Слова на English для 'To gradually subside or diminish.'
Выше показаны слова, связанные с "To gradually subside or diminish.". Наведите курсор или фокус на слово, чтобы увидеть его определение.
Результаты поиска
verb
noun
- (figurative) Gradual reduction over time.
- the property possessed by a shape that narrows toward a point (as a wedge or cone)
- a convex shape that narrows toward a point
- a loosely woven cord (in a candle or oil lamp) that draws fuel by capillary action up into the flame
- stick of wax with a wick in the middle
- A slender wax candle.
- Someone who works with tape or tapes.
- (by extension) A small light.
- A thin stick used for lighting candles, either a wax-coated wick or a slow-burning wooden rod.
- The portion of an object with such a form.
- A tapering form; gradual diminution of thickness and/or cross section in an elongated object.
- (weaving) One who operates a tape machine.
- A cone-shaped item for stretching the hole for an ear gauge (piercing).
- (machining) Ellipsis of machine taper.
adj
verb
- decrease gradually or bit by bit
- remove the skin from
- cut small bits or pare shavings from
- remove the edges from and cut down to the desired size
- (transitive) To remove the outer covering or skin of something with a cutting device, typically a knife.
- (transitive, often with down or back) To reduce, diminish or trim gradually something as if by cutting off.
- (Ireland, slang) To sharpen a pencil.
- To trim the hoof of a horse.
verb
- (intransitive) To gradually decrease and eventually cease.
- (intransitive) To stop talking because one has forgotten what one was going to say.
- (intransitive, ambitransitive) To manually dry dishes and utensils.
- (of an actor) To forget one's lines.
- (transitive) To cause to become dry.
- (1930s US slang) To stop talking or drop a topic.
- (intransitive) To become dry (often of weather); to lose water.
- (transitive) To deprive someone of (something vital).
- dry up and shrivel due to complete loss of moisture
- lose water or moisture
verb
- To taper off; to gradually quiet or diminish.
- To rub or polish with wax to create a slick, shiny and/or waterproof coating; to wax.
- To coat (hair) with an oily or waxy substance in order to hold it in place.
- To stiffen by coating or permeating with wax.
- To paste into place using wax.
- (beekeeping) To generate a layer of wax that completely covers.
- To seal over with wax, in order to make airtight and watertight.
verb
verb
- To decrease in force or intensity; to subside.
- To decrease in amount or size.
- To lower (something) in price or value.
- To lessen (something) in force or intensity; to moderate.
- (chiefly US) To dismiss or otherwise bring to an end (legal proceedings) before they are completed, especially on procedural grounds rather than on the merits.
- (chiefly US) Of legal proceedings: to be dismissed or otherwise brought to an end before they are completed, especially on procedural grounds rather than on the merits.
- To reduce (something) in amount or size.
- To lower in price or value; (law) specifically, of a bequest in a will: to lower in value because the testator's estate is insufficient to satisfy all the bequests in full.
- (chiefly historical) Of a writ or other legal document: to become null and void; to cease to have effect.
- To make (a writ or other legal document) void; to nullify.
- To cut away or hammer down (material from metalwork, a sculpture, etc.) in such a way as to leave a figure in relief.
- To put an end to (a nuisance).
- become less in amount or intensity
- make less active or intense
verb
- become less intense and fade away gradually
- get lost, as without warning or explanation
- cease to exist
- become invisible or unnoticeable
- (transitive, often euphemistic) To make vanish; especially, to abduct or murder for political reasons.
- (intransitive) To go missing; to become a missing person.
- (intransitive) To go away; to become lost.
- (intransitive) To vanish.
verb
- become less intense and fade away gradually
- cause to change into a vapor
- lose or cause to lose liquid by vaporization leaving a more concentrated residue
- change into a vapor
- (ergative) To transition from a liquid state into a gaseous state.
- (transitive, figuratively) To give vent to; to dissipate.
- (intransitive, figurative) To disappear; to escape or pass off without effect.
- (transitive) To expel moisture from (usually by means of artificial heat), leaving the solid portion.
- (transitive, figurative) To cause to disappear or to escape or pass off without effect.
verb
- become less intense and fade away gradually
- become or cause to become soft or liquid
- reduce or cause to be reduced from a solid to a liquid state, usually by heating
- become more relaxed, easygoing, or genial
- lose its distinct outline or shape; blend gradually
- become less clearly visible or distinguishable; disappear gradually or seemingly
- (intransitive, colloquial) To be very hot and sweat profusely.
- (intransitive, figurative) To be emotionally softened or touched.
- (transitive, figurative) To soften, as by a warming or kindly influence; to relax; to render gentle or susceptible to mild influences; sometimes, in a bad sense, to take away the firmness of; to weaken.
- (intransitive, figuratively) To dissolve, disperse, vanish.
- (ergative) To change (or to be changed) from a solid state to a liquid state, usually by a gradual heat.
- (intransitive) To be discouraged.
noun
- the process whereby heat changes something from a solid to a liquid
- (UK, politics, slang, derogatory) A centre-left or liberal person, when in opposition to a leftist; (especially) a critic of Jeremy Corbyn within the Labour Party.
- (geology) Rock showing evidence of having been remelted after it originally solidified.
- (UK, slang, derogatory) An idiot.
- The springtime snow runoff in mountain regions.
- Molten material, the product of melting.
- The transition of matter from a solid state to a liquid state.
- A melt sandwich.
- Variant spelling of milt, the semen of a male fish, used as food.
- A wax-based substance for use in an oil burner as an alternative to mixing oils and water.
verb
- (intransitive) To fall away gradually; to subside.
- To slip into a bad habit that one is trying to avoid.
- (intransitive) To become void.
- To fall or pass from one proprietor to another, or from the original destination, by the omission, negligence, or failure of somebody, such as a patron or legatee.
- (intransitive) To fall into error or heresy.
- pass into a specified state or condition; sink into
- for time to move forward
- drop to a lower level, as in one's morals or standards
- let slip
- end, at least for a long time
- go back to bad behavior
noun
- (theology) A fall or apostasy.
- A decline or fall in standards.
- A termination of a right etc., through disuse or neglect.
- An interval of time between events.
- (law) A common-law rule that if the person to whom property is willed were to die before the testator, then the gift would be ineffective.
- A pause in continuity.
- (meteorology) A marked decrease in air temperature with increasing altitude because the ground is warmer than the surrounding air.
- A temporary failure; a slip.
- a break or intermission in the occurrence of something
- a mistake resulting from inattention
- a failure to maintain a higher state
noun
- the amount by which something decreases
- a process of becoming smaller or shorter
- the act of decreasing or reducing something
- a change downward
- An amount by which a quantity decreases or is decreased.
- (knitting, crochet) A reduction in the number of stitches, usually accomplished by suspending the stitch to be decreased from another existing stitch or by knitting it together with another stitch. See Decrease (knitting).
verb
noun
- A gradual decline.
- A European bunting, the corn bunting (Emberiza calandra, syns. Emberiza miliaria, Milaria calandra).
- (especially in the phrase 'at a low ebb') A low state; a state of depression.
- The receding movement of the tide.
- the outward flow of the tide
- a gradual decline (in size or strength or power or number)
adj
verb
- (intransitive) to fish with stakes and nets that serve to prevent the fish from getting back into the sea with the ebb
- (intransitive) to flow back or recede
- (transitive) To cause to flow back.
- (intransitive) to fall away or decline
- flow back or recede
- hem in fish with stakes and nets so as to prevent them from going back into the sea with the ebb
- fall away or decline
noun
adj
verb
noun
verb
verb
- decrease rapidly and disappear
- be dispersed or disseminated
- pass away rapidly
- display in the air or cause to float
- move quickly or suddenly
- change quickly from one emotional state to another
- hit a fly
- travel over (an area of land or sea) in an aircraft
- cause to fly or float
- travel in an airplane
- run away quickly
- operate an airplane
- transport by aeroplane
- travel through the air; be airborne
- (transitive, ergative) To display (a flag) on a flagpole.
- (intransitive, entomology, of a type of moth or butterfly) To be in the winged adult stage.
- (intransitive, baseball) To hit a fly ball; to hit a fly ball that is caught for an out. Compare ground (verb) and line (verb).
- (intransitive) To travel through the air, another gas, or a vacuum, without being in contact with a grounded surface.
- (intransitive) To travel or proceed very fast; to hasten.
- (transitive, ergative) To cause to fly (travel or float in the air): to transport via air or the like.
- (intransitive) To move suddenly, or with violence; to do an act suddenly or swiftly.
- (intransitive, colloquial, of a proposal, project or idea) To be accepted, come about or work out.
- (intransitive) To proceed with great success.
- (transitive) To hunt with a hawk.
adj
noun
- fisherman's lure consisting of a fishhook decorated to look like an insect
- an opening in a garment that is closed by a zipper or by buttons concealed under a fold of cloth
- (baseball) a hit that flies up in the air
- flap consisting of a piece of canvas that can be drawn back to provide entrance to a tent
- two-winged insects characterized by active flight
- (often plural) A strip of material (sometimes hiding zippers or buttons) at the front of a pair of trousers, pants, underpants, bootees, etc.
