(~s)
1.
Wit is the ability to use words or ideas in an amusing, clever, and imaginative way.
Boulding was known for his biting ~...
N-UNCOUNT
2.
If you describe someone as a ~, you mean that they have the ability to use words or ideas in an amusing, clever, and imaginative way.
Holmes was gregarious, a great ~, a man of wide interests.
N-COUNT
3.
If you say that someone has the ~ to do something, you mean that they have the intelligence and understanding to make the right decision or take the right action in a particular situation.
The information is there and waiting to be accessed by anyone ~h the ~ to use it.
= sense
N-SING: the N to-inf
4.
You can refer to your ability to think quickly and cleverly in a difficult situation as your ~s.
She has used her ~s to progress to the position she holds today.
N-PLURAL: usu poss N
5.
You can use ~s in expressions such as frighten someone out of their ~s and scare the ~s out of someone to emphasize that a person or thing worries or frightens someone very much.
You scared us out of our ~s. We heard you had an accident.
N-PLURAL: usu out of poss N emphasis
6.
If you have your ~s about you or keep your ~s about you, you are alert and ready to act in a difficult situation.
Travellers need to keep their ~s about them.
PHRASE: V inflects
7.
If you say that you are at your ~s’ end, you are emphasizing that you are so worried and exhausted by problems or difficulties that you do not know what to do next.
We row a lot and we never have time on our own. I’m at my ~’s end.
PHRASE: usu v-link PHR emphasis
8.
If you pit your ~s against someone, you compete against them in a test of knowledge or intelligence.
He has to pit his ~s against an adversary who is cool, clever and cunning.
PHRASE: V inflects, PHR n
9.
To ~ is used to indicate that you are about to state or describe something more precisely. (LITERARY)
He’d like ‘happiness’ to be given a new and more scientifically descriptive label, to ~ ‘Major affective disorder, pleasant type’.
= namely
PHRASE: PHR ~h cl, PHR n