what |
1. pron. (interrogative) Which thing, event, circumstance, etc.: (used interrogatively in asking for the specification of an identity, quantity, quality, etc.) | |
2. pron. (relative, nonstandard) That; which; who. | |
3. pron. That which; those that; the thing that. | |
He knows what he wants. | |
What goes up must come down. | |
Keep up with what your friends are doing. | |
4. pron. Whatever. | |
I will do what I can to help you. | |
5. adv. (usually followed by "with") In some manner or degree; in part; partly. See also what with | |
What with singing and joking, the time passed quickly. | |
6. adv. Such. | |
What a pity. | |
What a beautiful day! | |
7. adv. (obsolete) Why? | |
8. adv. (now rare) Used to introduce each of two coordinate phrases or concepts; both…and. | |
9. adv. (Singlish) (alt form, wat) (used to contradict an assumption) | |
10. interj. An expression of surprise or disbelief. | |
What! That’s amazing. | |
11. interj. Response that enquires what the asker desires (usually said unhappily). | |
12. interj. (UK, colloquial, dated) (clipping of what do you say)? | |
It’s a nice day, what? | |
13. interj. What did you say? I beg your pardon? | |
14. det. Which; which kind of. | |
What shirt are you going to wear? | |
What time is it? | |
What kind of car is that? | |
15. det. How much; how great (used in an exclamation). | |
What talent he has! | |
What a talent! | |
16. det. (relative) Whatever | |
Write down what things come into your mind. | |
17. n. (obsolete) Something; thing; stuff. | |
18. n. The identity of a thing, as an answer to a question of what. | |
19. n. Something that is addressed by , as opposed to a person, addressed by who. | |
have |
Additional archaic forms are second-person singular present tense hast, third-person singular present tense hath, present participle haveing, and second-person singular past tense hadst. | |
1. v. To possess, own, hold. | |
I have a house and a car. | |
Look what I have here — a frog I found on the street! | |
2. v. To be related in some way to (with the object identifying the relationship). | |
I have two sisters. | |
I have a lot of work to do. | |
3. v. To partake of a particular substance (especially a food or drink) or action. | |
I have breakfast at six o'clock. | |
Can I have a look at that? | |
I'm going to have some pizza and a beer right now. | |
4. v. To be scheduled to attend or participate in. | |
What class do you have right now? I have English. | |
Fred won't be able to come to the party; he has a meeting that day. | |
5. v. (auxiliary verb, taking a past participle) (Used in forming the perfect aspect and the past perfect aspect.) | |
I have already eaten today. | |
I had already eaten. | |
6. v. (auxiliary verb, taking a to-infinitive) See have to. | |
I have to go. | |
7. v. To give birth to. | |
The couple always wanted to have children. | |
My wife is having the baby right now! | |
My mother had me when she was 25. | |
8. v. To engage in sexual intercourse with. | |
He's always bragging about how many women he's had. | |
9. v. To accept as a romantic partner. | |
Despite my protestations of love, she would not have me. | |
10. v. (transitive with bare infinitive) To cause to, by a command, request or invitation. | |
They had me feed their dog while they were out of town. | |
11. v. (transitive with adjective or adjective-phrase complement) To cause to be. | |
He had him arrested for trespassing. | |
The lecture's ending had the entire audience in tears. | |
12. v. (transitive with bare infinitive) To be affected by an occurrence. (Used in supplying a topic that is not a verb argument.) | |
The hospital had several patients contract pneumonia last week. | |
I've had three people today tell me my hair looks nice. | |
13. v. (transitive with adjective or adjective-phrase complement) To depict as being. | |
Their stories differed; he said he'd been at work when the incident occurred, but her statement had him at home that entire evening. | |
14. v. (Used as interrogative auxiliary verb with a following pronoun to form tag questions. (For further discussion, see "Usage notes" below.)) | |
We haven't eaten dinner yet, have we? | |
Your wife hasn't been reading that nonsense, has she? | |
(UK usage) He has some money, hasn't he? | |
15. v. (UK, slang) To defeat in a fight; take. | |
I could have him! | |
I'm gonna have you! | |
16. v. (dated) To be able to speak a language. | |
I have no German. | |
