Macmillan English Dictionary (for Advanced Learners of American English)

1712 Pages·2004·152.72 MB·english

by  Michael Rundell

MACMILLAN
DICTIONARY
FOR ADVANCED LEARNERS
OF AMERICAN ENGLISH
CHECK BOOK
FOR CD-ROM
LITERACY
DICTIONARIES
Boaton Public Library
1P«8H.S MA 02116 • a[nmootdhaelrvveerrbb]toveerxbpsretshsatiadreeasussuecdhwaisth
No possibility, permission, or intention: She
mightcome. Hecangonow. /willask
• [C] countablenounsthatareusedwithaor him tocallyou.
anoranumberandhaveaplural:car,soldier
• [U] uncountablenounsthatcannotbeused Adjectives
withaoranoranumberandhavenoplural: • [onlybeforenoun] adjectivesthatcanonly
happiness,pasta beusedbeforeanoun: myeldersister
• [singular] nounsthatareusedwitha, an, or • [neverbeforenoun] adjectivesthatcan
thebutareneverused intheplural: babble, neverbeusedbeforeanoun: Ifeltafraid.
halt
• [plural] nounsthatareusedonly inthe Other Short Forms or Codes
pluralandalwaystakeapluralverb: cattle,
surroundings • sb someone
• [oftenplural] [usuallyplural] nounsthat • sth something
canbe used inthe singularbutareoftenor • [+ that] followedbyaclausebeginningwith
usuallyplural: boundary,fee "that": Sheallowedthatthematterwas
serious.
• [+(that)]followedbyaclausebeginningwith
Verbs "that" butyoucanmissoutthe "that":Are
• o[Ib]jeicntt:rHanesiptaiuvesevderfbosrtahamtomheanvte.nodCioruelctdyou ycoerutcaeirntiati'snftinhiastheitd'?sfinished?orAreyou
speakupplease? • ...todosthfollowedbyaverb inthe
infinitive: /lovetogoshopping.
• /[Ta]tetrmanysiltuinvceh.verbsShtehahtahnadveedathdeirneoctteoobvjeecrt: • s..w.idmomiinnggs.thfollowedbyaverb + ing: Ilove
tome.
• [usuallypassive]usuallyusedinthepassive
• [linkingverb] verbsthatarefollowedbya
nounoradjectivecomplementdescribingthe • [usuallyprogressive] usuallyused inthe
subject: They lookedhappy. Ifeelbetter progressive
now. • [inimperative] usuallyusedinthe
imperative
• [auxiliaryverb] verbs "be," "have," and
"do" whentheyareusedwithotherverbsto • [ininfinitive] usuallyusedinthe infinitive
formquestions, showtheirtense, etc.: When • [innegativesorquestions] usuallyusedin
areyou leaving? Theydidn'tunderstand. negative sentencesorquestions
WORD CLASSES
abbrev(=abbreviation) quantifier
adj (=adjective) shortform(forexamplecan't)
adv(=adverb) suffix
conjunction trademark(trademarksarenotgivenaword
determiner class)
functionword verb
interjection
noun SYMBOLS
number -» pointstoanotherentryorpage
phrasalvb(^phrasalverb) thatyoushouldlookatformore
prefix informationorforpictures
preposition comesbetweenexample
pronoun sentences
REDWORDS
The wordsprinted inredformthecore thesewords, butalsoto usethemconfidently
tvhoacta—bualsaraynoafdvEnagnlciesdh.leTahrenseer—aryeotuheneweodrdtos andcorrectly.
knowespeciallywell. Thereare 7,500red Allredwordshavea"starrating":
words, andtheyhavebeencarefullychosenon *** the2,500mostcommonandbasicEnglish
thebasisoftheirfrequencyandtheir words, suchas: easy, go, have, house
importance.Fortheseredwords,thedictionary ** verycommonwords, suchas: behave,
providesalotofextra information(for frighten, intelligence, occasional
example, aboutgrammarandcollocation)and * fairlycommonwords, suchas: boil,
awiderangeofexamplesentences. This is cruelty,farming, metric
designedtohelpyounotonlyto understand
tt, * * • *
MACMILLAN
English
DICTIONARY
ri
Ide
gne*
MACMILLAN
English
DICTIONARY
FOR ADVANCED LEARNERS
OF AMERICAN ENGLISH
MacmillanEducation
BetweenTownsRoad,Oxford0X43PP
Adivisionof MacmillanPublishersLimited
Companiesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld
ISBN
333966694(Americancasededition)
333966716(Americancasededition+CD-ROM)
333966708(Americanpaperbackedition)
333966724(Americanpaperbackedition+CD-ROM)
33396691 (AmericanCD-ROM)
Text©BloomsburyPublishingPic2002
Illustrations©MacmillanPublishersLimited2002
Firstpublished2002
Allrightsreserved;nopartofthispublicationmaybe
reproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,transmittedinany
form,orbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,
recording,orotherwise,withoutthepriorwrittenpermission
ofthepublishers.
