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. | |
tank |
1. n. A closed container for liquids or gases. | |
2. n. An open container or pool for storing water or other liquids. | |
3. n. A pond, pool, or small lake, natural or artificial. | |
4. n. The fuel reservoir of a vehicle. | |
5. n. The amount held by a container; a tankful. | |
I burned three tanks of gas on the drive to New York. | |
6. n. An armoured fighting vehicle, armed with a gun in a turret, and moving on caterpillar tracks. | |
7. n. (Australian and Indian English) A reservoir or dam. | |
8. n. (Southwestern US, chiefly Texas) A large metal container for holding drinking water for animals, usually placed near a wind-driven water pump, in an animal pen or field. | |
9. n. (Southwestern US, chiefly Texas) By extension a small pond for the same purpose. | |
10. n. (slang) A very muscular and physically imposing person. Somebody who is built like a tank. | |
11. n. (role-playing games, board games, video games) a unit or character designed primarily around damage absorption and holding the attention of the enemy (as opposed to dealing damage, healing, or other t | |
12. n. (US, slang) A prison cell, or prison generally. | |
13. v. To fail or fall (often used in describing the economy or the stock market); to degenerate or decline rapidly; to plummet. | |
14. v. (video games) To attract the attacks of an enemy target in cooperative team-based combat, so that one's teammates can defeat the enemy in question more efficiently. | |
15. v. To put fuel into a tank. | |
16. v. To deliberately lose a sports match with the intent of gaining a perceived future competitive advantage. | |
17. v. (fandom slang) To resist damage; to be attacked without being hurt. | |
18. n. A small Indian dry measure, averaging 240 grains in weight. | |
19. n. A Bombay weight of 72 grains, for pearls. | |
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. | |
trough |
1. n. A long, narrow container, open on top, for feeding or watering animals. | |
One of Hank's chores was to slop the pigs' trough each morning and evening. | |
2. n. Any similarly shaped container. | |
3. n. (Australia, New Zealand) A rectangular container used for washing or rinsing clothes. | |
Ernest threw his paint brushes into a kind of trough he had fashioned from sheet metal that he kept in the sink. | |
4. n. A short, narrow canal designed to hold water until it drains or evaporates. | |
There was a small trough that the sump pump emptied into; it was filled with mosquito larvae. | |
5. n. (Canada) A gutter under the eaves of a building; an eaves trough. | |
The troughs were filled with leaves and needed clearing. | |
6. n. (agriculture, Australia, New Zealand) A channel for conveying water or other farm liquids (such as milk) from place to place by gravity; any ‘U’ or ‘V’ cross-sectioned irrigation channel. | |
7. n. A long, narrow depression between waves or ridges; the low portion of a wave cycle. | |
The buoy bobbed between the crests and troughs of the waves moving across the bay. | |
The neurologist pointed to a troubling trough in the pattern of his brain-waves. | |
8. n. (meteorology) A linear atmospheric depression associated with a weather front. | |
9. v. To eat in a vulgar style, as if from a trough. | |
he troughed his way through three meat pies. | |
where |
1. conj. While on the contrary; although; whereas. | |
Where Susy has trouble coloring inside the lines, Johnny has already mastered shading. | |
2. conj. At or in which place or situation. | |
He is looking for a house where he can have a complete office. | |
I've forgotten where I was in this book, but it was probably around chapter four. | |
3. conj. To which place or situation. | |
The snowbirds travel where it is warm. | |
4. conj. Wherever. | |
Their job is to go where they are called. | |
5. conj. (legal) In a position, case, etc., in which. | |
Where no provision under this Act is applicable, the case shall be decided in accordance with the customary practices. | |
6. adv. (Interrogative adverb, used in either a direct or indirect question): at what place; to what place; what place. | |
Where are you? | |
Where are you going? | |
He asked where I grew up. | |
7. adv. (With the preposition from) | |
Where did you come from? | |
8. adv. In what situation. | |
Where would we be without our parents? | |
9. adv. (relative) At which, on which. | |
That is the place where we first met. | |
10. pron. The place in which. | |
He lives within five miles of where he was born. | |
11. n. The place in which something happens. | |
A good article will cover the who, the what, the when, the where, the why and the how. | |
Finding the nymph asleep in secret where. — Spenser. | |
cattle |
1. n. Domesticated bovine animals (cows, bulls, steers etc). | |
Do you want to raise cattle? | |
2. n. Certain other livestock, such as sheep, pigs or horses. | |
3. n. (pejorative, figuratively) People who resemble domesticated bovine animals in behavior or destiny. | |
4. n. (obsolete, English law, sometimes ) chattel | |
goods and cattle | |
5. n. (rare) Used in restricted contexts to refer to the meat derived from cattle. | |
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. | |
sheep |
1. n. A woolly ruminant of the genus Ovis. | |
2. n. A timid, shy person who is easily led by others. | |
3. n. Sheepskin leather. | |
4. n. (speech recognition) A person who is easily understood by a speech recognition system; contrasted with goat. | |
5. n. (chiefly humorous) plural of shoop | |
are |
1. v. second-person singular present of be | |
Mary, where are you going? | |
2. v. first-person plural present of be | |
We are not coming. | |
3. v. second-person plural present of be | |
Mary and John, are you listening? | |
4. v. third-person plural present of be | |
They are here somewhere. | |
5. v. (East Yorkshire, Midlands) present of be | |
6. n. (dialectal, or obsolete) grace, mercy | |
To bid God's are. | |
God's are is what children of God seech and seek. | |
7. n. (obsolete) honour, dignity | |
8. n. (rare) an accepted (but deprecated and rarely used) SI unit of area equal to 100 square metres, or a former unit of approximately the same extent. Symbol: a | |
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? | |
immersed |
1. adj. Under the surface of a liquid; sunk. | |
2. adj. Deeply involved. | |
3. v. simple past tense and past participle of immerse | |
immerse |
1. v. To put under the surface of a liquid; to dunk. | |
Archimedes determined the volume of objects by immersing them in water. | |
2. v. To involve or engage deeply. | |
The sculptor immersed himself in anatomic studies. | |
3. v. (transitive, mathematics) To map into an immersion. | |
4. adj. (obsolete) Immersed; buried; sunk. | |
in |
1. prep. Used to indicate location, inclusion, or position within spatial, temporal or other limits. | |
2. prep. Contained by. | |
The dog is in the kennel. | |
3. prep. Within. | |
4. prep. Surrounded by. | |
We are in the enemy camp. Her plane is in the air. | |
5. prep. Part of; a member of. | |
One in a million. She's in band and orchestra. | |
6. prep. Pertaining to; with regard to. | |
What grade did he get in English? | |
Military letters should be formal in tone, but not stilted. | |
7. prep. At the end of a period of time. | |
They said they would call us in a week. | |
8. prep. Within a certain elapsed time | |
Are you able to finish this in three hours? The massacre resulted in over 1000 deaths in three hours. | |
9. prep. During (said of periods of time). | |
in the first week of December; Easter falls in the fourth lunar month; The country reached a high level of prosperity in his fi | |
10. prep. (grammar, phonetics, of sounds and letters) Coming at the end of a word. | |
English nouns in -ce form their plurals in -s. | |
11. prep. Into. | |
Less water gets in your boots this way. | |
12. prep. Used to indicate limit, qualification, condition, or circumstance. | |
In replacing the faucet washers, he felt he was making his contribution to the environment. | |
13. prep. Indicating an order or arrangement. | |
My fat rolls around in folds. | |
14. prep. Denoting a state of the subject. | |
He stalked away in anger. John is in a coma. | |
15. prep. Indicates, connotatively, a place-like form of someone's (or something's) personality, as his, her or its psychic and physical characteristics. | |
You've got a friend in me. He's met his match in her. | |
16. prep. Wearing (an item of clothing). | |
I glanced over at the pretty girl in the red dress. | |
17. prep. Used to indicate means, medium, format, genre, or instrumentality. | |
18. prep. (of something offered or given in an exchange) In the form of, in the denomination of. | |
Please pay me in cash — preferably in tens and twenties. | |
The deposit can be in any legal tender, even in gold. | |
Her generosity was rewarded in the success of its recipients. | |
19. prep. Used to indicate a language, script, tone, etc. of a text, speech, etc. | |
Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5" in C minor is among his most popular. | |
His speech was in French, but was simultaneously translated into eight languages. | |
When you write in cursive, it's illegible. | |
20. v. (obsolete, transitive) To enclose. | |
21. v. (obsolete, transitive) To take in; to harvest. | |
22. adv. (not comparable) Located indoors, especially at home or the office, or inside something. | |
Is Mr. Smith in? | |
23. adv. Moving to the interior of a defined space, such as a building or room. | |
Suddenly a strange man walked in. | |
24. adv. (sports) Still eligible to play, e.g. able to bat in cricket and baseball. | |
He went for the wild toss but wasn't able to stay in. | |
25. adv. (UK) Abbreviation of in aid of. | |
What's that in? | |
26. adv. After the beginning of something. | |
27. n. A position of power or a way to get it. | |
