(~s, ~ing, ~ed)
Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
1.
The ~ of one thing on another is the change that the first thing causes in the second thing.
Parents worry about the ~ of music on their adolescent’s behavior...
Even minor head injuries can cause long-lasting psychological ~s.
N-VAR: oft N of/on n, N of -ing, adj N
2.
An ~ is an impression that someone creates deliberately, for example in a place or in a piece of writing.
The whole ~ is cool, light and airy.
= impression
N-COUNT
3.
A person’s ~s are the things that they have with them at a particular time, for example when they are arrested or admitted to hospital, or the things that they owned when they died. (FORMAL)
His daughters were collecting his ~s.
= belongings
N-PLURAL: with poss
4.
The ~s in a film are the specially created sounds and scenery.
N-PLURAL
5.
If you ~ something that you are trying to achieve, you succeed in causing it to happen. (FORMAL)
Prospects for ~ing real political change seemed to have taken a major step backwards.
VERB: V n
6.
see also greenhouse ~ , placebo ~ , ripple ~ , side-~ , sound ~ , special ~
7.
If you say that someone is doing something for ~, you mean that they are doing it in order to impress people and to draw attention to themselves.
The Cockney accent was put on for ~.
PHRASE: PHR after v
8.
You add in ~ to a statement or opinion that is not precisely accurate, but which you feel is a reasonable description or summary of a particular situation.
That deal would create, in ~, the world’s biggest airline.
= ~ively
PHRASE: PHR with cl vagueness
9.
If you put, bring, or carry a plan or idea into ~, you cause it to happen in practice.
These and other such measures ought to have been put into ~ in 1985.
= implement
PHRASE: V inflects
10.
If a law or policy takes ~ or comes into ~ at a particular time, it officially begins to apply or be valid from that time. If it remains in ~, it still applies or is still valid.
...the ban on new logging permits which will take ~ from July...
The decision was taken yesterday and will remain in ~ until further government instructions.
PHRASE: V inflects
11.
You can say that something takes ~ when it starts to produce the results that are intended.
The second injection should only have been given once the first drug had taken ~...
PHRASE: V inflects
12.
You use ~ in expressions such as to good ~ and to no ~ in order to indicate how successful or impressive an action is.
Mr Morris feels the museum is using advertising to good ~...
PHRASE: PHR after v
13.
You use to this ~, to that ~, or to the ~ that to indicate that you have given or are giving a summary of something that was said or written, and not the actual words used.
A circular to this ~ will be issued in the next few weeks...
PHRASE: n PHR
14.
If you say that something will happen with immediate ~ or with ~ from a particular time, you mean that it will begin to apply or be valid immediately or from the stated time. (BRIT mainly FORMAL)
The price of the Saturday edition is going up with ~ from 3 November.
PHRASE: PHR after v
15.
cause and ~: see cause