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 | |
intrude |
1. v. (intransitive) To thrust oneself in; to come or enter without invitation, permission, or welcome; to encroach; to trespass. | |
to intrude on families at unseasonable hours; to intrude on the lands of another | |
2. v. To force in. | |
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. | |
break |
1. v. (transitive, intransitive) To separate into two or more pieces, to fracture or crack, by a process that cannot easily be reversed for reassembly. | |
If the vase falls to the floor, it might break. | |
In order to tend to the accident victim, he will break the window of the car. | |
2. v. (transitive, intransitive) To crack or fracture (bone) under a physical strain. | |
His ribs broke under the weight of the rocks piled on his chest. | |
She broke her neck. | |
He slipped on the ice and broke his leg. | |
3. v. To divide (something, often money) into smaller units. | |
Can you break a hundred-dollar bill for me? | |
The wholesaler broke the container loads into palettes and boxes for local retailers. | |
4. v. To cause (a person or animal) to lose spirit or will; to crush the spirits of. | |
Her child's death broke Angela. | |
Interrogators have used many forms of torture to break prisoners of war. | |
The interrogator hoped to break her to get her testimony against her accomplices. | |
5. v. To turn an animal into a beast of burden. | |
You have to break an elephant before you can use it as an animal of burden. | |
6. v. (intransitive) To be crushed, or overwhelmed with sorrow or grief. | |
My heart is breaking. | |
7. v. To interrupt; to destroy the continuity of; to dissolve or terminate. | |
I've got to break this habit I have of biting my nails. | |
to break silence; to break one's sleep; to break one's journey | |
I had won four games in a row, but now you've broken my streak of luck. | |
8. v. To ruin financially. | |
The recession broke some small businesses. | |
9. v. To violate, to not adhere to. | |
When you go to Vancouver, promise me you won't break the law. | |
He broke his vows by cheating on his wife. | |
break one's word | |
Time travel would break the laws of physics. | |
10. v. (intransitive, of a fever) To pass the most dangerous part of the illness; to go down, in terms of temperature. | |
Susan's fever broke at about 3 AM, and the doctor said the worst was over. | |
11. v. (intransitive, of a spell of settled weather) To end. | |
The forecast says the hot weather will break by midweek. | |
12. v. (intransitive, of a storm) To begin; to end. | |
We ran to find shelter before the storm broke. | |
Around midday the storm broke, and the afternoon was calm and sunny. | |
13. v. (intransitive, of morning, dawn, day etc.) To arrive. | |
Morning has broken. | |
The day broke crisp and clear. | |
14. v. (transitive, gaming slang) To render (a game) unchallenging by altering its rules or exploiting loopholes or weaknesses in them in a way that gives a player an unfair advantage. | |
Changing the rules to let white have three extra queens would break chess. | |
I broke the RPG by training every member of my party to cast fireballs as well as use swords. | |
15. v. (transitive, intransitive) To stop, or to cause to stop, functioning properly or altogether. | |
On the hottest day of the year the refrigerator broke. | |
Did you two break the trolley by racing with it? | |
16. v. (specifically, in programming) To cause (some feature of a program or piece of software) to stop functioning properly; to cause a regression. | |
Adding 64-bit support broke backward compatibility with earlier versions. | |
17. v. To cause (a barrier) to no longer bar. | |
break a seal | |
18. v. (specifically) To cause the shell of (an egg) to crack, so that the inside (yolk) is accessible. | |
19. v. (specifically) To open (a safe) without using the correct key, combination or the like. | |
20. v. To destroy the arrangement of; to throw into disorder; to pierce. | |
The cavalry were not able to break the British squares. | |
21. v. (intransitive) To burst forth; to make its way; to come into view. | |
22. v. (intransitive) To interrupt or cease one's work or occupation temporarily. | |
Let's break for lunch. | |
23. v. To interrupt (a fall) by inserting something so that the falling object does not (immediately) hit something else beneath. | |
He survived the jump out the window because the bushes below broke his fall. | |
24. v. (transitive, ergative) To disclose or make known an item of news, etc. | |
The newsman wanted to break a big story, something that would make him famous. | |
I don't know how to break this to you, but your cat is not coming back. | |
In the latest breaking news... | |
When news of their divorce broke, ... | |
25. v. (intransitive, of a sound) To become audible suddenly. | |
26. v. To change a steady state abruptly. | |
His coughing broke the silence. | |
His turning on the lights broke the enchantment. | |
With the mood broken, what we had been doing seemed pretty silly. | |
27. v. (copulative, informal) To suddenly become. | |
Things began breaking bad for him when his parents died. | |
The arrest was standard, when suddenly the suspect broke ugly. | |
28. v. (intransitive) Of a male voice, to become deeper at puberty. | |
29. v. (intransitive) Of a voice, to alter in type due to emotion or strain: in men generally to go up, in women sometimes to go down; to crack. | |
His voice breaks when he gets emotional. | |
30. v. To surpass or do better than (a specific number), to do better than (a record), setting a new record. | |
He broke the men's 100-meter record. | |
I can't believe she broke 3 under par! | |
The policeman broke sixty on a residential street in his hurry to catch the thief. | |
31. v. (sports): | |
32. v. (transitive, tennis) To win a game (against one's opponent) as receiver. | |
He needs to break serve to win the match. | |
33. v. (intransitive, billiards, snooker, pool) To make the first shot; to scatter the balls from the initial neat arrangement. | |
Is it your or my turn to break? | |
34. v. (transitive, backgammon) To remove one of the two men on (a point). | |
35. v. (transitive military, most often in the passive tense) To demote, to reduce the military rank of. | |
36. v. To end (a connection), to disconnect. | |
The referee ordered the boxers to break the clinch. | |
The referee broke the boxers' clinch. | |
I couldn't hear a thing he was saying, so I broke the connection and called him back. | |
37. v. (intransitive, of an emulsion) To demulsify. | |
38. v. (intransitive, sports) To counter-attack | |
39. v. (transitive, obsolete) To lay open, as a purpose; to disclose, divulge, or communicate. | |
40. v. (intransitive) To become weakened in constitution or faculties; to lose health or strength. | |
41. v. (intransitive, obsolete) To fail in business; to become bankrupt. | |
42. v. To destroy the strength, firmness, or consistency of. | |
to break flax | |
43. v. To destroy the official character and standing of; to cashier; to dismiss. | |
44. v. (intransitive) To make an abrupt or sudden change; to change the gait. | |
to break into a run or gallop | |
45. v. (intransitive, archaic) To fall out; to terminate friendship. | |
through |
1. prep. From one side of an opening to the other. | |
I went through the window. | |
2. prep. Entering, then later leaving. | |
I drove through the town at top speed without looking left or right. | |
3. prep. Surrounded by (while moving). | |
We slogged through the mud for hours before turning back and giving up. | |
4. prep. By means of. | |
This team believes in winning through intimidation. | |
5. prep. (North America) To (or up to) and including, with all intermediate values. | |
from 1945 through 1991; the numbers 1 through 9; your membership is active through March 15, 2013 | |
6. adj. Passing from one side of something to the other. | |
Interstate highways form a nationwide system of through roads. | |
7. adj. Finished; complete. | |
They were through with laying the subroof by noon. | |
8. adj. Valueless; without a future. | |
After being implicated in the scandal, he was through as an executive in financial services. | |
9. adj. No longer interested. | |
She was through with him. | |
10. adj. Proceeding from origin to destination without delay due to change of equipment. | |
The through flight through Memphis was the fastest. | |
11. adj. (association football) In possession of the ball beyond the last line of defence but not necessarily the goalkeeper; through on goal. | |
12. adv. From one side to the other by way of the interior. | |
The arrow went straight through. | |
13. adv. From one end to the other. | |
Others slept; he worked straight through. | |
She read the letter through. | |
14. adv. To the end. | |
He said he would see it through. | |
15. adv. Completely. | |
Leave the yarn in the dye overnight so the color soaks through. | |
16. adv. Out into the open. | |
The American army broke through at St. Lo. | |
17. n. A large slab of stone laid in a dry-stone wall from one side to the other; a perpend. | |
18. n. (obsolete) A coffin, sarcophagus or tomb of stone; a large slab of stone laid on a tomb. | |
particularly |
1. adv. (focus) Especially, extremely. | |
The apéritifs were particularly stimulating. | |
2. adv. (degree) To a great extent. | |
3. adv. Specifically, uniquely or individually. | |
4. adv. In detail; with regard to particulars. | |
5. adv. (dated) In a particular manner; fussily. | |
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. | |
an |
1. art. Form of a used before a vowel sound | |
2. art. (now quite rare) Form of a used before 'h' in an unstressed syllable | |
3. art. (nonstandard) Form of a used before 'h' in a stressed syllable | |
4. conj. (archaic) If | |
5. conj. (archaic) So long as. | |
An it harm none, do what ye will. | |
6. conj. (archaic) As if; as though. | |
7. n. The first letter of the Georgian alphabet, ა (Mkhedruli), Ⴀ (Asomtavruli) or ⴀ (Nuskhuri). | |
8. prep. In each; to or for each; per. | |
I was only going twenty miles an hour. | |
unwelcome |
1. adj. Not welcome. | |
2. v. (transitive, rare) To treat as unwelcome. | |
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. | |
clumsy |
1. adj. Awkward, lacking coordination, not graceful, not dextrous. | |
He's very clumsy. I wouldn't trust him with carrying the dishes. | |
2. adj. Not elegant or well-planned, lacking tact or subtlety. | |
It is a clumsy solution, but it might work for now. | |
What a clumsy joke... | |
3. adj. Awkward or inefficient in use or construction, difficult to handle or manage especially because of shape. | |
4. n. (informal, fairly rare) A clumsy person. | |
manner |
1. n. Mode of action; way of performing or doing anything | |
2. n. Characteristic mode of acting or behaving; bearing | |
His natural manner makes him seem like the boss. | |
3. n. One's customary method of acting; habit. | |
These people have strange manners. | |
4. n. good, polite behaviour | |
5. n. The style of writing or thought of an author; the characteristic peculiarity of an artist. | |
6. n. A certain degree or measure. | |
It is in a manner done already. | |
7. n. Sort; kind; style. | |
All manner of persons participate. | |
8. n. Standards of conduct cultured and product of mind. | |