noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
20/30 years etc of service
▪
Brian retired after 25 years of service to the company.
5 minutes/an hour/20 years etc ago
▪
Her husband died 14 years ago.
a 20/30/40 etc year lease
▪
The company has acquired the building on a 30-year lease.
a six month/five year etc period
▪
They studied the behaviour of the ocean during a five year period.
academic year
all your life/all day/all year etc (= during the whole of your life, a day, a year etc )
▪
He had worked all his life in the mine.
▪
The boys played video games all day.
an election year (= a year in which there is an election )
▪
The Chancellor won’t raise taxes in an election year.
as the days/weeks/years go by
▪
As the weeks went by, I became more and more worried.
banner year
be 5/10/50 etc years old
▪
My dad is 45 years old.
be two/ten etc years sb’s elder
▪
Janet’s sister was eight years her elder.
calendar year
Christmas/New Year celebrations
▪
They invited me to join in their Christmas celebrations.
cost sth per minute/hour/year etc
▪
Calls cost only 2p per minute.
early in the year/century (= in the first part of the year or century )
▪
It was too early in the year for a lot of flowers.
earn £30,000 a year/$200 a week/£5 an hour etc
▪
Newly qualified teachers earn a minimum of £24,000 a year.
enter its third week/sixth day/second year etc
▪
The talks have now entered their third week.
fateful day/night/year etc
▪
The goalkeeper on that fateful day in 1954 was Fred Martin.
financial year
fiscal year
formative years/period/stages etc (= the period when someone’s character develops )
▪
He exposed his children to music throughout their formative years.
gap year
▪
Some students choose to work in high-tech industries during their gap year.
give sb six months/three years etc (= in prison )
▪
The judge gave her two years in prison.
golden years/days etc
▪
the golden years of childhood
good for one month/a year etc
▪
Your passport is good for another three years.
Happy New Year (= used as a greeting )
hundreds of people/years/pounds etc
▪
Hundreds of people were reported killed or wounded.
in days/times/years etc gone by (= in the past )
▪
These herbs would have been grown for medicinal purposes in days gone by.
in recent years/months/times etc
▪
The situation has improved in recent years.
jail sb for two months/six years/life etc
▪
They ought to jail her killer for life.
junior year
▪
the second semester of my junior year
last night/week/year etc
▪
Did you see the game on TV last night?
▪
The law was passed last August.
last/current/coming/next fiscal year
later in the day/week/year
▪
The dentist could fit you in later in the week.
lean years
▪
His wife was a source of constant support during the lean years .
leap year
light year
▪
a star 3,000 light years from Earth
light years ahead (= much more advanced )
▪
This design is light years ahead in performance and comfort.
made...New Year resolutions
▪
I haven’t made any New Year resolutions – I never stick to them anyway.
New Year resolution
▪
I haven’t made any New Year resolutions – I never stick to them anyway.
New Year's Day
New Year's Eve
New Year
▪
We’re going to spend Christmas and the New Year with my parents.
next week/year/Monday etc
▪
We’re hoping to open the factory some time next year.
of mature years
▪
a respectable gentleman of mature years
post-war period/years/era
▪
food rationing in the immediate post-war years
preceding days/weeks/months/years
▪
income tax paid in preceding years
repeat a class/grade/year (= do the same class at school again the following year )
scarcely a day/year/moment etc
▪
Scarcely a day goes by when I don’t think of him.
see in the new year (= celebrate the beginning of the year )
▪
Our neighbours invited us round to see in the new year .
serve time/five years etc in jail (= spend time in jail )
▪
He was finally released after serving 27 years in jail.
six months/a year etc in advance
▪
Book tickets 21 days in advance.
solar year
spend time/three months/six years etc in jail
▪
Griffiths spent three days in jail after pushing a policeman.
stay for a year/ten minutes/a week etc
▪
Isabel stayed for a year in Paris to study.
tax year
the academic year (= the time within a period of 12 months when students are studying at a school or university )
▪
Language students spend the third academic year abroad.
the boom years/times
▪
the boom years of the late 1980s
the day/week/year etc after (sth) (= the next day, week etc )
▪
His car was outside your house the morning after Bob’s engagement party.
▪
I’ll see you again tomorrow or the day after.
