rare |
1. adj. Very uncommon; scarce. | |
Black pearls are very rare and therefore very valuable. | |
2. adj. (of a gas) Thin; of low density. | |
3. adj. (cooking, particularly meats) Cooked very lightly, so the meat is still red (in the case of steak or beef in the general sense). | |
4. v. (US, intransitive) To rear, rise up, start backwards. | |
5. v. (US, transitive) To rear, bring up, raise. | |
6. adj. (obsolete) early | |
beginning |
1. n. The act of doing that which begins anything; commencement of an action, state, or space of time; entrance into being or upon a course; the first act, effort, or state of a succession of acts or states | |
2. n. That which is begun; a rudiment or element. | |
3. n. That which begins or originates something; the first cause. | |
4. n. The initial portion of some extended thing. | |
The author describes the main character's youth at the beginning of the story. | |
That house is at the beginning of the street. | |
5. v. present participle of begin | |
He is beginning to read a new book. | |
6. adj. (informal) Of or relating to the first portion of some extended thing. | |
in the beginning paragraph of the chapter | |
in the beginning section of the course | |
begin |
1. v. To start, to initiate or take the first step into something. | |
I began playing the piano at the age of five. Now that everyone is here, we should begin the presentation. | |
2. v. (intransitive) To be in the first stage of some situation | |
The program begins at 9 o'clock on the dot. I rushed to get to class on time, but the lesson had already begun. - | |
3. v. (intransitive) To come into existence. | |
4. n. (nonstandard) Beginning; start. | |
starting |
1. v. present participle of start | |
2. n. The act of something that starts. | |
constant startings and stoppings | |
start |
1. n. The beginning of an activity. | |
The movie was entertaining from start to finish. | |
2. n. A sudden involuntary movement. | |
He woke with a start. | |
3. n. The beginning point of a race, a board game, etc. | |
4. n. An appearance in a sports game from the beginning of the match. | |
Jones has been a substitute before, but made his first start for the team last Sunday. | |
5. n. (horticulture) A young plant germinated in a pot to be transplanted later. | |
6. n. An initial advantage over somebody else; a head start. | |
to get, or have, the start | |
7. v. To begin, commence, initiate. | |
8. v. To set in motion. | |
to start a stream of water; to start a rumour; to start a business | |
9. v. To begin. | |
10. v. To initiate operation of a vehicle or machine. | |
to start the engine | |
11. v. To put or raise (a question, an objection); to put forward (a subject for discussion). | |
12. v. To bring onto being or into view; to originate; to invent. | |
13. v. (intransitive) To begin an activity. | |
The rain started at 9:00. | |
14. v. (intransitive) To have its origin (at), begin. | |
The speed limit is 50 km/h, starting at the edge of town. | |
The blue line starts one foot away from the wall. | |
15. v. To startle or be startled; to move or be moved suddenly. | |
16. v. (intransitive) To jerk suddenly in surprise. | |
17. v. (intransitive) To awaken suddenly. | |
18. v. To disturb and cause to move suddenly; to startle; to alarm; to rouse; to cause to flee or fly. | |
The hounds started a fox. | |
19. v. To move suddenly from its place or position; to displace or loosen; to dislocate. | |
to start a bone; the storm started the bolts in the vessel | |
20. v. (intransitive) To break away, to come loose. | |
21. v. (transitive, sports) To put into play. | |
22. v. (transitive, nautical) To pour out; to empty; to tap and begin drawing from. | |
to start a water cask | |
23. v. (intransitive, euphemistic) To start one's periods (menstruation). | |
Have you started yet? | |
24. n. A tail, or anything projecting like a tail. | |
25. n. A handle, especially that of a plough. | |
26. n. The curved or inclined front and bottom of a water wheel bucket. | |
27. n. The arm, or level, of a gin, drawn around by a horse. | |
point |
1. n. A discrete division of something. | |
2. n. An individual element in a larger whole; a particular detail, thought, or quality. | |
The Congress debated the finer points of the bill. | |
3. n. A particular moment in an event or occurrence; a juncture. | |
There comes a point in a marathon when some people give up. | |
At this point in the meeting, I'd like to propose a new item for the agenda. | |
4. n. (archaic) Condition, state. | |
She was not feeling in good point. | |
5. n. A topic of discussion or debate; a proposition. | |
I made the point that we all had an interest to protect. | |
6. n. A focus of conversation or consideration; the main idea. | |
The point is that we should stay together, whatever happens. | |
7. n. A purpose or objective, which makes something meaningful. | |
Since the decision has already been made, I see little point in further discussion. | |
8. n. (obsolete) The smallest quantity of something; a jot, a whit. | |
9. n. (obsolete) A tiny amount of time; a moment. | |
10. n. A specific location or place, seen as a spatial position. | |
We should meet at a pre-arranged point. | |
11. n. (mathematics, science) A zero-dimensional mathematical object representing a location in one or more dimensions; something considered to have position | |
12. n. A full stop or other terminal punctuation mark. | |
13. n. (music) A dot or mark used to designate certain tones or time. In ancient music, it distinguished or characterized certain tones or styles (points of p | |
14. n. (by extension) A note; a tune. | |
15. n. A distinguishing quality or characteristic. | |
Logic isn't my strong point. | |
16. n. Something tiny, as a pinprick; a very small mark. | |
The stars showed as tiny points of yellow light. | |
17. n. (now only in phrases) A tenth; formerly also a twelfth. | |
Possession is nine points of the law. | |
18. n. Each of the marks or strokes written above letters, especially in Semitic languages, to indicate vowels, stress etc. | |
19. n. (sports) A unit of scoring in a game or competition. | |
The one with the most points will win the game | |
20. n. (mathematics) A decimal point (now especially when reading decimal fractions aloud). | |
10.5 ("ten point five"; = ten and a half) | |
21. n. (economics) A unit used to express differences in prices of stocks and shares. | |
22. n. (typography) a unit of measure equal to 1/12 of a pica, or approximately 1/72 of an inch (exactly 1/72 of an inch in the digital era). | |
23. n. (UK) An electric power socket. | |
24. n. (navigation, nautical) A unit of bearing equal to one thirty-second of a circle, i.e. 11.25°. | |
Ship ahoy, three points off the starboard bow! | |
25. n. (UK) A unit of measure for rain, equal to 0.254 mm or 0.01 of an inch. | |
26. n. A sharp extremity. | |
27. n. The sharp tip of an object. | |
Cut the skin with the point of the knife. | |
28. n. Any projecting extremity of an object. | |
29. n. An object which has a sharp or tapering tip. | |
His cowboy belt was studded with points. | |
30. n. (backgammon) Each of the twelve triangular positions in either table of a backgammon board, on which the stones are played. | |
31. n. A peninsula or promontory. | |
32. n. The position at the front or vanguard of an advancing force. | |
33. n. Each of the main directions on a compass, usually considered to be 32 in number; a direction. | |
34. n. (nautical) The difference between two points of the compass. | |
to fall off a point | |
35. n. Pointedness of speech or writing; a penetrating or decisive quality of expression. | |
36. n. (railroads, UK, in the plural) A railroad switch. | |
37. n. (usually in the plural) An area of contrasting colour on an animal, especially a dog; a marking. | |
The point color of that cat was a deep, rich sable. | |
38. n. A tine or snag of an antler. | |
39. n. (fencing) A movement executed with the sabre or foil. | |
tierce point | |
40. n. (heraldry) One of the several different parts of the escutcheon. | |
41. n. (nautical) A short piece of cordage used in reefing sails. | |
42. n. (historical) A string or lace used to tie together certain garments. | |
43. n. Lace worked by the needle. | |
point de Venise; Brussels point | |
44. n. (US, slang) An item of private information; a hint; a tip; a pointer. | |
45. n. The attitude assumed by a pointer dog when he finds game. | |
The dog came to a point. | |
46. n. (falconry) The perpendicular rising of a hawk over the place where its prey has gone into cover. | |
47. n. The act of pointing, as of the foot downward in certain dance positions. | |
48. n. The gesture of extending the index finger in a direction in order to indicate something. | |
49. n. (medicine, obsolete) A vaccine point. | |
50. n. In various sports, a position of a certain player, or, by extension, the player occupying that position. | |
51. n. (cricket) A fielding position square of the wicket on the off side, between gully and cover. | |
52. n. (lacrosse, ice hockey) The position of the player of each side who stands a short distance in front of the goalkeeper. | |
53. n. (baseball) The position of the pitcher and catcher. | |
54. n. (hunting) A spot to which a straight run is made; hence, a straight run from point to point; a cross-country run. | |
55. v. (intransitive) To extend the index finger in the direction of something in order to show where it is or to draw attention to it. | |
It's rude to point at other people. | |
56. v. (intransitive) To draw attention to something or indicate a direction. | |
The arrow of a compass points north | |
The skis were pointing uphill. | |
The arrow on the map points towards the entrance | |
57. v. (intransitive) To face in a particular direction. | |
58. v. To direct toward an object; to aim. | |
to point a gun at a wolf, or a cannon at a fort | |
59. v. To give a point to; to sharpen; to cut, forge, grind, or file to an acute end. | |
to point a dart, a pencil, or (figuratively) a moral | |
60. v. (intransitive) To indicate a probability of something. | |
61. v. (ambitransitive, masonry) To repair mortar. | |
62. v. (transitive, masonry) To fill up and finish the joints of (a wall), by introducing additional cement or mortar, and bringing it to a smooth surface. | |
63. v. (stone-cutting) To cut, as a surface, with a pointed tool. | |
64. v. To direct or encourage (someone) in a particular direction. | |
If he asks for food, point him toward the refrigerator. | |
65. v. (transitive, mathematics) To separate an integer from a decimal with a decimal point. | |
66. v. To mark with diacritics. | |
67. v. (dated) To supply with punctuation marks; to punctuate. | |
to point a composition | |
68. v. (transitive, computing) To direct the central processing unit to seek information at a certain location in memory. | |
69. v. (transitive, Internet) To direct requests sent to a domain name to the IP address corresponding to that domain name. | |
70. v. (intransitive, nautical) To sail close to the wind. | |
Bear off a little, we're pointing. | |