(~ing, ~ed)
Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.
1.
Something that is ~ is as good as it could possibly be.
He spoke ~ English...
Hiring a nanny has turned out to be the ~ solution...
Nobody is ~.
ADJ
2.
If you say that something is ~ for a particular person, thing, or activity, you are emphasizing that it is very suitable for them or for that activity.
Carpet tiles are ~ for kitchens because they’re easy to take up and wash...
So this could be the ~ time to buy a home.
= ideal
ADJ: oft ADJ for n emphasis
3.
If an object or surface is ~, it does not have any marks on it, or does not have any lumps, hollows, or cracks in it.
Use only clean, Grade A, ~ eggs.
...their ~ white teeth.
ADJ
4.
You can use ~ to give emphasis to the noun following it.
She was a ~ fool...
What he had said to her made ~ sense.
= complete, total
ADJ: ADJ n emphasis
5.
If you ~ something, you improve it so that it becomes as good as it can possibly be.
We ~ed a hand-signal system so that he could keep me informed of hazards...
VERB: V n
6.
The ~ tenses of a verb are the ones used to talk about things that happened or began before a particular time, as in ‘He’s already left’ and ‘They had always liked her’. The present ~ tense is sometimes called the ~ tense.
ADJ: ADJ n
see also future , present ~ , past ~