I. verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a brief spell (= time )
▪
For a brief spell in early summer it is the most beautiful of all the trees.
a cold spell (= a period of cold weather, especially a short one )
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We’re currently going through a bit of a cold spell.
a grammatical/spelling/typing error
▪
You lose marks if your paper contains spelling errors.
a spell check (= a process in which a computer program tells you if you have spelt words wrong )
▪
Have you done a spell check on your essay?
a spelling mistake
▪
She spotted two spelling mistakes in the article.
a spelling/reading/listening test
▪
I didn’t do very well in the listening test.
cold spell
correct spelling (= the correct way of writing words )
▪
Copying does not teach correct spelling.
dizzy spells (= a short period when you feel dizzy )
▪
She started to suffer from dizzy spells .
magic spells
▪
a book of magic spells
mean/spell trouble (= mean there will be trouble )
▪
They are now much more competitive, which can only spell trouble for their rivals.
spell a word
▪
I always find that word hard to spell.
spell disaster (= cause something to end badly or fail )
▪
Bad luck and the recession spelt disaster for her business.
spell doom (= mean that something will not continue to exist )
▪
Many people predicted that Internet growth would spell doom for the traditional media.
spell ruin (= cause ruin for sb )
▪
Unwise investment can spell financial ruin.
spelling bee
sunny periods/spells/intervals (= periods when it is sunny )
▪
sunny periods/spells/intervals
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
correctly
▪
Make sure it exists and that its name is spelled correctly .
▪
Maybe the letter was not spelled correctly .
even
▪
Hells bells! they could not even spell teem!
▪
I can't even spell properly.
▪
She doesn't know the meaning of the word discretion - probably can't even spell it.
out
▪
This argument is spelled out in detail in Chapter 19.
▪
He needs to spell out why a tax cut is going to help the average family of four.
▪
The courts have not been given a mandate to spell out collective responsibilities, and even less to police them.
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This method should be spelled out carefully in the proposal.
▪
I regret that I can not spell out part by part and line by line exactly what I want to achieve.
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It will be useful therefore to spell out , if only briefly, some of its main characteristics.
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Facts should normally be allowed to speak for themselves: to spell out a conclusion may spell danger.
▪
Prosecutors gave Bailey, an adversary, $ 6 million worth of stock without spelling out any conditions of the transfer.
■ NOUN
danger
▪
Chernobyl spelled out the dangers in letters ten feet high.
▪
No literary work could more eloquently or plainly spell out the dangers that exist for the woman who competes in male pursuits.
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Facts should normally be allowed to speak for themselves: to spell out a conclusion may spell danger .
death
▪
Because of this, suffering is less of a threat to happiness, while it spells death to the pleasure-seeking life.
▪
In this case, childish storytelling could have spelled death .
▪
Thought it spelled death for her professional future.
▪
Some in the industry even predicted that e-commerce would spell the death of malls.
detail
▪
This argument is spelled out in detail in Chapter 19.
▪
Don't worry if this isn't entirely clear; it's spelled out in painful detail during the film.
▪
This had implications for teacher training, which the Kingman Report spells out in detail .
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Now, Congress will go to work spelling out details of that plan.
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This needs to be spelled out in some detail .
▪
Roosevelt did not spell out the details .
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The general principles of the document were spelled out in some detail .
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Determining the shape all these negotiations will take is difficult because few flat tax plans have been spelled out in detail .
disaster
▪
Staff here say that would spell disaster for hundreds of alcoholics.
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All of this spells a disaster for the stock market, Allmon contends.
▪
With reduced legal aid payouts and a tough new means test for applicants looming, it could spell financial disaster .
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It only rarely spells universal disaster .
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Delegated authority without a meaningful consultation process would spell disaster for teacher morale, motivation, commitment and hence effectiveness.
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After all, one case of the trots hardly spells disaster .
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You never come in this kitchen but you break something: when you help it spells disaster .
end
▪
Moreover, such a move would probably spell the end of the Greens' day in the political sun.
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These new rules spell the end of jobs as we have known them.
▪
Not only was the death of Diego the cause of personal sorrow, it also spelled the end of his family line.
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The increase may spell the end to more than a year of intense price competition in the industry, analysts said.
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Sterility itself can not be selected for, as success would spell the automatic end of the line involved.
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This spelled the end of the Brezhnev doctrine, under which Soviet military power enforced the loyalty of its peripheral satellite states.
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They could spell the end of national wage agreements and the sinking of clinical grading before it has properly begun to swim.
▪
For four and five she spells from the other end and for six she again spells the letters.
letter
▪
The letters spelled have fun out doors.
