Oxford Thesaurus - An A-Z Dictionary Of Synonyms
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(short): The film was clipped by fifteen minutes for |
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television. In her rapid-fire way of speaking, she clipped each |
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word. 3 strike, hit, punch, smack, box, cuff, whack, Colloq |
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wallop, clout; Slang sock: He was clipped on the jaw and |
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knocked out. 4 cheat, swindle, bilk, overcharge, Slang rook: |
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They clipped him out of a week's wages. She was clipped for a |
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ten per cent 'service fee'. |
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--n. 5 segment, interval, section, part, portion, extract, |
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cutting, excerpt, cutting, bit, snippet, scrap, fragment: We |
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were shown a film clip of the cheese-making process. 6 blow, |
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cuff, punch, hit, strike, smack, whack, box, Colloq wallop, |
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clout; Slang sock: She gave him a clip at the side of the head |
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and he went down. 7 pace, rate, speed: I was riding along at a |
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good clip when my horse shied and I was thrown off. |
clique |
n. set, coterie, crowd, circle, group: There was the usual |
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clique from the Sales Department standing round the bar. |
cloak |
n. 1 mantle, cape, robe, wrap, poncho; coat, overcoat: She |
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pulled her cloak around her in the chill night air. 2 mantle, |
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concealment, cover, screen, shroud, veil: He stole away under |
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the cloak of darkness. |
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--v. 3 conceal, hide, mask, screen, veil, shroud, cover up; |
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disguise: All of the spies' activities were cloaked in secrecy. |
clod |
n. 1 lump, mass, gob, wad, hunk, chunk; piece of sod or turf; |
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Colloq glob: A clod of earth was stuck between the spikes of my |
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golf shoes. 2 idiot, fool, dolt, blockhead, simpleton, dunce, |
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dope, oaf, Neanderthal, lout, ass, boor, clown, ninny, |
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ninny-hammer, bumpkin, clodhopper, Slang vegetable, US and |
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Canadian jerk: He felt a bit of a clod standing there with no |
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idea which way to go. |
clog |
v. hamper, encumber, impede; obstruct, choke (up), block, |
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congest, jam: The road was clogged with returning |
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holiday-makers. A piece of orange peel had clogged the sink |
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drain. |
close |
v. 1 shut, close up, seal; close off, lock, padlock, secure, |
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fasten: I closed my eyes. Please close the door behind you. 2 |
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make inaccessible, shut, Chiefly US place off limits: The |
Bodleian Library will be closed for a week. 3 conclude, end, finish, complete, bring to a close or end, terminate, climax, Colloq wind up: A brilliant flourish closes the first movement of the symphony. 4 conclude, sign, seal, make, settle, clinch, agree, arrange, work out, establish: Union and management closed a deal, and the strike was called off. 5 Also, close down. discontinue, terminate, stop, suspend, shut down, go out of business, cease operations, close (up), Colloq wind up, shut
up shop, put up the shutters: Competition from the supermarket forced the greengrocer to close down. 6 Also, close off. seal, make inaccessible, shut (off), obstruct, obturate: This wing of the museum has been closed off temporarily. 7 close one's eyes to. ignore, overlook, disregard: You have always closed your eyes to his faults. 8 close up. a close, shut (up), lock up,
close (down): It's time to close up for the night. b close,
come or draw or bring together, unite, join; connect: We closed up ranks and stood at attention.
--adj. 9 near; adjacent, proximate, proximal: He claims to have had a close encounter with an extraterrestrial. There
certainly is a close resemblance between Kathy and her daughter. 10 closed, shut (up), fixed, fast, secure, tight: The hostages spent a month in close confinement. 11 dense, compact, tight, cramped, compressed, tiny, minuscule, minute: I could hardly read the close writing on the matchbox. 12 stuffy, musty,
stale, fusty, confining, oppressive, airless, unventilated, confined, stifling, suffocating: They locked me in a room that was so close I could hardly breathe. 13 nearly equal or even, close-matched, neck and neck, tight: It was a close race, but Flanagan won by a hair. 14 careful, assiduous, precise, detailed, concentrated, strict, rigorous, minute, searching, attentive, alert, intent, intense, thorough, painstaking: Close analysis has revealed that the handwriting is that of a left-handed adult. 15 attached, intimate, devoted, familiar, inseparable, close-knit, solid, confidential; fast; Colloq
thick, thick as thieves, pally, US and Canadian palsy-walsy, buddy-buddy: They are a very close family. She and her father are very close. 16 private, privy, secret, guarded, closely guarded, confidential: Although it should have been a close secret, the press managed to get hold of it. 17 secretive, reticent, taciturn, reserved, close-mouthed, tight-lipped,
silent: She is very close about the whereabouts of her husband. 18 stingy, mean, miserly, niggardly, tight-fisted, close-fisted,
parsimonious, penurious, penny-pinching, cheese-paring, Scrooge-like, skinflinty, Colloq near, Brit mingy: He's so close he charges his own mother rent. 19 secluded, concealed, shut up or away, hidden: The fugitives decided to lie close till nightfall.
--adv. 20 near, in the neighbourhood (of), not far (from), adjacent (to); alongside; at hand, nearby, close by: The murder took place close to my house. I'm frightened, so please stay close by. 21 close to or on or onto. nearly, almost, about, practically, approximately, nigh unto, approaching: For close to two thousand years the site lay untouched.
--n. 22 end, termination, conclusion, finish, completion, cessation; culmination: By the close of trading, share prices had risen again.
cloth n. 1 fabric, material, textile, Chiefly Brit stuff: The curtains are made of cloth, not plastic. 2 the cloth. the clergy, the (religious) ministry, the priesthood: He is a man of the cloth.
clothe v. 1 dress, attire, garb, apparel, outfit, fit out or up, accoutre or US also accouter, Brit kit out or up, Colloq tog up or out: He earns barely enough to clothe and feed his family. 2 endow, invest, caparison, endue: They tried to clothe their transactions with the raiment of honesty.
clothes n.pl. clothing, apparel, attire, wear, dress, garments, raiment, wardrobe, outfit, ensemble, vestment(s), Old-fashioned duds, Colloq togs, gear, get-up Slang glad rags, Brit clobber; Slang US (set of) threads: Put on some old clothes and make yourself comfortable.
clown n. 1 jester, fool, zany, comic, comedian, funny man: Of all the performers at the circus, I like the clowns best. 2
buffoon, boor, rustic, yahoo, oaf, lout, clod, dolt, bumpkin, clodhopper, provincial, peasant, yokel, Colloq lummox; Slang chiefly US jerk; Old-fashioned galoot or galloot; Slang chiefly US and Canadian hick: That's the kind of language we expect to hear only from the most ignorant clowns.
--v. 3 Often, clown around or about. fool (around), play the
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fool, horse around or about, caper, cut a caper or capers, |
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engage in high jinks or hijinks, US cut up, cut didos: Stop |
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clowning around with that hose and help water the garden. |
club |
n. 1 cudgel, bat, bludgeon, mace, billy, truncheon, baton, |
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staff, stick; cosh, Chiefly US and Canadian blackjack: The blow |
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from the club required six stitches. 2 association, society, |
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organization, fraternity, sorority, fellowship, brotherhood, |
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sisterhood, federation, union, guild, lodge, alliance, league, |
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order, consortium, company: Our sailing club holds an annual |
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race. 3 clubhouse: The society's club is near Pall Mall. 4 |
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nightclub, cabaret, Colloq nightspot: After the theatre, we |
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stopped at Oscar's club for a nightcap. |
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--v. 5 beat, cudgel, bludgeon, bat, belabour or US belabor; |
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lambaste, baste, thrash, trounce: The guerrillas caught the |
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traitor and clubbed him to death. 6 Often, club together. band |
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or join or league (together), team (up), join forces, combine, |
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ally, associate, confederate, cooperate: We clubbed together to |
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purchase the antique clock. |
clue |
n. 1 hint, suspicion, trace, intimation, suggestion, inkling, |
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indication, pointer, lead, tip, tip-off, evidence, information, |
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advice; key, answer, indicator: There is no clue pointing to |
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anyone in particular. Any clue to the solution of the mystery |
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disappeared in the fire. |
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--v. 2 clue someone in or Brit also up. hint, suggest, imply, |
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intimate, inform, advise, indicate: She clued us in as to who |
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might have sent the letter. |
clump n. 1 lump, mass, clod, chunk, hunk, wad, gob, Colloq glob: As the soup cooled, clumps of fat formed on its surface. 2 bunch, cluster; thicket, copse; wood, Chiefly Brit spinney: The deer disappeared into a clump of trees. That clump will provide good cover for us.
--v. 3 lump, mass, heap, collect, gather, bunch, pile: She wore her hair clumped on top her head.
clumsy adj. awkward, ungainly, unwieldy, ungraceful, gawky, maladroit, unhandy, unskilful, inept, bungling, bumbling, cloddish,
ox-like, bovine, uncoordinated, lubberly, oafish; gauche, Colloq
butter-fingered, ham-fisted, ham-handed, cack-handed: He made a clumsy attempt to put the key in the lock. She gave a clumsy excuse for being in the bank after hours.
cluster n. 1 collection, bunch, clutch, tuft, bundle: Notice that cluster of flowers near the top of the plant. 2 collection, bunch, group, knot, body, band, company, gathering, crowd, assembly, congregation, throng, flock, assemblage, swarm: A cluster of well-wishers stood talking with the minister.
--v. 3 collect, bunch, group, band, gather, crowd, congregate, throng, assemble, accumulate, mass, aggregate: A number of people clustered round the new sculpture. Why do these flowers cluster at this tree?
clutch v. 1 seize, snatch, grab, grasp, take or lay hold of; hold; US snag: She clutched feebly to the rope before losing her grip and plunging into the abyss below. He clutched the child to his bosom.
--n. 2 clutches. a grasp at, hold; embrace: We watched as the gazelle deftly eluded the cheetah's clutches. b influence, control, power, domination, dominance, possession: He fell into the clutches of the Triads.
clutter n. 1 mess, litter, jumble; mishmash, olla podrida, confusion, hash, gallimaufry, hotchpotch or US also hodgepodge, muddle, farrago, medley: I must insist that you clear up the clutter in your room at once. That philosophy is a clutter of competing ideas. 2 confusion, tangle, chaos, disarray: The town was a clutter of narrow, crooked, dark, and dirty lanes.
--v. 3 Often, clutter up. mess up, litter, strew, make a shambles of: Please don't clutter up my desk with newspaper cuttings.
3.6 coach...
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coach n. 1 carriage, bus, omnibus, motor coach: The sightseeing coach broke down near Exeter. 2 tutor, trainer, instructor, teacher, mentor, Brit crammer: Her voice coach says she's not
yet ready for grand opera.
--v. 3 tutor, train, instruct, guide, direct, drill, prepare,
prompt, school, exercise, Brit cram: Her lawyers have coached her in what to say in court.
coagulate v. congeal, gel, jell, clot, curdle, set: The white of the egg had coagulated, but the yolk was still runny.
coarse adj. 1 rough, uneven, scratchy, prickly, bristly; crude,
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rough-hewn, unfinished, unrefined: He has a three-day coarse |
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growth of beard. The surface on the furniture is still too |
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coarse. 2 rude, boorish, loutish, crude, ill-mannered, |
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unpolished, rough, uncouth, impolite, uncivil, unrefined: |
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Nigel's behaviour is coarse, and he spits when he talks. 3 |
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rude, indecent, improper, indelicate, obscene, lewd, vulgar, |
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gross, smutty, dirty, filthy, foul, offensive, lascivious, |
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ribald, bawdy; foul-mouthed: Don't use that kind of coarse |
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language with me. 4 inferior, low-quality, second-rate, shoddy, |
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tawdry, trashy; kitschy: That shop stocks only the coarsest |
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merchandise. |
coast |
n. 1 seaside, seashore, shore, sea-coast, strand, beach, |
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littoral, coastline, seaboard: Be careful of rocks if you sail |
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near the coast. |
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--v. 2 glide, skim, slide, sail: The children coasted down the |
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hill on the toboggan. |
coat |
n. 1 overcoat, greatcoat; jacket, anorak, parka, Brit cagoule, |
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Colloq Brit cag: Put on your coat, it's cold out. 2 coating, |
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layer, covering, overlay; film: Two coats of paint ought to be |
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enough. There was a coat of dust on everything. |
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--v. 3 cover, paint, spread: We coated the floor with three |
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layers of varnish. |
coax |
v. persuade, urge, wheedle, cajole, beguile, charm, inveigle, |
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jolly, manipulate: She coaxed me into spending a weekend with |
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her at Blackpool. |
cocky |
adj. overconfident, arrogant, haughty, conceited, |
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self-important, egotistical, proud, vain, prideful, cocksure, |
saucy, cheeky, brash: Since she won the beauty contest, Claire has been entirely too cocky.
coddle |
v. pamper, baby, cosset, mollycoddle, indulge, humour, spoil, |
Brit cocker: Give him a cold bath and don't coddle him so much. |
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code |
n. 1 law(s), regulation(s), rule(s), jurisprudence, jus |
canonicum 'canon law', jus civile 'civil law', jus divinum 'divine law', jus gentium 'universal law', jus naturale 'natural law', corpus juris, pandect, lex non scripta 'common law, unwritten law', lex scripta 'statute law': In the present code there is no statute that forbids keeping a pet gnu. 2 cipher or
cypher, cryptogram: Our agents send all their messages in code. 3 system, practice(s), convention(s), standard(s), criterion (criteria), principle(s), rule(s), maxim(s), custom(s),
pattern(s), structure, tradition(s), organization, protocol, orthodoxy: Our code of behaviour is completely foreign to the islanders.
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--v. 4 encode, encipher or encypher, encrypt: It took an hour |
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to code the information. |
coffin |
n. casket, pall, (pine) box; sarcophagus: The coffin was |
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slowly lowered into the grave. |
cog |
n. 1 tooth, gear-tooth, sprocket, ratchet: Stripping the gears |
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means breaking the cogs off them. 2 underling, pawn, |
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subordinate, nonentity, zero, cipher or cypher, nothing, nobody, |
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small fry: He's only a small cog in the organization - we're |
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after the big wheel himself. |
cognizance
n. knowledge, awareness, knowledge, perception, notice, consciousness, mindfulness: They ran the gambling den with the full cognizance of the police.
coherent adj. 1 consistent, orderly, organized, well-organized, logical, rational, reasonable, well-ordered: The MP set forth a coherent argument against an excise tax. 2 understandable, sensible, comprehensible, intelligible, articulate, lucid, clear: He was
so frightened and hysterical that he was unable to tell a coherent story.
cohort n. 1 troop, squad, squadron, platoon, brigade, unit, cadre,
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wing, legion, detachment, contingent: Ten select Roman cohorts |
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were sent against the Mitanni. 2 company, band, group, faction, |
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set, body, corps: She was a member of a small cohort of |
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suffragettes. 3 companion, confederate, accomplice, associate, |
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fellow, comrade, friend, confrŠre: Gerald then arrived with a |
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few of his cohorts. |
coil |
v. 1 wind, twist, coil, snake, wrap, enwrap, spiral, Nautical |
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fake or flake (down): The rope is coiled round a capstan. |
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--n. 2 winding(s), circle(s), loop, whorl, spiral, helix, |
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twist: His foot caught in the coil of rope and he was carried |
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overboard. |
coin |
n. 1 specie, money, currency; change, cash, silver: I have |
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only a few coins in my pocket. As he had no notes he had to pay |
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in coin. |
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--v. 2 mint, stamp: The US government has stopped coining |
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silver dollars. 3 invent, create, conceive, originate, start, |
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make up, fabricate, frame, concoct, think or dream up: James |
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Joyce coined the word 'quark'. 4 coin it in or US only coin |
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money. earn or make money, become wealthy, enrich oneself, |
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Colloq rake it in: Those rock stars really coin it in from |
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their record sales. |
coincide v. fall or come or go together, line up, co-occur, correspond, synchronize, match, tally, agree, (be in) accord, equal, jibe: This year, Easter and Passover coincide. The southern boundary coincides with the Thames.
coincidence
n. 1 co-occurrence, simultaneity, correspondence, concurrence, consistency, contemporaneity, synchronism, synchrony, coextension, coevality, coinstantaneity: The coincidence of twelve by the clock with noon by the sundial is exact only four times in the year. 2 congruence, matching, jibing, agreement, concord, accord, harmony, accordance, conformity, congruity, consonance, concomitance: Fortunately there was a coincidence of views on the main issues. 3 chance occurrence, fluke, chance, accident, luck, fortuity, fortuitousness, US and
Canadian happenstance: By sheer coincidence, I met my next-door
neighbour on the train from Glasgow.
coincidental
adj. chance, lucky or unlucky, fortuitous, accidental, unexpected, unpredicted, unpredictable, unforeseen: It was entirely coincidental that we were on the same train.