- The pair of arms revolving around the bobbin, in a spinning wheel or spinning frame, to twist the yarn.
- A vibrating frame with fingers, attached to a power printing press for doing the same work.
- The horizontal length of a flag.
- A piece of canvas that covers the opening at the front of a tent.
- (weightlifting) A chest exercise performed by moving extended arms from the sides to in front of the chest. (also flye)
- (weaving) A shuttle driven through the shed by a blow or jerk.
- An act of flying.
- (historical) A type of small, light, fast horse-drawn carriage that can be hired for transportation (sometimes pluralised flys).
- (preceded by definite article) A simple dance in which the hands are shaken in the air, popular in the 1960s.
- (American football) Ellipsis of fly route.
- The person who took the printed sheets from the press.
- The moving portion of an extendable ladder.
- Alternative form of vly (“swamp (in New York)”).
- Two or more vanes set on a revolving axis, to act as a fanner, or to equalize or impede the motion of machinery by the resistance of the air, as in the striking part of a clock.
- (weightlifting) An exercise that involves wide opening and closing of the arms perpendicular to the shoulders.
- (nautical) That part of a compass on which the points are marked; the compass card.
- (fishing) A lightweight fishing lure resembling an insect.
- Any similar but not closely related insect, such as a dragonfly, butterfly, or gallfly.
- (cotton manufacture) Waste cotton.
- (finance) A butterfly (combination of four options).
- One of the upper screens of a stage in a theatre.
- (baseball) A fly ball.
- (rustic, Scotland, Northern England) A wing.
- The part of a weather vane pointing the direction from which the wind blows.
- (swimming) The butterfly stroke (plural is normally flys).
- In a knitting machine, the piece hinged to the needle, which holds the engaged loop in position while the needle is penetrating another loop; a latch.
- (zoology) Any insect of the order Diptera; characterized by having two wings (except for some wingless species), also called true flies.
- Ellipsis of flywheel.
- The free edge of a flag.
- (non-technical) Especially, any of the insects of the family Muscidae, such as the common housefly (other families of Diptera include mosquitoes and midges).
verb
noun
noun
- A lessening, decrease or reduction.
- (music) a compositional technique where the composer shortens the melody by shortening its note values.
- The act or process of making diminutive.
- the statement of a theme in notes of lesser duration (usually half the length of the original)
- change toward something smaller or lower
- the act of decreasing or reducing something
verb
- decrease in phase
- become smaller
- grow smaller
- (intransitive, astronomy) For the Moon to pass through the phases of its monthly cycle where its surface is less and less visible.
- (intransitive) Said of a time period that comes to an end.
- (intransitive) To progressively lose its splendor, value, ardor, power, intensity etc.; to decline.
- (intransitive) For light to dim or diminish in strength.
noun
- A gradual diminution in power, value, intensity etc.
- a gradual decline (in size or strength or power or number)
- The lunar phase during which the sun seems to illuminate less of the moon as its sunlit area becomes progressively smaller as visible from Earth.
- (woodworking) A rounded corner caused by lack of wood, often showing bark.
- (Scotland, slang) A child.
- (literary) The end of a period.
noun
- a gradual decline of something
- erosion by chemical action
- (geology) the mechanical process of wearing or grinding something down (as by particles washing over it), also figuratively
- condition in which the earth's surface is worn away by the action of water and wind
- (dentistry) Loss of tooth enamel due to non-bacteriogenic chemical processes.
- (chiefly uncountable) The changing of a surface by mechanical action, friction, thermal expansion contraction, or impact.
- (chiefly uncountable, figurative) The gradual loss of something as a result of an ongoing process.
- (mathematics) In morphology, a basic operation (denoted ⊖); see Erosion (morphology).
- (chiefly uncountable) The result of having been worn away or eroded, as by a glacier on rock or the sea on a cliff face.
- (medicine) A shallow ulceration or lesion, usually involving skin or epithelial tissue.
- (mathematics, image processing) One of two fundamental operations in morphological image processing from which all other morphological operations are derived.
- (chiefly uncountable) Destruction by abrasive action of fluids.
verb
- fall or diminish
- change from a waking to a sleeping state
- remove (cargo, people, etc.) from and leave
- fall to a lower standard
- retreat
- (idiomatic, transitive, especially US) To deliver; to deposit or leave; to allow passengers to alight.
- (intransitive, also figuratively) To drop, fall.
- (transitive, also figuratively) To drop from, fall from.
- (slang) To abandon or give up on (something); to be abandoned or given up on.
- (intransitive, figurative) To end a connection with a telephone queue, either by hanging up or after being served or processed.
- (idiomatic, intransitive) To fall asleep.
- (intransitive) To lessen or reduce.
verb
- diminish or discontinue abruptly
- make known to the public information that was previously known only to a few people or that was meant to be kept a secret
- find the solution or key to
- become punctured or penetrated
- become separated into pieces or fragments
- do a break dance
- enter someone's (virtual or real) property in an unauthorized manner, usually with the intent to steal or commit a violent act
- discontinue an association or relation; go different ways
- fall sharply
- separate from a clinch, in boxing
- cause to give up a habit
- weaken or destroy in spirit or body
- change directions suddenly
- exchange for smaller units of money
- undergo breaking
- give up
- interrupt a continued activity
- interrupt the flow of current in
- break a piece from a whole
- make a rupture in the ranks of the enemy or one's own by quitting or fleeing
- move away or escape suddenly
- invalidate by judicial action
- destroy the completeness of a set of related items
- cease an action temporarily
- happen or take place
- render inoperable or ineffective
- emerge from the surface of a body of water
- come to an end (of an event)
- cause the failure or ruin of
- put an end to a state or an activity
- fracture a bone of
- stop operating or functioning
- curl over and fall apart in surf or foam, of waves
- terminate or end
- come forth or begin from a state of latency
- make submissive, obedient, or useful
- crack; of the male voice in puberty
- vary or interrupt a uniformity or continuity
- destroy the integrity of; usually by force; cause to separate into pieces or fragments
- come into being
- force out or release suddenly and often violently something pent up
- find a flaw in
- ruin completely
- become fractured; break or crack on the surface only
- happen
- go to pieces
- break down, literally or metaphorically
- act in disregard of laws, rules, contracts, or promises
- pierce or penetrate
- surpass in excellence
- lessen in force or effect
- change suddenly from one tone quality or register to another
- make the opening shot that scatters the balls
- scatter or part
- be broken in
- assign to a lower position; reduce in rank
- reduce to bankruptcy
- be released or become known; of news
- fail to agree with; be in violation of; as of rules or patterns
- (transitive, tennis) To win a game (against one's opponent) as receiver.
- (intransitive, of a storm) To begin or end.
- (intransitive, sports) To counter-attack.
- (intransitive, of a spell of settled weather) To end.
- (intransitive) To become weakened in constitution or faculties; to lose health or strength.
- (transitive, ergative) To disclose or make known an item of news, a band, etc.
- (intransitive, of a male voice) To become deeper at puberty.
- (transitive, backgammon) To remove one of the two men on (a point).
- (transitive) To end (a connection); to disconnect.
- (intransitive, billiards, snooker, pool) To make the first shot; to scatter the balls from the initial neat arrangement.
- (intransitive) To be crushed, or overwhelmed with sorrow or grief.
- (intransitive, of a voice) To alter in type due to emotion or strain: in men, generally to go up, in women, sometimes to go down; to crack.
- (specifically) To cause the shell of (an egg) to crack, so that the inside (yolk) is accessible.
- (transitive, theater) To end the run of (a play).
- (transitive) To destroy the official character and standing of; to cashier; to dismiss.
- (intransitive) To make an abrupt or sudden change; to change gait.
- (intransitive) To interrupt or cease one's work or occupation temporarily; to go on break.
- (transitive) To violate; to fail to adhere to.
- (specifically) To open (a safe) without using the correct key, combination, or the like.
- (transitive) To divide (something, often money) into smaller units.
- (transitive) To interrupt; to destroy the continuity of; to dissolve or terminate.
- (transitive) To cause (a barrier) to no longer bar.
- (intransitive, of morning, dawn, day etc.) To arrive.
- (transitive) To destroy the strength, firmness, or consistency of.
- (transitive, with for) To (attempt to) disengage and flee to; to make a run for.
- (rare, mainly historical or a misspelling) To brake.
- (copulative, informal) To suddenly become.
- (transitive) To interrupt (a fall) by inserting something so that the falling object does not (immediately) hit something else beneath.
- (transitive) To change a steady state abruptly.
- To turn an animal into a beast of burden.
- (music, slang) To B-boy; to breakdance.
- (specifically, in programming) To cause (some feature of a program or piece of software) to stop functioning properly; to cause a regression.
- (programming) To suspend the execution of a program during debugging so that the state of the program can be investigated.
