adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
an expensive commodity
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Consumers began to find that they could afford more expensive commodities.
an expensive gift
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He was always showering Louise with expensive gifts.
an expensive/cheap restaurant
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He took her out to an expensive restaurant.
cheap/expensive
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He bought her a bottle of expensive French perfume.
expensive/sophisticated
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He was a man of expensive tastes
(= he liked expensive things. )
make sth the best/worst/most expensive etc
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Over 80,000 people attended, making it the biggest sporting event in the area.
work out expensive/cheap etc (= be expensive or cheap )
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If we go by taxi, it’s going to work out very expensive.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
as
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Trendier than my Tissot Seastar, but not as expensive .
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This is expensive , but not as expensive as piddling around.
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Wind costs 10.9 cents, geothermal 11.3 cents and solar at 15.1 cents, was more than twice as expensive as nuclear.
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It can be just as long, just as expensive as a real lawsuit, sometimes worse.
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That it's expensive; it's as expensive as you want to make it.
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That would tell you the politicians are about to vote on something that would be twice as expensive as the alternative.
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Although the second method sounds like it gives twice the cover, it is far from twice as expensive .
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Even if they keep within budget, nuclear plants are at least twice as expensive to build as coal stations.
extremely
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Pattern making is a highly skilled occupation and patterns can be extremely expensive to produce.
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Privatizing to a monopoly is not only senseless but extremely expensive .
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For example selective computed tomography could be performed instead of whole body scans, which are extremely expensive .
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As for radon, Rudy said looking for radon in drinking water would be extremely expensive and might not help public health.
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It is an extremely expensive process that, left unchecked, will go on for ever.
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It was a formidable and extremely expensive task.
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Reprocessing is a highly technically demanding and extremely expensive operation, involving the extraction of uranium and plutonium from the spent fuel.
less
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Her guides would have lemon squash because it was better for them and less expensive .
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Buy margarine instead of butter; it is much less expensive .
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The navy says that burial at sea is less expensive , demands less shipyard work, and is isolated from human activity.
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A satellite that can stabilize itself would be less expensive than those that depend on steering jets.
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It's not comfortable and, while it's quite big and quite cheap, there are bigger, less expensive alternatives.
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What would make this task more efficient, less time-consuming, and thus less expensive ?
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You may well find some practitioners more or less expensive .
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They are more convenient and often less expensive .-Buy in bulk.
more
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The real difficulty now is that risk insurance will be harder to buy, and will certainly be more expensive .
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The smaller ones are more expensive and a greater delicacy than the larger ones.
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Whether or not the employer should pay the excess for a more expensive substitution depends on the circumstances of the case.
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The more expensive we make the United States, the fewer international visitors we will attract.
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This is more expensive but it has a particular advantage in television coverage.
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Whipped butter and flavoured butters are more expensive than butter weight for weight.
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Had the debt been only slightly more expensive , those operations could not have taken place.
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These ministers lost none of their fervor for souls, but they became less mobile and more expensive to support.
most
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Auctions were held to sell off the town lots, those nearest the station being the most expensive .
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San Francisco remains the most expensive housing market, with a median home price of $ 264, 800.
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Today she is one of the most expensive celebrities in the world.
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They were far from the most expensive items in the Horwitch galley.
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They are, generally speaking, the most expensive type.
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A: $ 19. 50 is the most expensive seat other than luxury boxes.
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The most expensive item consisted of several kinds of shellfish in a sauce and sounded as if it was better avoided.
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The most expensive Senate campaign in 1996 was that of Jesse Helms, R-N.
prohibitively
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The flight to quality by investors has made equity financing prohibitively expensive for all but the soundest of companies.
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Long-term nursing home care insurance is prohibitively expensive .
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Buying new glass and having it cut to size can be prohibitively expensive for the home tank builder.
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Pollen-moving wind would have been prohibitively expensive to manufacture.
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The costs of computer software is not prohibitively expensive in addition, hardware costs have also fallen substantially.
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But, given that penguins are relatively rare birds, that turned out to be prohibitively expensive .
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For families of low income such items are almost certainly prohibitively expensive .
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The newer ones, while they do not cause these problems, are prohibitively expensive .
relatively
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Overdrafts Asking your bank for an overdraft is cheaper than going into the red without permission but can still be relatively expensive .
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One practical problem with the drug is that it is relatively expensive compared with phenytoin or phenobarbital.
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The photocopying of typed sheets, although relatively expensive , gives clear and reliably consistent copies.
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However the method is still relatively expensive and therefore its use is still restricted in Western hospitals.
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Often they are in relatively expensive sites on high streets with costly business rates.
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They are relatively expensive items - but not compared to plant downtime.
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Thus the entire manufacturing process tends to be relatively expensive compared with other forms of production.
so
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Buses and underground trains were so expensive that it was no longer accurate to regard them as public transport.
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He expressed surprise when he learned we were staying there because he thought it was so expensive .
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Evaluating the toxicology of any new pesticide is now so expensive that few new compounds are reaching the market.
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Space stations are so expensive that they can not be placed in short-lived, unstable orbits.
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Local gentry and landowners found the gang's exploits so expensive and unremitting that measures had to be taken to apprehend them.
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Politics has got so expensive that it takes lots of money to even get beat with nowadays.
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As that is so expensive to collect, why not abolish it now?
