The Oxford Thesaurus - An A-Z Dictionary Of Synonyms

(for): I take people to be honest till proven otherwise. She took him for a fool when they first met. 9 carry, convey, bear, transport, bring, deliver, ferry; haul, cart: Will this train

take me to Aylesbury? They took the bicycle to Old Lyme in a van. 10 take up, study, be involved or occupied in or with, apply oneself to, learn; read, Colloq tackle: I cannot believe that Doreen is taking home economics. He took a course in car maintenance. 11 prove or be effective or efficacious or operative or functional, take effect, take hold, operate, function, work, perform, Colloq do the trick: If the transplant fails to take, the doctors will have to operate again. 12 exact, extract, get: She took revenge by denying him certain privileges. 13 swallow, eat, consume, ingest, devour, gulp down, gobble up or down, wolf, bolt; drink, imbibe, quaff; inhale: Rudolf takes pills of every conceivable colour. The doctor said I could take a wee nip now and then. Sonya stepped out to take a breath of fresh air. 14 subtract, deduct, remove, take away, take from, take off: Take three from five. Five, take away two, leaves three. It's cheaper when you've taken off the discount. 15 end, terminate, annihilate, wipe out; kill:

The assault on Leningrad took tens of thousands of lives. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. 16 require, demand, need, necessitate, call for: Remember, it takes two to tango. It took him two years to complete the fresco. It takes six to sail his yawl. 17 hold, contain, accommodate, accept, fit in: This storage bin cannot take anything else, it's completely full. 18 convey, lead, conduct; escort, convoy, guide, accompany: This road takes you directly to the yacht club. He asked to be taken to the manager's office. 19 understand, gather, interpret, perceive, apprehend, deduce, conclude, infer, judge, deem, assume, suppose, imagine, see: I take it from your expression that you've had bad news. 20 charm, captivate, capture,

attract, lure, allure: There was something about him that took her fancy. 21 use, employ, make use of, establish, put in(to) place, adopt, put into effect, effect, apply; resort to, have recourse to, turn to: The police have taken measures to ensure that it doesn't happen again. 22 clear, get or go over or past

or round or through: Browning's Delight took the last jump easily. He must have taken that corner at 90! 23 experience, entertain, feel: She seemed to take an instant dislike to me. 24 express, voice, raise, put forth: I hope you will not take objection or exception to what I am about to tell you. 25 cause or make or induce or drive or persuade (someone) to go or be:

What takes you to M laga in August? 26 act, assume, play, perform: I'm taking the part of the wicked witch in the local pantomime. 27 bilk, cheat, swindle, defraud, Colloq con, Brit fiddle: When he examined his wallet he realized he'd been taken. 28 take aback. astound, astonish, surprise, startle, shock: She was really taken aback at the news. 29 take after. a resemble, look like, be the spitting image or the spit and image of, favour, remind one of, Colloq be a chip off the old block: He takes after his grandfather. b Sometimes, take off after. chase, follow, run after, pursue: When the man stole the

newspaper and ran, the shopkeeper took after him at a gallop. 30 take back. retract, withdraw, recant, disavow, repudiate: He

now wants to take back what he said about you. 31 take down. a note, make a note or memo or memorandum of, write down, record, put or set down, put in writing, document, transcribe,

chronicle: Please take down what I am about to tell you. b debase, deflate, lower, diminish, belittle, depreciate, deprecate, humble, humiliate, shame, disparage, degrade, disgrace: She certainly took that pompous ass down a peg or two. 32 take in. a accommodate, receive, let in, quarter, board, lodge: When her children grew up and left home, she decided to take in lodgers. b deceive, fool, trick, impose upon, overcharge, cheat, mulct, defraud, cozen, bilk, dupe, gull, hoodwink, swindle, Colloq bamboozle, con, pull the wool over

(someone's) eyes, Slang Brit do: He was really taken in by that time-share deal. c include, subsume, embrace, comprise, cover, encompass, contain: Our sales figures take in all of North America, not just Canada. 33 take it. a withstand or tolerate

or survive punishment or abuse, survive: The Marines are extremely tough and can take it. b See 20, above. 34 take off. a remove, doff, strip or peel off, discard, divest (oneself) of: Take off your hat in the house. b satirize, lampoon, caricature, mock, parody, travesty, burlesque, mimic, imitate, Colloq spoof, Brit send up: It is not always easy to take off

members of the Cabinet. c depart, leave, go (away), decamp; fly off, become airborne, lift off, blast off; Colloq skedaddle,

make (oneself) scarce, Slang hit the road, scram, beat it, split: You'd better take off before they find you here. The plane is due to take off at 18.35. 35 take on. a hire, engage, employ, enrol, enlist, retain: We are so busy that we have taken on ten new people. b challenge, rival, face, contend against, oppose, match or pit (oneself) against, vie with, fight: Are you in any condition to take on the champion? c

history, narration, recital, anecdote: We were brought up on tales of the supernatural. Her tale of what happened does not agree with the facts. 2 falsehood, lie, fiction, fib, fabrication, untruth, falsification, exaggeration, Colloq tall tale or story, (cock-and-bull) story, US fish story: He told some tale about having been captured by urban guerrillas. 3 rumour, gossip, slander, allegation, tittle-tattle, libel,

story, US chiefly naval scuttlebutt: I have been hearing tales about wild parties at the neighbours' again.

talebearer

n. gossip, rumour-monger, gossip-monger, taleteller, talemonger, scandalmonger, tell-tale, troublemaker, quidnunc, tattler, informer, sieve, Chiefly US and Canadian tattle-tale, Slang bigmouth, blabbermouth, squealer, stool-pigeon, stoolie, rat, Brit sneak, nark, US fink, ratfink: The words, spoken in private, were repeated to him by some talebearer.

