KEY


Meaning of KEY in English

I. adjective

COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES

a bunch of keys

A bunch of keys dangled from his belt.

a car door/engine/key etc

She left the car engine running.

a door key

She was looking in her bag for her door key.

a key aspect (= a very important aspect )

There have been changes in five key aspects of education.

a key element (= very important and necessary )

Trust is a key element in any relationship.

a key feature (= a very important or necessary feature )

Private ownership is a key feature of capitalism.

a key objective (= a very important objective )

Their economic strategy was based on a number of key objectives.

a key sector (= a very important one )

They identified cars and electronics as key sectors in the economy.

a key witness (= a very important witness )

Rupert is expected to be a key witness at the trial.

a key/central role

The report recognized the key role of teachers.

a key/central/important concept

The title tells you something about the central concept of the poem.

a key/crucial factor (= a very important factor )

A key factor in a company’s success is knowing its customers.

a key/major/big issue (= very important )

For me, the big issue is cost.

a major/dominant/key etc player

a firm that is a dominant player on Wall Street

Allen key

control key

forget your keys/money/cigarettes etc

Oh no, I’ve forgotten my wallet.

function key

hex key

hot key

key card

key chain

key personnel

Many of the key personnel have left.

key ring

key signature

keyed up

Travis was keyed up at the thought of seeing Rosie again.

key/major/important etc component

Exercise is one of the key components of a healthy lifestyle.

master key

pound key

shift key

skeleton key

tab key

the basic/key facts

The report outlines the basic facts concerning the case.

turn the handle/knob/key/tap etc

She gently turned the handle of the bedroom door.

COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS

■ NOUN

area

From the early 1960s the party had seen the issue of civil liberties as a key area of agitation.

The other key area would appear to be the line-out laws.

Recruitment has, to a large extent, centred on the key areas of sales and research staff.

These are key areas for attention which are highlighted in the project management literature.

Thus, in the key area of economic policy, despite an occasional victory, Carter achieved little.

We have also tightened up our management in other key areas of milk production.

We were delighted yesterday to obtain the agreement of the manufacturers to concentrate on these three key areas .

That must include long-term investment in key areas of training, education, research and development, and transport.

aspect

A key aspect of this part of the mix is the life-cycle of the product.

The indifference to occupational type is a key aspect of this definition.

This is a key aspect of the refugee question which has so far received inadequate attention.

Another key aspect of the new courses has been the building in of planned linkages to degree provision.

In this context, let us remind ourselves of the key aspects of their position.

component

Instead, we concentrate upon some key components and examples, which serve to illustrate the issues and problems involved.

The lineup appears to be strong from top to bottom, but all the players know Bagwell is the key component .

Transport is usually considered as the key component of the provision of social overhead capital.

The key component was Thompson Seedless, which also are consumed as table grapes, raisins and grape concentrate.

Its key components include a graphical user interface builder, database access, reusable application framework and cross-platform portability, it says.

Rockwell not only built the space shuttle but constructed key components for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs of the 1960s.

The key component of Karpov's strategy, challenging Black's only well placed piece.

Instead they turned up on site with stone panels missing and without many of these key components .

decision

This should involve making all key decisions and even moving into your office during your absence.

That means, as usual, the key decisions will be made in the September primary election.

It is there that key decisions are made.

The Cabinet, chaired by the prime minister, is the key decision making body within the government.

End of the road Quickly and sensibly, Joe found the key decision-makers and talked with them.

Your chance to make up your own mind about what key decision makers are saying by listening to them in full.

The allocation of the increment becomes the key decision . 2.

Nevertheless, the key decisions about resources for the social policy sector will be regarded as economic policy decisions.

element

Trade unionism became a key element in national solidarity and social education.

The key element , however, is not the ardor of the reformers.

So this week we highlight the key elements of a typical mortgage endowment policy statement.

Francis noted that strong profit margins and a committed, rock-solid management team were the key elements for a successful start-up.

But a key element remained the considerable filial loyalty the catholic nationalists showed towards their clergy, bishops, and Popes.

