(~s, priming, ~d)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
You use ~ to describe something that is most important in a situation.
Political stability, meanwhile, will be a ~ concern...
It could be a ~ target for guerrilla attack...
The police will see me as the ~ suspect!
ADJ: ADJ n
2.
You use ~ to describe something that is of the best possible quality.
It was one of the City’s ~ sites, near the Stock Exchange.
ADJ: ADJ n
3.
You use ~ to describe an example of a particular kind of thing that is absolutely typical.
The ~ example is Macy’s, once the undisputed king of California retailers.
= classic
ADJ: ADJ n
4.
If someone or something is in their ~, they are at the stage in their existence when they are at their strongest, most active, or most successful.
She was in her intellectual ~...
We’ve had a series of athletes trying to come back well past their ~.
...young persons in the ~ of life.
N-UNCOUNT: usu poss N
5.
If you ~ someone to do something, you prepare them to do it, for example by giving them information about it beforehand.
Claire wished she’d ~d Sarah beforehand...
Arnold ~d her for her duties...
The press corps was ~d to leap to the defense of the fired officials.
= brief
VERB: V n, V n for n, be V-ed to-inf
6.
to ~ the pump: see pump