TheMacmillanEnglishDictionarywasconceived,compiled
andeditedbytheReferenceandElectronicMediaDivisionof
BloomsburyPublishingPic.
ThisDictionaryincludeswordsonthebasisoftheiruseinthe
Englishlanguagetoday. Somewordsareidentifiedasbeing
trademarksorservicemarks.Neitherthepresencenorabsence
of suchidentificationinthisDictionaryistoberegardedas
affectinginanyway,orexpressingajudgmenton,thevalidityor
legalstatusofanytrademark,servicemark,orotherproprietary
rightsanywhereintheworld.
WorldEnglishCorpus
ThedefinitionsintheMacmillanEnglishDictionaryhavebeen
basedoninformationderivedfromthe200,000,000wordsof
EnglishwhichmakeuptheWorldEnglishCorpus.Thisconsists
oftheBloomsburyCorpusofWorldEnglish®withadditional
materialexclusivelydevelopedforthisDictionary,includingELT
materialsandacorpusof commonerrorsmadebylearnersof
English.
CoverdesignbyConorMangatof BoagAssociates,London
TypesetbySelwoodSystems,MidsomerNorton,Radstock,
UnitedKingdom
PrintedandboundinChina
2006 20052004 2003
10 9 8 7 6 5
CONTENTS
GrammarCodes insidefrontcover
Foreword
Introduction
Usingthe Dictionary
Entriesthatare Numbers
The Dictionary 1-1648
Color Illustrations between pages 562 and 563
House C1
Kitchen C2
Office C3
Clothesand Patterns C4
HighwayandTypesofVehicle C6
Transportation C7
Car C8
Language Awareness between pages924and 925
Numbers LA2
Phrasal Verbs LA3
Academic English LA4
College Composition LA8
Metaphor LA10
ComputerWords LA12
Pragmatics LA14
Spoken Discourse LA16
Sensitivity LA18
American and British English LA20
Business English LA22
Word Formation LA24
Color Illustrations between pages 1146and 1147
Trees, Plants, and Flowers C9
Fruit C10
Vegetables C11
Animals C12
Sports: Soccer, Tennis, and Golf C14
Sports: Football, Baseball, and Basketball C15
Gym and Games C16
DefiningVocabulary 1649-1656
Labels 1657
Pronunciation Guide 1658
EDITORIAL TEAM
Managing Editor
Michael Mayor
DeputyEditors Editors Orin Hargraves FunctionWordEditors
Sue Engineer RebeccaAdae Ruth Hein TedJackson
Stephen Handorf SandraAnderson Lucy Hollingworth Stephen Handorf
StellaO'Shea Debra Bailey MichaelJanes Gillian Francis
KarenStern Kate Baldus Imogen Kerr
JohnWilliams JaneBradbury Stan Kurzban Phoneticians
PatBulhosen Jill Leatherbarrow DinahJackson
SeniorEditors John Bunting Sinda Lopez RafalS. Konopka
RobertAllen RebeccaCampbell Dan Malt EstherHurrell
RobertClevenger EdwinCarpenter Heloi'se McGuinness
RosalindCombley Carol-JuneCassidy Clea McEnery Proofreaders
GloriaGeorge MargaretJullCosta Fiona Mcintosh Robin Batchelor-Smith
SusanJellis DewayneCrawford TerryMcLean Pat Bulhosen
SidneyI. Landau Dana DarbyJohnson ClaireNeedier Josephine M. P. Curtis
Julia B. Plier ChristopherDecker DianeNicholls Susan D. Dickson
Elizabeth Potter Sheila Dignen Susan R. Norton Julia Esplen
HowardSargeant JenniferGossDuby Glennis Pye Ruth Hillmore
PennyStock KoreyEgge Jane Rogoyska Irene Lakhani
JennyWatson ScottForbes ValerieSmith Jill Leatherbarrow
DonaldWatt Susan Finlay Ian M. Spackman AdeleLinderholm
LauraWedgeworth TammyGales KatalinSule RosemaryMorlin
AliceGrandison AntheaTillyer ClareShaw
IsabelGriffiths RachelWare SusanTurner
DavidHallworth PamelaWhite RebeccaVickers
PennyHands KallieWillboum RichardWhitecross
PROJECT TEAM
ProjectManager DatabaseManager ProductionEditor
KatyMcAdam EdmundWright NickyThompson
Design ProductionDirectors Dictionaries'Publisher PublishingDirectors
DouglasWilliamson PennyEdwards FayeCarney KathyRooney
Nigel Partridge TimWakeford SueBale
ProjectCoordinators DatabaseAdministrators CorpusDevelopment
