(~s, ~ring, ~red)
Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
1.
A ~ is a large ball of burning gas in space. Stars appear to us as small points of light in the sky on clear nights.
The night was dark, the ~s hidden behind cloud.
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see also morning ~ , shooting ~
2.
You can refer to a shape or an object as a ~ when it has four, five, or more points sticking out of it in a regular pattern.
Children at school receive coloured ~s for work well done.
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3.
You can say how many ~s something such as a hotel or restaurant has as a way of talking about its quality, which is often indicated by a number of ~-shaped symbols. The more ~s something has, the better it is.
...five ~ hotels.
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4.
Famous actors, musicians, and sports players are often referred to as ~s.
...Gemma, 41, ~ of the TV series Pennies From Heaven...
By now Murphy is Hollywood’s top male comedy ~...
Not all football ~s are ill-behaved louts.
N-COUNT: oft supp N
5.
If an actor or actress ~s in a play or film, he or she has one of the most important parts in it.
The previous year Adolphson had ~red in a play in which Ingrid had been an extra...
VERB: V in n
6.
If a play or film ~s a famous actor or actress, he or she has one of the most important parts in it.
...a Hollywood film, The Secret of Santa Vittoria, directed by Stanley Kramer and ~ring Anthony Quinn.
VERB: V n
7.
Predictions about people’s lives which are based on astrology and appear regularly in a newspaper or magazine are sometimes referred to as the ~s.
There was nothing in my ~s to say I’d have travel problems!
= horoscope
N-PLURAL