▪
Maybe the letter was not spelled correctly.
▪
The initial letters spell the word H-O-W and serve as a reminder of how recovery is achieved through all one's relationships.
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Of course, the letters O-W-E spelled a word, but Quinn was not ready to draw any conclusions.
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Yesterday's letter spelled out Mr Patten's concern that councils were helping hostile groups fight opt outs with misinformation campaigns.
name
▪
Make sure it exists and that its name is spelled correctly.
▪
Ask to have the name spelled and ask for the first name if it is not mentioned.
▪
The phone rings at work one afternoon, and a man asks how I spell my name , so I spell it.
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Two names in particular spelled trouble.
trouble
▪
This provision is not widely known to farmers, largely because the Departments have never taken sufficient trouble to spell it out.
▪
She still has trouble with the spelling of some words.
▪
It was too much trouble to spell out the sub-titles.
word
▪
There was much subsequent controversy about who invented the word and how to spell its derivatives.
▪
The word went is often spelled yet.
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That they find the way that words are spelled to be intriguing, and that they go through life noticing surprising spellings.
■ VERB
ask
▪
You write up the offered words, correctly, without asking how they are spelled .
▪
Finally, she was asked to spell egalitarian, used to describe a belief in human equality.
▪
If at all unsure, ask caller to spell it out. 3.
▪
All he wants is to ask me to spell out the features of the new product.
▪
The phone rings at work one afternoon, and a man asks how I spell my name, so I spell it.
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Earlier, in the sixth round, Hulka got the giggles when the contest judges asked him to spell haggis.
▪
I asked him to spell it.
learn
▪
Gill has now started primary skool and is learning to spell .
▪
So she had almost a whole year of the company of her peers and along with them learned to spell and count.
▪
The daughter is playing with letters and learning how to spell .
need
▪
You may need to spell them out or check that they have been understood.
▪
He needs to spell out why a tax cut is going to help the average family of four.
▪
But the significance of what was at stake in this shift in terminology needs to be spelled out.
▪
I need everything spelled out for me.
▪
The rest of the remark he left unsaid, but it did not need spelling out.
▪
Didn't need to have it spelled out.
try
▪
He tries to spell out how we do it.
▪
He made wild tries at phonetic spelling .
▪
On the other hand, since she was trying to spell through she was probably simply putting together badly-remembered letters.
▪
Look at the Morse code chart and, using a torch, try to spell out your name.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
spell/grammar checker
▪
A spell checker , word count feature and thesaurus are all included and the program can handle headers and footers.
▪
However, a dictionary pack for PageMaker is available which contains PageMaker spell checker modules for 20 different languages.
▪
Some of these packages include excellent typographic extras, like a spell checker or thesaurus.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
"B-O-O-K" spells "book."
▪
"How do you spell your name?" "S-M-I-T-H."
▪
And your last name is Aitchson? Could your spell that out for me please?
▪
How do you spell your surname?
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I've never been able to spell very well in English.
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In American English, 'organize' is always spelled with a 'z'.
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No one thinks this could spell the closure of the firm, but things could be better.
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Out-of-town retail developments often spell the death of independent high street shops.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
Gray also published a book by the same title in which he managed to spell Jon Swain's name incorrectly.
▪
He always spells his name for secretaries.
▪
Some deaf children are, however, very proficient at sign language and they can also spell out words using finger spelling.
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That spells trouble for the individual, the team, and, perhaps most important, the client.
▪
The scale of the catastrophe was spelled out by one speaker after another.
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These can be spelled out pretty easily on a resume, but the new qualifications can not.
▪
These new rules spell the end of jobs as we have known them.
▪
This argument is spelled out in detail in Chapter 19.
II. noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
bad
▪
When you have a bad spell , the natural temptation is probably to become tied up in excuses.
▪
A penalty point in his favour ended his bad spell and he plundered seven points in a row.
brief
▪
The Rumanian talent was world number one for a brief spell in the same year.
▪
Thornton had just left the Mirror Group after a brief but interesting spell in newspapers.
▪
It was just a brief spell of ownership; the war meant petrol rationing.
▪
Apart from the brief cold spell in late November, we have had very few hard frosts.
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I should know by now that heavy drinkers are awfully fond of high-flown rationalisations for any brief spell of abstinence.
▪
His bedside locker held the conglomerate of offerings, necessities and minor diversions considered indispensable to a brief spell in hospital.
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Darwin met Robert Grant during a brief and unsuccessful spell as a medical student at Edinburgh.
cold
▪
Apart from the brief cold spell in late November, we have had very few hard frosts.
▪
Anyone can suffer a cold shooting spell .
