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. | |
horse |
1. n. Any of several animals related to Equus ferus caballus. | |
2. n. A hoofed mammal, of the genus Equus, often used throughout history for riding and draft work. | |
A cowboy's greatest friend is his horse. | |
3. n. (zoology) Any current or extinct animal of the family Equidae, including the zebra or the ass. | |
These bone features, distinctive in the zebra, are actually present in all horses. | |
4. n. (military, sometimes un) Cavalry soldiers (sometimes capitalized when referring to an official category). | |
We should place two units of horse and one of foot on this side of the field. | |
All the King's horses and all the King's men, couldn't put Humpty together again. | |
5. n. (chess, informal) The chess piece representing a knight, depicted as a horse. | |
Now just remind me how the horse moves again? | |
6. n. (slang) A large person. | |
Every linebacker they have is a real horse. | |
7. n. (historical) A timber frame shaped like a horse, which soldiers were made to ride for punishment. | |
8. n. Equipment with legs. | |
9. n. In gymnastics, a piece of equipment with a body on two or four legs, approximately four feet high, sometimes (pommel horse) with two handles on top. | |
She's scored very highly with the parallel bars; let's see how she does with the horse. | |
10. n. A frame with legs, used to support something. | |
a clothes horse; a sawhorse | |
11. n. (nautical) Type of equipment. | |
12. n. A rope stretching along a yard, upon which men stand when reefing or furling the sails; footrope. | |
13. n. A breastband for a leadsman. | |
14. n. An iron bar for a sheet traveller to slide upon. | |
15. n. A jackstay. | |
16. n. (mining) A mass of earthy matter, or rock of the same character as the wall rock, occurring in the course of a vein, as of coal or ore; hence, to take horse (said of a vein) is to divide into branches | |
17. n. (slang) The sedative, antidepressant, and anxiolytic drug morphine, chiefly when used illicitly. | |
18. n. (US) An informal variant of basketball in which players match shots made by their opponent(s), each miss adding a letter to the word "horse", with 5 misses spelling the whole word and eliminating a pl | |
19. n. (dated, slang) A translation or other illegitimate aid in study or examination. | |
20. n. (dated, slang) horseplay; tomfoolery | |
21. v. (intransitive) To frolic, to act mischievously. (Usually followed by "around".) | |
22. v. To provide with a horse. | |
23. v. (obsolete) To get on horseback. | |
24. v. To sit astride of; to bestride. | |
25. v. (of a male horse) To copulate with (a mare). | |
26. v. To take or carry on the back. | |
27. v. To place on the back of another person, or on a wooden horse, etc., to be flogged; to subject to such punishment. | |
28. n. (slang) Heroin (drug). | |
Alright, mate, got any horse? | |
too |
1. adv. (focus) Likewise. | |
2. adv. (conjunctive) Also; in addition. | |
3. adv. (degree) To an excessive degree; over; more than enough. | |
4. adv. (degree, colloquial) To a high degree, very. | |
She doesn't talk too much. I'm not too sure about this. | |
5. adv. (affirmation, colloquial) Used to contradict a negative assertion. | |
"You're not old enough yet." "I am, too!". | |
old |
1. adj. Of an object, concept, relationship, etc., having existed for a relatively long period of time. | |
an old abandoned building; an old friend | |
2. adj. Of a living being, having lived for most of the expected years. | |
a wrinkled old man | |
3. adj. Of a perishable item, having existed for most, or more than its shelf life. | |
an old loaf of bread | |
4. adj. Of an item that has been used and so is not new (unused). | |
I find that an old toothbrush is good to clean the keyboard with. | |
5. adj. Having existed or lived for the specified time. | |
How old are they? She’s five years old and he's seven. We also have a young teen and a two-year-old child. | |
My great-grandfather lived to be a hundred and one years old. | |
6. adj. Of an earlier time.: | |
7. adj. Former, previous. | |
My new car is not as good as my old one. a school reunion for Old Etonians | |
8. adj. That is no longer in existence. | |
The footpath follows the route of an old railway line. | |
9. adj. Obsolete; out-of-date. | |
That is the old way of doing things; now we do it this way. | |
10. adj. Familiar. | |
When he got drunk and quarrelsome they just gave him the old heave-ho. | |
11. adj. Tiresome. | |
Your constant pestering is getting old. | |
12. adj. Said of subdued colors, particularly reds, pinks and oranges, as if they had faded over time. | |
13. adj. A grammatical intensifier, often used in describing something positive. (Mostly in idioms like good old, big old and little old, any old and some old.) | |