17. v. To feel or be (especially painfully) aware of. | |
Dan certainly has arms today, probably from scraping paint off four columns the day before. | |
18. v. To be afflicted with, suffer from. | |
He had a cold last week. | |
19. v. To experience, go through, undergo. | |
We had a hard year last year, with the locust swarms and all that. | |
He had surgery on his hip yesterday. | |
I'm having the time of my life! | |
20. v. To trick, to deceive. | |
You had me alright! I never would have thought that was just a joke. | |
21. v. (transitive, often with present participle) To allow; to tolerate. | |
The child screamed incessantly for his mother to buy him a toy, but she wasn't having any of it. | |
I asked my dad if I could go to the concert this Thursday, but he wouldn't have it since it's a school night. | |
22. v. (transitive, often used in the negative) To believe, buy, be taken in by. | |
I made up an excuse as to why I was out so late, but my wife wasn't having any of it. | |
23. v. To host someone; to take in as a guest. | |
Thank you for having me! | |
24. v. To get a reading, measurement, or result from an instrument or calculation. | |
What do you have for problem two? | |
I have two contacts on my scope. | |
25. v. (transitive, of a jury) To consider a court proceeding that has been completed; to begin deliberations on a case. | |
We'll schedule closing arguments for Thursday, and the jury will have the case by that afternoon. | |
26. n. A wealthy or privileged person. | |
27. n. (uncommon) One who has some (contextually specified) thing. | |
28. n. (AU, NZ, informal) A fraud or deception; something misleading. | |
They advertise it as a great deal, but I think it's a bit of a have. | |
you |
1. pron. (object pronoun) The people spoken, or written to, as an object. | |
2. pron. (reflexive pronoun, now US colloquial) (To) yourselves, (to) yourself. | |
3. pron. (object pronoun) The person spoken to or written to, as an object. (Replacing thee; originally as a mark of respect.) | |
4. pron. (subject pronoun) The people spoken to or written to, as a subject. (Replacing ye.) | |
Both of you should get ready now. | |
You are all supposed to do as I tell you. | |
5. pron. (subject pronoun) The person spoken to or written to, as a subject. (Originally as a mark of respect.) | |
6. pron. (indefinite personal pronoun) Anyone, one; an unspecified individual or group of individuals (as subject or object). | |
7. det. The individual or group spoken or written to. | |
Have you gentlemen come to see the lady who fell backwards off a bus? | |
8. det. Used before epithets for emphasis. | |
You idiot! | |
9. v. To address (a person) using the pronoun you, rather than thou, especially historically when you was more formal. | |
been |
1. v. past participle of be | |
2. v. (obsolete) plural present of be | |
3. v. (Southern US) of be | |
4. n. (UK dialectal) plural of bee | |
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? | |
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 | |
find |
1. v. To encounter or discover by accident; to happen upon. | |
2. v. To encounter or discover something being searched for; to locate. | |
I found my car keys. They were under the couch. | |
3. v. To discover by study or experiment direct to an object or end. | |
Water is found to be a compound substance. | |
4. v. To gain, as the object of desire or effort. | |
to find leisure; to find means | |
5. v. To attain to; to arrive at; to acquire. | |
Looks like he found a new vehicle for himself! | |
6. v. To point out. | |
He kept finding faults with my work. | |
7. v. To decide that, to discover that, to form the opinion that. | |
I find your argument unsatisfactory. | |
8. v. To arrive at, as a conclusion; to determine as true; to establish. | |
to find a verdict; to find a true bill (of indictment) against an accused person | |
9. v. (transitive, archaic) To supply; to furnish. | |
to find food for workmen | |
10. v. (transitive, archaic) To provide for | |
He finds his nephew in money. | |
11. v. (intransitive, legal) To determine or judge. | |
The jury finds for the defendant. | |
12. v. (intransitive, hunting) To discover game. | |
13. n. Anything that is found (usually valuable), as objects on an archeological site or a person with talent. | |
14. n. The act of finding. | |
out |
See also individual phrasal verbs such as come out, go out, put out, take out, pull out, and so on. | |
1. adv. Away from the inside or the centre. | |