Water is a key element in the ley system.

The two key elements are space and timing.

The remainder of the course involves a practical exercise which demonstrates the benefits of improving these key elements .

factor

Confidence is a key factor in any football situation.

And perhaps even more important, Steinberg and his colleagues sought the key factors in the lives of students who did achieve.

The key factor in this decision will invariably be money.

However, the key factor will be whether the president puts campaign finance reform high on his agenda for next year.

It seems possible, therefore, that financial managers should be involved in the identification and analysis of those key factors .

The key factor in making better decisions is a careful analysis of what an organization believes about itself and its environment.

There are four key factors which illustrate the point.

Bandwidth and attenuation are the key factors .

feature

This latter award reminds me of a key feature of being the best and that is teamwork.

Research Areas Learning constitutes one of the key features of a neural network.

There are some registry subsystems that contain key features of expert systems.

A key feature of the module is that the programme should reflect activities and contexts which the student values and has chosen.

Indeed, one of the key features of the Nottinghamshire initiative was that it occurred in somewhat of a policy vacuum.

The key feature of the methodology is the use of comparisons of related texts to reveal sociologically significant textual features.

The following lists some key features of the new qualifications.

Some key features of Durkheim's argument can be isolated.

figure

Lucia Walker is one of the key figures in the development of contact improvisation in this country.

The ruling brings together key figures in two other notorious Los Angeles criminal cases.

The formal decision was taken in January 1947 by Attlee, Bevin and a handful of other key figures .

For Wilson, as both she and Branson were acutely aware, was a key figure in Virgin's defence.

He is alleged to have been a key figure in virtually all aspects of the Guinness affair.

The key figure here is the number of seeks per access.

Four key figures who will have varied feelings during Tuesday night's Essex Senior Cup final.

member

On Dec. 10 Lubys announced the key members of his new government.

Mark and Loi were the key members .

A cordon of armour was parked around newspapers and broadcasting stations, and key members of the previous administration were arrested.

He was always zealous in good works, always regular at worship and a key member of the church.

Since then, Lake has said it was a mistake to not inform key members of Congress of the decision.

Devon lost the services of Peter Roebuck just as he was becoming a key member of their side.

And the team must always include the disabled person in question, besides key members of the family and friends.

part

Reviewing Reviewing plays a key part in the process of learning from experience.

Project work and its practical application forms a key part of the programme.

The sales forecast is a key part of the company's plans.

The long-awaited report has been a key part of the couple's bitter custody battle.

The key part of her proposition, furthermore, is the Creole part.

It is frequently seen in tumours and may play a key part in the kinetics of tumour growth.

Public Relations is a key part of an infill project.

Non-verbal behaviours also play a key part .

player

Dale Baker and David Gibson are now key players in Bright's new look side, both made 70's.

Principals are key players and are encouraged to take the lead to ensure that identification procedures are implemented.

Northampton, too, were missing key players , going down by five tries to a consolation one.

In the 1930s, they were key players in lettuce strikes in Salinas.

We are also key players in a cosmic struggle.

A half-dozen key players have been there.

Resignations followed and several key players in the hip-hop wars became un-persons.

The series dramatized the struggle by portraying the key players on both sides and probing their motives and strategies.

point

What are the key points in the extract?

But the 14-member committee, led by former Housing Secretary Jack Kemp, was vague on several key points .

Are you a fast reader with the ability to retain the key points ?

And she found herself at key points in her relationship yelling at her financially ambitious partner because they had such different aspirations.

Policies emerge that are not merely compromises but also remain obscure on key points of implementation.

Stones become important symbols for Karlin at key points throughout the book.

The final key point about these analyses are their emphasis on broader social change.

The key point is that the level of output depends directly upon total or aggregate expenditures.

position

In most modern societies, parties have key positions on economic and social issues or on constitutional matters.

In any graphics system the object to be animated is first drawn on paper in a number of key positions .

Display maps at the key positions should remove this problem.

