Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.
1.
If you say that something is ~ to happen, you mean that it is planned or expected. Sometimes this use suggests that the thing does not really happen in this way.
He produced a hand-written list of nine men he was ~ to kill...
Public spending is ~ to fall, not rise, in the next few years.
PHRASE
2.
If something was ~ to happen, it was planned or intended to happen, but did not in fact happen.
He was ~ to go back to Bergen on the last bus, but of course the accident prevented him...
PHRASE
3.
If you say that something is ~ to be true, you mean that people say it is true but you do not know for certain that it is true.
‘The Whipping Block’ has never been published, but it’s ~ to be a really good poem...
‘The President cannot be disturbed,’ his son is ~ to have told an early morning caller.
PHRASE
4.
You can use ‘be ~ to’ to express annoyance at someone’s ideas, or because something is not happening in the proper way.
You’re ~ to be my friend!...
What am I ~ to have done wrong now?
PHRASE feelings
5.
You can use ~ to suggest that something that people talk about or believe in may not in fact exist, happen, or be as it is described.
Not all indigenous regimes were willing to accept the ~ benefits of British trade.
= alleged
ADJ: ADJ n
~ly
He was more of a victim than any of the women he ~ly offended...
ADV: ADV with v, ADV with cl/group