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Why a pair was so expensive just four years ago is something you could dwell on well into the night.
too
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Speculation that the Dolphin Centre could be used has been ruled out by Mr Boyle who says it would be too expensive .
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They also say the 25-ton stainless steel casks used at some plants to stored cooled material above ground are too expensive .
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And they're too expensive to buy.
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Private doctors are too expensive for most workers, and government health department visits can span an entire day.
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The air fare from London was too expensive for Maggie to come regularly.
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And arguing that elections are too expensive is a helluva case for monarchy.
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At around £5 per foot in 1964 it was not considered too expensive .
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Retailers, however, say advertising is too expensive and smaller businesses can't always afford it.
very
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Nordstrom has not publicly put a cost on its plans, but they are going to be very expensive .
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Rock excavation is obviously very expensive .
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The price of eating out is similar to London but alcohol is very expensive .
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Taking a very small issue public can be very expensive .
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Yes, and it is very expensive .
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Supply Chain Management Until recently, these inventory management strategies were implemented through very expensive computer systems and private networks.
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Both drugs and other addicting things are very expensive and very easy to get, more so in London.
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Rinse additives tend to be very expensive but are used in very low concentrations and are invariably mechanically dosed.
■ NOUN
car
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I hear that all the older boys are driving big expensive cars and living the life of Riley.
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One happy side-effect of manufacturing laughably expensive cars is, however, a certain price insensitivity in the product itself.
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The Caterham has been an expensive car to run, although not prohibitively so.
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Maybe he feels he merits and can now afford a more expensive car .
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You began to see them in the expensive cars .
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At £25,000, it is Caterham's most expensive car yet.
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It was a big expensive car , must be some one for one of the neighbours.
clothes
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They all wore the most expensive clothes and had beautiful, long, curly hair.
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They decided not to buy expensive clothes for the wedding.
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And she is power dressing, wearing beautifully-cut, expensive clothes .
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With his expensive clothes , elite education, and distinguished demeanor, he was different from the rustic and plain Avon folk.
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When he did appear, just before opening night he looked an impressive figure in his expensive clothes .
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One of the largest shops of the Diamond was Magee's, the tweed shop, which sold expensive clothes and souvenirs.
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I bought such beautiful, expensive clothes .
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There was a little wistfulness about these village girls when they looked at the rich convent girls in their expensive clothes .
equipment
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Once, the computer network was viewed as a means of sharing expensive equipment .
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In many cases, expensive equipment is being discarded.
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The report highlighted the under-utilisation of expensive equipment .
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But while more sophisticated procedures may save time, they often rely on more expensive equipment .
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This is particularly important when the installation of expensive equipment is contemplated. 3.
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Those with older or less expensive equipment might find it useful.
item
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In the building and the big yard beside it there were cases of very expensive items .
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They were far from the most expensive items in the Horwitch galley.
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A folio edition was an expensive item , but even cheaper quarto editions of most writers were not available readily.
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The most expensive item consisted of several kinds of shellfish in a sauce and sounded as if it was better avoided.
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The expensive item slithered off his back like a shed snakeskin.
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Typically, such delicacies will be among the more expensive items on a menu.
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Longer floor tiles in front of expensive items will make her feel more relaxed and expansive.
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More expensive items in the same range should be finely knotted and possess cleanly articulated and symmetrically arranged decorative forms.
mistake
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This could prove an expensive mistake .
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For, as Richard said the wrong choice could prove an expensive mistake .
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Neither of them was competent to do that type of business and they made an expensive mistake .
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Aunt Tossie, ever loving, ever kind, had made an expensive mistake .
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Instructing the wrong engineer can be a horribly expensive mistake .
taste
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His wife had expensive tastes and the kids always wanted new clothes or bikes or games.
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Mark had always had very grand, expensive tastes .
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Mr and Mrs Field had expensive tastes .
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He'd looked as though he had expensive tastes .
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Muriel had already spoken to Stephen about Lily's expensive taste in soap.
way
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But for growers, it can be an expensive way of insuring against risk, suggests Mr Dickie.
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High interest rates tend to make it an expensive way to borrow.
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If this is true, it seems an expensive way of satisfying one's curiosity.
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Spartan carries important data from that experiment, which tested lighter and less expensive ways to put large structures in space.
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The dot.economy turned out to be just a more expensive way of selling old-economy goods at knockdown prices.
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At $ 1 million each, a Tomahawk is an expensive way to blast beach fortifications.
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You may by now have learned that this is probably the most expensive way to crash!
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The detergent feeds often fitted are expensive ways of using chemicals.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
fabulously rich/expensive/successful etc
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And she must have been fabulously rich to live in a house like this.
the biggest/tallest/most expensive etc ... on earth
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
an expensive restaurant
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Do you have any less expensive cameras?
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Movies are incredibly expensive to make these days.
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My uncle took us out to dinner at an expensive restaurant.
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She spends most of her money on expensive clothes.
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Smoking can be an expensive habit.
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Taxis are so expensive - that's why I usually take the bus.
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The house is on West Boston Avenue, Detroit's most expensive residential area.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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And here you will be seated in an expensive chair.
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And it's not one of their more expensive ones, either.
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College is more expensive and more critical to middle-class status than in the past.
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Comparisons reveal that further-processed fish products are more expensive than frozen raw fillets and steaks.
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It will be both a richer world and a less expensive one.
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Means testing was expensive , clumsy and time-wasting.
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Spartan carries important data from that experiment, which tested lighter and less expensive ways to put large structures in space.