1.
If something is ~ to have a particular effect, it is specially done or arranged in order to have that effect.
Their movements through the region were ~ to terrify landowners into abandoning their holdings...
ADJ: v-link ADJ to-inf
2.
If you say that something is not ~ to have a particular effect, you mean that it is unlikely to have that effect.
Such a statement was hardly ~ to deter future immigrants.
= likely
ADJ: with brd-neg, v-link ADJ to-inf
3.
You can describe a clever or dishonest action as ~ when it is very carefully planned or arranged.
Irene’s cleaning the floor had been a ~ attempt to cover up her crime.
ADJ: usu ADJ n
4.
If you take a ~ risk, you do something which you think might be successful, although you have fully considered the possible bad consequences of your action.
ADJ: ADJ n