His parents got him an in with the company | |
28. n. (sport) The state of a batter/batsman who is currently batting – see innings | |
29. n. A re-entrant angle; a nook or corner. | |
30. adj. In fashion; popular. | |
Skirts are in this year. | |
31. adj. Incoming. | |
the in train | |
32. adj. (nautical, of the sails of a vessel) Furled or stowed. | |
33. adj. (legal) With privilege or possession; used to denote a holding, possession, or seisin. | |
in by descent; in by purchase; in of the seisin of her husband | |
34. adj. (cricket) Currently batting. | |
35. n. Inch. | |
chemicals |
1. n. plural of chemical | |
2. n. The chemical industry. | |
chemical |
1. adj. Of or relating to chemistry. | |
2. adj. Of or relating to a material or processes not commonly found in nature or in a particular product. | |
3. adj. (obsolete) Of or relating to alchemy. | |
4. n. (chemistry, sciences) Any specific chemical element or chemical compound or alloy. | |
5. n. (colloquial) An artificial chemical compound. | |
I color my hair with henna, not chemicals. | |
6. n. (slang) An addictive drug. | |
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 | |
kill |
1. v. To put to death; to extinguish the life of. | |
Smoking kills more people each year than alcohol and drugs combined. | |
2. v. To render inoperative. | |
He killed the engine and turned off the headlights, but remained in the car, waiting. | |
3. v. (transitive, figuratively) To stop, cease or render void; to terminate. | |
The editor decided to kill the story. | |
The news that a hurricane had destroyed our beach house killed our plans to sell it. | |
My computer wouldn't respond until I killed some of the running processes. | |
4. v. (transitive figuratively, hyperbole) To amaze, exceed, stun or otherwise incapacitate. | |
That night, she was dressed to kill. | |
That joke always kills me. | |
5. v. (transitive, figuratively) To produce feelings of dissatisfaction or revulsion in. | |
It kills me to throw out three whole turkeys, but I can't get anyone to take them and they've already started to go bad. | |
It kills me to learn how many poor people are practically starving in this country while rich moguls spend such outrageous amounts on useless luxuries. | |
6. v. To use up or to waste. | |
I'm just doing this to kill time. | |
He told the bartender, pointing at the bottle of scotch he planned to consume, "Leave it, I'm going to kill the bottle.". | |
7. v. (transitive figuratively, informal) To exert an overwhelming effect on. | |
Between the two of us, we killed the rest of the case of beer. | |
Look at the amount of destruction to the enemy base. We pretty much killed their ability to retaliate anymore. | |
8. v. (transitive figuratively, hyperbole) To overpower, overwhelm or defeat. | |
The team had absolutely killed their traditional rivals, and the local sports bars were raucous with celebrations. | |
9. v. To force a company out of business. | |
10. v. (intransitive, informal, hyperbolic) To produce intense pain. | |
You don't ever want to get rabies. The doctor will have to give you multiple shots and they really kill. | |
11. v. (figuratively, informal hyperbole transitive) To punish severely. | |
My parents are going to kill me! | |
12. v. (transitive, sports) To strike a ball or similar object with such force and placement as to make a shot that is impossible to defend against, usually winning a point. | |
13. v. To succeed with an audience, especially in comedy. | |
14. v. (mathematics, transitive, informal) To cause to assume the value zero. | |
15. v. (computing, Internet, IRC, transitive) To disconnect (a user) involuntarily from the network. | |
16. v. (metallurgy) To deadmelt. | |
17. n. The act of killing. | |
The assassin liked to make a clean kill, and thus favored small arms over explosives. | |
18. n. Specifically, the death blow. | |
The hunter delivered the kill with a pistol shot to the head. | |
19. n. The result of killing; that which has been killed. | |
The fox dragged its kill back to its den. | |
20. n. (volleyball) The grounding of the ball on the opponent's court, winning the rally. | |
21. n. A creek; a body of water; a channel or arm of the sea. | |
The channel between Staten Island and Bergen Neck is the Kill van Kull, or the Kills. | |
Schuylkill, Catskill, etc. | |
22. n. A kiln. | |
parasites |
1. n. plural of parasite | |
parasite |
1. n. (pejorative) A person who lives on other people's efforts or expense and gives little or nothing back. | |
2. n. (pejorative) A sycophant or hanger-on. | |
3. n. (biology) An organism that lives on or in another organism, deriving benefit from living on or in that other organism, while not contributing towards that other organism sufficiently to cover the cost | |
Lice, fleas, ticks and mites are widely spread parasites. | |
4. n. (literary, poetic) A climbing plant which is supported by a wall, trellis etc. | |