(~s)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
You can refer to a large sum of money as a ~ or a small ~ to emphasize how large it is.
We had to eat out all the time. It ended up costing a ~...
He made a small ~ in the London property boom.
N-COUNT emphasis
2.
Someone who has a ~ has a very large amount of money.
He made his ~ in car sales...
Having spent his rich wife’s ~, the Major ended up in a debtors’ prison.
N-COUNT: oft poss N
3.
Fortune or good ~ is good luck. Ill ~ is bad luck.
Government ministers are starting to wonder how long their good ~ can last.
N-UNCOUNT
4.
If you talk about someone’s ~s or the ~s of something, you are talking about the extent to which they are doing well or being successful.
The electoral ~s of the Liberal Democratic party may decline...
The company had to do something to reverse its sliding ~s.
N-PLURAL: with poss
5.
When someone tells your ~, they tell you what they think will happen to you in the future, which they say is shown, for example, by the lines on your hand.
PHRASE: V inflects