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Not even the yawning chasms in the road caused by freeze-thaw action during the recent cold spell can upset it.
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They had moved in from the garden during a cold spell in November.
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A cold spell simply halts flowering for a little while.
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Here, a sharp cold spell in spring may produce a narrow growth ring.
dizzy
▪
She must have had a dizzy spell .
▪
The dizzy spells were increasing in frequency.
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I was prompted to write when a customer sat on checkout ten following a dizzy spell .
▪
After Allitt moved out of the Jobsons' home, his dizzy spells , craving for chocolate and sudden collapses had stopped.
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If they are arthritic, their sight is poor, or they are subject to dizzy spells they may trip over the flex.
dry
▪
Showers are expected over the whole country - but the south-east may get a dry spell on Saturday and Sunday.
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Until I met Donna my social life was a dry spell .
▪
East Anglia: Mostly dry with sunny spells .
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The noonday sun beat down fiercely; dusty air carried the stink of rotting garlic after a prolonged dry spell .
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That is the kind of dry spell some strikers not too distant from Ewood Park would sell their grandmother for.
▪
Arizona is in the grip of one of its most severe dry spells of the past century.
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Already, he says, it is worse than the drought of 1956, once considered the definitive Texas dry spell .
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The dry spell is a real turn-around from recent rainy winters.
good
▪
That came in the middle of Wadkins' best spell .
▪
Rod Wallace seems to be in his best spell of scoring since he came to Leeds.
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Although he is suffering from a type of septicaemia, he is clearly having a good spell .
▪
Lincoln are in the middle of a good spell , having won five of their last six matches.
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And early September generally is set fair to be a good spell for holidays, says his latest bulletin.
lean
▪
The end of a lean spell for Wilkinson has put Boro back on course for the all-important second spot.
▪
That meant Christmas profits, which usually see the railway through the lean spell to April, were not available.
long
▪
Second, there must be a constant supply of water to the sward even during long spells of dry weather.
▪
When I was in Saigon for long spells , and missing Lisa, the scene at the villa was a compensation.
▪
Participants who smoked also had higher rates of short and long spells of sickness absence compared with non-smokers.
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After a long and anxious spell , she recovered.
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These are the pay and conditions which were imposed following the long spell of industrial action.
▪
Believers in Wray, those who have kept the faith through the long dry spell , are at last well rewarded.
▪
On close inspection it looks more like the second touring production of Absurd Person Singular after a long spell in Pitlochry.
▪
Outlook: Further showers or longer spells of rain likely, some heavy, especially during the evening.
magic
▪
Orkney casts a magic spell that never fades.
▪
Mermaids, magic spells and a giant with a wart on his nose.
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The magic spell touched Toulon too.
▪
It was as if Polly had cast a magic spell .
▪
A test as simple as a Detect Magic spell will show some stronger focus of magic above the ceiling of this chamber.
▪
The Tzarina does not use the colour magic spells or any of the spell decks in Warhammer Battle Magic.
▪
Instead she has her own Ice Magic spell deck which is reproduced here.
▪
You may wish to photocopy these spells to make up an Ice Magic spell deck.
short
▪
A short spell of hard work in quiet surroundings would not be a bad thing.
▪
Participants who smoked also had higher rates of short and long spells of sickness absence compared with non-smokers.
▪
No one will benefit from such a short spell .
▪
We assumed that for each participant the occurrence of short spells followed a Poisson distribution.
▪
Considerable excess residual variation was found in the rate of sickness absence for short spells .
▪
Thus, an illness that tends to require frequent short spells in hospital will appear to have a high incidence.
▪
Jock laughingly informed me that when he had arrived in the area there had been a short quiet spell .
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We found striking gradients in both short and long spells of sickness absence, with higher rates among employees with lower status.
sunny
▪
It traps the warmth of the odd sunny spell , and wards off the critical few degrees of cold.
▪
General situation: Sunny spells with some drizzle.
▪
Drier weather will follow south with sunny spells , particularly in the more eastern parts.
▪
East Anglia: Mostly dry with sunny spells .
▪
Drier with sunny spells for all areas on Thursday afternoon.
▪
And the outlook for tomorrow's much the same: cloud in the east, sunny spells in the west.
▪
Max temp 17C 63F. 4,7,10,11,12,13,15: Any early rain dying out overnight. Sunny spells tomorrow.
▪
Max 16C 61F. 19,22,23,24,26,27,28: Fine but chilly night with local ground frost. Sunny spells on Sunday.
wet
▪
We would pray for fine weather as a prolonged wet spell meant ruin for our efforts.
