able |
1. adj. (obsolete, passive) Easy to use. | |
2. adj. (obsolete, passive) Suitable; competent. | |
3. adj. (obsolete, dialectal, passive) Liable to. | |
4. adj. Having the necessary powers or the needed resources to accomplish a task. | |
5. adj. Free from constraints preventing completion of task; permitted to; not prevented from. | |
I’ll see you as soon as I’m able. | |
With that obstacle removed, I am now able to proceed with my plan. | |
I’m only able to visit you when I have other work here. | |
That cliff is able to be climbed. | |
6. adj. (obsolete, dialectal) Having the physical strength; robust; healthy. | |
After the past week of forced marches, only half the men are fully able. | |
7. adj. (obsolete) Rich; well-to-do. | |
He was born to an able family. | |
8. adj. Gifted with skill, intelligence, knowledge, or competence. | |
The chairman was also an able sailor. | |
9. adj. (law) Legally qualified or competent. | |
He is able to practice law in six states. | |
10. adj. (nautical) Capable of performing all the requisite duties; as an able seaman. | |
11. v. (transitive, obsolete) To make ready. | |
12. v. (transitive, obsolete) To make capable; to enable. | |
13. v. (transitive, obsolete) To dress. | |
14. v. (transitive, obsolete) To give power to; to reinforce; to confirm. | |
15. v. (transitive, obsolete) To vouch for; to guarantee. | |
16. n. (lbl, en, military) The letter "A" in Navy Phonetic Alphabet. | |
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? | |
forced |
1. v. simple past tense and past participle of force | |
2. adj. Obtained forcefully, not naturally. | |
Her forced smile was harder and harder to keep as her critical father kept on complaining about her. | |
3. adj. Opened or accessed using force. | |
force |
1. n. Strength or energy of body or mind; active power; vigour; might; capacity of exercising an influence or producing an effect. | |
the force of an appeal, an argument, or a contract | |
2. n. Power exerted against will or consent; compulsory power; violence; coercion. | |
3. n. Anything that is able to make a big change in a person or thing. | |
4. n. (physics) A physical quantity that denotes ability to push, pull, twist or accelerate a body which is measured in a unit dimensioned in mass × distance/time² (ML/T²): SI: newton (N); CGS: dyne (dyn) | |
5. n. Something or anything that has the power to produce an effect upon something else. | |
6. n. A group that aims to attack, control, or constrain. | |
police force | |
7. n. The ability to attack, control, or constrain. | |
show of force | |
8. n. A magic trick in which the outcome is known to the magician beforehand, especially one involving the apparent free choice of a card by another person. | |
9. n. (legal) Legal validity. | |
The law will come into force in January. | |
10. n. (legal) Either unlawful violence, as in a "forced entry", or lawful compulsion. | |
11. n. (linguistics, semantics, pragmatics) Ability of an utterance or its element (word, form, prosody, ...) to effect a given meaning. | |
12. n. (science fiction) A binding, metaphysical, and ubiquitous power in the fictional Star Wars universe created by George Lucas. | |
13. v. To violate (a woman); to rape. | |
14. v. (obsolete, reflexive, intransitive) To exert oneself, to do one's utmost. | |
15. v. To compel (someone or something) to do something. | |
16. v. To constrain by force; to overcome the limitations or resistance of. | |
17. v. To drive (something) by force, to propel (generally + prepositional phrase or adverb). | |
18. v. To cause to occur (despite inertia, resistance etc.); to produce through force. | |
The comedian's jokes weren't funny, but I forced a laugh now and then. | |
19. v. To forcibly open (a door, lock etc.). | |
To force a lock. | |
20. v. To obtain or win by strength; to take by violence or struggle; specifically, to capture by assault; to storm, as a fortress. | |
21. v. (transitive, baseball) To create an out by touching a base in advance of a runner who has no base to return to while in possession of a ball which has already touched the ground. | |
Jones forced the runner at second by stepping on the bag. | |
22. v. (whist) To compel (an adversary or partner) to trump a trick by leading a suit that he/she does not hold. | |
23. v. (archaic) To put in force; to cause to be executed; to make binding; to enforce. | |
24. v. (archaic) To provide with forces; to reinforce; to strengthen by soldiers; to man; to garrison. | |
25. v. (obsolete) To allow the force of; to value; to care for. | |
26. n. (Northern England) A waterfall or cascade. | |
27. v. To stuff; to lard; to farce. | |