This is a key position to learn to cure thinned shots.

How are they going to fill key positions to perpetuate growth?

Would you give them a key position of accountability in your team?

Hongkong Bank is moving fast to consolidate its acquisition and is appointing senior executives to many of the key positions .

question

Fluoride can be harmful; the key question is, at what concentrations does it become toxic in the body?

The key question is, of course, how much inequality can government prevent before the too-much limit is reached.

A key question is whether firms should be able to decide which regulatory body to join.

The key question has become how information is organized, who has access to it, and why.

But this begs the key questions .

These are the key questions to be asked about reciprocity within families, both historical and contemporary.

Indeed, the key question is whether the organization serves or squashes the human spirit.

ring

The tokens are swapped for Guinness T shirts, key rings , vouchers and customised prizes.

She rummaged in her handbag for the key on its wooden key ring and tried to fit it into the lock.

He had to fumble in it for some seconds before his fingers found the key ring .

Interestingly, the use of key rings is confined solely to the Roman period.

Sebastian Nocon got a huge key ring with the letter S on it from Fergie.

Other good features include a spare bulb in the tail cap and a useful key ring facility.

role

The project high-lighted the key role of the expert advisors which are used by farm managers in undertaking their roles.

Those visiting the current exhibit will learn that black churches and their leaders played key roles in local history.

A score was assigned for a given profile, and computer facilities played a key role in the development of this area.

But analysts said politics and public sentiment almost certainly played key roles .

Poulantzas' explanation gives a key role to the relation between the capitalist state and capitalist ideology.

And then midway through the second-half he played a key role in Brian Strain's vital winner.

Luck has always played a key role in doing the pools, but half the fun was thinking that skill mattered.

This highlights the key role played by the perfect capital market assumption.

witness

And Graham Gooch's first lieutenant Stewart, the Surrey skipper, will be a key witness at a committee of inquiry.

Most of the key witnesses have long since skipped the country.

worker

Find a secretary and some key workers , depending on your needs.

As a key worker or a care assistant, you may go to see the person in their own home.

She'd like to see a key worker allocated to each patient and families made more fully informed about treatment.

I attend different groups, and I've got a key worker who I see once a week.

Plans for a garden village with houses for key workers were also implemented.

Integrating services - Another set of advantages was the identification of key workers and clarification of their roles.

In some Homes, you may be a key worker , working with perhaps three or four other care assistants.

What is involved in being a key worker ?

PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

under lock and key

Oswald's FBI file has been kept under lock and key.

If they had kept me under lock and key from my fifteenth birthday until my twentieth, I might have escaped.

Since then, that length of self-healing cable has been kept under lock and key at the railway inspectorate building at Reading.

Smith's copies have spent the last six days under lock and key at its Dunstable depot.

The older children were no longer kept under lock and key.

Wherever they are kept, they should be out of reach of children and, where appropriate, under lock and key.

With Petersen under lock and key, life for the gumshoes of the Office of Security returned to normal.

Your master should really have kept the book under lock and key.

with/at the touch of a button/key

A customer uses her remote control to shop different channels with the touch of a button.

An oil dispensing massage head dispenses oil at the touch of a button to give a smooth, drag free massage.

At the touch of a button a huge gate opens and I am confined in a small area between fences.

At the touch of a button they can still be made to disappear.

Jet start operates for 30 seconds at the touch of a button.

Letters, words or whole lines can be deleted and new texts inserted at the touch of a button.

Up to ten needles can be operated separately by computer programme producing endless designs and colourways at the touch of a button.

You can add categories and recipes at the touch of a button.

EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

Communication is key for the newspaper team.

Education is likely to be a key issue in the forthcoming election.

He held a key position in the Bush administration.

Laws are key to maintaining an orderly society.

The key person in this project will be the design manager.

the area's key businesses

Transport and communications are key areas of the economy.

We don't have much time, so let's concentrate on the key issues.

EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS

A key card numbering the various positions was mounted on the top of the tachistoscope.

