the |
1. art. Definite grammatical article that implies necessarily that an entity it articulates is presupposed; something already mentioned, or completely specified later in that same sentence, or assumed already | |
I’m reading the book. (Compare I’m reading a book.) | |
The street in front of your house. (Compare A street in Paris.) | |
The men and women watched the man give the birdseed to the bird. | |
2. art. Used before a noun modified by a restrictive relative clause, indicating that the noun refers to a single referent defined by the relative clause. | |
The street that runs through my hometown. | |
3. art. Used before an object considered to be unique, or of which there is only one at a time. | |
No one knows how many galaxies there are in the universe. | |
God save the Queen! | |
4. art. Used before a superlative or an ordinal number modifying a noun, to indicate that the noun refers to a single item. | |
That was the best apple pie ever. | |
5. art. Added to a superlative or an ordinal number to make it into a substantive. | |
That apple pie was the best. | |
6. art. Introducing a singular term to be taken generically: preceding a name of something standing for a whole class. | |
7. art. Used before an adjective, indicating all things (especially persons) described by that adjective. | |
Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable. | |
8. art. Used to indicate a certain example of (a noun) which is usually of most concern or most common or familiar. | |
No one in the whole country had seen it before. | |
I don't think I'll get to it until the morning. | |
9. art. Used before a body part (especially of someone previously mentioned), as an alternative to a possessive pronoun. | |
A stone hit him on the head. (= “A stone hit him on his head.”) | |
10. art. When stressed, indicates that it describes an object which is considered to be best or exclusively worthy of attention. | |
That is the hospital to go to for heart surgery. | |
11. adv. 1=With a comparative ormore and a verb phrase, establishes a parallel with one or more other such comparatives. | |
The hotter the better. | |
The more I think about it, the weaker it looks. | |
The more money donated, the more books purchased, and the more happy children. | |
It looks weaker and weaker, the more I think about it. | |
12. adv. 1=With a comparative, and often withfor it, indicates a result more like said comparative. This can be negated withnone. | |
It was a difficult time, but I’m the wiser for it. | |
It was a difficult time, and I’m none the wiser for it. | |
I'm much the wiser for having had a difficult time like that. | |
spin |
1. v. To rotate, revolve, gyrate (usually quickly); to partially or completely rotate to face another direction. | |
I spun myself around a few times. | |
Spin the ball on the floor. | |
She spun around and gave him a big smile. | |
2. v. To make yarn by twisting and winding fibers together. | |
They spin the cotton into thread. | |
3. v. To present, describe, or interpret, or to introduce a bias or slant, so as to give something a favorable or advantageous appearance. | |
4. v. (cricket, of a bowler) To make the ball move sideways when it bounces on the pitch. | |
5. v. (cricket, of a ball) To move sideways when bouncing. | |
6. v. (cooking) To form into thin strips or ribbons, as with sugar | |
7. v. To form (a web, a cocoon, silk, etc.) from threads produced by the extrusion of a viscid, transparent liquid, which hardens on coming into contact with the air; said of the spider, the silkworm, etc. | |
8. v. To shape, as malleable sheet metal, into a hollow form, by bending or buckling it by pressing against it with a smooth hand tool or roller while the metal revolves, as in a lathe. | |
9. v. To move swiftly. | |
to spin along the road in a carriage, on a bicycle, etc. | |
10. v. To stream or issue in a thread or a small current or jet. | |
Blood spins from a vein. | |
11. v. (computing, programming, intransitive) To wait in a loop until some condition becomes true. | |
12. v. (transitive, informal) To play (vinyl records, etc.) as a disc jockey. | |
13. n. Rapid circular motion. | |
The car went into a spin. | |
The skaters demonstrated their spins. | |
He put some spin on the cue ball. | |
14. n. (physics) A quantum angular momentum associated with subatomic particles, which also creates a magnetic moment. | |
15. n. A favourable comment or interpretation intended to bias opinion on an otherwise unpleasant situation. | |
Try to put a positive spin on the disappointing sales figures. | |
The politician was mocked in the press for his reliance on spin rather than facts. | |
16. n. (sports) Rotation of the ball as it flies through the air; sideways movement of the ball as it bounces. | |
17. n. A condition of flight where a stalled aircraft is simultaneously pitching, yawing and rolling in a spinning motion. | |
18. n. A brief trip by vehicle, especially one made for pleasure. | |
I'm off out for a spin in my new sports car. | |
19. n. A bundle of spun material; a mass of strands and filaments. | |
20. n. A single play of a record by a radio station. | |
21. n. (dated) Unmarried woman, spinster. | |
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. | |
short |
1. adj. Having a small distance from one end or edge to another, either horizontally or vertically. | |
2. adj. (of a person) Of comparatively little height. | |
3. adj. Having little duration; opposite of long. | |
Our meeting was a short six minutes today. Every day for the past month it's been at least twenty minutes long. | |
4. adj. (followed by for) Of a word or phrase, constituting an abbreviation (for another) or shortened form (of another). | |
“Phone” is short for “telephone” and "asap" short for "as soon as possible". | |
5. adj. (cricket, of a fielder or fielding position) that is relatively close to the batsman. | |