JoelAdams PeterHosking GloriaGeorge
Melanie Hewitt JamesOrpin Ian M. Spackman
SusannahJenkins MelanieTate
OTHER CONTRIBUTORS
Editorial,Keyboarding,and Illustrations
AdministrativeAssistance IanFoulisandAssociates
SimonArnold PeterHarper
DanielCosserat StuartLafford
ChrisGlenny Alan Male
Rebecca McKee PeterRichardson
Lisa Milford MartinShovel
JaniceMuckle IllustratedArts
HelenSzirtes Oxford Illustrators
DarrenTreend
Editor-in-Chief
Michael Rundell
Associate Editor
Gwyneth Fox
ADVISORY PANEL
ChiefAdviser
Professor Michael Hoey
Baines Professorof English Languageand DirectoroftheApplied
English LanguageStudiesUnit, UniversityofLiverpool, U.K.
Dr.AnthonyBruton SusanMaingay SusanStempleski
SeniorLecturerin ELT AmyChiMan-lai CoordinatorofFaculty
Methodology, English Language Instructor, LanguageCentre, Hong Development, HunterCollege
SDpeapianrtment, Seville University, TKeocnhgnoUlnoigvye,rsHitoyngofKSocnigenceand IInnstteirtnuattei,onCailtyEnUgnliivsehrsiLtayngofuaNgeew
ProfessorChenLin Dr. DonR.McCreary York, U.S.A.
ProfessorofEnglish, Foreign Adrian Underhill
Associate Professor, Departmentof
LanguagesUniversity, Beijing, China ELTconsultant,trainer,author
English, UniversityofGeorgia,
ProfessorKevinMark Athens, Georgia, U.S.A. OrielEVillagarcia
Professor, SchoolofPoliticsand Dr. HilaryNesi FreelanceTeacherTrainer,Argentina
Economics, Meiji University,Japan SeniorLecturer, CentreforEnglish SaraWalker
JaneMagee LanguageTeacherEducation, CoordinatoroftheEnglish Program,
CourseDirector, English UniversityofWarwick, U.K. Brazilian DiplomaticAcademy,
LanguageTeaching, Universityof PhilipProwse MinistryofForeign Relations,
St.Andrews, U.K. ELTauthorandtrainer Brasilia DF, Brazil
CONSULTANTS
Dr.JoannaChannell ChristopherGallagher Dr.IngridMeyer
ProfessorMalcolmCoulthard InternationalChristian University, AssociateProfessor, Schoolof
Tokyo,Japan Translationand Interpretation,
ProfessorofEnglish Languageand
Linguistics, Dr.AdamKilgarriff UniversityofOttawa, Ontario,
Canada
UniversityofBirmingham, U.K. InformationTechnologyResearch
AverilCoxhead Institute, UniversityofBrighton, U.K. Dr.RosamundMoon
LanguageTutor,Victoria University Dr.AnneMcCabe Lecturerin English, Universityof
ofWellington, NewZealand SaintLouis University, Madrid Birmingham, U.K.
Campus, Spain
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Argentina Germany Mexico Sweden
Cristina Banfi Claudia Finkbeiner CarlosOscarMelendez Stieg Hargevik
Brazil Hungary JoAnn Miller, Eric Pearse Taiwan
CarmenSantamarfa
MisaCankova FerencCsendes JeromeSu
Virginia LoCastro PeterRadai Poland UnitedKingdom
Vera Muller Italy Maria Birkenmajer David Briggs,JayneHamilton
CristinaSiqueira Jan Borsbey PiotrSteinbrich DaveHarries,VaughanJones
Croatia RuthSwan Russia SueKay, Diana Mackintosh
Hrvoja Heffer Japan Marina Bovtenko HowardMiddle,JohnSutherland
LovorkaZergollem-Miletic AkihikoKawamura Natalina Emelianova H.A. Swan
Egypt Yuri Komuro TGaalmiaarKaoNmaazraorvoava UnitedStates
Yehya El-Azabi Korea IrinaSeibel MRaorbielrytnBR.yCmonsitaelklo
Georgia KimJeong Ryeol
Singapore
RusikoTkemaladze
VincentOoi,AnnePakir
FOREWORD
ProfessorMichaelHoey
ChiefAdviser
WHEN
IWASABOUT12,1decidedto lookconventionalupinthisdictionary,youwill
writemyowndictionary.Ifounda findthatthefirstexampletellsusthata
loose-leafbinderandpatientlywrote conventionalovenisanoventhatoperatesinthe
dictionaryentriesonobscurewords,whichI traditionalwayasopposedtoamicrowaveoven,
storedinthebinder.Mydictionarynever whichdoesnotuseanexternalheatsource.
