I. adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a common/familiar dilemma (= one that a lot of people have )
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Deciding whether to put an elderly parent in a nursing home is a common dilemma.
a familiar complaint (= one that you have heard many times )
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A lack of good public transport is a familiar complaint.
a familiar landmark
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It was so dark we could not see any familiar landmarks.
a familiar routine
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Cats and dogs like a familiar routine.
a familiar sound
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Suddenly she heard the familiar sound of the key being turned in the front door.
familiar/home ground (= a subject etc that you know something about )
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In his latest book, McManus returns to more familiar ground.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
vaguely
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She began to feel vaguely familiar with the names of drinks and their prices.
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His voice, warm and slightly drunk, sounded vaguely familiar .
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Although the old Victorian building with its spine of hutted wards was a vaguely familiar place, it was by no means home.
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The voice on the other end of the line was vaguely familiar .
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The young man had seemed vaguely familiar .
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Her face was vaguely familiar , and Floyd suddenly became aware that the Administrator was looking at him with a quizzical smile.
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The other was of a man, plumpish and vaguely familiar .
■ NOUN
face
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He voiced their torment at knowing their children would be medically examined without consent and without any familiar face being present.
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He glanced at Rock Hardy, finding comfort in the familiar face . 5.03 already!
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It therefore seems that he ascribes this voice to a visually familiar face .
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It took D'Arcy a few seconds to connect the familiar face in the unfamiliar surroundings.
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He had shunned the opposition, reshuffled his government with familiar faces and retained the prime minister many wanted out.
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It's always nice to see a friendly familiar face .
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He turned the volume up as loud as it would go and stared at the familiar faces on the screen.
figure
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From the darkness between the semi-detached houses across the street came the familiar figure of Jack Stone.
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When he opened the door he saw a familiar figure in the street.
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A familiar figure got out of the bus and walked straight to the cab rank.
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No familiar figure validates human life in these photographs.
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This bluff businessman was a familiar figure to most of the small audience.
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The podium guest is a familiar figure , Libor Pesek, who bowed in the hall in 1992 and returned last season.
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He saw a familiar figure to his right.
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She couldn't seem to drag her eyes away from his familiar figure .
ground
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Certainly from the moment you land you realise that you are no longer on familiar ground .
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To me this was familiar ground .
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Here we may move, for the child, even further away from familiar ground .
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For an instant the familiar grounds glare and tremble, the prisoner rages at his bars.
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It was familiar ground too for Fonda and Hopper - who were already good friends.
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Work and health matters suffer in a return to familiar ground .
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Mr Ciampi will be on more familiar ground in his economic policies.
look
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A familiar look of disappointment crosses her face.
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He has a face people like, an oddly familiar look .
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It makes the familiar look sparklingly new.
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Life often has that familiar look in its eyes.
name
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Unexpected, it was like a surprise confrontation, and for a moment she could only stare blindly at the familiar name .
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Have him repeat the familiar name .
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He recognised familiar names and faces from all parties, and also noticed that everybody carried copies of his Dublin paper.
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One by one the familiar names and faces of the independence period were passing from the political picture.
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They include many familiar names such as the Halifax, the Woolwich and the Nationwide Anglia.
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The closest sorts of group are called keiretsu, and have familiar names like Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo and so on.
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Below the breathing trees a thousand lost talents dream into dust; decay into largely familiar names for a stranger's bouquet.
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During the king's absence on his romantic mission, a bitterly familiar name was involved in strange moves against his person.
ring
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Just as the current crisis has a distinctly familiar ring to it, so too do the solutions being offered.
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These and other questions have a familiar ring because versions of these same questions are posted in various places on the walls.
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If such a three-pronged assault on the ailing Soviet economy has a familiar ring to it, that is hardly surprising.
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We pull out some coins and drop them on to the counter, where they make, no doubt, a familiar ring .
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Once a few have been mastered it is surprising how quickly the most ponderous sounding scientific name acquires a familiar ring .
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Some findings will have a familiar ring in the West.
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It is a puzzle with a familiar ring to it.
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But the build-up to it had a familiar ring about it for Dave.
sight
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They were local lave-net fisherman, a familiar sight in this part of the county.
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Ravage, because there was so much of it, became a familiar sight , almost comfortable.
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Home-Made Angels was inspired by the familiar sight of hot-air balloons in the skies above Bristol.