We're having a good old time. My next car will be a big old SUV. My wife makes the best little old apple pie in Texas. | |
14. adj. (obsolete) Excessive, abundant. | |
15. n. (with "the") People who are old; old beings; the older generation, taken as a group. | |
A civilised society should always look after the old in the community. | |
to |
1. part. A particle used for marking the following verb as an infinitive. | |
I want to leave. | |
He asked me what to do. | |
I don’t know how to say it. | |
I have places to go and people to see. | |
2. part. As above, with the verb implied. | |
"Did you visit the museum?" "I wanted to, but it was closed.". | |
If he hasn't read it yet, he ought to. | |
3. part. A particle used to create phrasal verbs. | |
I have to do laundry today. | |
4. prep. Indicating destination: In the direction of, and arriving at. | |
We are walking to the shop. | |
5. prep. Used to indicate purpose. | |
He devoted himself to education. | |
They drank to his health. | |
6. prep. Used to indicate result of action. | |
His face was beaten to a pulp. | |
7. prep. Used after an adjective to indicate its application. | |
similar to ..., relevant to ..., pertinent to ..., I was nice to him, he was cruel to her, I am used to walking. | |
8. prep. (obsolete,) As a. | |
With God to friend (with God as a friend); with The Devil to fiend (with the Devil as a foe); lambs slaughtered to lake (lambs slaughtered as a sacrifice); t | |
9. prep. (arithmetic) Used to indicate a ratio or comparison. | |
one to one = 1:1 | |
ten to one = 10:1. | |
I have ten dollars to your four. | |
10. prep. (arithmetic) Used to indicate that the preceding term is to be raised to the power of the following value; indicates exponentiation. | |
Three squared or three to the second power is nine. | |
Three to the power of two is nine. | |
Three to the second is nine. | |
11. prep. Used to indicate the indirect object. | |
I gave the book to him. | |
12. prep. (time) Preceding. | |
ten to ten = 9:50; We're going to leave at ten to (the hour). | |
13. prep. Used to describe what something consists of or contains. | |
Anyone could do this job; there's nothing to it. | |
There's a lot of sense to what he says. | |
14. prep. (Canada, UK, Newfoundland, West Midlands) At. | |
Stay where you're to and I'll come find you, b'y. | |
15. adv. Toward a closed, touching or engaging position. | |
Please push the door to. | |
16. adv. (nautical) Into the wind. | |
17. adv. misspelling of too | |
be |
1. v. (intransitive, now literary) To exist; to have real existence. | |
2. v. (with there, or dialectally it, as dummy subject) To exist. | |
There is just one woman in town who can help us. (or, dialectally:) It is just one woman in town who can help us. | |
3. v. (intransitive) To occupy a place. | |
The cup is on the table. | |
4. v. (intransitive) To occur, to take place. | |
When will the meeting be? | |
5. v. (intransitive, in perfect tenses, without predicate) Elliptical form of "be here", "go to and return from" or similar. | |
The postman has been today, but my tickets have still not yet come. | |
I have been to Spain many times. | |
Moscow, huh? I've never been, but it sounds fascinating. | |
6. v. (transitive, copulative) Used to indicate that the subject and object are the same. | |
Knowledge is bliss. | |
Hi, I’m Jim. | |
7. v. (transitive, copulative, mathematics) Used to indicate that the values on either side of an equation are the same. | |
3 times 5 is fifteen. | |
8. v. (transitive, copulative) Used to indicate that the subject plays the role of the predicate nominal. | |
François Mitterrand was president of France from 1981 to 1995. | |
9. v. (transitive, copulative) Used to connect a noun to an adjective that describes it. | |
The sky is blue. | |
10. v. (transitive, copulative) Used to indicate that the subject has the qualities described by a noun or noun phrase. | |
The sky is a deep blue today. | |
11. v. (transitive, auxiliary) Used to form the passive voice. | |
The dog was drowned by the boy. | |
12. v. (transitive, auxiliary) Used to form the continuous forms of various tenses. | |
The woman is walking. | |
I shall be writing to you soon. | |
We liked to chat while we were eating. | |
13. v. (archaic, auxiliary) Used to form the perfect aspect with certain intransitive verbs, most of which indicate motion. Often still used for "to go". | |
14. v. (transitive, auxiliary) Used to form future tenses, especially the future periphrastic. | |
I am to leave tomorrow. | |
I would drive you, were I to obtain a car. | |
15. v. (transitive, copulative) Used to link a subject to a measurement. | |
This building is three hundred years old. | |
I am 75 kilograms. | |
He’s about 6 feet tall. | |
16. v. (transitive, copulative, with a cardinal numeral) Used to state the age of a subject in years. | |
I’m 20. (= I am 20 years old.) | |
