I. noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a married couple
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Most of their friends are married couples.
childless couple/woman/marriage
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It was a happy but childless marriage.
the happy couple (= a couple that have just got married or will soon get married )
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
childless
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The threshold for childless couples under pensionable age was 57 percent above income support levels.
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Like many childless couples , Bobbie and Philip Bernisch wanted a baby.
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When the embryo was found to be male the Mastertons gave it away to a childless couple .
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Maria Park had even talked the childless presidential couple into adopting her older son.
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It was on the outskirts of the village and belonged to an elderly, childless couple .
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Inpart it was a response to the needs of childless white couples for whom white infants were no longer available for adoption.
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It has all the latest technology to help childless couples , but not enough first-class semen.
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I think in vitro fertilisation is wonderful for childless couples , but I could never consider that option for us.
elderly
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As she opened the gate, some people came out of the front door - an elderly couple with Susan behind them.
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In 1952, the family rented an 800-square-foot, two-bedroom apartment that the elderly couple still call home.
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An elderly couple were leaning over their garden gate.
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An elderly couple is silently eating chicken and mashed potatoes at a table by the window.
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The only photograph was of an elderly couple on top of the television, grey-haired and sporting smiles of false teeth.
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The other man to die was Brian Roberson, 36, who stabbed to death an elderly couple in 1986.
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Still the elderly couple , a Mr and Mrs Stevenson, stayed with me.
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The clients included secretaries, elderly couples , marketing managers.
happy
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As the happy couple took their places there was a stir and a rising babble behind them.
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The happy couple warring in public, being at odds over what really was the truth.
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They walk, like a happy couple .
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Now the happy couple plan a new ceremony to bless their marriage.
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Friends and relatives are expected to give paper money to the happy couple after traditional ceremonies, writes Gurbir Dhillon.
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In Anne and Tim, she will be longing for at least one happy couple within the Royal Family.
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The dancing had stopped momentarily, and a space had been cleared round the happy couple .
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Even the happiest of couples need some space between them.
married
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We gaze across the breakfast things like an old married couple , and I remove a smear of marmalade from the tablecloth.
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One of the implications of this is that married couples will be together for longer.
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The proportion of out-of-wedlock births has increased so much mainly because the number of births to married couples has sharply declined.
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Their life was going to be different from those of the married couples around them, he had promised himself.
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Your tour started with only three married couples , did it not?
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Voluntary childlessness Perhaps 5 percent of married couples choose to be childless.
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All married couples , provided they live together, are entitled to claim.
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By 1988, married couples with children made up no more than 26 percent of all households in Britain.
young
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It is a happy but open ending, as the young couple , like most others, face an uncertain future.
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And there was this terrific young couple , Herb, deep in lust and love.
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With a young couple aboard it?
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None the less the young couple eventually married, which in the face of so much Glover resistance undoubtedly took some strength and resolve.
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Time allowed 00:18 Read in studio Eight young couples are living in new homes thanks to a village's own housing scheme.
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Right away I get flagged by a young couple standing next to a building with bars on the doors and windows.
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A young couple , they had been out touring; she was driving and in charge.
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We finally found a young couple and they got as far as the front door.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
in a couple of shakes/two shakes
same-sex couple/relationship etc
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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A young couple were walking hand in hand along the beach.
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An elderly couple live next door.
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An elderly couple was sitting on the park bench.
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It's increasingly common for unmarried couples to live together.
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Shirley and Bob are a young married couple with two small children.
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the couple who live next door to me
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The house was bought by a young married couple .
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They're a nice couple , aren't they?
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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An entrepreneurial couple we talked to had always wanted to run a bed-and-breakfast.
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And I've seen Fred a couple of times in the last few years.
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By making breaking up harder to do, supporters believe that couples will focus more on staying together.
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He intends to invite some of these couples and top fertility clinic experts to appear before his panel.
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However, away from the cameras and microphones, the couple argued continually.
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It was a couple of hours before I could get back to Eleanor Darcy.
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Most bankruptcies involve couples who jointly file a petition to have their debts wiped out.
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The couple fell in love before they had even set eyes on each other during a six-month long distance courtship.
II. verb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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Efficiency is improved by coupling large numbers of boxcars together.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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And Feinstein had voted for an earlier version when it was coupled with a minimum wage increase.
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But after three relatively small grape harvests in a row coupled with continuing strong consumer demand, grape prices continue to increase.
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This meant, I assumed, that men coupled on the premises.
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This must be coupled with the creation of an attractive environment, through the transformation of derelict sites.