adverb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
just/only/merely etc a formality
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Getting a gun license here seems to be just a formality.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
become
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Profit figures become merely amounts which can be spent without impairing initial capital invested.
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The purely theoretical becomes the truly real, and that which is experienced as real becomes merely an illusion.
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When politics invades religion, legality becomes merely emblematic.
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Big failures are held in check by becoming merely small failures at the next highest level on a hierarchy.
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But at what point in the isolation of elements does a person become merely a mad torso with head attached?
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Most Contemporaries will not make the transition; they will merely become dated and irrelevant and will eventually go out of print.
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Though all this may sound complicated, after the first year's practice it becomes merely routine.
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They merely became more discerning in the façade they showed to the public.
mean
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If you merely mean some sort of intuitive intelligence, then I hope I am psychic.
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In other cases, however, inadequacy merely means that we have not go as much as we would have liked.
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Longer hours, indeed, would merely mean more unsold coal.
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It means merely that where the trustee was in possession of the property under trust, he could be ordered to make it over.
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A hefty victory merely meant that the opposition were too weak.
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This does not mean merely that correctness of translation is undetermined by all the possible data.
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Education is about ends, not merely means .
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Kant is opposed to treating humans as merely means to an end.
reflect
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This, of course, might merely reflect the actual flattening effect which information technology appears to have on organisational structures anyway.
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Crime and Punishment did not merely reflect or even confirm that strange and removed elsewhere, the world journalists write about.
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It merely reflects the implementation of a programme laid down much earlier.
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These differences merely reflect the current balance of locus of academic activity and the obviously higher unit costs of hospital infrastructure.
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If targets are too simple they merely reflect current behaviour.
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Gone are the days when the, existence of a signed building contract merely reflected a formality required by prudent businessmen.
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It accounts for the way in which goods not merely reflect distinction, but are an instrument of it.
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Usually diplomatic services and foreign offices in this respect merely reflected the societies they served.
serve
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There were plenty of others below it, but they merely served as points of interest on the way down.
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The receivables merely serve as collateral in the event of default.
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This too may merely serve to let the situation spiral out of control.
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The objects serve merely as a medium for permitting the construction to occur.
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But the case of Auerbach merely serves to illustrate how ill-founded the criterion is.
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This week a poll in Newsweek merely served to underscore this picture.
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Christmas has merely served to highlight the deficiencies of some businesses-great website, shame about the delivery.
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Such statistics can serve merely to overwhelm one with a sense of futility.
want
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I merely want the information upon which I can decide whether refurbishment can go ahead.
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You do not merely want to be considered just the best of the best.
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I merely want you to perform an experiment.
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I merely want to describe the blow that a child can feel on losing a beloved baby-sitter.
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When hostilities began he merely wanted the regime to behave dynamically.
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These are not, you have to believe, the cynically high-minded ravings of a politician who merely wants to get re-elected.
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Perhaps he merely wanted the signal to be read in that way.
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He merely wanted me to know he had been identified and that the police had attempted an interview.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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As Foreman became angrier and angrier, Paula merely smiled.
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He was merely a boy! I wouldn't have expected him to understand.
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I wondered if the girl had meant more to him than being merely a casual friend.
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The committee does not blame any individual; we are merely trying to find out how the accident happened.
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The President's position is merely ceremonial; it is the Chancellor who holds real power.
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Today people want more from working life than merely a paycheck.
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You are not there to teach, but merely to supervise the children.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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But both companies' increase in money sales merely matched the six-fold increase in the retail prices index over the 20 years.
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Control was merely the essential prerequisite to constructive administration.
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If you merely mean some sort of intuitive intelligence, then I hope I am psychic.
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So it is possible that the difference between Mill and Bentham here is merely apparent.
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The Speaker calls upon the Minister in charge who merely stands up and nods.
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Unless managers see the control process through to its conclusion, they are merely monitoring performance rather than exercising control.
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You don't have to finish first in each race, merely in the leading group.