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It was already a familiar sight from the windows of the classroom block of the Entally Convent.
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His combination of business suits and cowboy boots quickly became a familiar sight in San Diego and Tijuana.
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Rose Hill, already a familiar sight around Milton Keynes, may soon be recognised worldwide.
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As you travel eastward the route joins the River Almond where dippers and herons are familiar sights .
sound
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They're a familiar sound - police, ambulance, fire engine; electronic donkeys braying.
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And as Gargy Patel reports, it's also provided one the city's most familiar sounds .
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It was a familiar sound to her.
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As the mail train thundered past and disappeared into the distance he heard the familiar sound of footsteps.
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Houses have weird silhouettes in the soft rain, noises come through open windows, television voices, familiar sound tracks.
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The familiar sounds brought Jehan to a sense of the place and the time.
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It had become a familiar sound over the last couple of days.
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Yet other problems arise from familiar sound , structures or words being used in unfamiliar combinations, or for unfamiliar purposes.
surroundings
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Now he was in the wilderness, separated from friend and foe alike and far from familiar surroundings .
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All children will tend to suffer from separation from their parents, siblings and familiar surroundings .
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He took in the familiar surroundings with a refreshed, amused eye.
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And you can have the course of vaccinations in the familiar surroundings of your general practitioner's surgery.
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The busy executive will walk here, though she would use her car for far shorter journeys in more familiar surroundings .
territory
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The social work was familiar territory .
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Camp Holloway at Pleiku was familiar territory .
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I was now in more familiar territory .
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Since Michelangelo was an ardent antiquarian, all this will have been familiar territory .
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They were travelling over familiar territory and life on the march had slipped into a routine.
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All this was familiar territory but as films became more ambitious so there emerged the possibility of fuller social statement.
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After a while, the cat gives up and returns to its familiar territory .
voice
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Belinda's eyes flew open at the sound of the familiar voice .
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He needed a familiar voice to calm him down.
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Sometimes when the wind rattles through the awning we imagine the traces of strong, familiar voices calling our names.
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But then I knew right away that it was a familiar voice , calling a familiar version of my name.
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Here was an old, familiar voice , the voice of youthful friendship.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
have a familiar ring
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Some findings will have a familiar ring in the West.
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The terrors which Mr Cash expresses about our future in the community have a familiar ring about them.
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These and other questions have a familiar ring because versions of these same questions are posted in various places on the walls.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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Gibson's name is familiar -- what else did he write?
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He scanned the audience, searching for a familiar face.
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I don't like it when men I've just met are too familiar .
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It's nice to see a familiar face - I was afraid I wouldn't know anyone here.
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It was a relief to be back in the familiar surroundings of my hometown.
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It was good to be back in familiar surroundings.
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Kylie soon became a familiar figure at some of London's top fashion stores.
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Mimicking the President's familiar accent, DJ Rogers told his listeners that aliens had invaded.
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Robbie got that familiar goofy expression on his face as I told him the story.
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Sanders has an easy, familiar style of writing.
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She came up to me and started talking in such a familiar way that I thought I must have met her before.
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She was singing along to a tune on the radio that sounded vaguely familiar .
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That's a familiar tune - what is it?
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That girl looks familiar . I'm sure I've met her before.
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That morning she heard an old familiar voice on the kitchen radio.
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The first track on the album will be instantly familiar to Billie Holliday fans.
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The giant cross has become a familiar landmark to generations of San Franciscans.
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The local policeman is now a familiar figure in our school.
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The man seated at the next table looked faintly familiar .
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This kind of problem will be familiar to many married couples.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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By contrast, the memories of people my age are spookily familiar .
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By using and learning about the hardware and software, developing country professionals will become familiar with a variety of modern technologies.
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From the darkness between the semi-detached houses across the street came the familiar figure of Jack Stone.
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If customers' needs are to be recognized and met, designers and engineers must be familiar with sales and marketing.
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Its strange shape has become familiar to us.
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Not only will that skill help your re sume, it will make you familiar with on-line job recruiting.
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Those familiar with Vegetarian Times already know how accessible the recipes are.
II. noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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Greenfly, whitefly, sawfly are his familiars.
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He was not the conventional stuff of which familiars were made, of course.
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Some will eventually feel the loneliness as passage, as the rending of the familiar that is part of coming of age.
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Virtually every adult man, and a few older women, possess familiars.