McGraw-Hill's super-mini American slang dictionary

256 Pages·2007·1.8 MB·English

by  Richard A Spears

McGraw-Hill’s
Super-Mini
Phrasal Verb
Dictionary
Second Edition
Richard A. Spears, Ph.D.
New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City
Milan New Delhi San Juan Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto
Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Manufactured in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United
States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distrib-
uted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the
prior written permission of the publisher.
0-07-159494-9
The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: 0-07-149229-1.
All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark
symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fash-
ion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of
the trademark. Where such designations appear in this book, they have been printed with
initial caps.
McGraw-Hill eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and
sales promotions, or for use in corporate training programs. For more information, please
contact George Hoare, Special Sales, at [email protected] or (212)
904-4069.
TERMS OF USE
This is a copyrighted work and The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (“McGraw-Hill”)
and its licensors reserve all rights in and to the work. Use of this work is subject to these
terms. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976 and the right to store and
retrieve one copy of the work, you may not decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer,
reproduce, modify, create derivative works based upon, transmit, distribute, disseminate,
sell, publish or sublicense the work or any part of it without McGraw-Hill’s prior con-
sent. You may use the work for your own noncommercial and personal use; any other
use of the work is strictly prohibited. Your right to use the work may be terminated if you
fail to comply with these terms.
THE WORK IS PROVIDED “AS IS.” McGRAW-HILL AND ITS LICENSORS
MAKE NO GUARANTEES OR WARRANTIES AS TO THE ACCURACY, ADE-
QUACY OR COMPLETENESS OF OR RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED FROM
USING THE WORK, INCLUDING ANY INFORMATION THAT CAN BE
ACCESSED THROUGH THE WORK VIA HYPERLINK OR OTHERWISE, AND
EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MER-
CHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. McGraw-Hill
and its licensors do not warrant or guarantee that the functions contained in the work will
meet your requirements or that its operation will be uninterrupted or error free. Neither
McGraw-Hill nor its licensors shall be liable to you or anyone else for any inaccuracy,
error or omission, regardless of cause, in the work or for any damages resulting there-
from. McGraw-Hill has no responsibility for the content of any information accessed
through the work. Under no circumstances shall McGraw-Hill and/or its licensors be
liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, consequential or similar damages that
result from the use of or inability to use the work, even if any of them has been advised
of the possibility of such damages. This limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or
cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract, tort or otherwise.
DOI: 10.1036/0071492291
For more information about this title, click here
Contents
Introduction v
How to Use This Dictionary vii
Phrasal Verb Dictionary 1
iii
This page intentionally left blank
Introduction
Phrasal verbs, also called two-word verbs, are idiomatic
expressions wherein the second element ofthe verb (the
adverb or particle) is not necessarily predictable. For
instance, why the word upincall up a friend? Why not
say call on a friendor call in a friend? Actually, those are
three separate, unpredictable combinations, and they each
mean something completely different. For example, you
can call up a friendon the telephone, call on a friendto
visit a friend’s home, and call in a friendto come help you
with something.
This dictionary is a compilation of1,800 phrasal verbs
consisting ofeither a transitive or intransitive verb and its
particle or adverb. In many cases, additional prepositional
phrases are shown as part ofthe entry, but the dictionary
focuses on phrasal or two-word verbs. This second edi-
tion of the basic phrasal verb collection is based on
McGraw-Hill’s Dictionary ofAmerican Idioms and Phrasal
Verbs. The format of the dictionary is designed to pro-
vide the information needed by learners who are attempt-
ing to read and write conventional American English.
v
Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Click here for terms of use.
This page intentionally left blank
How to Use This Dictionary
ALPHABETIZATION
In this dictionary, phrasal verbs (or two-word verbs) and
their related prepositional verbs are alphabetized on the
verb. The variable terms (such as someoneor something)
are also alphabetized.
THE TRANSPOSABLE ADVERB
Adverbs in most transitive phrasal verbs can swap places
with the direct object ofthe verb. This cannot be done if
the object ofthe verb is a pronoun.Although the result
may, in some instances, look like a prepositional phrase,
it is not. In the following example containing “down the
door,” the word “down” is an adverb that stands between
the verb and its direct object.
She broke downthe door with an axe.
She broke the door downwith an axe.
Please hammer the nail in.
Please hammer inthe nail.
But you cannot say:
*She broke down it.
*Please hammer in it.
vii
Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Click here for terms of use.
How to Use This Dictionary
The entry head break something down†contains a
dagger (†) that indicates that the “down” can be trans-
posed to a position just after the verb. Any word marked
with the dagger can be transposed to a position immedi-
ately following the verb except when the object ofthe verb
is a pronoun. Only the adverbs followed by † can be
swapped in this manner.
VARIABLE TERMS
Entries may include variable classes ofwords. The vari-
able classes can be very broad, such as someone, which
refers to any person, or something, which refers to any thing,
object, or group. Many entries are very particular as to
whether they include either someoneor something. Others
can refer to people or things, someone or somethingwithout
distinction. In this dictionary, these words can be thought
ofas proxies for the members ofthe classes ofwords they
describe. The following examples show the kinds ofthings
that someoneand somethingcan stand for.
associate with new friends (someone)
associate with them (someone)
associate with a bunch ofdifferent people (someone)
associate with the Smiths (someone)
play the radioat full blast (something)
play my new recordat full blast (something)
play his huge stereoat full blast (something)
play all the audio stuffin the whole dormat full blast
(something)
The variable classes are represented in these examples
by someoneor somethingas in associate with someoneor
play somethingat full blast. There are additional proxy
terms ofthis kind. All ofthem are descriptive ofthe kind
viii
How to Use This Dictionary
ofwords or phrases they can stand for. Here are some of
the terms you might encounter.
a period oftime “about an hour”
doing something “eating bread and butter”
some amount ofmoney “about three bucks”
somehow “without much effort”
someone “Fred”
some place “the kitchen”
something “a toaster”
sometime “at noon”
someone or somethingwhich can be either someone
or something.
EXAMPLES
Each sense has at least one example. In the case of the
transitive verbs, the position ofthe adverb or particle may
be either transposed or in the same position as it is found
in the entry head. Learners should study the entry head,
definition, and example and grasp the common elements
ofmeaning that these three parts ofthe entry share. These
elements are designed to share the same elements of
meaning and syntax.
ix
This page intentionally left blank