adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a decent meal/a square meal ( also a proper meal British English ) (= with enough good food to satisfy you )
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I hadn’t had a decent meal in days.
a decent wage (= one that is reasonable and allows you to buy what you need )
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Jobs in the factories used to pay a decent wage, but those jobs are gone now.
a good/decent living (= enough money )
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Her husband makes a good living.
a respectable/decent citizen (= good and honest )
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There are gangs on the streets who are terrorizing respectable citizens.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
pretty
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This camera is no exception and also comes with some pretty decent features.
very
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Evidently, there are some very decent people out there.
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Course, as Derek says, his mate is basically a very decent bloke.
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He also struck me as wholly sincere and a very decent sort.
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All of this was already mapped out in a very decent and proper piece of research that I had just written up.
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My mama took it hard, but the old man was very decent .
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Overall the Fuller could have been a very decent unit but the quality of finish badly lets it down.
■ NOUN
citizen
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Arm decent citizens so that they can shoot the killers before the killers shoot them.
education
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I simply believe in children getting a decent education .
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To see that girls get a decent education .
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Lifestyles remained simple but identification with the masses was impossible if kids had to get a decent education .
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It seems that it never occurred to Rosa Lee to see to it that her kids had a decent education .
food
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A whole mountain of decent clothing was needed for the poor of Whitechapel, so was some decent food .
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No decent food , no place to park and almost zero women.
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Do try and get him to eat some decent food .
home
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Discusses the government's ambition to ensure that the right to have a decent home should be available to everyone.
housing
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Campaigns to secure decent housing , health and employment brought women together to organize.
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In fact he is the symbol of the Mexicans'long struggle for decent housing in the world's biggest city.
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We can afford decent housing , education and health-care for everyone.
interval
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It hadn't even been a decent interval , and here it was again.
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We could reasonably expect a decent interval of peace in which we might think about these catastrophic events.
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So now Mrs Kettering could enjoy the future with her Claudio, whom she would meet again after a decent interval .
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After a decent interval , the three of them resumed their conversation, much to my relief.
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A decent interval elapsed, during which we looked at each other rather anxiously.
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After a decent interval the roommate should disappear on an errand or into his room for an extended period. 12.
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At a decent interval later, twice-divorced Whoopi, 43, would saunter out, like any other unattached lady guest.
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First Stevie, a boy, and after I had nursed him for a decent interval , Amy, a girl.
job
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I want a decent job , I want to do something useful, and something interesting.
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Carr and the Celtics have done a decent job the past 48 hours, maximizing the suspense surrounding their new lineup.
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Such trivial pursuits, he said, were never likely to end in a decent job .
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When is he going to get a decent job ?
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You can't pay for childcare without having a decent job .
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The fans are typically male and in their twenties, many of them professionals with decent jobs .
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All she needed to put herself right was a decent job .
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Even if I had done better in law school, it would have been hard to find a decent job .
life
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That, I believe, is the way we all want to live - a decent life in a civilised community.
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Do not these people have the right to a decent life in prison, or even the right to life?
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Smith lamely promised that help would be given to any women wanting to lead a decent life .
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In terms of what it takes to lead a decent life in the United States, the truth is that they are.
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My sister has made for herself a decent life , and in that there is much to be admired.
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We do not wish to glorify people who are not leading decent lives .
man
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Graham Taylor is a decent man .
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The teacher who gives the beating may, in all other instances, seem a decent man .
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But then, hadn't she always known that he was a good and decent man ?
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And that brought in Mayor Dever, a judge, and by Chicago standards, a decent man .
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Or was some conditioning or perversion happening to make otherwise decent men into bad people?
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This is no place for a decent man .
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Why are such decent men , of such ability and goodwill, now being overtaken by events?
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He was a very decent man but had not been blessed with all the faculties one would normally expect.
meal
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He desperately needed sleep and a decent meal .
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A lot of the time up there, I was starved for a decent meal .
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With her stomach settling and a surprisingly decent meal in her, Anne's spirits rose all the way up to okay.
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More and more husbands, desperate for a decent meal , are donning aprons themselves.
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You'd get a decent meal at least.
