I. NOUN AND VERB USES
(~s, minuting, ~d)
Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
1.
A ~ is one of the sixty parts that an hour is divided into. People often say ‘a ~’ or ‘~s’ when they mean a short length of time.
The pizza will then take about twenty ~s to cook...
Bye Mum, see you in a ~...
Within ~s we realized our mistake.
N-COUNT: oft num N
2.
The ~s of a meeting are the written records of the things that are discussed or decided at it.
He’d been reading the ~s of the last meeting.
N-PLURAL: oft N of n
3.
When someone ~s something that is discussed or decided at a meeting, they make a written record of it.
You don’t need to ~ that.
VERB: V n
4.
see also up-to-the-~
5.
People often use expressions such as wait a ~ or just a ~ when they want to stop you doing or saying something.
Wait a ~, folks, something is wrong here...
Hey, just a ~!
= hang on
CONVENTION
6.
If you say that something will or may happen at any ~ or any ~ now, you are emphasizing that it is likely to happen very soon.
It looked as though it might rain at any ~...
Any ~ now, that phone is going to ring.
PHRASE emphasis
7.
If you say that you do not believe for a ~ or for one ~ that something is true, you are emphasizing that you do not believe that it is true.
I don’t believe for one ~ she would have been scared...
= for a moment
PHRASE: with brd-neg, PHR with v emphasis
8.
A last-~ action is one that is done at the latest time possible.
She was doing some last-~ revision for her exams...
He will probably wait until the last ~.
PHRASE: PHR n, prep PHR
9.
You use the expression the next ~ or expressions such as ‘one ~ he was there, the next he was gone’ to emphasize that something happens suddenly.
The next ~ my father came in...
Jobs are there one ~, gone the next.
= the next moment
PHRASE emphasis
10.
If you say that something happens the ~ something else happens, you are emphasizing that it happens immediately after the other thing.
The ~ you do this, you’ll lose control...
PHRASE: PHR that emphasis
11.
If you say that something must be done this ~, you are emphasizing that it must be done immediately.
Anna, stop that. Sit down this ~.
= now, immediately
PHRASE emphasis
II. ADJECTIVE USE
(~st)
If you say that something is ~, you mean that it is very small.
Only a ~ amount is needed...
The party was planned in the ~st detail.
= tiny
ADJ