talent n. 1 ability, power, gift, faculty, flair, genius, facility, aptitude, capacity, knack, ingenuity, forte, strength; endowment: Bill's extraordinary talent for playing the trombone was widely acclaimed. 2 tendency, proclivity, propensity, penchant, predilection, predisposition, bent, inclination: Annabel certainly has a talent for saying the wrong thing.

talented adj. gifted, accomplished, brilliant, skilled, skilful, masterful, expert, adept, adroit, dexterous, deft, clever, good, polished, proficient, first-rate, top-drawer, excellent, Colloq ace, crack, top-notch, Brit wizard, whizzo, US crackerjack: Leslie is the most talented player in the school hockey team.

talisman n. amulet, charm, tiki, fetish or fetich, ju-ju, periapt, abraxas; wishbone, rabbit's foot, Brit merry thought: He was given a talisman that was supposed to protect its wearer from bad luck.

on, go on, Brit natter, witter, rabbit on, Colloq gab, Slang gas, jaw , US run off at the mouth: They talk continuously, mostly about nothing. 4 chat, gossip, palaver, Slang chew the

fat or the rag, shoot the breeze, US chin, schmooze, rap, have a bull session, bat the breeze, shoot the bull: We were just sitting around talking when Tom suggested we go for a swim. 5 inform, confess, give the game away, blab, Colloq come clean, Slang rat, squeal, sing, spill the beans, Brit grass: If they

give him the third degree, you can be sure he'll talk. 6 speak, give or deliver a speech or a talk or an address, lecture: I believe that Professor Hale is talking at the County Library tonight. 7 talk about or over or of. discuss, confer about or on, parley about: I don't want to talk about football all the time. Can't we talk it over? She talks only of you. 8 talk big. boast, brag, vaunt, crow, bluster, exaggerate, blow or toot (one's) own horn: He was never in the war - he just talks big. 9 talk down. a depreciate, deprecate, denigrate, disparage, belittle, minimize, diminish, criticize, Colloq knock, pan, put down: It's the only thing he's ever done, and you shouldn't

talk it down. b Usually, talk down to. condescend to, patronize: I resent your talking down to me in that way. 10 talk into. convince, bring round, sway, persuade: We have been trying to talk him into running in the marathon. 11 talk over. discuss: We talked over the best way to prepare the advertising proposal. 12 talk to or with. speak to or with, communicate with, converse with: Since the episode with the monkey, she refuses to talk to me. I talked with him yesterday. 13 talk up. promote, support, sponsor, advertise, publicize, push, Colloq plug, hype, ballyhoo: She has been talking up the book on her radio show.

--n. 14 oration, lecture, address, presentation, speech, discourse, report, disquisition, dissertation; sermon; harangue, tirade, Colloq spiel: Claire delivered a talk on computational linguistics. Every week we have to listen to the same talk about sin. 15 conversation, conference, discussion, meeting, consultation, dialogue, colloquy, parley, palaver, chat, tˆte-…-tˆte, confabulation, Colloq confab, powwow, Slang chin-wag, head-to-head, US one-on-one, rap session: We must have a little talk about your school report. 16 subject or

topic of conversation or gossip or rumour: Her behaviour at the wedding was the talk of the town for weeks. 17 gossip, rumour, hearsay, information, news, report, Colloq info, Slang dope:

There is some talk that you might be leaving. 18 palaver,

tamper v. interfere, meddle, intermeddle, intrude, tinker, mess (about

tangential

adj. divergent, digressive, off or beside(s) the point, peripheral, irrelevant, extraneous, unrelated: The matter of cost is tangential to the main issue.

tangible adj. material, real, physical, corporeal, bodily, somatic, solid, concrete, touchable, tactile, manifest, palpable, evident, actual, substantial, visible, seeable, discernible, perceptible, ponderable, objective, ostensive: Leaving aside intangibles like taste, smell, and colour, the important tangible characteristic of food is texture.

tangle n. 1 confusion, knot, gnarl, mesh, snarl, twist, kink, entanglement, jam, snag, jumble, mess, skein, web, coil: It took hours to straighten out the tangle of ribbons. 2 muddle,

complication, jumble, puzzle, medley, complexity, complication, scramble, mishmash, mix-up, hotchpotch or US and Canadian also hodgepodge, jungle, maze, labyrinth: She was rather bewildered by the vast tangle of information on the subject.

--v. 3 Often, tangle up. confuse, knot, mesh, snarl, gnarl, twist, kink, ravel, entangle, jam, snag, intertwist, intertwine, interlace, interweave, jumble, mess up, scramble, shuffle, muddle: Now you've tangled all the ribbons I carefully straightened out earlier. 4 Often, tangle with. wrangle (with), contend (with), fight (with or against), (come into) conflict (with), come or go up against, lock horns (with), dispute, cross swords (with), disagree (with): The sheriff is the last person

I want to tangle with.

tantalize v. tease, taunt, provoke, torment, torture, bait, tempt, plague, frustrate: They tantalized him by hanging the keys to his cell just outside his reach.

tantamount to

adj. amounting to, as good as, virtually the same as, (pretty) much the same as, equal to, equivalent to, like, of a piece with, comparable to, commensurate with: His response, for all its politeness, was tantamount to a rejection.

tantrum n. fit (of anger or of passion), outburst, eruption, blow-up, explosion, flare-up, storm, rage, fury, Colloq Brit paddy, wax: He has a tantrum every time he fails to get his own way.

tardy adj. 1 late, unpunctual, behind schedule, overdue, behindhand: