n.
1) to spend a ~ (somewhere)
2) a bad, lean; banner ( AE ), good; happy; healthy; memorable; peak, record; profitable ~ (our firm had a very profitable ~; their team had a good ~)
3) smb.'s formative; golden ~s
4) every; last; next; this ~
5) the coming; current; past ~
6) an academic, school; calendar; election; fiscal; jubilee; presidential ( US ); sabbatical; tax ~
7) a common; leap; light; lunar; sidereal; solar ~
8) by the ~ (to be paid by the ~)
9) by ('before') a ~ (by the ~ 2000, the population in many countries will double)
10) for a ~ (they went abroad for a ~)
11) for, in ( esp. AE ) ~s (they have not been here for/ in ~s)
12) in a ~ (they'll be back in a ~)
13) in a (certain) ~ (he died in the ~ of the great flood; in future ~s; in ~s to come)
14) ( misc. ) once a ~; ~ in, ~ out; the first time in ( esp. AE ), for ( BE ) a ~; she is five ~s old; light ~s away; for ~s to come; up to last ~; children of tender ~s; she had three ~s of college