17. v. (with a dummy subject) it Used to indicate the time of day. | |
It is almost eight. (= It is almost eight o’clock.) | |
It’s 8:30 read eight-thirty in Tokyo. | |
What time is it there? It’s night. | |
18. v. (With since) Used to indicate passage of time since the occurrence of an event. | |
It has been three years since my grandmother died. (similar to My grandmother died three years ago, but emphasizes the intervening period) | |
It had been six days since his departure, when I received a letter from him. | |
19. v. (often, impersonal, with it as a dummy subject) Used to indicate weather, air quality, or the like. | |
It is hot in Arizona, but it is not usually humid. | |
Why is it so dark in here? | |
20. v. (dynamic/lexical "be", especially in progressive tenses, conjugated non-suppletively in the present tense, see usage notes) To exist or behave in a certain way. | |
"What do we do?" "We be ourselves.". | |
Why is he being nice to me? | |
put |
1. v. To place something somewhere. | |
She put her books on the table. | |
2. v. To bring or set into a certain relation, state or condition. | |
Put your house in order! | |
He is putting all his energy into this one task. | |
She tends to put herself in dangerous situations. | |
3. v. (finance) To exercise a put option. | |
He got out of his Procter and Gamble bet by putting his shares at 80. | |
4. v. To express something in a certain manner. | |
When you put it that way, I guess I can see your point. | |
5. v. (athletics) To throw a heavy iron ball, as a sport. (See shot put. Do not confuse with putt.) | |
6. v. To steer; to direct one's course; to go. | |
7. v. To play a card or a hand in the game called put. | |
8. v. To attach or attribute; to assign. | |
to put a wrong construction on an act or expression | |
9. v. (obsolete) To lay down; to give up; to surrender. | |
10. v. To set before one for judgment, acceptance, or rejection; to bring to the attention. | |
to put a question; to put a case | |
11. v. (obsolete) To incite; to entice; to urge; to constrain; to oblige. | |
12. v. (mining) To convey coal in the mine, as for example from the working to the tramway. | |
13. n. (business) A right to sell something at a predetermined price. | |
14. n. (finance) A contract to sell a security at a set price on or before a certain date. | |
He bought a January '08 put for Procter and Gamble at 80 to hedge his bet. | |
15. n. The act of putting; an action; a movement; a thrust; a push. | |
the put of a ball | |
16. n. An old card game. | |
17. n. (obsolete) An idiot; a foolish person; a duffer. | |
18. n. (obsolete) A prostitute. | |
to |
1. part. A particle used for marking the following verb as an infinitive. | |
I want to leave. | |
He asked me what to do. | |
I don’t know how to say it. | |
I have places to go and people to see. | |
2. part. As above, with the verb implied. | |
"Did you visit the museum?" "I wanted to, but it was closed.". | |
If he hasn't read it yet, he ought to. | |
3. part. A particle used to create phrasal verbs. | |
I have to do laundry today. | |
4. prep. Indicating destination: In the direction of, and arriving at. | |
We are walking to the shop. | |
5. prep. Used to indicate purpose. | |
He devoted himself to education. | |
They drank to his health. | |
6. prep. Used to indicate result of action. | |
His face was beaten to a pulp. | |
7. prep. Used after an adjective to indicate its application. | |
similar to ..., relevant to ..., pertinent to ..., I was nice to him, he was cruel to her, I am used to walking. | |
8. prep. (obsolete,) As a. | |
With God to friend (with God as a friend); with The Devil to fiend (with the Devil as a foe); lambs slaughtered to lake (lambs slaughtered as a sacrifice); t | |
9. prep. (arithmetic) Used to indicate a ratio or comparison. | |
one to one = 1:1 | |
ten to one = 10:1. | |
I have ten dollars to your four. | |
10. prep. (arithmetic) Used to indicate that the preceding term is to be raised to the power of the following value; indicates exponentiation. | |
Three squared or three to the second power is nine. | |
Three to the power of two is nine. | |
Three to the second is nine. | |
11. prep. Used to indicate the indirect object. | |
I gave the book to him. | |
12. prep. (time) Preceding. | |
ten to ten = 9:50; We're going to leave at ten to (the hour). | |
13. prep. Used to describe what something consists of or contains. | |
Anyone could do this job; there's nothing to it. | |
There's a lot of sense to what he says. | |
14. prep. (Canada, UK, Newfoundland, West Midlands) At. | |
Stay where you're to and I'll come find you, b'y. | |
15. adv. Toward a closed, touching or engaging position. | |
Please push the door to. | |
16. adv. (nautical) Into the wind. | |
17. adv. misspelling of too | |
work |
1. n. (heading) Employment. | |
2. n. Labour, occupation, job. | |