cold |
adj. 1 chill, chilly, frosty, icy, keen, nippy, freezing, |
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frigid, ice-cold, stone-cold, bitter, bitter-cold, raw, biting, |
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biting-cold, numbing, gelid; wintry, hibernal, brumal; arctic, |
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glacial, polar, hyperborean or hyperboreal, Siberian: It was so |
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cold that the canal had completely frozen over. 2 chilly, |
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chilled; unheated, heatless: The room is cold; we'd better put |
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the heating on. 3 indifferent, apathetic, chilly, chilling, |
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cool, icy, dispassionate, unsympathetic, aloof, unresponsive, |
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spiritless, frigid, unfriendly, uncordial, lukewarm, frigid; |
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cold-blooded, insensitive, uncaring, unemotional, |
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undemonstrative, reserved, unmoved, spiritless, callous, remote, |
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distant, standoffish, unapproachable, stony-hearted, |
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emotionless, unfeeling, cold-hearted: My ideas received rather |
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a cold reception. Because she had offended him, he was quite |
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cold to her. 4 depressing, cheerless, chilling, gloomy, |
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dispiriting, deadening, disheartening, bleak, dismal, |
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discouraging: The sweat stood out on his brow in cold |
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apprehension. 5 unmoving, stale, trite, stereotyped; dead: The |
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coldest word was once a glowing new metaphor. 6 weak, faint, |
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stale, old, dead: The trail of the tiger had grown cold. 7 |
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unprepared, unready: She hadn't studied and went into the exam |
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cold. 8 Often, getting cold. far, distant, remote, off the |
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track: As I searched for the weapon, I felt I was getting cold |
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the further I went from the kitchen. |
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--n. 9 coldness, frigidity, iciness: Last winter, the cold |
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killed off many of our shrubs. 10 head or chest or common cold, |
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influenza, ague, (la or the) grippe, Technical coryza, gravedo, |
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Colloq sniffles, the flu, bug, sneezles and wheezles: I caught |
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a cold waiting for you in the rain. |
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--adv. 11 completely, thoroughly, entirely, absolutely, |
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unhesitatingly, promptly, immediately, unreservedly, abruptly: |
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His application to join the police was turned down cold. |
cold-blooded
adj. 1 Technical poikilothermic or poikilothermal: Reptiles are cold-blooded. 2 unexcited, unemotional, cool, unimpassioned, unfeeling, callous, thick-skinned, insensitive, heartless, uncaring, stony, steely, stony-hearted, cold-hearted, imperturbable, unmoved, indifferent, unresponsive,
unsympathetic, apathetic, dispassionate: The murder appeared to be the act of a cold-blooded killer. 3 cruel, brutal, savage, inhuman, barbarous, vicious, barbaric, merciless, pitiless, ruthless: They were victims of a cold-blooded policy of repatriation.
cold-hearted
adj. insensitive, unsympathetic, apathetic, indifferent, unfeeling, uncaring, callous, thick-skinned, cold, cool, frigid, hard-hearted, heartless, unkind, thoughtless, unthoughtful, uncharitable, ruthless, pitiless, unmerciful, cruel, merciless, mean: Putting that kitten out on a snowy night is the most cold-hearted thing you ever did.
collaborate
v. cooperate, join (forces), work together, team up: We collaborated in writing both the lyrics and music.
collapse v. 1 fall (down or in or apart), crumple, cave in, deflate, crumble, tumble down, break down, go: When he opened the valve, the balloon collapsed. Hundreds of buildings collapsed in the earthquake. 2 fail, (come to an) end, fall through, peter out, disintegrate, dissolve, fall flat, founder, come to naught or
nought, break up or down; decline, diminish; disappear, evaporate, go up in smoke, go bankrupt, go under, Brit go to the wall, Colloq fizzle out: After the imprisonment of their
leader, the entire movement collapsed. Owing to the recession, many businesses collapsed. 3 pass out, faint, drop, Colloq keel over; Old-fashioned or literary swoon: He collapsed on-stage and they took him to his dressing-room. 4 break down (mentally), have a (nervous) breakdown, go to pieces, come or fall apart , Colloq crack up, US also crack: She finally collapsed from overwork and is now in a sanatorium.
--n. 5 cave-in, breakdown: The collapse of the house was attributed to termites. 6 failure, downfall, ruin;
disappearance, disintegration, dissolution, bankruptcy: Will he be able to survive the collapse of his financial empire? 7