- (transitive, intransitive) To crack or fracture (bone) under a physical strain.
- (intransitive) To burst forth; to make its way; to come into view.
- (ergative, transitive, intransitive) To separate into two or more pieces, to fracture or crack, by a process that cannot easily be reversed for reassembly.
- (computing) To cause, or allow the occurrence of, a line break.
- (transitive) To ruin financially.
- (transitive, gaming slang) To render (a game) unchallenging by altering its rules or exploiting loopholes or weaknesses in them in a way that gives a player an unfair advantage.
- (finance, intransitive) Of prices on the stock exchange: to fall suddenly.
- (transitive, military, most often in the passive tense) To demote; to reduce the military rank of.
- (computing) To terminate the execution of a program before normal completion.
- (intransitive, of a fever) To go down, in terms of temperature, indicating that the most dangerous part of the illness has passed.
- (transitive, intransitive) To stop, or to cause to stop, functioning properly or altogether.
- (intransitive, of a sauce or emulsion) To de-emulsify.
- (transitive) To surpass or do better than (a specific number); to do better than (a record), setting a new record.
- (transitive) To cause (a person or animal) to lose spirit or will; to crush the spirits of.
- (intransitive, of a sound) To become audible suddenly.
- (intransitive, of a wave of water) To collapse into surf, after arriving in shallow water.
- (transitive) To destroy the arrangement of; to throw into disorder; to pierce.
noun
- an unexpected piece of good luck
- an abrupt change in the tone or register of the voice (as at puberty or due to emotion)
- the opening shot that scatters the balls in billiards or pool
- some abrupt occurrence that interrupts an ongoing activity
- a time interval during which there is a temporary cessation of something
- an escape from jail
- a personal or social separation (as between opposing factions)
- (tennis) a score consisting of winning a game when your opponent was serving
- a pause from doing something (as work)
- the act of breaking something
- any frame in which a bowler fails to make a strike or spare
- an act of delaying or interrupting the continuity
- the occurrence of breaking
- a sudden dash
- (geology) a crack in the earth's crust resulting from the displacement of one side with respect to the other
- breaking of hard tissue such as bone
- (programming) Ellipsis of breakpoint.
- (music) The transition area between a singer's vocal registers; the passaggio.
- A rest or pause, usually from work.
- A physical space that opens up in something or between two things.
- An interruption of continuity; departure from or rupture with.
- Alternative form of brake (“cart or carriage without a body, for breaking in horses”)
- (computing) The separation between lines, paragraphs or pages of a written text.
- (soccer) The counter-attack.
- A short holiday.
- (snooker) The number of points scored by one player in one visit to the table.
- (finance) A sudden fall in prices on the stock exchange.
- A scheduled interval of days or weeks between periods of school instruction; a holiday.
- (computing) A keystroke or other signal that causes a program to terminate or suspend execution.
- (UK, education) A time for students to talk or play between lessons.
- (geography, chiefly in the plural) An area along a river that features steep banks, bluffs, or gorges (e.g., Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, US).
- A significant change in circumstance, attitude, perception, or focus of attention.
- (music) A section of extended repetition of the percussion break to a song, created by a hip-hop DJ as rhythmic dance music.
- (British, weather) A change, particularly the end of a spell of persistent good or bad weather.
- An interval or intermission between two parts of a performance, for example a theatre show, broadcast, or sports game.
- (surfing) A place where waves break (that is, where waves pitch or spill forward creating white water).
- An act of escaping.
- The beginning (of the morning).
- (music) A short section of music, often between verses, in which some performers stop while others continue.
- A temporary split with a romantic partner.
- (tennis) A game won by the receiving player(s).
- (horse racing) The start of a horse race.
- The opening of packages of cards for a collectible card game, often for further distribution to paying customers.
- (golf) The curve imparted to the ball's motion on the green due to slope or grass texture.
- An instance of breaking something into two or more pieces.
- (equitation) A sharp bit or snaffle.
- (billiards, snooker, pool) The first shot in a game of billiards.
- (music) The point in the musical scale at which a woodwind instrument is designed to overblow, that is, to move from its lower to its upper register.
noun
adj
verb
noun
- Continuous decrease of a quantity.
- (physics) Radioactive decay; decomposition of an atom or its nucleus.
- (programming) Array decay.
- Deterioration of condition; loss of status, quality, strength, or fortune.
- (biology) Rot; any processes or result of organic matter being gradually decomposed, especially by microbial action.
- (physics) Particle decay; decomposition of a sub-atomic particle.
- the spontaneous disintegration of a radioactive substance along with the emission of ionizing radiation
- the organic phenomenon of rotting
- a gradual decrease; as of stored charge or current
- the process of gradually becoming inferior
- an inferior state resulting from the process of decaying
verb
- (transitive) To cause to rot or deteriorate.
- (intransitive, electronics, of storage media or the data on them) To undergo bit rot, that is, gradual degradation.
- (intransitive, computing, of software) To undergo software rot, that is, to fail to be updated in a changing environment, so as to eventually become legacy or obsolete.
- (intransitive, aviation) Loss of airspeed due to drag.
- (intransitive, transitive, physics, of a quantum system) To undergo optical decay, that is, to relax to a less excited state, usually by emitting a photon or phonon.
- (intransitive) To deteriorate, to get worse, to lose strength or health, to decline in quality.
- (intransitive, of organic material) To rot, to go bad.
- (programming, intransitive) Of an array: to lose its type and dimensions and be reduced to a pointer, for example when passed to a function.
- (intransitive, physics, of a satellite's orbit) To undergo prolonged reduction in altitude (above the orbited body).
- (intransitive, transitive, physics, chemistry, of an unstable atom) To change by undergoing fission, by emitting radiation, or by capturing or losing one or more electrons; to undergo radioactive decay.
- fall into decay or ruin
- lose a stored charge, magnetic flux, or current
- undergo decay or decomposition
verb
- (transitive) To cause to decrease or diminish.
- (intransitive) To move downwards, to fall, to drop.
- (by extension) To run through from first to last; to recite in order as though declining a noun.
- (transitive) To choose not to do something; refuse, forbear, refrain.
- (transitive, grammar, usually of substantives, adjectives and pronouns) To inflect for case, number, gender, and the like.
- (American football, Canadian football) To reject a penalty against the opposing team, usually because the result of accepting it would benefit the non-penalized team less than the preceding play.
- (transitive) To bend downward; to bring down; to depress; to cause to bend, or fall.
- (intransitive) To become weaker or worse.
- To turn or bend aside; to deviate; to stray; to withdraw.
- (transitive, grammar) To recite all the different declined forms of (a word): to recite its declension.
- go down
- not accept as true
- show unwillingness towards
- inflect for number, gender, case, etc.
- grow smaller
- fall in value
- grow worse
noun
- Downward movement, fall.
- A reduction or diminution of activity, prevalence or quantity.
- A deterioration of condition; a weakening or worsening.
- A sloping downward, e.g. of a hill or road.
- The act of declining or refusing something.
- a condition inferior to an earlier condition; a gradual falling off from a better state; decline
- change toward something smaller or lower
- a gradual decrease; as of stored charge or current
- a downward slope or bend
adv
- So as to shrink, recede or move aside, or cause to do so.
- In a manner that impedes.
- To a later point in time. See also put back.
- Towards, into or in the past.
- In a direction opposite to that in which someone or something is facing or normally pointing.
- Away from someone or something; at a distance.
- (not comparable) To or in a previous condition or place.
- (not comparable) In a reciprocal manner; in return.
- (postpositive) Earlier, ago.
- In a direction opposite to the usual or desired direction of movement or progress, physically or figuratively.
- Away from the front or from an edge.
- in or to or toward a former location
- in reply
- at or to or toward the back or rear
- in repayment or retaliation
- in or to or toward a past time
- in or to or toward an original condition
adj
- (comparable, phonetics) Pronounced with the highest part of the body of the tongue toward the back of the mouth, near the soft palate (most often describing a vowel).
- At or near the rear.
- Not current.
- (predicative) Returned or restored to a previous place or condition.
- Situated away from the main or most frequented areas.
- Moving or operating backward.
- In arrears; overdue.
- located at or near the back of an animal
- of an earlier date
- related to or located at the back
noun
- (mining) The roof of a horizontal underground passage.
- (swimming) Clipping of backstroke.
- (slang, uncountable) Effort, usually physical.
- (sports) In some team sports, a position behind most players on the team.
- (figuratively) The upper part of a natural object which is considered to resemble an animal’s back.
- (slang, uncountable) Large and attractive buttocks.
- A support or resource in reserve.
- Area behind, such as the backyard of a house or the rear storeroom of a retail store.
- The reverse side; the side that is not normally seen.
- The side of a blade opposite the side used for cutting.
- Among leather dealers, one of the thickest and stoutest tanned hides.
- A ferryboat.
- The rear of the body, especially the part between the neck and the end of the spine and opposite the chest and belly.
- The part of something that goes last.
- The backrest, the part of a piece of furniture which receives the human back.
- (nautical) The keel and keelson of a ship.