My work involves a lot of travel. | |
3. n. The place where one is employed. | |
He hasn’t come home yet, he’s still at work. | |
4. n. One's employer | |
“I want to go to the R.E.M. reunion concert but I'm not sure if my work will let me off.” | |
5. n. (heading) Effort. | |
6. n. Effort expended on a particular task. | |
Holding a brick over your head is hard work. It takes a lot of work to write a dictionary. | |
7. n. Sustained human effort to overcome obstacles and achieve a result. | |
We know what we must do. Let's go to work. | |
8. n. Something on which effort is expended. | |
There's lots of work waiting for me at the office. | |
9. n. (physics) A measure of energy expended in moving an object; most commonly, force times distance. No work is done if the object does not move. | |
Work is done against friction to drag a bag along the ground. | |
10. n. (physics, more generally) A measure of energy that is usefully extracted from a process. | |
11. n. Sustained effort to achieve a goal or result, especially overcoming obstacles. | |
We don't have much time. Let's get to work piling up those sandbags. | |
12. n. Product; the result of effort.: | |
13. n. (often, in combination) The result of a particular manner of production. | |
There's a lot of guesswork involved. | |
14. n. (often, in combination) Something produced using the specified material or tool. | |
We've got some paperwork to do before we can get started. The piece was decorated with intricate filigree work. | |
15. n. A literary, artistic, or intellectual production. | |
It is a work of art. | |
the poetic works of Alexander Pope | |
16. n. A fortification. | |
William the Conqueror fortified many castles, throwing up new ramparts, bastions and all manner of works. | |
17. n. (slang) The staging of events to appear as real. | |
18. n. (mining) Ore before it is dressed. | |
19. n. The equipment needed to inject a drug (syringes, needles, swabs etc.) | |
Tell me you're using clean works at least. | |
20. v. (intransitive) To do a specific task by employing physical or mental powers. | |
He’s working in a bar. | |
21. v. Followed by in (or at, etc.) Said of one's workplace (building), or one's department, or one's trade (sphere of business). | |
I work in a national park | |
she works in the human resources department | |
he mostly works in logging, but sometimes works in carpentry | |
22. v. Followed by as. Said of one's job title | |
I work as a cleaner. | |
23. v. Followed by for. Said of a company or individual who employs. | |
she works for Microsoft | |
he works for the president | |
24. v. Followed by with. General use, said of either fellow employees or instruments or clients. | |
I work closely with my Canadian counterparts | |
you work with computers | |
she works with the homeless people from the suburbs | |
25. v. To effect by gradual degrees. | |
he worked his way through the crowd | |
the dye worked its way through | |
using some tweezers, she worked the bee sting out of her hand | |
26. v. To embroider with thread. | |
27. v. To set into action. | |
He worked the levers. | |
28. v. To cause to ferment. | |
29. v. (intransitive) To ferment. | |
30. v. To exhaust, by working. | |
The mine was worked until the last scrap of ore had been extracted. | |
31. v. To shape, form, or improve a material. | |
He used pliers to work the wire into shape. | |
32. v. To operate in a certain place, area, or speciality. | |
she works the night clubs | |
the salesman works the Midwest | |
this artist works mostly in acrylics | |
33. v. To operate in or through; as, to work the phones. | |
34. v. To provoke or excite; to influence. | |
The rock musician worked the crowd of young girls into a frenzy. | |
35. v. To use or manipulate to one’s advantage. | |
She knows how to work the system. | |
36. v. To cause to happen or to occur as a consequence. | |
I cannot work a miracle. | |
37. v. To cause to work. | |
He is working his servants hard. | |
38. v. (intransitive) To function correctly; to act as intended; to achieve the goal designed for. | |
he pointed at the car and asked, "Does it work"?; he looked at the bottle of pain pills, wondering if they would work; my plan didn’t work | |
39. v. (intransitive, figuratively) To influence. | |
They worked on her to join the group. | |
40. v. (intransitive) To effect by gradual degrees; as, to work into the earth. | |
41. v. (intransitive) To move in an agitated manner. | |
His fingers worked with tension. | |
A ship works in a heavy sea. | |
42. v. (intransitive) To behave in a certain way when handled | |
this dough does not work easily; the soft metal works well | |
43. v. (transitive, with two objects, poetic) To cause (someone) to feel (something); to do unto somebody (something, whether good or bad). | |
44. v. (obsolete, intransitive) To hurt; to ache. | |