6. adj. (cricket, of a ball) that bounced relatively far from the batsman. | |
7. adj. (golf, of an approach shot or putt) that falls short of the green or the hole. | |
8. adj. (of pastries and metals) Brittle, crumbly, especially due to the use of too much shortening. (See shortbread, shortcake, shortcrust.) | |
9. adj. Abrupt; brief; pointed; petulant. | |
He gave a short answer to the question. | |
10. adj. Limited in quantity; inadequate; insufficient; scanty. | |
a short supply of provisions | |
11. adj. Insufficiently provided; inadequately supplied; scantily furnished; lacking. | |
to be short of money | |
The cashier came up short ten dollars on his morning shift. | |
12. adj. Deficient; less; not coming up to a measure or standard. | |
an account which is short of the truth | |
13. adj. (obsolete) Not distant in time; near at hand. | |
14. adj. Being in a financial investment position that is structured to be profitable if the price of the underlying security declines in the future. | |
I'm short General Motors because I think their sales are plunging. | |
15. adv. Abruptly, curtly, briefly. | |
They had to stop short to avoid hitting the dog in the street. | |
He cut me short repeatedly in the meeting. | |
The boss got a message and cut the meeting short. | |
16. adv. Unawares. | |
The recent developments at work caught them short. | |
17. adv. Without achieving a goal or requirement. | |
His speech fell short of what was expected. | |
18. adv. (cricket, of the manner of bounce of a cricket ball) Relatively far from the batsman and hence bouncing higher than normal; opposite of full. | |
19. adv. (finance) With a negative ownership position. | |
We went short most finance companies in July. | |
20. n. A short circuit. | |
21. n. A short film. | |
22. n. Used to indicate a short-length version of a size | |
38 short suits fit me right off the rack. | |
Do you have that size in a short. | |
23. n. (baseball) A shortstop. | |
Jones smashes a grounder between third and short. | |
24. n. (finance) A short seller. | |
The market decline was terrible, but the shorts were buying champagne. | |
25. n. (finance) A short sale. | |
He closed out his short at a modest loss after three months. | |
26. n. A summary account. | |
27. n. (phonetics) A short sound, syllable, or vowel. | |
28. n. (programming) An integer variable shorter than normal integers; usually two bytes long. | |
29. v. To cause a short circuit in (something). | |
30. v. (intransitive) Of an electrical circuit, to short circuit. | |
31. v. To shortchange. | |
32. v. To provide with a smaller than agreed or labeled amount. | |
This is the third time I've caught them shorting us. | |
33. v. (transitive, business) To sell something, especially securities, that one does not own at the moment for delivery at a later date in hopes of profiting from a decline in the price; to sell short. | |
34. v. (obsolete) To shorten. | |
35. prep. Deficient in. | |
We are short a few men on the second shift. | |
He's short common sense. | |
36. prep. (finance) Having a negative position in. | |
I don't want to be short the market going into the weekend. | |
Is |
1. n. plural of I | |
2. v. third-person singular present indicative of be | |
He is a doctor. He retired some time ago. | |
Should he do the task, it is vital that you follow him. | |
3. n. plural of i | |
remember to dot your is | |
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? | |
constant |
1. adj. Unchanged through time or space; permanent. | |
2. adj. Consistently recurring over time; persistent. | |
3. adj. Steady in purpose, action, feeling, etc. | |
4. adj. Firm; solid; not fluid. | |
5. adj. (obsolete) Consistent; logical. | |
6. n. enum, , linear | |
7. n. That which is permanent or invariable. | |
8. n. (algebra) A quantity that remains at a fixed value throughout a given discussion. | |
9. n. (science) Any property of an experiment, determined numerically, that does not change under given circumstances. | |
10. n. (computing) An identifier that is bound to an invariant value; a fixed value given a name to aid in readability of source code. | |
and |
1. conj. As a coordinating conjunction; expressing two elements to be taken together or in addition to each other. | |
2. conj. Used simply to connect two noun phrases, adjectives or adverbs. | |
3. conj. Simply connecting two clauses or sentences. | |
4. conj. Introducing a clause or sentence which follows on in time or consequence from the first. | |
5. conj. (obsolete) Yet; but. | |
6. conj. Used to connect certain numbers: connecting units when they precede tens (not dated); connecting tens and units to hundreds, thousands etc. (now often | |
7. conj. (now colloquial, or literary) Used to connect more than two elements together in a chain, sometimes to stress the number of elements. | |
8. conj. Connecting two identical elements, with implications of continued or infinite repetition. | |
9. conj. Introducing a parenthetical or explanatory clause. | |
10. conj. Introducing the continuation of narration from a previous understood point; also used alone as a question: ‘and so what?’. | |
11. conj. (now regional or somewhat colloquial) Used to connect two verbs where the second is dependent on the first: ‘to’. Used especially after come, | |
12. conj. Introducing a qualitative difference between things having the same name; "as well as other". | |
13. conj. Used to combine numbers in addition; plus (with singular or plural verb). | |
14. conj. Expressing a condition.: | |
15. conj. (now US dialect) If; provided that. | |
16. conj. (obsolete) As if, as though. | |
17. n. (enm, music, often informal) In rhythm, the second half of a divided beat. | |
18. n. (UK dialectal) Breath. | |
19. n. (UK dialectal) Sea smoke; steam fog. | |
20. v. (UK dialectal, intransitive) To breathe; whisper; devise; imagine. | |
inescapable |
1. adj. Not escapable; that cannot be avoided. | |