- (figurative) The part of a piece of clothing which covers the back.
- A non-alcoholic drink (often water or a soft drink), to go with hard liquor or a cocktail.
- The side of any object which is opposite the front or useful side.
- The spine and associated tissues.
- The edge of a book which is bound.
- A large shallow vat; a cistern, tub, or trough, used by brewers, distillers, dyers, picklers, gluemakers, and others, for mixing or cooling wort, holding water, hot glue, etc.
- (printing) The inside margin of a page.
- That which is farthest away from the front.
- (football) a person who plays in the backfield
- the part of a garment that covers the back of your body
- (American football) the position of a player on a football team who is stationed behind the line of scrimmage
- the protective covering on the front, back, and spine of a book
- the series of vertebrae forming the axis of the skeleton and protecting the spinal cord
- the part of something that is furthest from the normal viewer
- the posterior part of a human (or animal) body from the neck to the end of the spine
- the side that goes last or is not normally seen
- a support that you can lean against while sitting
verb
- (transitive) To push or force backwards.
- (law, of a justice of the peace) To sign or endorse (a warrant, issued in another county, to apprehend an offender).
- (transitive) To support.
- (MLE, transitive) To draw from behind the back (a knife etc.) (as also back out).
- (intransitive) To go in the reverse direction.
- (nautical, of the wind) To change direction contrary to the normal pattern; that is, to shift anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere, or clockwise in the southern hemisphere.
- (UK, of a hunting dog) To stand still behind another dog which has pointed.
- To row backward with (oars).
- (nautical, of a square sail) To brace the yards so that the wind presses on the front of the sail, to slow the ship.
- To make a back for; to furnish with a back.
- To adjoin behind; to be at the back of.
- (nautical, of an anchor) To lay out a second, smaller anchor to provide additional holding power.
- (Nigeria, transitive) To carry an infant on one’s back.
- To write upon the back of, possibly as an endorsement.
- be in back of
- travel backward
- establish as valid or genuine
- place a bet on
- give support or one's approval to
- strengthen by providing with a back or backing
- shift to a counterclockwise direction
- support financial backing for
- be behind; approve of
- cause to travel backward
adj
- Capable of being reduced.
- (mathematics, of an integer) Able to be factored into smaller integers; composite.
- (mathematics, of a polynomial) Able to be factored into polynomials of lower degree, as x²-1.
- (topology, of a manifold) Containing a sphere of codimension 1 that is not the boundary of a ball.
- capable of being reduced
adj
- becoming progressively lower
- being put out in a game of baseball
- lower than previously
- extending or moving from a higher to a lower place
- filled with melancholy and despondency
- understood perfectly
- shut
- not functioning (temporarily or permanently)
- being or moving lower in position or less in some value
- (baseball, cricket, colloquial, following the noun modified) Out.
- (not comparable, military, law enforcement, slang, of a person) Wounded and unable to move normally, or killed.
- (not comparable) Inoperable; out of order; out of service.
- Having a lower score than an opponent.
- (veterinary medicine, of a cow) Stranded in a recumbent position; unable to stand.
- (rail transport, of a train) Travelling in the direction leading away from the principal terminus, away from milepost zero.
- Finished (of a task); defeated or dealt with (of an opponent or obstacle); elapsed (of time). Often coupled with to go (remaining).
- (normally in the combination 'down with') Sick or ill.
- (informal) Sad, unhappy, depressed, feeling low.
- (slang) In prison.
- (of a tree, limb, etc) Fallen or felled.
- At a lower level than before.
- (colloquial, with "on") Negative about; hostile to.
- (Canada, US, slang) Comfortable [with]; accepting [of]; okay [with].
- Facing downwards.
- Thoroughly practiced, learned or memorised; mastered. (Compare down pat.)
- (not comparable, military, aviation, slang, of an aircraft) Mechanically failed, collided, shot down, or otherwise suddenly unable to fly.
- (African-American Vernacular, slang) Accepted, respected, or loyally participating in the (thug) community.
noun
- fine soft dense hair (as the fine short hair of cattle or deer or the wool of sheep or the undercoat of certain dogs)
- soft fine feathers
- (usually plural) a rolling treeless highland with little soil
- (American football) a complete play to advance the football
- Soft, fluffy immature feathers which grow on young birds. Used as insulating material in duvets, sleeping bags and jackets.
- The lightest quark with a charge number of −¹⁄₃.
- (usually in the plural) A field, especially one used for horse racing.
- (UK, chiefly in the plural) A tract of poor, sandy, undulating or hilly land near the sea, covered with fine turf which serves chiefly for the grazing of sheep.
- (gambling) The shift or period of time during which a dealer manages a given table before rotating to the next table at a casino or cardroom, which is often 30 minutes.
- (American football) A single play, from the time the ball is snapped (the start) to the time the whistle is blown (the end) when the ball is down, or is downed.
- A downstairs room of a two-story house.
- The soft hair of the face when beginning to appear.
- A negative aspect; a downer, a downside.
- That which is made of down, as a bed or pillow; that which affords ease and repose, like a bed of down.
- (especially Southern England, also Australia, often plural, often in place names) A hill; in England, especially a chalk hill.
- (crosswording) A clue whose solution runs vertically in the grid.
- (botany) The pubescence of plants; the hairy crown or envelope of the seeds of certain plants, such as the thistle.
- Down payment.
- A downer, depressant.
- An act of swallowing an entire drink at once.
adv
- away from a more central or a more northerly place
- from an earlier time
- in an inactive or inoperative state
- to a lower intensity
- spatially or metaphorically from a higher to a lower level or position
- paid in cash at time of purchase
- At or towards any place that is visualised as 'down' by virtue of local features or local convention, or arbitrarily, irrespective of direction or elevation change.
- Away from the city (regardless of direction).
- (crosswords, in relation to a numbered clued word) In a downwards direction; vertically.
- To the south (as south is at the bottom of typical maps).
- (sentence substitute, imperative) Get down.
- Forward, straight ahead.
- On paper (or in a durable record).
- To a subordinate or less prestigious position or rank.
- So as to be cowed into silence.
- Into a state of non-operation.
- (comparable) From a higher position to a lower one; downwards.
- From less to greater detail.
- Used with verbs to indicate that the action of the verb was carried to some state of completion, permanence, or success rather than being of indefinite duration.
- (comparable) At a lower or further place or position along a set path.
- To or towards what is considered the bottom of something, irrespective of whether this is presently physically lower.
- So as to lessen quantity, level or intensity.
- (sports) Towards the opponent's side (in ball-sports).
- From a remoter or higher antiquity.
- (rail transport) In the direction leading away from the principal terminus, away from milepost zero.
- As a down payment.
- So as to reduce size, weight or volume.
- So as to secure or compress something to the floor, ground, or other (usually horizontal) surface.
verb
- eat up completely, as with great appetite
- shoot at and force to come down
- improve or perfect by pruning or polishing
- bring down or defeat (an opponent)
- drink down entirely
- cause to come or go down
- (transitive, golf, pocket billiards) To sink (a ball) into a hole or pocket.
- (transitive) To knock (someone or something) down; to cause to come down; to fell.
- (transitive, colloquial) To drink or swallow, especially without stopping before the vessel containing the liquid is empty.
- (transitive) Specifically, to cause (something in the air) to fall to the ground; to bring down (with a missile etc.).
- (transitive, colloquial) To disparage; to put down.
- (transitive, American football, Canadian football) To render (the ball) dead, typically by touching the ground while in possession.
- (transitive, figurative) To defeat; to overpower.
- (transitive) To cover, ornament, line, or stuff with down.
- (transitive) To lower; to put (something) down.
prep
- From one end to another of (in any direction); along.
- Towards the mouth of (a river); in the direction of flow of.
- (UK, Ireland) To (a given place that is seen as removed from one's present location or other point of reference).
- From north to south of.
- (UK, Ireland) At (a given place that is seen as removed from one's present location or other point of reference).
- From the higher end to the lower of.
adj
- impaired by diminution
- (of an organ or body part) diminished in size or strength as a result of disease or injury or lack of use
- (of musical intervals) reduction by a semitone of any perfect or minor musical interval
- made to seem smaller or less (especially in worth)
- (music) reduced by a semitone
- made to seem less important, impressive, or valuable
- lessened, reduced
verb
adj
noun
verb
verb
- (intransitive) To sink gradually to a lower level; to subside, for example the foundation of a house, etc.
- (transitive) To clear or purify (a liquid) of dregs and impurities by causing them to sink.
- (transitive) To render compact or solid; to cause to become packed down.
- (transitive) In particular, to terminate (a lawsuit), usually out of court, by agreement of all parties.
- (intransitive) To become clear due to the sinking of sediment. (Used especially of liquid. Also used figuratively.)
- (transitive) To determine (something which was exposed to doubt or question); to resolve conclusively; to set or fix (a time, an order of succession, etc).
- (transitive, in particular) To colonize (an area); to migrate to (a land, territory, site, etc).