A law on salaries which was passed on Dec. 26, 1989, was deemed to be of key importance.

From the early 1960s the party had seen the issue of civil liberties as a key area of agitation.

He would dispose of it and a key item of evidence would be gone for good.

Many of the key terms and debates that take place throughout the book are introduced.

The system comprises three key modules, which are centred on the Network Control System Console.

What are the key leadership skills?

II. noun

COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS

■ ADJECTIVE

low

Nightlife is fairly low key , and centres mainly around restaurants and bars, although there is one disco.

We will try to keep it low key .

Any attempt to introduce the sponsor's range of products must be low key .

He prefers khakis and is about as low key and unassuming as they come.

The style of advertisement was both low key , and up-market.

The approach to the tournament should be as low key as possible with changes being made only where absolutely necessary.

According to agent Bill Hamilton, the decision to keep the campaign low key was taken locally.

He was almost sure he had heard another whistle, in a low key , somewhere ahead of him.

■ NOUN

car

Even the car keys or a belt buckle may upset things if placed too close.

This is a man, after all, who leaves his car keys in the front seat with the doors unlocked.

Even as the thought had come Paige had been gathering up her purse and the car keys .

For security, some systems also kill the engine if a person tries to drive the vehicle without the car key .

He asked whether she would mind calling him a cab and she dangled car keys and said she would drive him herself.

A visitor was attempting to lure a squirrel close for a picture by dangling and rattling his car keys .

He reached into his pocket for his car keys .

That night, when I went to bed, I found the registration and car keys on my bed table.

house

I used my house key , the same as I did yesterday.

Similarly, a domestic iris-scan unit could end the trauma of losing a set of house keys .

As my car and house keys were in the bag we had to change all the locks.

On leaving the field, Mickey found a purse containing four pounds, a pension book and a set of house keys .

issue

A key issue for the food of the future is what we choose to call it.

House and Senate dissension will deepen this year, making it more difficult for consensus to be achieved on key issues .

There are two key issues we can draw from Stein's analysis.

We also came up with a laundry list of key issues that had always been there but never put on the table.

The bill is a key issue , but the congressional situation is tricky.

Another key issue is the use of outside people or companies to perform skilled trades.

A key issue will be whether commanders consulted the prefect, Arnaldo La Barbera, before the raid.

Officials on both sides, however, said they expect few breakthroughs on key issues this week.

question

Good mediators facilitate the necessary exchange of information and help both parties pinpoint key questions to take to their legal advisers.

A key question lingering is where the investors' money went.

Two key questions still need to be addressed: Do consumers want new services and will they pay for them?

The next key question is, How do we know what to specialize in?

A key question for the court is whether Jackson held his views about Microsoft before he began hearing the case.

The relationship between complexity and organization becomes a key question in trying to simulate the processing of sensory inputs.

A key question in interpretation of the provision: How soon must that use be implemented?

return

When input is complete you should press the RETURN key .

To print these mail messages, you should press the RETURN key .

There are now two courses of action open to you: Press the RETURN key , or Enter an option number.

After both fields have been completed correctly, the RETURN key should be pressed.

The Return key which denotes the start of the new paragraph can also trigger off other paragraph attributes.

In this case, to exit the option, press the RETURN key again.

If you have inspected all marked messages, you should press the RETURN key .

shift

For single quotes or apostrophes leave out the Shift key .

Then, hold down the Shift key and move the cursor to the end of the block you want selected.

It really is exactly like using the Shift key .

Zoom Control Move mouse over the molecule, hold Shift key , click and hold mouse button and drag.

For punctuation and symbols, use the Shift key .

tab

If this is the value required, the user can move to the next field by pressing the TAB key .

They were entered using the regular Tab key at the tab stops at positions 20 and 40.

If you wish to view the next page, you need only press the TAB key .

If you have marked further messages to inspect, you should now press the TAB key .

When you are ready to start inspecting the mail messages, you should press the TAB key .

The TAB key must be pressed after typing the user name to move to the password field.