▪
She retired from politics the year after she received the Nobel Prize.
the early days/months/years of sth (= the period of time near the beginning of something )
▪
In the early years of our marriage, we lived with my wife’s parents.
the end of year/term exam BrE:
▪
I knew I had to do well in the end of year exams.
the ensuing days/months/years etc (= the days, months etc after an event )
▪
The situation deteriorated over the ensuing weeks.
the middle of the week/month/year etc
▪
Everything should be sorted out by the middle of next year.
the months of the year
▪
We're learning the months of the year in German.
the understatement of the year
▪
‘It wasn’t very easy to find the house.’ ‘That’s got to be the understatement of the year !’
the war years
▪
The couple spent most of the war years apart.
the years/days/months etc ahead
▪
We do not foresee any major changes in the years ahead.
three score years and ten old use (= 70 years, a person’s expected length of life )
three years/two months etc back (= three years ago etc )
▪
His wife died a couple of years back.
▪
He called me a while back .
three/six etc full days/years/pages etc
▪
We devote five full days a month to training.
▪
His pants rose a full three inches off his shoes.
twice a day/week/year etc (= two times in the same day, week etc )
▪
Letters were delivered twice a week only.
twilight years (= the last years of your life )
▪
Depression in the twilight years is usually related to illness.
two days/three weeks/five years etc apart
▪
Our birthdays are exactly a month apart.
two days/three years etc previously (= two days, three years etc before )
▪
Six months previously he had smashed up his car.
two years/three weeks etc later
▪
He became Senator two years later.
years/decades/centuries etc of neglect
▪
After years of neglect, the roads were full of potholes.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
current
▪
Having reliable data for the current year is, of course, a prerequisite of good budgets.
▪
Earnings in the second half of the current financial year were expected to increase.
▪
Non-manufacturing costs have also been analysed to identify further savings for the current year .
▪
Further, she predicted that the division will have another banner year and set a new record in the current fiscal year.
▪
Oil revenue estimates for the current year were US$11,400 million as compared with US$13,000 million in 1991.
▪
The increase for the current year has been 6 percent.
early
▪
This measure provided in part the financial discipline which was lacking in the budgets of earlier years .
▪
Despite the primacy of its influence, socialisation in the early years of life is not confined to the family, however.
▪
Graeme Scott had sorted out all the jigs much earlier in the year .
▪
This process of learning takes place more rapidly and intensely during the early years of childhood than in later life.
▪
The insecurities created by separation in the early and formative years take their toll in adult life.
▪
Most exams follow the pattern of earlier years .
▪
In the Soviet Union the early post-revolutionary years saw a flowering of creativity.
▪
The tomb was added to the collection in the early years of the century.
financial
▪
Last financial year , some 740,000 people entered Government training programmes, compared with 110,000 in 1978-79 - a sevenfold increase.
▪
This latter provision effectively requires rate precepts to be made or issued for complete financial years .
▪
Accounting policies must be applied consistently from one financial year to the next.
▪
If adopted, the standard would apply to financial years beginning on or after 16 December 1993.
▪
In late June 1991 the legislature passed the 1991-92 budget for the financial year beginning on July 1.
▪
As a beneficiary of this body it received £140,000 this financial year .
▪
Gone are the days of spending frantically because the end of the financial year was nigh.
▪
Spending in the district will be £5.5m over the next financial year .
fiscal
▪
Their January payment, whatever accounting year it was based on, met their full tax liability for the ongoing fiscal year.
▪
Clinton has already tempered his request for the 1997 fiscal year , seeking $ 491 million.
▪
By the next fiscal year , the goal is to spend $ 60 billion a year on new weapons.
▪
As the fiscal year ended, the company was just breaking even.
▪
Merrill Lynch traditionally cuts jobs in January following the end of its fiscal year .
▪
For instance, Work Recovery has yet to file its audited financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1995.
▪
Their contributions during the past fiscal year had been something less than one million pesos.
▪
Amgen Inc. reported a 23 percent increase in comparable earnings and an 18 percent gain in revenues for fiscal year 1995.
following
▪
The following year there was even greater alarm in Britain.
▪
Private William Gentles died that following year of asthma.
▪
The following year he was also made president.