- (transitive) To conclude, to cause (a dispute) to finish.
- (intransitive, with "in") To be established in a profession or in employment.
- (intransitive) To become compact due to sinking.
- (transitive) To put into (proper) place; to make sit or lie properly.
- (intransitive) To conclude a lawsuit by agreement of the parties rather than a decision of a court.
- (intransitive) To become firm, dry, and hard, like the ground after the effects of rain or frost have disappeared.
- (transitive) To cause to sink down or to be deposited (dregs, sediment, etc).
- (intransitive, usually with "down", "in", "on" or another preposition) To become stationary or fixed; to come to rest.
- (intransitive) To fix one's residence in a place; to establish a dwelling place, home, or colony. (Compare settle down.)
- (transitive) In particular, to establish in life; to fix in business, in a home, etc.
- (intransitive) To sink to the bottom of a body of liquid, as dregs of a liquid, or the sediment of a reservoir.
- (transitive) To bring or restore (ground, roads, etc) to a smooth, dry, or passable condition.
- (British, dialectal) To silence, especially by force.
- (transitive) To place in(to) a fixed or permanent condition or position or on(to) a permanent basis; to make firm, steady, or stable; to establish or fix.
- (transitive) To cause to no longer be in a disturbed, confused or stormy; to quiet; to calm (nerves, waters, a boisterous or rebellious child, etc).
- To kill.
- (intransitive) To adjust differences or accounts; to come to an agreement on matters in dispute.
- (intransitive) To become married, or a householder.
- (transitive, colloquial) To pay (a bill).
- (ambitransitive) Of an animal: to make or become pregnant.
- (transitive) To close, liquidate or balance (an account) by payment, sometimes of less than is owed or due.
- (transitive) To place or arrange in(to) a desired (especially: calm) state, or make final disposition of (something).
- (transitive, law) To formally, legally secure (an annuity, property, title, etc) on (a person).
- (intransitive) To become calm, quiet, or orderly; to stop being agitated.
- (transitive) To move (people) to (a land or territory), so as to colonize it; to cause (people) to take residence in (a place).
- settle into a position, usually on a surface or ground
- form a community
- come to terms
- sink down or precipitate
- end a legal dispute by arriving at a settlement
- become settled or established and stable in one's residence or life style
- bring to an end; settle conclusively
- accept despite lack of complete satisfaction
- arrange or fix in the desired order
- go under
- become resolved, fixed, established, or quiet
- make final; put the last touches on; put into final form
- take up residence and become established
- cause to become clear by forming a sediment (of liquids)
- fix firmly
- dispose of; make a financial settlement
- settle conclusively; come to terms
- come as if by falling
- become clear by the sinking of particles
- come to rest
- establish or develop as a residence
- get one's revenge for a wrong or an injury
noun
verb
- disappear gradually
- become less clearly visible or distinguishable; disappear gradually or seemingly
- become feeble
- lose freshness, vigor, or vitality
- (intransitive) To lose freshness, color, or brightness; to become faint in hue or tint; hence, to be wanting in color.
- (transitive, gambling) To bet against (someone).
- (intransitive) To grow weak; to lose strength; to decay; to perish gradually; to wither, as a plant.
- (transitive) To cause to fade.
- (intransitive) To sink away; to disappear gradually; to grow dim; to vanish.
- (transitive, golf) To hit the ball with the shot called a fade.
noun
- a golf shot that curves to the right for a right-handed golfer
- gradually ceasing to be visible
- (slang) A fight.
- (golf) A golf shot that curves intentionally to the player's right (if they are right-handed) or to the left (if left-handed).
- (slang) The act of disappearing from a place so as not to be found; covert departure.
- A haircut where the hair is short or shaved on the sides of the head and longer on top. See also high-top fade and low fade.
- (music, cinematography) A gradual decrease in the brightness of a shot or the volume of sound or music (as a means of cutting to a new scene or starting a new song).
verb
- disappear gradually
- move along rapidly and lightly; skim or dart
- (intransitive) To evanesce, disappear, die out.
- To cause to slip down the barrel of a capstan or windlass, as a rope or chain.
- (nautical) To move up a rope, so as to haul to more advantage; especially to draw apart the blocks of a tackle.
- To take the cream from; to skim.
- (ambitransitive) To hasten over; to cause to pass away lightly, or in mirth and joy.
- (ambitransitive) To pass over rapidly; to skim the surface of.
- (intransitive) To flee, to escape, to speed away.
- (nautical, intransitive, of people) To move or change in position.
adj
noun
- group of motor vehicles operating together under the same ownership
- a group of warships organized as a tactical unit
- a group of steamships operating together under the same ownership
- group of aircraft operating together under the same ownership
- (nautical) A location, as on a navigable river, where barges are secured.
- (dialectal, obsolete outside of place names) An arm of the sea; a run of water, such as an inlet or a creek.
- A group of vessels or vehicles.
- A large, coordinated group of people.
- (nautical) A number of vessels in company, especially war vessels; also, the collective naval force of a country, etc.
- (nautical, British Royal Navy) Any command of vessels exceeding a squadron in size, or a rear admiral's command, composed of five sail-of-the-line, with any number of smaller vessels.
- Any group of associated items.
- The individual waves in corrugated fiberboard.
verb
noun
- (figurative) Gradual reduction over time.
- the property possessed by a shape that narrows toward a point (as a wedge or cone)
- a convex shape that narrows toward a point
- a loosely woven cord (in a candle or oil lamp) that draws fuel by capillary action up into the flame
- stick of wax with a wick in the middle
- A slender wax candle.
- Someone who works with tape or tapes.
- (by extension) A small light.
- A thin stick used for lighting candles, either a wax-coated wick or a slow-burning wooden rod.
- The portion of an object with such a form.
- A tapering form; gradual diminution of thickness and/or cross section in an elongated object.
- (weaving) One who operates a tape machine.
- A cone-shaped item for stretching the hole for an ear gauge (piercing).
- (machining) Ellipsis of machine taper.
adj
noun
- the amount by which something decreases
- a process of becoming smaller or shorter
- the act of decreasing or reducing something
- a change downward
- An amount by which a quantity decreases or is decreased.
- (knitting, crochet) A reduction in the number of stitches, usually accomplished by suspending the stitch to be decreased from another existing stitch or by knitting it together with another stitch. See Decrease (knitting).
verb
noun
- A gradual decline.
- A European bunting, the corn bunting (Emberiza calandra, syns. Emberiza miliaria, Milaria calandra).
- (especially in the phrase 'at a low ebb') A low state; a state of depression.
- The receding movement of the tide.
- the outward flow of the tide
- a gradual decline (in size or strength or power or number)
adj
verb
- (intransitive) to fish with stakes and nets that serve to prevent the fish from getting back into the sea with the ebb
- (intransitive) to flow back or recede
- (transitive) To cause to flow back.
- (intransitive) to fall away or decline
- flow back or recede
- hem in fish with stakes and nets so as to prevent them from going back into the sea with the ebb
- fall away or decline
noun
adj
verb
noun
verb
noun
- A lessening, decrease or reduction.
- (music) a compositional technique where the composer shortens the melody by shortening its note values.
- The act or process of making diminutive.
- the statement of a theme in notes of lesser duration (usually half the length of the original)
- change toward something smaller or lower
- the act of decreasing or reducing something
noun
- a gradual decline of something
- erosion by chemical action
- (geology) the mechanical process of wearing or grinding something down (as by particles washing over it), also figuratively
- condition in which the earth's surface is worn away by the action of water and wind
- (dentistry) Loss of tooth enamel due to non-bacteriogenic chemical processes.
- (chiefly uncountable) The changing of a surface by mechanical action, friction, thermal expansion contraction, or impact.
- (chiefly uncountable, figurative) The gradual loss of something as a result of an ongoing process.
- (mathematics) In morphology, a basic operation (denoted ⊖); see Erosion (morphology).
- (chiefly uncountable) The result of having been worn away or eroded, as by a glacier on rock or the sea on a cliff face.
- (medicine) A shallow ulceration or lesion, usually involving skin or epithelial tissue.
- (mathematics, image processing) One of two fundamental operations in morphological image processing from which all other morphological operations are derived.
- (chiefly uncountable) Destruction by abrasive action of fluids.
noun
adj
verb
noun
- Continuous decrease of a quantity.
- (physics) Radioactive decay; decomposition of an atom or its nucleus.
- (programming) Array decay.
- Deterioration of condition; loss of status, quality, strength, or fortune.
- (biology) Rot; any processes or result of organic matter being gradually decomposed, especially by microbial action.
- (physics) Particle decay; decomposition of a sub-atomic particle.
- the spontaneous disintegration of a radioactive substance along with the emission of ionizing radiation
- the organic phenomenon of rotting
- a gradual decrease; as of stored charge or current
- the process of gradually becoming inferior
- an inferior state resulting from the process of decaying
verb
- (transitive) To cause to rot or deteriorate.
- (intransitive, electronics, of storage media or the data on them) To undergo bit rot, that is, gradual degradation.