becameverylargeandafterawhileIturnedto Noticethattheinformationisactually
makingafootballscrapbooklikemostother containedintheexample,notinthedefinition.
childrenofmyage,butforafewmonthsIput Examplesaredrawnoradaptedfromrealusage
someeffortinmyattempttooutdotheOxford buttheyarecarefullychosentogiveextra
English.YoumightimaginefromthisthatIwas informationaboutthewayawordisused.That
showingaprecociousinterestindictionary- waythedictionarycanpackinmore
makingandanearlyaptitudeforlexicography. informationaboutthecommonerwords.
Perhapsitwasindeedanearlysignofmy
Sometimesawordcombineswithanother
interestinlanguage,butitcertainlydidnot
revealanyearlyaptitude.Indeedalmostevery wordtomakeaphrasethathasadistinct
strategyIadoptedforthecreationofthat meaningofitsown.Soconventional,for
dictionarywasthewrongoneforthejob. example,combineswithmedicineandwarto
createnewandquitespecificmeanings:
Inthefirstplace,Istartedwiththemost conventionalmedicineisscience-basedWestern
obscurewords;earlyentriesIremember medicineasopposedtoChinesemedicineorso-
writingwereforwiddershins,gyre,andperne. calledalternativemedicines,andconventional
WhatIdidnotrealizewasthatitisoften warmakesnouseofnuclearweaponsor
possibletoguessthemeaningofrarewords biologicalweapons(norinterestingly,Isuspect,
fromtheircontextandthattheyhaveinany swordsandbowsandarrows).Whenaword
caselittleimpactontheoverallintelligibilityof occursinsuchphrases,theyareeither
whatoneisreading(andtheywillalmost indicatedinthedictionaryentryortheyhave
alwaysoccurinwriting).Itis,oddly,morelikely entriestothemselves.
tobethecommonwordsthatcausethegreater
problemsandoverwhichagooddictionaryhas Wordslikeconventionalareagreatdealmore
totakespecialcare.Thereasonisthatcommon usefultotheadvancedlearnerofEnglishthan
wordsareoftenaffectedbythesituationin wordslikewiddershins,notleastbecauseif
whichtheyareused,andtheyshiftinmeaning theyareusedtheywillbeimmediately
insubtleandunpredictablewaysdependingon understood.Theyarehoweveragreatdealmore
thewordstheyaccompany.Theyarethewords difficulttolearn(andtheyareagreatdealmore
thatyouneedtolookupwhentheydonotseem difficulttodefine).Becauseofthemultiplicity
tohavetheirnormalmeaning. ofusesthatmanycommonwordshave,the
MacmillanEnglishDictionaryprovidessimple
Takeawordlikeconventional,forexample.If indexes,or"menus,"tothelongerentries,
youknewthewordconventionalinitssocial whichwillhelpyoutogetmorequicklytothe
senseof "usual,""normal,"or"customary,"and senseofthewordyouneed;indexeslikethese
yousaworheardthewordsconventionalovenin areaninnovationindictionarymakingandwe
connectionwitharecipe,youwouldhavea believethattheywillmakeusingthedictionary
roughideaofwhatismeantbutyouwouldbe agreatdealeasier.
likelytosuspectthatthewriterorspeaker
meantsomethingmoreprecisethan"ausual ItwillbeapparentfromeverythingthatIhave
oven."Youmightthereforewanttolookthe saidthattheMacmillanEnglishDictionaryisa
wordupinordertofindouthowitisbeingused richresourceofinformationaboutwordssuch
inthiscontext.Thedictionaryyouarelooking asconventional.Itwillhelpyoufindtheright
at(unlikemychildhoodeffort)hastakengreat wordforyourpurposeandshouldreducethe
careoverthedefinition(ormoreaccurately,the numberofoccasionswhenyouaccidentallyuse
definitions)ofwordslikeconventional.Ifyou thewrongexpression.But,justbecauseithasa