▪
The following year 1185, Gilbert de Glanville, became Bishop of Rochester.
▪
In the following year , the employer built a new factory principally to make equipment to meet the latest contract.
▪
The opposition to Raybestos then appeared to die down for the following year , only to return with a vengeance in 1980.
late
▪
Now they find themselves alone in later years and often have to rebuild their lives right from scratch.
▪
As a result, the performance in later years could very easily be enhanced.
▪
However, the variations in mortality between the developed and Third World in the later years of life are much less extreme.
▪
Even his close confidant Manning described him in later years as imprudent.
▪
In later years Bate also rented a house in Hampstead where he died 27 December 1847.
▪
It was too late in the year for the almond blossom but the valley was beautiful none the less.
▪
There were three chauffeurs on the staff and quite a few vehicles, including some Mercedes in later years .
▪
The highlight of Gibson's later years was the Polyethylenes 1933-83 golden jubilee conference in London in June 1983.
past
▪
In the past year there have been at least eight deaths in custody which are believed to have resulted from torture.
▪
This was the obvious sequel to its policy for the past four years .
▪
In the past year the first phase of the analysis of bus passenger casualties highlighted in the 1991 Plan has been undertaken.
▪
An Ecumenical Jury has been part of the Festival for the past 19 years .
▪
Income has dropped by £80million in the past 2 years and travellers will have to help bail them out.
▪
For the past 10 years , my constituency has been promised a hospital, but no progress has been made.
▪
I have seen this problem many times in the past couple of years when the summers have been very hot.
▪
The past year has been a rollercoaster one for the royals with a few highs followed by lots of depressing lows.
previous
▪
The proposed merger called into question Britain's civil aviation policy of the previous twenty years .
▪
CareFirst reported that its total membership in 2000 grew by 8.1 percent -- to 2.8 million -- over the previous year .
▪
The encouraging rapprochement between Tehran and London that we'd heard so much about the previous year was at an end.
▪
The conversation turned to the Wisconsin primary of the previous year .
▪
Ministers issued 8,967 standard export licences, down from 9,689 licences in the previous year .
▪
In 1994, New York City got $ 100 million through the program, compared with $ 44 million the previous year .
▪
During 1985 there were 50 attacks on shipping as against 62 the previous year .
▪
The previous year it had finished construction of a $ 1 billion wafer-fabrication plant.
recent
▪
The recession of more recent years does not appear to have induced a reversion back towards multi-employer bargaining.
▪
Other fragmentary legislation is to be found in recent years , e.g. the Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975.
▪
In recent years , the growth of National Certificate uptake has been especially strong in secondary schools.
▪
In recent years , the Inspectorate has been seen as understaffed and underfunded and has allegedly suffered from low morale.
▪
Anger at the fingerprinting this entails has become increasingly rampant in recent years .
▪
Consequently banks have sought to reduce their overseas lending exposure in recent years .
▪
This has become more difficult in recent years .
▪
In recent years mystery with history has become a fairly popular sub-genre of crime fiction.
■ VERB
last
▪
Phase 1 started in July 1980 and lasted 3 years , during which 2.5 million households were visited.
▪
Dame, who last year booked her into $ 2 million worth of speeches, at $ 30, 000 each.
▪
My involvement with separatism lasted five years , but in a very real sense it will never leave me.
▪
He settled with five states last year .
▪
I introduced it to my classes in May last year and have developed and modified it as the weeks have passed.
▪
So, if a person's paid employment lasts for forty years , she will need to have thirty-six qualifying years.
▪
Coal reserves have also expanded worldwide, with Britain's contribution expected to last several hundred years .
▪
Harry Mulholland also believes that a good wool carpet can be cleaned professionally to last for years and years.
spend
▪
I spent a year working in a hospital as an auxiliary nurse between college and university.
▪
He spent a whole year bumming from friends, crashing in strange places, selling weed with pals to make his bread.
▪
Defence spending for the same years was 12.7 percent, 24.2 percent and 28.2 percent respectively.
▪
Jane Dee Hull promised in her state-of-the-state address to boost spending even higher this year .
▪
After his ordination in 1953, he spent three years as assistant priest at the Immaculate Conception Church, Glasgow.