- (intransitive, computing, of software) To undergo software rot, that is, to fail to be updated in a changing environment, so as to eventually become legacy or obsolete.
- (intransitive, aviation) Loss of airspeed due to drag.
- (intransitive, transitive, physics, of a quantum system) To undergo optical decay, that is, to relax to a less excited state, usually by emitting a photon or phonon.
- (intransitive) To deteriorate, to get worse, to lose strength or health, to decline in quality.
- (intransitive, of organic material) To rot, to go bad.
- (programming, intransitive) Of an array: to lose its type and dimensions and be reduced to a pointer, for example when passed to a function.
- (intransitive, physics, of a satellite's orbit) To undergo prolonged reduction in altitude (above the orbited body).
- (intransitive, transitive, physics, chemistry, of an unstable atom) To change by undergoing fission, by emitting radiation, or by capturing or losing one or more electrons; to undergo radioactive decay.
- fall into decay or ruin
- lose a stored charge, magnetic flux, or current
- undergo decay or decomposition
verb
- decrease in phase
- become smaller
- grow smaller
- (intransitive, astronomy) For the Moon to pass through the phases of its monthly cycle where its surface is less and less visible.
- (intransitive) Said of a time period that comes to an end.
- (intransitive) To progressively lose its splendor, value, ardor, power, intensity etc.; to decline.
- (intransitive) For light to dim or diminish in strength.
noun
- A gradual diminution in power, value, intensity etc.
- a gradual decline (in size or strength or power or number)
- The lunar phase during which the sun seems to illuminate less of the moon as its sunlit area becomes progressively smaller as visible from Earth.
- (woodworking) A rounded corner caused by lack of wood, often showing bark.
- (Scotland, slang) A child.
- (literary) The end of a period.
verb
noun
- (figurative) Gradual reduction over time.
- the property possessed by a shape that narrows toward a point (as a wedge or cone)
- a convex shape that narrows toward a point
- a loosely woven cord (in a candle or oil lamp) that draws fuel by capillary action up into the flame
- stick of wax with a wick in the middle
- A slender wax candle.
- Someone who works with tape or tapes.
- (by extension) A small light.
- A thin stick used for lighting candles, either a wax-coated wick or a slow-burning wooden rod.
- The portion of an object with such a form.
- A tapering form; gradual diminution of thickness and/or cross section in an elongated object.
- (weaving) One who operates a tape machine.
- A cone-shaped item for stretching the hole for an ear gauge (piercing).
- (machining) Ellipsis of machine taper.
adj
verb
- decrease gradually or bit by bit
- remove the skin from
- cut small bits or pare shavings from
- remove the edges from and cut down to the desired size
- (transitive) To remove the outer covering or skin of something with a cutting device, typically a knife.
- (transitive, often with down or back) To reduce, diminish or trim gradually something as if by cutting off.
- (Ireland, slang) To sharpen a pencil.
- To trim the hoof of a horse.
verb
- (intransitive) To gradually decrease and eventually cease.
- (intransitive) To stop talking because one has forgotten what one was going to say.
- (intransitive, ambitransitive) To manually dry dishes and utensils.
- (of an actor) To forget one's lines.
- (transitive) To cause to become dry.
- (1930s US slang) To stop talking or drop a topic.
- (intransitive) To become dry (often of weather); to lose water.
- (transitive) To deprive someone of (something vital).
- dry up and shrivel due to complete loss of moisture
- lose water or moisture
verb
- To taper off; to gradually quiet or diminish.
- To rub or polish with wax to create a slick, shiny and/or waterproof coating; to wax.
- To coat (hair) with an oily or waxy substance in order to hold it in place.
- To stiffen by coating or permeating with wax.
- To paste into place using wax.
- (beekeeping) To generate a layer of wax that completely covers.
- To seal over with wax, in order to make airtight and watertight.
verb
verb
- To decrease in force or intensity; to subside.
- To decrease in amount or size.
- To lower (something) in price or value.
- To lessen (something) in force or intensity; to moderate.
- (chiefly US) To dismiss or otherwise bring to an end (legal proceedings) before they are completed, especially on procedural grounds rather than on the merits.
- (chiefly US) Of legal proceedings: to be dismissed or otherwise brought to an end before they are completed, especially on procedural grounds rather than on the merits.
- To reduce (something) in amount or size.
- To lower in price or value; (law) specifically, of a bequest in a will: to lower in value because the testator's estate is insufficient to satisfy all the bequests in full.
- (chiefly historical) Of a writ or other legal document: to become null and void; to cease to have effect.
- To make (a writ or other legal document) void; to nullify.
- To cut away or hammer down (material from metalwork, a sculpture, etc.) in such a way as to leave a figure in relief.
- To put an end to (a nuisance).
- become less in amount or intensity
- make less active or intense
verb
- become less intense and fade away gradually
- get lost, as without warning or explanation
- cease to exist
- become invisible or unnoticeable
- (transitive, often euphemistic) To make vanish; especially, to abduct or murder for political reasons.
- (intransitive) To go missing; to become a missing person.
- (intransitive) To go away; to become lost.
- (intransitive) To vanish.
verb
- become less intense and fade away gradually
- cause to change into a vapor
- lose or cause to lose liquid by vaporization leaving a more concentrated residue
- change into a vapor
- (ergative) To transition from a liquid state into a gaseous state.
- (transitive, figuratively) To give vent to; to dissipate.
- (intransitive, figurative) To disappear; to escape or pass off without effect.
- (transitive) To expel moisture from (usually by means of artificial heat), leaving the solid portion.
- (transitive, figurative) To cause to disappear or to escape or pass off without effect.
verb
- become less intense and fade away gradually
- become or cause to become soft or liquid
- reduce or cause to be reduced from a solid to a liquid state, usually by heating
- become more relaxed, easygoing, or genial
- lose its distinct outline or shape; blend gradually
- become less clearly visible or distinguishable; disappear gradually or seemingly
- (intransitive, colloquial) To be very hot and sweat profusely.
- (intransitive, figurative) To be emotionally softened or touched.
- (transitive, figurative) To soften, as by a warming or kindly influence; to relax; to render gentle or susceptible to mild influences; sometimes, in a bad sense, to take away the firmness of; to weaken.
- (intransitive, figuratively) To dissolve, disperse, vanish.
- (ergative) To change (or to be changed) from a solid state to a liquid state, usually by a gradual heat.
- (intransitive) To be discouraged.
noun
- the process whereby heat changes something from a solid to a liquid
- (UK, politics, slang, derogatory) A centre-left or liberal person, when in opposition to a leftist; (especially) a critic of Jeremy Corbyn within the Labour Party.
- (geology) Rock showing evidence of having been remelted after it originally solidified.
- (UK, slang, derogatory) An idiot.
- The springtime snow runoff in mountain regions.
- Molten material, the product of melting.
- The transition of matter from a solid state to a liquid state.
- A melt sandwich.
- Variant spelling of milt, the semen of a male fish, used as food.
- A wax-based substance for use in an oil burner as an alternative to mixing oils and water.
verb
- (intransitive) To fall away gradually; to subside.
- To slip into a bad habit that one is trying to avoid.
- (intransitive) To become void.
- To fall or pass from one proprietor to another, or from the original destination, by the omission, negligence, or failure of somebody, such as a patron or legatee.
- (intransitive) To fall into error or heresy.
- pass into a specified state or condition; sink into
- for time to move forward
- drop to a lower level, as in one's morals or standards
- let slip
- end, at least for a long time
- go back to bad behavior
noun
- (theology) A fall or apostasy.
- A decline or fall in standards.
- A termination of a right etc., through disuse or neglect.
- An interval of time between events.
- (law) A common-law rule that if the person to whom property is willed were to die before the testator, then the gift would be ineffective.
- A pause in continuity.
- (meteorology) A marked decrease in air temperature with increasing altitude because the ground is warmer than the surrounding air.
- A temporary failure; a slip.
- a break or intermission in the occurrence of something
- a mistake resulting from inattention
- a failure to maintain a higher state
verb
- decrease rapidly and disappear
- be dispersed or disseminated
- pass away rapidly
- display in the air or cause to float
- move quickly or suddenly
- change quickly from one emotional state to another
- hit a fly
- travel over (an area of land or sea) in an aircraft
- cause to fly or float
- travel in an airplane
- run away quickly
- operate an airplane
- transport by aeroplane
- travel through the air; be airborne
- (transitive, ergative) To display (a flag) on a flagpole.
- (intransitive, entomology, of a type of moth or butterfly) To be in the winged adult stage.
- (intransitive, baseball) To hit a fly ball; to hit a fly ball that is caught for an out. Compare ground (verb) and line (verb).
- (intransitive) To travel through the air, another gas, or a vacuum, without being in contact with a grounded surface.
- (intransitive) To travel or proceed very fast; to hasten.
- (transitive, ergative) To cause to fly (travel or float in the air): to transport via air or the like.
- (intransitive) To move suddenly, or with violence; to do an act suddenly or swiftly.
- (intransitive, colloquial, of a proposal, project or idea) To be accepted, come about or work out.
- (intransitive) To proceed with great success.
- (transitive) To hunt with a hawk.
adj
noun
- fisherman's lure consisting of a fishhook decorated to look like an insect
- an opening in a garment that is closed by a zipper or by buttons concealed under a fold of cloth
- (baseball) a hit that flies up in the air
- flap consisting of a piece of canvas that can be drawn back to provide entrance to a tent
- two-winged insects characterized by active flight
- (often plural) A strip of material (sometimes hiding zippers or buttons) at the front of a pair of trousers, pants, underpants, bootees, etc.
- The pair of arms revolving around the bobbin, in a spinning wheel or spinning frame, to twist the yarn.
- A vibrating frame with fingers, attached to a power printing press for doing the same work.
- The horizontal length of a flag.
- A piece of canvas that covers the opening at the front of a tent.
- (weightlifting) A chest exercise performed by moving extended arms from the sides to in front of the chest. (also flye)
- (weaving) A shuttle driven through the shed by a blow or jerk.
- An act of flying.
- (historical) A type of small, light, fast horse-drawn carriage that can be hired for transportation (sometimes pluralised flys).
- (preceded by definite article) A simple dance in which the hands are shaken in the air, popular in the 1960s.
- (American football) Ellipsis of fly route.
- The person who took the printed sheets from the press.
- The moving portion of an extendable ladder.
- Alternative form of vly (“swamp (in New York)”).
- Two or more vanes set on a revolving axis, to act as a fanner, or to equalize or impede the motion of machinery by the resistance of the air, as in the striking part of a clock.
- (weightlifting) An exercise that involves wide opening and closing of the arms perpendicular to the shoulders.
- (nautical) That part of a compass on which the points are marked; the compass card.
- (fishing) A lightweight fishing lure resembling an insect.
- Any similar but not closely related insect, such as a dragonfly, butterfly, or gallfly.
- (cotton manufacture) Waste cotton.
- (finance) A butterfly (combination of four options).
- One of the upper screens of a stage in a theatre.
- (baseball) A fly ball.
- (rustic, Scotland, Northern England) A wing.
- The part of a weather vane pointing the direction from which the wind blows.
- (swimming) The butterfly stroke (plural is normally flys).
- In a knitting machine, the piece hinged to the needle, which holds the engaged loop in position while the needle is penetrating another loop; a latch.
- (zoology) Any insect of the order Diptera; characterized by having two wings (except for some wingless species), also called true flies.
- Ellipsis of flywheel.
- The free edge of a flag.
- (non-technical) Especially, any of the insects of the family Muscidae, such as the common housefly (other families of Diptera include mosquitoes and midges).
verb
noun
verb
- decrease in phase
- become smaller
- grow smaller
- (intransitive, astronomy) For the Moon to pass through the phases of its monthly cycle where its surface is less and less visible.
- (intransitive) Said of a time period that comes to an end.
- (intransitive) To progressively lose its splendor, value, ardor, power, intensity etc.; to decline.
- (intransitive) For light to dim or diminish in strength.
noun
- A gradual diminution in power, value, intensity etc.
- a gradual decline (in size or strength or power or number)
- The lunar phase during which the sun seems to illuminate less of the moon as its sunlit area becomes progressively smaller as visible from Earth.
- (woodworking) A rounded corner caused by lack of wood, often showing bark.
- (Scotland, slang) A child.
- (literary) The end of a period.
verb
- fall or diminish
- change from a waking to a sleeping state
- remove (cargo, people, etc.) from and leave
- fall to a lower standard
- retreat
- (idiomatic, transitive, especially US) To deliver; to deposit or leave; to allow passengers to alight.
- (intransitive, also figuratively) To drop, fall.
- (transitive, also figuratively) To drop from, fall from.
- (slang) To abandon or give up on (something); to be abandoned or given up on.
- (intransitive, figurative) To end a connection with a telephone queue, either by hanging up or after being served or processed.
- (idiomatic, intransitive) To fall asleep.
- (intransitive) To lessen or reduce.
verb
- diminish or discontinue abruptly
- make known to the public information that was previously known only to a few people or that was meant to be kept a secret
- find the solution or key to
- become punctured or penetrated
- become separated into pieces or fragments
- do a break dance
- enter someone's (virtual or real) property in an unauthorized manner, usually with the intent to steal or commit a violent act
- discontinue an association or relation; go different ways
- fall sharply
- separate from a clinch, in boxing
- cause to give up a habit
- weaken or destroy in spirit or body
- change directions suddenly
- exchange for smaller units of money
- undergo breaking
- give up
- interrupt a continued activity
- interrupt the flow of current in
- break a piece from a whole
- make a rupture in the ranks of the enemy or one's own by quitting or fleeing
- move away or escape suddenly
- invalidate by judicial action
- destroy the completeness of a set of related items
- cease an action temporarily
- happen or take place
- render inoperable or ineffective
- emerge from the surface of a body of water
- come to an end (of an event)
- cause the failure or ruin of
- put an end to a state or an activity
- fracture a bone of
- stop operating or functioning
- curl over and fall apart in surf or foam, of waves
- terminate or end
- come forth or begin from a state of latency
- make submissive, obedient, or useful
- crack; of the male voice in puberty
- vary or interrupt a uniformity or continuity
- destroy the integrity of; usually by force; cause to separate into pieces or fragments
- come into being
- force out or release suddenly and often violently something pent up
- find a flaw in
- ruin completely
- become fractured; break or crack on the surface only
- happen
- go to pieces
- break down, literally or metaphorically
- act in disregard of laws, rules, contracts, or promises
- pierce or penetrate
- surpass in excellence
- lessen in force or effect
- change suddenly from one tone quality or register to another
- make the opening shot that scatters the balls
- scatter or part
- be broken in
- assign to a lower position; reduce in rank
- reduce to bankruptcy
- be released or become known; of news
- fail to agree with; be in violation of; as of rules or patterns
- (transitive, tennis) To win a game (against one's opponent) as receiver.
- (intransitive, of a storm) To begin or end.
- (intransitive, sports) To counter-attack.
- (intransitive, of a spell of settled weather) To end.
- (intransitive) To become weakened in constitution or faculties; to lose health or strength.
- (transitive, ergative) To disclose or make known an item of news, a band, etc.
- (intransitive, of a male voice) To become deeper at puberty.
- (transitive, backgammon) To remove one of the two men on (a point).
- (transitive) To end (a connection); to disconnect.
- (intransitive, billiards, snooker, pool) To make the first shot; to scatter the balls from the initial neat arrangement.
- (intransitive) To be crushed, or overwhelmed with sorrow or grief.
- (intransitive, of a voice) To alter in type due to emotion or strain: in men, generally to go up, in women, sometimes to go down; to crack.
- (specifically) To cause the shell of (an egg) to crack, so that the inside (yolk) is accessible.
- (transitive, theater) To end the run of (a play).
- (transitive) To destroy the official character and standing of; to cashier; to dismiss.
- (intransitive) To make an abrupt or sudden change; to change gait.
- (intransitive) To interrupt or cease one's work or occupation temporarily; to go on break.
- (transitive) To violate; to fail to adhere to.
- (specifically) To open (a safe) without using the correct key, combination, or the like.
- (transitive) To divide (something, often money) into smaller units.
- (transitive) To interrupt; to destroy the continuity of; to dissolve or terminate.
- (transitive) To cause (a barrier) to no longer bar.
- (intransitive, of morning, dawn, day etc.) To arrive.
- (transitive) To destroy the strength, firmness, or consistency of.
- (transitive, with for) To (attempt to) disengage and flee to; to make a run for.
- (rare, mainly historical or a misspelling) To brake.
- (copulative, informal) To suddenly become.
- (transitive) To interrupt (a fall) by inserting something so that the falling object does not (immediately) hit something else beneath.
- (transitive) To change a steady state abruptly.
- To turn an animal into a beast of burden.
- (music, slang) To B-boy; to breakdance.
- (specifically, in programming) To cause (some feature of a program or piece of software) to stop functioning properly; to cause a regression.
- (programming) To suspend the execution of a program during debugging so that the state of the program can be investigated.
- (transitive, intransitive) To crack or fracture (bone) under a physical strain.
- (intransitive) To burst forth; to make its way; to come into view.
- (ergative, transitive, intransitive) To separate into two or more pieces, to fracture or crack, by a process that cannot easily be reversed for reassembly.
- (computing) To cause, or allow the occurrence of, a line break.
- (transitive) To ruin financially.
- (transitive, gaming slang) To render (a game) unchallenging by altering its rules or exploiting loopholes or weaknesses in them in a way that gives a player an unfair advantage.
- (finance, intransitive) Of prices on the stock exchange: to fall suddenly.
- (transitive, military, most often in the passive tense) To demote; to reduce the military rank of.
- (computing) To terminate the execution of a program before normal completion.
- (intransitive, of a fever) To go down, in terms of temperature, indicating that the most dangerous part of the illness has passed.