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By the looks of Carla she had not had a decent meal for weeks.
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And as for compassion, haven't I just provided your first decent meal of the day?
people
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His parents were decent people , and they taught him that right matters more than a grade.
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Evidently, there are some very decent people out there.
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I had seen otherwise perfectly decent people in Delhi abusing their servants as if they were pets.
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You ain't fit to live with decent people .
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Most of them were decent people with horrible jobs.
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But most contractors are decent people who like working with their hands, working for themselves.
person
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Every decent person I've ever met has been anti-Tory.
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Besides, loving children says nice things about you, too, as a caring and decent person .
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Peter responds that the fact that some one is a single parent doesn't mean they're not a decent person .
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If you go to the wrong house, it will be a year before any decent person will let you in.
place
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I hope not because Britain is essentially a decent place to take refuge and find acceptance.
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No-nonsense coach guided Eagles into playoffs without benefit of a quarterback and a decent place to play.
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You would think that with all the money I make, I could at least have a decent place to sleep.
sort
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Moreover, a humane, liberal, decent sort of Tory Foreign Secretary.
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He also struck me as wholly sincere and a very decent sort .
standard
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Shall receive an income that guarantees a decent standard of living. 12.
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We believe that retired people who have worked all their lives are entitled to a decent standard of living.
thing
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Gesner was the one who ought to be slapped, but he had at least done the decent thing in abandoning Suzi.
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I did the only decent thing I could do.
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Quite decent things , hopelessly botched, needing to be made clean again.
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He must now do the decent thing and resign.
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We had a date for this afternoon but when I heard about Francis it seemed the decent thing to postpone the arrangement.
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Thieving needs to be done outside of Deptford - somewhere there are decent things to steal.
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He did the decent thing , and dropped them from his speech.
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Wouldn't he prefer the blushing apple of his eye to do the decent thing ?
wage
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They built alliances to win decent wages , decent working conditions.
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It does not necessarily follow that decent wages and working conditions with fewer hours mean a higher cost to the consumer.
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On this Labor Day, we must all remember that a decent wage for the working poor truly benefits everyone.&038;.
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He just does not want to pay his players decent wages .
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They never got a decent wage .
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Smoke-stack industry jobs that used to pay a decent wage have been wiped out.
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It was what happened when young people earned decent wages , and had the means to buy clothes and go to discos.
woman
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It's enough to kill any decent woman .
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He'd never shown the slightest interest in any other woman - any decent woman.
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He was giving palpitations to perfectly decent women , by lurking like this.
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You were a decent woman once, prickly with virtue.
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No decent woman would go wiz any of zem.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
halfway decent/normal/successful etc
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And you need to be halfway decent and honest and real.
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Discs viable, a second halfway decent act was required.
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Reading about that stuff, downing really halfway decent coffee.
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Sefelt has pulled back halfway normal, swelling up and down with big wet, rattling breaths.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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Decent citizens have nothing to fear from the police.
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Decent members of the public will be outraged by this decision.
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Decent working people are frustrated at the level of crime in the cities.
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a decent , honest, hard-working woman
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Did you get decent seats for the game?
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Don't come in - I'm not decent !
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I need to get a decent night's sleep.
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I want to provide my boys with a decent education.
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It's very decent of you to be so pleased for me -- I know how much you wanted to win this competition.
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Perhaps Jack wanted to do something decent , for a change.
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The coach was a pretty decent guy.
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There isn't one decent restaurant around here.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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And it took you all your time to get them decent again with a wet rag.
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Carr and the Celtics have done a decent job the past 48 hours, maximizing the suspense surrounding their new lineup.
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Come to think of it, he'd seemed rather a decent chap, some one it might be worth getting to know.
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For expatriates with offshore accounts, this represents a decent tax-free return on an investment that carries no risk to capital.
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He is 25-10-2 in three seasons, with what many would call decent wins, if not big ones.
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He was wearing a decent black cloth lounge suit, and had no intentions of changing his mode of attire.
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The Trojans brought the ball up but could not get off a decent shot.
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You would think that with all the money I make, I could at least have a decent place to sleep.