▪
Albert Einstein spent the last 50 years of his life unsuccessfully trying to unify the theories of electromagnetism and gravity.
▪
He spent seven happy years at Rawlinsons after the war.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
65/82/97 etc years young
Happy Birthday/New Year/Christmas etc
▪
A Happy New Year to you.
▪
After midnight neighbours go outside and wish everyone a Happy New Year.
▪
But bookings still rose 41 % from the $ 3. 41 billion posted a year earlier. Happy New Year.
▪
Let's hope that a wet spring will bring green shoots for Roberts and the economy alike. Happy New Year.
▪
That is what Britain needs as we move into what we all want, a really Happy New Year.
a good three miles/ten years etc
a year/a week/a moment/an hour etc or two
advanced age/years
▪
As you probably know, Herr Sanders is a gentleman of advanced years, inclined to be a little vague.
▪
At the advanced age of 71, Charles Bronson's wizened features are returning to the big screen.
▪
Male speaker Inevitably at her advanced years, it's difficult for her to overcome.
▪
On my advanced age, I dote.
▪
She addressed her young guest with civilities suitable for a personage of advanced years and uncertain appetite.
▪
Towards the rector he was a polite listener, a concession to the man's advanced years and his calling.
▪
When talking about the elderly in this sense we are referring to people in an advanced age group of well over eighty.
advancing years/age
▪
Chances of developing cancer increase with advancing age.
▪
At your age, advancing years and all that.
▪
Joshua hoped that Malone had learnt wisdom with his advancing years.
▪
Of course, I was only displaying the ultimately cliched boomer trait, a tortured denial of my own advancing years.
▪
On her deathbed Mary Leapor reportedly expressed concern for her father's advancing age.
▪
Reasons put forth include his advancing age, the cumulative effect of thousands of hits and the decline of his offensive line.
▪
The association between advancing years and increasing rates of disability is illustrated in Figure 7.
▪
The risk of incapacitation increases with advancing years, and increases more rapidly after the age of 55.
▪
There are clear associations between advancing years and increasing disability, and this is particularly steep among the most elderly.
all day/year/summer etc long
▪
He just sat at a table ticking off numbers all day long .
▪
He loved growing things, and in Florida he could work his garden all year long .
▪
I suppose that if we include New Zealand, we can claim to have new season lamb practically all year long .
▪
She'd sail the lake all day long if I let her.
▪
Smashing down mogul fields all day long , day after day, sounds great to skiers in their 20s.
▪
So all day long her thoughts fought with each other.
▪
The docks were experiencing a boom in trade and all day long a steady stream of customers came and went.
▪
There is just so little meaning in what I do almost all day long !
be a long time/10 years etc in the making
be two/five/ten etc years sb's junior
▪
His wife's name was Sarah; she was five years his junior , and she predeceased him by ten months.
▪
The 42-year-old princess married Commander Tim Laurence, who is five years her junior , just before Christmas.
be two/five/ten etc years sb's senior
before the day/year etc is out
▪
He might supplant Jones before the year is out .
▪
There will be many more surprises before the year is out .
▪
Voice over Meanwhile up to 1,000 more break-ins are expected in Gloucestershire before the year is out .
childbearing age/years
▪
Four hundred million women of childbearing age weigh less than 45 kilograms-their malnutrition is passed on to their infants.
come July/next year/the next day etc
day after day/year after year etc
days turned into weeks/months turned into years etc
donkey's years
▪
It's donkey's years since I went to the movies.
▪
She worked in the shop for donkey's years, although the pay was awful.
▪
We used to play golf together, but that was donkey's years ago.
every second year/person/thing etc
▪
Dalziel was well known, hailing and being hailed by nearly every second person they passed, it seemed to Pascoe.
five/three/nine etc years to the day
▪
It's three years to the day since Tony Alliss died from gunshot wounds.
for years/weeks/days etc to come
▪
Alice knew then that my father would haunt her for years to come .
▪
Even a couple of weeks down under will have you waltzing with Matilda for years to come .
▪
He spoke about that afternoon for days to come .
▪
It's the players who will suffer because of this, not just this week but for years to come .
▪
Mr Clark says his department will be collecting poll tax arrears for years to come .
