(~s)
Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.
1.
You can refer to something that people do regularly as a ~.
Some firms have cut workers’ pay below the level set in their contract, a ~ that is illegal in Germany...
Gordon Brown has demanded a public inquiry into bank ~s.
N-COUNT
2.
Practice means doing something regularly in order to be able to do it better. A ~ is one of these periods of doing something.
She was taking all three of her daughters to basketball ~ every day...
The defending world racing champion recorded the fastest time in a final ~ today.
N-VAR: usu supp N
3.
The work done by doctors and lawyers is referred to as the ~ of medicine and law. People’s religious activities are referred to as the ~ of a religion.
...the ~ of internal medicine...
I eventually realized I had to change my attitude toward medical ~.
N-UNCOUNT: with supp
4.
A doctor’s or lawyer’s ~ is his or her business, often shared with other doctors or lawyers.
The new doctor’s ~ was miles away from where I lived...
N-COUNT
5.
see also practise
6.
What happens in ~ is what actually happens, in contrast to what is supposed to happen.
...the difference between foreign policy as presented to the public and foreign policy in actual ~...
In ~, workers do not work to satisfy their needs.
PHRASE: PHR with cl
7.
If something such as a procedure is normal ~ or standard ~, it is the usual thing that is done in a particular situation.
It is normal ~ not to reveal details of a patient’s condition...
The transcript is full of codewords, which is standard ~ in any army.
PHRASE: v-link PHR
8.
If you are out of ~ at doing something, you have not had much experience of it recently, although you used to do it a lot or be quite good at it.
‘How’s your German?’—‘Not bad, but I’m out of ~.’
PHRASE: v-link PHR
9.
If you put a belief or method into ~, you behave or act in accordance with it.
Now that he is back, the prime minister has another chance to put his new ideas into ~...
PHRASE: V inflects