Easier English Student Dictionary - I

EASIER ENGLISH STUDENT DICTIONARY

Dictionary Titles in the Series: 1 9016 5996 8 0 7475 6625 9 Basic English Dictionary 1 9016 5963 1 Easier English Dictionary: Handy Pocket Format 1 9016 5931 3 English Study Dictionary English Thesaurus for Students 0 7475 6685 2 1 9016 5946 1 Specialist Dictionaries: 0 7475 6632 1 Dictionary of Banking and Finance 1 9016 5999 2 Dictionary of Computing 0 7475 6623 2 Dictionary of Economics 0 7475 6621 6 Dictionary of Hotels, Tourism and Catering Management 1 9038 5620 5 Dictionary of Human Resources and Personnel Management 0 7475 6634 8 Dictionary of Marketing 0 7475 6620 8 Dictionary of Military Terms Dictionary of Nursing 0 7475 6626 7 Dictionary of Science & Technology 0 7475 6691 7 1 9016 5911 9 Check your Vocabulary Workbooks: 1 9016 5960 7 Business English for Academic Purposes English for First Certificate Examination English for the IELTS Examination Visit our website for full details of all our books http://www.bloomsbury.com/reference

EASIER ENGLISH STUDENT DICTIONARY General editor P.H. Collin

A BLOOMSBURY REFERENCE BOOK Originally published by Peter Collin Publishing Third edition published 2003 Second edition published 2000 First published in Great Britain 1999 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 38 Soho Square London W1D 3HB © Copyright P.H. Collin, F. Collin, S.M.H. Collin 1999, 2000 This edition © Bloomsbury Publishing 2003 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the permission of the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 7475 66240 eISBN-13: 978-1-4081-0200-8 Text processing and computer typesetting by Bloomsbury Printed and bound in Italy by Legoprint All papers used by Bloomsbury Publishing are natural, recyclable products made from wood grown in sustainable, well-managed forests. The manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

GENERAL EDITOR P. H. Collin Editorial Contributors Lesley Brown, Sandra Anderson, Stephen Curtis, Penelope Hands, Dinah Jackson, Alice Grandison, Isabel Griffiths, Imogen Kerr, Héloïse McGuinness Text Production and Proofreading Katy McAdam, Joel Adams, Daisy Jackson, Sarah Lusznat, Sandra Anderson, Ruth Hillmore, Irene Lakhani, Fiona McIntosh



Preface By 2050, it is estimated that fifty percent of the world’s population will have some competence in English. Many of these people will regard themselves as improvers rather than learners and will have only occasional need to quickly check the mean- ing of a word in a dictionary. This dictionary is a portable, easy-to-use quick reference tool for a large number of words and phrases, rather than a substitute for the detailed guidance of a grammar or course book. It includes commonly heard terms, with an indication of their rele- vant frequency, and many more terms from the worlds of work and communication and of modern society generally. Each word is individually defined, and no words, not even adverbs, are listed without a definition. Examples and collocations are given for words that are likely to be used in practice, in order to provide patterns for the user’s own production of English sentences. Less frequently encountered words, which only need to be re- cognised and understood, are given definitions only. Each word, including compound words and phrasal verbs, has its own easy-to-find main entry in bold type. Each word has a pronunciation in the International Phonetic Alphabet. Typical phrases and idioms associated with the main term are shown in bold type and separately defined within the entry. The meaning of the main senses of each word is given clearly and simply, using a limited and easily understood vocabulary. Meanings are grouped together by their part of speech. Extra help is offered in Notes at the end of some entries. These include unusual inflected forms and warnings about words which sound the same but have different spellings and can be confused with each other. The major differences in US and British spelling are also noted. Synonyms and antonyms (opposites) are given for many words.

Parts of speech abbr (abbreviation) interj (interjection) prefix adj (adjective) prep adv (adverb) modal verb pron (preposition) article suffix (pronoun) conj (conjunction) noun verb plural noun [always takes a plural verb] Symbols The numbers x, y, z indicate words which are commonly used, from x = the most basic and essential, y = frequent and useful to know, to z = starting to develop a wider vocabulary. í before a new part of speech b before examples ˽ before a phrase or collocation ȣ before an idiom ı an explanation of the word will be found at the place indicated ‘ extra information will be found at the place indicated Pronunciation The following symbols have been used to show the pronunciation of the main words in the dictionary. Stress has been indicated by a main stress mark ( ) and a secondary stress mark ( ). Note that these are only guides, as the stress of the word changes according to its position in the sentence. Vowels back Consonants harm ɑ stop b buck ɒ type d dead a how ð other aυ hire d jump aə hour f fare aυə ɔ course gold ɔ annoy h head e head j yellow eə fair k cab e make l leave eυ go m mix n nil i word ŋ sing i keep p print ə happy r rest  s save ə about ʃ shop u t take u fit tʃ change υ θ theft υə near v value w work annual x loch pool measure book z zone tour shut