▪
Prices then gave way to concern driving activity will be reduced for days to come .
▪
The responsibility was going to haunt him for years to come .
▪
We will be struggling with these issues for years to come .
in 10 days'/five years'/a few minutes' etc time
in after years
in former times/years
▪
No rocks, to our knowledge, are untouched by life in former times.
in later years/life
▪
As a result, the performance in later years could very easily be enhanced.
▪
But, though large, the book is not, like Welles in later life, overweight.
▪
Buying two wooden spoons can be more fun at this time than purchasing an expensive set of china in later years.
▪
For these serious psychiatric conditions the onset of new cases in later life appears to be very rare.
▪
Nor is there any relief from this pattern of underrepresentation in the statistics for the regular admissions program in later years.
▪
Secure attachments early on in life provide inner resources to manage stressful and threatening situations in later years.
▪
The direct impact of improving health in later life has been relatively recent.
▪
Your young daughter's bossy attitude in later life may be channelled into quite acceptable leadership qualities.
in the vicinity of £3 million/$1,500/2 billion years etc
in years/days to come
▪
Be in no doubt that in years to come , this will become the greatest budget driver's car of them all.
▪
He is promised a great name in days to come .
▪
I think that in years to come they are bound to be looked back on as an aberration.
▪
Just think in years to come lots of people could be hunting.
▪
The combination could make him an even more formidable figure in years to come .
▪
The housing needs of the elderly, in particular, must be a prominent policy issue in years to come .
▪
There would be plenty of time for them in years to come , she thought wearily.
▪
To taxonomy, though, their essence lies in years to come .
light years ago
light years ahead/better etc than sth
never let a day/week/year etc go by without doing sth
not/never in a million years
▪
I never would have guessed in a million years!
▪
Never in a million years did I think we'd lose.
▪
He was rich as Croesus, something he had never expected to be, not in a million years.
▪
I still had to find Wally and attempt to explain what I would never in a million years be able to explain.
▪
It is based on a true story so outrageous that it would never in a million years have passed muster as fiction.
▪
No parent is going to believe this pigtail story, not in a million years.
▪
The real reason for her lack of promotion, she knew, would never in a million years occur to him.
▪
You'd never in a million years see a dancing man in a field in the country.
one day/morning/year etc
▪
Everything, all in one year.
▪
I've always said you'd hurt yourself one day.
▪
In the tiny northern town of Sugar Hill, the police chief picks one day a month and issues tickets.
▪
Mr Emery reopened his store one day after his arrest, and said he will sell marijuana seeds by mail order.
▪
She remembered going with her father one day, and being dreadfully bored.
▪
That includes one day, May 26, when the collar was invoked twice -- both on declines.
▪
They may be more concerned about pain, or being sent home from the hospital after one day.
▪
We prospectively followed up 50 patients with healed ulcers for one year.
passing days/weeks/years etc
▪
As a young woman, she was pretty, slender, and graceful and she remained so with the passing years.
▪
Dent is a throwback to medieval times bypassed by modern progress, an anachronism that has survived the passing years.
▪
Over the passing years, time had been cruel to nearly everybody else.
▪
Over the passing years, time had been kind to Caduta Massi.
▪
The passing years took their toll, of course, and he did go into a decline when Grandmother died.
▪
Through the passing days, the biting cruelty of it all slowly healed, leaving only the scar tissue.
ring in the New Year
ring out the Old Year
roll back the years
▪
But he rolled back the years wearing his old jockeys' uniform in the Radcliffe Selling Stakes at Nottingham.
sb's declining years
see in the New Year
▪
Meanwhile more than 30,000 people will see in the new year squeezed into bed-and-breakfast accommodation.
▪
Most of us of course will be occupied seeing in the New Year.
▪
Scott Base was the first occupied place in the world to see in the new year.
▪
They'd planned to go with Sinatra to his home in the desert to see in the New Year.
skip a year/grade
▪
He was a good enough student to skip a grade in elementary school and later scored 1280 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.
sth of five/many etc years' standing
▪
The medical superintendent of a hospital had to be a duly qualified medical practitioner of five years' standing .
the day/week/year etc before last
▪
I didn't know myself where the house was until the week before last .
▪
In the week before last , claims rose by 22, 000.
