I. o ‧ ri ‧ ent 1 AC /ˈɔːrient, ˈɒri- $ ˈɔː-/ BrE AmE ( also orientate British English ) verb
[ Word Family: verb : ↑ orient ; noun : ↑ orientation ]
[ Date: 1700-1800 ; Language: French ; Origin: orienter , from Old French orient ; ⇨ ↑ orient 2 ]
1 . be oriented to/towards/around something/somebody to give a lot of attention to one type of activity or one type of person:
a course that is oriented towards the needs of businessmen
A lot of the training is orientated around communications skills.
The organization is strongly oriented towards research
2 . orient yourself
a) to find exactly where you are by looking around you or using a map ⇨ disorient , disorientated :
She looked at the street names, trying to orient herself.
b) to become familiar with a new situation
orient yourself to
It takes new students a while to orientate themselves to college life.
II. o ‧ ri ‧ ent 2 /ˈɔːriənt, ˈɒri- $ ˈɔː-/ BrE AmE noun
[ Date: 1300-1400 ; Language: Old French ; Origin: Latin , present participle of oriri 'to rise' ]
the Orient old-fashioned the eastern part of the world, especially China and Japan
⇨ the East at ↑ east (1a), ⇨ ↑ Occident