■ VERB

hold

Then, hold down the Shift key and move the cursor to the end of the block you want selected.

To delete several characters to the right of the cursor, hold the Del key down.

Zoom Control Move mouse over the molecule, hold Shift key , click and hold mouse button and drag.

Hidden layers hold the key to more complex computations.

That second paradox, I believe, holds the key to the mysteries that still envelop the new regime.

Teachers frequently believe it is the parents who hold the key and that they should do more to help.

Practitioners, to a very large degree, hold the keys to reform.

Privatization could hold the key to upgrading the infrastructure.

press

Once installed and running, Windows screenshots can be captured to user-defined files merely by pressing the PrintScreen key .

The effects of these keys are cancelled when you press the Enter key.

If you then take the cursor up one line and press the delete key you will have deleted the tab.

You press the Enter key to begin a new paragraph or to insert blank lines in the text.

You can prove this by going back to the start of the paragraph and pressing the Backspace key .

When you press a key on your home system, it is just as if you are pressing the key at work.

But he had provided a double failsafe mechanism for himself in case he accidently pressed the wrong key while accessing the code.

When you know a program you tend to press the correct keys to give commands cleanly and neatly.

turn

Could you reach through a cat-flap to withdraw the door bolts and turn a key left in the lock?

The Woman shut the door and turned the key in the lock.

Marge led Janey to the car and turned the key .

You stand at the iron door to calm yourself then turn the iron key and face the next door.

The debate turns on six key words that constitute its two poles.

Cornelius turned his key in the lock and quietly entered the ancestral home.

He turned the key in the lock, and went in the side door of the old parish hall.

PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

spare key/battery/clothes etc

Carrying spare batteries could be a cheaper option to fast charging and all chargers rely on a power point anyway.

Eventually, the spare key was found and they were released from the clutches of the car.

I'd got no money, no night things, no spare clothes, no bank card.

It may include parts of larger support weapons such as mortars, radio equipment and spare batteries.

Make sure you have a supply of spare batteries too.

Remember that I had always intended to leave spare key with the Twills next door but never got round to it.

Some people take a fully charged spare battery along with them just in case!

Soon she took my visits for granted and I was given the spare key to let myself in the door.

under lock and key

Oswald's FBI file has been kept under lock and key.

If they had kept me under lock and key from my fifteenth birthday until my twentieth, I might have escaped.

Since then, that length of self-healing cable has been kept under lock and key at the railway inspectorate building at Reading.

Smith's copies have spent the last six days under lock and key at its Dunstable depot.

The older children were no longer kept under lock and key.

Wherever they are kept, they should be out of reach of children and, where appropriate, under lock and key.

With Petersen under lock and key, life for the gumshoes of the Office of Security returned to normal.

Your master should really have kept the book under lock and key.

with/at the touch of a button/key

A customer uses her remote control to shop different channels with the touch of a button.

An oil dispensing massage head dispenses oil at the touch of a button to give a smooth, drag free massage.

At the touch of a button a huge gate opens and I am confined in a small area between fences.

At the touch of a button they can still be made to disappear.

Jet start operates for 30 seconds at the touch of a button.

Letters, words or whole lines can be deleted and new texts inserted at the touch of a button.

Up to ten needles can be operated separately by computer programme producing endless designs and colourways at the touch of a button.

You can add categories and recipes at the touch of a button.

EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

a minor key

Type in your PIN code, then press the ENTER key .

EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS

Any set of search keys for a document can be described as a document profile.

My plastic key wouldn't open my hotel room.

Secondly, the computer keyboard has many additional keys which are used to alter the function of the alpha-numeric keys.

Then she saw a little glass table with three legs, and on the top of it was a very small gold key .

These socialist writings showed me the key to my environment.

III. verb

EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES

Rollins keyed a 98-89 victory for the Hawks.

EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS

Breaking it, if it can be found, produces the effect of keying out the engram.

But it is also possible that they were keying into an actual human possibility.

Longman DOCE5 Extras English vocabulary.      Дополнительный английский словарь Longman DOCE5.