Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
Note: The form '~st' is also used, but is more literary.
1.
Someone or something that is situated or moving ~ a group of things or people is surrounded by them.
They walked ~ the crowds in Red Square.
...a little house ~ the trees.
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2.
If you are ~ people of a particular kind, you are with them and having contact with them.
Things weren’t so bad, after all. I was ~ friends again...
I was brought up ~ people who read and wrote a lot.
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3.
If someone or something is ~ a group, they are a member of that group and share its characteristics.
A fifteen year old girl was ~ the injured...
Also ~ the speakers was the new American ambassador to Moscow.
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4.
If you want to focus on something that is happening within a particular group of people, you can say that it is happening ~ that group.
Unemployment is quite high, especially ~ young people.
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5.
If something happens ~ a group of people, it happens within the whole of that group or between the members of that group.
I am sick of all the quarrelling ~ politicians who should be concentrating on vital issues.
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6.
If something such as a feeling, opinion, or situation exists ~ a group of people, most of them have it or experience it.
The biggest fear ~ parents thinking of using the Internet is that their children will be exposed to pornography...
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7.
If something applies to a particular person or thing ~ others, it also applies to other people or things.
...a news conference attended ~ others by our foreign affairs correspondent...
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8.
If something is shared ~ a number of people, some of it is given to all of them.
Most of the furniture was left to the neighbours or distributed ~ friends...
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9.
If people talk, fight, or agree ~ themselves, they do it together, without involving anyone else.
European farm ministers disagree ~ themselves...
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