▪
Prepare the ground with leaf-mould and a little bonemeal, and mulch with leaf-mould during a wet spell each summer.
■ NOUN
checker
▪
A spell checker , word count feature and thesaurus are all included and the program can handle headers and footers.
▪
Some of these packages include excellent typographic extras, like a spell checker or thesaurus.
▪
However, a dictionary pack for PageMaker is available which contains PageMaker spell checker modules for 20 different languages.
loan
▪
Ironside's one-month loan spell will be completed after the home match against play-off outsiders Gillingham.
▪
Gittens rounded off his loan spell with a crucial equaliser in the final-match decider at Wolves.
▪
Reuser was a £1million signing from Vitesse Arnhem, after spending a loan spell at Ajax where he started his career.
▪
Ironside had a seven-match loan spell at Scarborough before the transfer deadline.
▪
Eight of his 40-goal tally last season came during Nevin's loan spell with Tranmere.
■ VERB
break
▪
No more than usual, was the answer, but at last it was enough to break the spell .
▪
Mrs Fanning had broken the spell of the wild and beautiful dancers.
▪
The tiny sound of distress broke the spell and spurred Grant into action.
▪
I feared my own words might break the spell of normalcy.
▪
I, for one, would not break that spell , nor flaunt the laws that he has made.
▪
The kiss of the prince breaks the spell of narcissism and awakens a womanhood which up to then has remained undeveloped.
▪
He smiled at her and, in offering her reassurance, broke the spell that held them.
▪
And again, louder, as if breaking a spell or casting one: Olppajin-saram.
cast
▪
Their magical resistance does not affect magic weapons or other items, except for those which cast spells in the usual way.
▪
They said she cast spells on them.
▪
A black witch, casting spells from her hiding-place in the corner.
▪
Had he cast a spell just then?
▪
Orkney casts a magic spell that never fades.
▪
Meriwether cast a spell over the young traders who worked for him.
▪
I've seen the cauldrons that they used to cast their spells .
▪
Aladdin refused, so the sorcerer cast a spell to close up the cave again.
enjoy
▪
Gary Lineker is another top-class striker who clings keenly on to boots he's enjoying a scoring spell with.
fall
▪
She fell momentarily under his spell and into his bed.
▪
Lanikai is almost absurdly gorgeous, and even literal-minded scientists fall under its spell .
▪
During this time he falls completely under its spell .
▪
It is not necessary to explain to me why Anthony falls under the spell of a beautiful woman.
▪
I fell under his freezing spell , obeying all his commands without thinking.
▪
While Lisa initially considers her not-too-secret admirer a little strange, she quickly falls under his spell .
▪
Hewitt, 34, fell under Diana's spell while teaching Princes William and Harry to ride.
▪
Once Narcissus had fallen under the spell of Aphrodite he was lost.
follow
▪
Drier weather will follow south with sunny spells , particularly in the more eastern parts.
▪
When it comes it is often followed by a spell of cold weather late in March called the Blackthorn Winter.
weave
▪
They are, in the most fundamental sense, magical: they weave spells , they conjure something out of nothing.
▪
How long did it take to weave a spell ?
▪
She might even be weaving a spell to tangle her feet or make her lose her way in the wood!
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
cast a spell on/over sb
▪
Meriwether cast a spell over the young traders who worked for him.
▪
They said she cast spells on them.
spell/grammar checker
▪
A spell checker , word count feature and thesaurus are all included and the program can handle headers and footers.
▪
However, a dictionary pack for PageMaker is available which contains PageMaker spell checker modules for 20 different languages.
▪
Some of these packages include excellent typographic extras, like a spell checker or thesaurus.
weave your magic/weave a spell
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
After a brief spell in the army, I returned to teaching.
▪
Carmelina knew that the bird was really the handsome prince under a spell from the wicked witch.
▪
He's had a spell of bad luck recently.
▪
I've had a few dizzy spells lately.
▪
The Lilac Fairy cast a spell that sent Aurora to sleep.
▪
We had another cold spell last week.
▪
When the old man was angry, he threatened to put a spell on the whole tribe.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
A black witch, casting spells from her hiding-place in the corner.
▪
And in there is the Robemaker's cache of enchantments ... The stockroom of spells ... The necromancer's treasure-house.
▪
As a leading suffragette, she endured the first of two spells in Holloway gaol in 1907.
▪
I thought that, if we were to meet again, he would remove the spell that he had cast over me.
▪
Pick a spell of dry weather and travel light: you could be pleasantly surprised.
▪
They were not among the famous and the sought-after who gathered under the spell of the White City.
▪
We are just here for a spell and pass on.