The magician pulled the rabbit out of the hat. | |
2. adv. Away from home or one's usual place. | |
Let's eat out tonight | |
3. adv. Outside; not indoors. | |
Last night we slept out under the stars. | |
4. adv. Away from; at a distance. | |
Keep out! | |
5. adv. Into a state of non-operation; into non-existence. | |
Switch the lights out. | |
Put the fire out. | |
6. adv. To the end; completely. | |
I hadn't finished. Hear me out. | |
7. adv. Used to intensify or emphasize. | |
The place was all decked out for the holidays. | |
8. adv. (of the sun, moon, stars, etc.) So as to be visible in the sky, and not covered by clouds, fog, etc. | |
The sun came out after the rain, and we saw a rainbow. | |
9. adv. (cricket, baseball) Of a player, so as to be disqualified from playing further by some action of a member of the opposing team (such as being stumped in cricket). | |
Wilson was bowled out for five runs. | |
10. prep. (nonstandard, contraction of out of) Away from the inside. | |
He threw it out the door. | |
11. prep. (colloquial) Outside. | |
It's raining out. | |
It's cold out. | |
12. n. A means of exit, escape, reprieve, etc. | |
They wrote the law to give those organizations an out. | |
13. n. (baseball) A state in which a member of the batting team is removed from play due to the application of various rules of the game such as striking out, hitting a fly ball which is caught by the fieldi | |
14. n. (cricket) A dismissal; a state in which a member of the batting team finishes his turn at bat, due to the application of various rules of the game, such as the bowler knocking over the batsman's wicke | |
15. n. (poker) A card which can make a hand a winner. | |
16. n. (dated) A trip out; an outing. | |
17. n. (mostly, in plural) One who, or that which, is out; especially, one who is out of office. | |
18. n. A place or space outside of something; a nook or corner; an angle projecting outward; an open space. | |
19. n. (printing, dated) A word or words omitted by the compositor in setting up copy; an omission. | |
20. v. To eject; to expel. | |
21. v. To reveal (a person) to be gay, bisexual, or transgender. | |
22. v. To reveal (a person or organization) as having a certain secret, such as a being a secret agent or undercover detective. | |
23. v. To reveal (a secret). | |
A Brazilian company outed the new mobile phone design. | |
24. v. (intransitive, archaic) To come or go out; to get out or away; to become public. | |
25. v. To become apparent. | |
26. adj. Not at home; not at one's office or place of employment. | |
I'm sorry, Mr Smith is out at the moment. | |
27. adj. Released, available for purchase, download or other use. | |
Did you hear? Their newest CD is out! | |
28. adj. (in various games; used especially of a batsman or batter in cricket or baseball) Dismissed from play under the rules of the game. | |
He bowls, Johnson pokes at it ... and ... Johnson is out! Caught behind by Ponsonby! | |
29. adj. Openly acknowledging that one is gay or transgender. | |
It's no big deal to be out in the entertainment business. | |
30. adj. (of flowers) In bloom. | |
The garden looks beautiful now that the roses are out. | |
31. adj. (of the sun, moon or stars) Visible in the sky; not obscured by clouds. | |
The sun is out, and it's a lovely day. | |
32. adj. (of lamps, fires etc.) Not shining or burning. | |
I called round to the house but all the lights were out and no one was home. | |
33. adj. (of ideas, plans, etc.) Discarded; no longer a possibility. | |
Right, so that idea's out. Let's move on to the next one. | |
34. adj. No longer popular or in fashion. | |
Black is out this season. The new black is white. | |
35. adj. Without; no longer in possession of; not having more | |
Do you have any bread? Sorry, we're out. | |
36. adj. (of calculations or measurements) Containing errors or discrepancies; in error by a stated amount. | |
Nothing adds up in this report. All these figures are out. | |
The measurement was out by three millimetres. | |
37. adj. (obsolete) Of a young lady: having entered society and available to be courted. | |
38. interj. (procedure word, especially, military) A radio procedure word meaning that the station is finished with its transmission and does not expect a response. | |
Destruction. Two T-72s destroyed. Three foot mobiles down. Out. | |
about |
1. prep. In a circle around; all round; on every side of; on the outside of. | |
2. prep. Near; not far from; approximately; regarding time, size, quantity. | |
