Oxford Thesaurus - An A-Z Dictionary Of Synonyms

flock, pack: A huge crowd descended on the village square. 2 company, set, circle, lot, bunch, group, coterie, clique,

claque, faction: She doesn't associate with our crowd any longer.

--v. 3 throng, swarm, herd, pour, pile, press, cluster, gather, get together, flood, flock, assemble, congregate: People crowded into the stadium. 4 push, press, drive, shove, thrust, force, load, pack, cram, jam, corral: The police crowded the hooligans into vans. 5 compress, squeeze, pack, jam, cram,

collect; stuff: We were so crowded in the cabin we could hardly breathe.

crown n. 1 coronet, diadem, wreath, fillet, circlet, tiara: The princess wore a golden crown set with jewels. 2 sovereignty, rule, dominion, authority, government, realm, rulership, jurisdiction: They discovered many lands and annexed them to the Crown. 3 monarch, ruler, sovereign, potentate; king, queen, emperor, empress, His or Her Majesty, His or Her Highness: The Crown has very little real power these days.

--v. 4 enthrone, Colloq US coronate: He was crowned on the death of his father. 5 cap, top, surmount, culminate, climax, consummate, fulfil, reward: All her years of practising the violin were finally crowned with success.

crucial adj. critical, decisive, pivotal, vital, momentous, major, important, essential: It is crucial that you press the right button.

crude adj. 1 unrefined, raw, natural, original, unprocessed: Those are the prices of crude oil, not the petrol used in cars. 2 rough, unpolished, rudimentary, immature, undeveloped, primitive, unrefined, unfinished: At this stage, she has only a crude idea of the design. 3 rough, coarse, rude, unrefined, uncouth, crass, gross, rustic, uncivil: Don't you despise his crude manners? 4 blunt, brusque, unsophisticated, inconsiderate, tasteless, indelicate, offensive, improper,

vulgar: How crude of him to ask her how long since her husband

had 'croaked'!

cruel adj. 1 merciless, pitiless, hard-hearted, harsh, stony-hearted, heartless, unsparing, callous, beastly, cold-blooded, ruthless, unkind, hard: It was cruel of you to refuse to help. 2 ferocious, inhuman, barbaric, barbarous, brutal, savage, bloodthirsty, vicious, sadistic, fiendish, diabolical, hellish,

atrocious, Neronian or Neronic or Neroic: His captors subjected him to the cruellest tortures.

cruise v. 1 sail, coast, travel, journey, voyage; yacht: We cruise in the Caribbean during the winter.

--n. 2 sail, voyage, journey, boat or yachting trip: I took a three-day cruise around the Isle of Wight.

--n. 2 moment of truth, decision time, crisis, critical moment, showdown, crux, juncture: You can count on me when it comes to the crunch.

crusade n. 1 campaign, expedition, holy war; jihad or jehad: He joined the crusade against the Saracens.

--v. 2 campaign, war, battle; take up a cause, lobby, fight: She is crusading for equal rights for women.

crush n. 1 break, smash, crunch, pulverize, shiver, splinter, pound, grind: The vandals crushed the statue to bits with hammers. 2 crumple, wrinkle, crease, crinkle, rumple, mangle: The shirts

culprit n. 1 accused, prisoner: How does the culprit plead? 2 offender, criminal, malefactor, wrongdoer: They caught the culprit red-handed.

cultivate v. 1 till, plough, farm, work: These lands have been cultivated since time immemorial. 2 grow, raise, tend, produce: What crops can be cultivated in this climate? 3 develop, promote, further, encourage, foster, advance: She's been cultivating a friendship with her boss. 4 woo, make advances to, ingratiate oneself with, court, pay court to, curry favour with, Colloq work on, Slang suck up to, butter up, US shine up to; Taboo slang brown-nose: He is cultivating Trevor only because he wants something from him.

cultivated

adj. sophisticated, cultured, educated, refined, elegant, soign‚(e), civilized, polished, aristocratic, urbane, suave, cosmopolitan: She prefers to go out with cultivated older men.

culture n. 1 cultivation, refinement, sophistication, urbanity,

curiosity n. 1 inquisitiveness, interest: His insatiable curiosity next led him to study astronomy. 2 snooping, prying, peeping, intrusiveness, meddlesomeness, interference, Colloq nosiness, Nosy Parkerism: Curiosity killed the cat. 3 curio, oddity, rarity, conversation piece, objet de virtu or vertu, objet

d'art, found object; bric-…-brac or bric-a-brac, knick-knack, bauble, trinket, gewgaw: The shop sells curiosities, like goblets made from ostrich eggs. In those days, every house had a curiosity cabinet.

curious adj. 1 inquisitive, inquiring, interested: I am curious to know what you were doing in there all night. 2 snooping, prying, intrusive, meddlesome, interfering, Colloq nosy: Our neighbours are entirely too curious about our activities. 3 odd, peculiar, eccentric, strange, outr‚, queer, unusual, outrageous, offbeat, weird, bizarre, unconventional, freakish, exotic, singular, out of the ordinary, extraordinary, erratic, pixilated, quaint, outlandish, grotesque, aberrant, abnormal, singular, irregular, deviant, deviate, Colloq kinky, nuts,

nutty; Slang Brit barmy: How do you explain Frieda's curious behaviour?

current adj. 1 contemporary, ongoing, present, contemporaneous, simultaneous, coeval: The current issue of the magazine came out last week. 2 prevalent, prevailing, common, popular, accepted, known, widespread, reported, in circulation, going round or around, bruited about, widely known, in the air, present-day: The current theories reject those of a decade ago. 3 fashionable, stylish, … la mode, modish, in vogue, latest, up to date, Colloq trendy: The current trend is towards shorter

skirts. 4 US up to date, in the know, informed, advised, in touch, aware, posted, au courant, au fait, on the qui vive: The Financial Journal keeps me current on stock prices.

--n. 5 stream, flow, undercurrent: The canoe was caught in the current and carried away. 6 course, progress, tendency, tenor, drift, trend, inclination, mainstream: The current of public opinion is turning in favour of policies that are more environmentally responsible.

curse n. 1 malediction, imprecation, denunciation, damnation, execration, oath: He heaped curses on all those who opposed him. 2 evil, bane, misfortune, affliction, torment, harm, scourge, cross to bear: The curse of our generation is that so few of us deeply believe anything. 3 profanity, oath, blasphemy, obscenity, bad language, dirty word, swear-word, curse-word: A stream of curses issued from the bathroom when Joe cut himself shaving.

--v. 4 damn, execrate, blast, denounce, anathematize, excommunicate: He was cursed by the priests and forbidden ever to enter a temple again. 5 swear at, blaspheme at: The muleteer was cursing his team. 6 burden, saddle, weigh down, handicap: She was cursed with bad eyesight and had to wear thick glasses.

cursory adj. superficial, hasty, hurried, passing, quick, slapdash, perfunctory, rapid, summary: She gave the note a cursory glance and threw it away.

cushions on the floor.

--v. 2 soften, absorb, mitigate, reduce, buffer, insulate,

mollify, lessen: They offered me a month's paid holiday to help cushion the blow of being transferred.

routine, convention, form: According to custom, the warriors of the tribe paint their bodies. 2 customs. toll, duty, impost,

tax, excise, levy, dues, tariff: He was assigned to collect customs and port duties. 3 patronage, support, business, trade: The new butcher needs as much custom as possible.

--adv. 4 specially, especially, expressly, exclusively, particularly; to order: All her clothes are custom-made.

customary adj. 1 usual, normal, conventional, routine, everyday, common, commonplace, ordinary: Is it customary for them to eat lunch on the premises? 2 accustomed, habitual, regular, traditional,

wonted: I took the customary way home.

customer n. 1 client, patron, buyer, purchaser; consumer: Mrs Morris is one of our regular customers. 2 chap, fellow, character,

person, guy, Colloq Brit bloke: She would never go out with an ugly customer like that.

accounting cut your cheque and send it at once. 11 cut back. a See 5, above. b See 8, above. 12 Often, cut dead. snub, slight, spurn, shun, ignore, give the cold shoulder (to): Cornelia had the gall to cut Jason dead at his own party. 13 cut down. a fell, chop or hew down: Don't cut down that tree! b kill, cut off, murder, assassinate: He was cut down in his prime. 14 cut in. interrupt, intrude, interfere, Colloq butt

in: Please don't cut in on our conversation. 15 cut off. a cleave, sever, chop or lop or hack off: Cut the branch off near the trunk. b intercept, interrupt, discontinue, end, stop, terminate, break off: There was a click and our phone conversation was cut off. c separate, sever, split, estrange: He's been cut off from the family for years. d disinherit, disown, reject: She was cut off with a shilling. 16 cut out.

a delete, remove, excise, strike or cross out, edit out, omit, cut, kill, Technical dele: The publishers made me cut out parts of the book that they were advised might be libellous. b

extract, excise, remove, resect: My appendix was cut out years ago. c stop, cease, desist (from), quit: Whenever it rains the engine cuts out. Cut out the clowning around. d suit, equip, fit: I don't think Cyril's cut out to be a lumberjack. e plan, prepare, ready, organize, destine: He certainly has his work cut out for him! 17 cut up. a chop (up), dice, cube, mince, cut, divide (up), carve (up): Cut the celery up very small. b misbehave: The football supporters began to cut up rough. 18 cut up rough. get angry, lose one's temper, show resentment: The driver began to cut up rough when I refused to pay.

--n. 19 gash, slash, incision, nick, wound: I got a nasty cut from that razor. 20 share, portion, percentage, piece, dividend, commission: Blatchley gets a cut on every car we sell. 21 reduction, cut-back, curtailment, decrease: The government's cuts in spending affect us all. 22 deletion, excision, omission: The author refuses to approve the cuts in the script. 23 affront, insult, offence, slight, snub, dig,

jibe, slap in the face, cold shoulder: The unkindest cut was the accusation of cheating. 24 engraving, plate: This cut is too badly worn for use now. 25 artwork, picture, illustration, plate, drawing, line cut, line engraving, half-tone: The book has 300 cuts and only 20 pages of text.

--adj. 26 separated, detached, severed: I prefer cut flowers to a plant. 27 abridged, abbreviated, cut-down, shortened,

cutthroat n. 1 murderer, pirate, killer, thug, hatchet man, gunman, assassin, Slang US gunsel, torpedo, hit man: Those streets are frequented by thieves and cutthroats.

--adj. 2 merciless, ruthless, unmerciful, unprincipled, relentless, pitiless, brutal, cold-blooded, cold-hearted: Her cutthroat tactics call for dismissing all executives. 3 murderous, homicidal, lethal, deadly, barbaric, fierce, cruel, barbarous, savage, inhuman, brutal, brutish, violent, ferocious, bloodthirsty, sanguinary, bloody, feral, vicious, truculent: He was once a member of a gang of cutthroat hoodlums.

cutting adj. 1 severe, biting, chill, cold, icy, frigid, freezing, raw, piercing, penetrating: A cutting wind seemed to go right through me. 2 sarcastic, sardonic, bitter, scornful, sneering, acid, scathing, acerb(ic), wounding, stern, harsh, caustic, mordant, acrimonious, contemptuous; malevolent, malicious, invidious, vicious, venomous: Her cutting remarks completely devastated me.

--n. 3 scion, slip, clipping: Mrs Galloway allowed me to take a cutting from her rose bush.

3.9 cycle =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

cycle n. 1 round, rotation, circle, course; series, sequence, run, succession, pattern: We must learn to break the continuous cycles of war and peace.

--v. 2 recur, return, rotate, recycle, circle: The water from the fountain is cycled back to the reservoir.

4.0 D =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

4.1 dab...

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dabble v. 1 dip, splash, spatter, sprinkle, bespatter, besprinkle, bedabble: I sat on the rock, dabbling my toes in the pool. 2 dabble in or with or at. tinker, trifle (with), potter or US putter, dally, Colloq fool (around or about or with or about with): She's not seriously interested in music - she just dabbles in it.

dab hand n.phr. past master, expert, master, adept, authority, wizard, Colloq ace: Oscar is a dab hand at wood-carving.