▪
The Sunday newspaper articles had come out the week before last , and were still bringing in letters.
the intervening years/months/period etc
▪
But some underlying patterning remains, despite the intervening years and the subtle shifts in values and beliefs.
▪
I wanted to look young when I met my brother, perhaps because I had accomplished nothing in the intervening years.
▪
In the intervening years, as property taxes ate away at their nest egg, their proposals for other developments fell flat.
▪
Over the intervening years the inter-action and travelling of these eight aircraft is intricate.
▪
Recounting the matter in present time-without being returned-the patient is using all the intervening years as buffers against the painful emotion.
▪
Some time, then, during the intervening years, he had been granted a barony.
▪
The answer depends, to some degree, on the effectiveness of those who have been active in the intervening years.
▪
To occupy the intervening months she took a job in a hospital.
the man of the moment/hour/year
▪
Back in 1831 the man of the moment was one Squire George Osbaldeston.
▪
Except for one player, the man of the moment in the Kingdome.
▪
Miltiades was the man of the hour, and his advice was to strike at once and win back the Cyclades.
▪
Sean Bean's the man of the moment.
▪
That's what makes Bush the man of the hour, for these are indisputably good times.
▪
You ought to be the man of the hour.
the new year
▪
A few weeks ago, many stock market analysts cautioned investors against extravagant expectations for the new year.
▪
And first thing in the New Year he will be going.
▪
As the wrangling has stretched into the new year, Clinton has moved up some in public esteem.
▪
For the new year, job growth is likely to remain sluggish.
▪
He is currently preparing a plan to unlock more working capital by the New Year.
▪
Indeed, there might be little to prevent some of the orders being cancelled when the new year commences.
▪
Municipalbond investors are bracing for trouble in the New Year.
▪
She was relieved when the New Year arrived and things returned to normal.
the passing of time/the years
▪
The passing of the years has not weakened his artistic ability.
the seven year itch
▪
We've been together eight years now - so we're over the seven year itch, not that I had one.
the turn of the century/year
▪
By the turn of the century, a unique international generation of women had arrived at senior status.
▪
For many of us the turn of the century was only a few months ago.
▪
From 1859 until the turn of the century the system worked wonderfully.
▪
Nevertheless they were considerably more evangelical at the turn of the century than they are now.
▪
People have been peddling phony weight-loss elixirs since before the turn of the century.
▪
She was born before the turn of the century, so it is likely that her parents had been born into slavery.
▪
Their catalogues contain fewer items, but the range of publications is wider than at the turn of the century.
▪
This 1935 measure derived from the widows' pensions, which states had enacted at the turn of the century.
the year/week etc ending sth
▪
An interim dividend of 6p per ordinary share was paid on 1 April 1993 in respect of the year ending 31 December 1993.
▪
Copies of the most recent report for the year ending 31 March are in the Library.
▪
During the week ending last Tuesday 109 people in every 100,000 of the population had flu, and 154 had flu-like illnesses.
▪
Figures released today reported that in the year ending March 31 profits before tax were £10.3m compared with £7.7m in 1992.
▪
Group pre-tax profits for the year ending February 28 fell 12.5% to £1.2m.
▪
The bad-debt provisions are expected to knock £25m off profits for the year ending February.
▪
The company is aiming to break even at the pretax level in the year ending March 31.
▪
The company said it expects revenue of about $ 34. 5 million for the year ending June 30, 1996.
three weeks/two years etc now
three years/five times etc running
vintage year
▪
And Maxwell's vintage years ... the tycoon's wine collection to be auctioned.
▪
For devotees of downsizing, the signs are that this could be a vintage year.
▪
He said he had only repeated to the salesmen what Mr Runciman had said, that it was not a vintage year.
▪
It has already been a vintage year for hacking.
▪
The experts claim it's not a vintage year, so the spotlight has shone firmly on the models.
within two feet/ten years etc either way
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
He works a lot harder than most of the students in his year .
▪
I hated teaching the fifth year . They were always causing trouble.
▪
I moved here two years ago.
▪
Jackie has worked here for several years.
▪
Jared is 15 years old.
▪
the year 2002
▪
The lease expires at the end of the year .
▪
There are 130 children in the second year .