3. prep. On the point or verge of. | |
the show is about to start; I am not about to admit to your crime | |
4. prep. On one's person; nearby the person. | |
5. prep. Over or upon different parts of; through or over in various directions; here and there in; to and fro in; throughout. | |
6. prep. Concerned with; engaged in; intent on. | |
7. prep. Concerning; with regard to; on account of; on the subject of; to affect. | |
He knew more about what was occurring than anyone. | |
8. prep. (figurative) In or near, as in mental faculties or (literally) in possession of; in control of; at one's command; in one's makeup. | |
He has his wits about him. | |
9. prep. In the immediate neighborhood of; in contiguity or proximity to; near, as to place. | |
10. adv. Not distant; approximate. | |
11. adv. On all sides; around. | |
12. adv. Here and there; around; in one place and another; up and down. | |
13. adv. Nearly; approximately; with close correspondence, in quality, manner, degree, quantity, or time; almost. | |
about as cold; about as high | |
14. adv. Near; in the vicinity. | |
15. adv. In succession; one after another; in the course of events. | |
16. adv. On the move; active; astir. | |
17. adv. To a reversed order; half round; facing in the opposite direction; from a contrary point of view. | |
to face about; to turn oneself about | |
18. adv. (nautical) To the opposite tack. | |
19. adv. (obsolete) Preparing; planning. | |
20. adv. (archaic) In circuit; circularly; by a circuitous way; around the outside; in circumference. | |
a mile about, and a third of a mile across | |
21. adv. (chiefly North America, colloquial) Going to; on the verge of; intending to. | |
22. adj. Moving around; astir. | |
out and about; up and about | |
After my bout with Guillan-Barre Syndrome, it took me 6 months to be up and about again. | |
23. adj. In existence; being in evidence; apparent | |
it |
1. pron. The third-person singular personal pronoun that is normally used to refer to an inanimate object or abstract entity, also often used to refer to animals. | |
Put it over there. | |
Take each day as it comes. | |
I heard the sound of the school bus - it was early today. | |
2. pron. A third-person singular personal pronoun used to refer to a child, especially of unknown gender. | |
She took the baby and held it in her arms. | |
3. pron. Used to refer to someone being identified, often on the phone, but not limited to this situation. | |
It's me. John. | |
Is it her? | |
4. pron. The impersonal pronoun, used without referent as the subject of an impersonal verb or statement. (known as the dummy pronoun or weather it) | |
It is nearly 10 o’clock. | |
It’s 10:45 read ten-forty-five. | |
It’s very cold today. | |
It’s lonely without you. | |
5. pron. The impersonal pronoun, used without referent in various short idioms. | |
stick it out | |
live it up | |
rough it | |
6. pron. The impersonal pronoun, used as a placeholder for a delayed subject, or less commonly, object; known as the dummy pronoun or, more formally in linguistics, a syntactic expletive. The delayed subject i | |
It is easy to see how she would think that. (with the infinitive clause headed by to see) | |
I find it odd that you would say that. (with the noun clause introduced by that) | |
It is hard seeing you so sick. (with the gerund seeing) | |
He saw to it that everyone would vote for him. (with the noun clause introduced by that) | |
It is not clear if the report was true. (with the noun clause introduced by if) | |
7. pron. All or the end; something after which there is no more. | |
Are there more students in this class, or is this it? | |
That's it—I'm not going to any more candy stores with you. | |
8. pron. (chiefly pejorative, offensive) A third-person singular personal pronoun used to refer to an animate referent who is transgender or is neither female nor male. | |
9. pron. (obsolete) (Followed by an omitted and understood relative pronoun): That which; what. | |
10. det. (obsolete) its | |
11. n. One who is neither a he nor a she; a creature; a dehumanized being. | |
12. n. The person who chases and tries to catch the other players in the playground game of tag. | |
In the next game, Adam and Tom will be it… | |
13. n. (British) The game of tag. | |
Let's play it at breaktime. | |
14. n. Sex appeal, especially that which goes beyond beauty. | |
15. n. (euphemism) Sexual activity. | |
caught them doing it | |
16. adj. (colloquial) Most fashionable. | |