the whole country had seen it before. | |
I don't think I'll get to it until the morning. | |
9. art. Used before a body part (especially of someone previously mentioned), as an alternative to a possessive pronoun. | |
A stone hit him on the head. (= “A stone hit him on his head.”) | |
10. art. When stressed, indicates that it describes an object which is considered to be best or exclusively worthy of attention. | |
That is the hospital to go to for heart surgery. | |
11. adv. 1=With a comparative ormore and a verb phrase, establishes a parallel with one or more other such comparatives. | |
The hotter the better. | |
The more I think about it, the weaker it looks. | |
The more money donated, the more books purchased, and the more happy children. | |
It looks weaker and weaker, the more I think about it. | |
12. adv. 1=With a comparative, and often withfor it, indicates a result more like said comparative. This can be negated withnone. | |
It was a difficult time, but I’m the wiser for it. | |
It was a difficult time, and I’m none the wiser for it. | |
I'm much the wiser for having had a difficult time like that. | |
possessor |
1. n. Agent noun of possess; one who possesses. | |