- (transitive, intransitive) To stop, or to cause to stop, functioning properly or altogether.
- (intransitive, of a sauce or emulsion) To de-emulsify.
- (transitive) To surpass or do better than (a specific number); to do better than (a record), setting a new record.
- (transitive) To cause (a person or animal) to lose spirit or will; to crush the spirits of.
- (intransitive, of a sound) To become audible suddenly.
- (intransitive, of a wave of water) To collapse into surf, after arriving in shallow water.
- (transitive) To destroy the arrangement of; to throw into disorder; to pierce.
noun
- an unexpected piece of good luck
- an abrupt change in the tone or register of the voice (as at puberty or due to emotion)
- the opening shot that scatters the balls in billiards or pool
- some abrupt occurrence that interrupts an ongoing activity
- a time interval during which there is a temporary cessation of something
- an escape from jail
- a personal or social separation (as between opposing factions)
- (tennis) a score consisting of winning a game when your opponent was serving
- a pause from doing something (as work)
- the act of breaking something
- any frame in which a bowler fails to make a strike or spare
- an act of delaying or interrupting the continuity
- the occurrence of breaking
- a sudden dash
- (geology) a crack in the earth's crust resulting from the displacement of one side with respect to the other
- breaking of hard tissue such as bone
- (programming) Ellipsis of breakpoint.
- (music) The transition area between a singer's vocal registers; the passaggio.
- A rest or pause, usually from work.
- A physical space that opens up in something or between two things.
- An interruption of continuity; departure from or rupture with.
- Alternative form of brake (“cart or carriage without a body, for breaking in horses”)
- (computing) The separation between lines, paragraphs or pages of a written text.
- (soccer) The counter-attack.
- A short holiday.
- (snooker) The number of points scored by one player in one visit to the table.
- (finance) A sudden fall in prices on the stock exchange.
- A scheduled interval of days or weeks between periods of school instruction; a holiday.
- (computing) A keystroke or other signal that causes a program to terminate or suspend execution.
- (UK, education) A time for students to talk or play between lessons.
- (geography, chiefly in the plural) An area along a river that features steep banks, bluffs, or gorges (e.g., Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, US).
- A significant change in circumstance, attitude, perception, or focus of attention.
- (music) A section of extended repetition of the percussion break to a song, created by a hip-hop DJ as rhythmic dance music.
- (British, weather) A change, particularly the end of a spell of persistent good or bad weather.
- An interval or intermission between two parts of a performance, for example a theatre show, broadcast, or sports game.
- (surfing) A place where waves break (that is, where waves pitch or spill forward creating white water).
- An act of escaping.
- The beginning (of the morning).
- (music) A short section of music, often between verses, in which some performers stop while others continue.
- A temporary split with a romantic partner.
- (tennis) A game won by the receiving player(s).
- (horse racing) The start of a horse race.
- The opening of packages of cards for a collectible card game, often for further distribution to paying customers.
- (golf) The curve imparted to the ball's motion on the green due to slope or grass texture.
- An instance of breaking something into two or more pieces.
- (equitation) A sharp bit or snaffle.
- (billiards, snooker, pool) The first shot in a game of billiards.
- (music) The point in the musical scale at which a woodwind instrument is designed to overblow, that is, to move from its lower to its upper register.
verb
- (transitive) To cause to decrease or diminish.
- (intransitive) To move downwards, to fall, to drop.
- (by extension) To run through from first to last; to recite in order as though declining a noun.
- (transitive) To choose not to do something; refuse, forbear, refrain.
- (transitive, grammar, usually of substantives, adjectives and pronouns) To inflect for case, number, gender, and the like.
- (American football, Canadian football) To reject a penalty against the opposing team, usually because the result of accepting it would benefit the non-penalized team less than the preceding play.
- (transitive) To bend downward; to bring down; to depress; to cause to bend, or fall.
- (intransitive) To become weaker or worse.
- To turn or bend aside; to deviate; to stray; to withdraw.
- (transitive, grammar) To recite all the different declined forms of (a word): to recite its declension.
- go down
- not accept as true
- show unwillingness towards
- inflect for number, gender, case, etc.
- grow smaller
- fall in value
- grow worse
noun
- Downward movement, fall.
- A reduction or diminution of activity, prevalence or quantity.
- A deterioration of condition; a weakening or worsening.
- A sloping downward, e.g. of a hill or road.
- The act of declining or refusing something.
- a condition inferior to an earlier condition; a gradual falling off from a better state; decline
- change toward something smaller or lower
- a gradual decrease; as of stored charge or current
- a downward slope or bend
verb
- (intransitive) To sink gradually to a lower level; to subside, for example the foundation of a house, etc.
- (transitive) To clear or purify (a liquid) of dregs and impurities by causing them to sink.
- (transitive) To render compact or solid; to cause to become packed down.
- (transitive) In particular, to terminate (a lawsuit), usually out of court, by agreement of all parties.
- (intransitive) To become clear due to the sinking of sediment. (Used especially of liquid. Also used figuratively.)
- (transitive) To determine (something which was exposed to doubt or question); to resolve conclusively; to set or fix (a time, an order of succession, etc).
- (transitive, in particular) To colonize (an area); to migrate to (a land, territory, site, etc).
- (transitive) To conclude, to cause (a dispute) to finish.
- (intransitive, with "in") To be established in a profession or in employment.
- (intransitive) To become compact due to sinking.
- (transitive) To put into (proper) place; to make sit or lie properly.
- (intransitive) To conclude a lawsuit by agreement of the parties rather than a decision of a court.
- (intransitive) To become firm, dry, and hard, like the ground after the effects of rain or frost have disappeared.
- (transitive) To cause to sink down or to be deposited (dregs, sediment, etc).
- (intransitive, usually with "down", "in", "on" or another preposition) To become stationary or fixed; to come to rest.
- (intransitive) To fix one's residence in a place; to establish a dwelling place, home, or colony. (Compare settle down.)
- (transitive) In particular, to establish in life; to fix in business, in a home, etc.
- (intransitive) To sink to the bottom of a body of liquid, as dregs of a liquid, or the sediment of a reservoir.
- (transitive) To bring or restore (ground, roads, etc) to a smooth, dry, or passable condition.
- (British, dialectal) To silence, especially by force.
- (transitive) To place in(to) a fixed or permanent condition or position or on(to) a permanent basis; to make firm, steady, or stable; to establish or fix.
- (transitive) To cause to no longer be in a disturbed, confused or stormy; to quiet; to calm (nerves, waters, a boisterous or rebellious child, etc).
- To kill.
- (intransitive) To adjust differences or accounts; to come to an agreement on matters in dispute.
- (intransitive) To become married, or a householder.
- (transitive, colloquial) To pay (a bill).
- (ambitransitive) Of an animal: to make or become pregnant.
- (transitive) To close, liquidate or balance (an account) by payment, sometimes of less than is owed or due.
- (transitive) To place or arrange in(to) a desired (especially: calm) state, or make final disposition of (something).
- (transitive, law) To formally, legally secure (an annuity, property, title, etc) on (a person).
- (intransitive) To become calm, quiet, or orderly; to stop being agitated.
- (transitive) To move (people) to (a land or territory), so as to colonize it; to cause (people) to take residence in (a place).
- settle into a position, usually on a surface or ground
- form a community
- come to terms
- sink down or precipitate
- end a legal dispute by arriving at a settlement
- become settled or established and stable in one's residence or life style
- bring to an end; settle conclusively
- accept despite lack of complete satisfaction
- arrange or fix in the desired order
- go under
- become resolved, fixed, established, or quiet
- make final; put the last touches on; put into final form
- take up residence and become established
- cause to become clear by forming a sediment (of liquids)
- fix firmly
- dispose of; make a financial settlement
- settle conclusively; come to terms
- come as if by falling
- become clear by the sinking of particles
- come to rest
- establish or develop as a residence
- get one's revenge for a wrong or an injury
noun
verb
- disappear gradually
- become less clearly visible or distinguishable; disappear gradually or seemingly
- become feeble
- lose freshness, vigor, or vitality
- (intransitive) To lose freshness, color, or brightness; to become faint in hue or tint; hence, to be wanting in color.
- (transitive, gambling) To bet against (someone).
- (intransitive) To grow weak; to lose strength; to decay; to perish gradually; to wither, as a plant.
- (transitive) To cause to fade.
- (intransitive) To sink away; to disappear gradually; to grow dim; to vanish.
- (transitive, golf) To hit the ball with the shot called a fade.
noun
- a golf shot that curves to the right for a right-handed golfer
- gradually ceasing to be visible
- (slang) A fight.
- (golf) A golf shot that curves intentionally to the player's right (if they are right-handed) or to the left (if left-handed).
- (slang) The act of disappearing from a place so as not to be found; covert departure.
- A haircut where the hair is short or shaved on the sides of the head and longer on top. See also high-top fade and low fade.
- (music, cinematography) A gradual decrease in the brightness of a shot or the volume of sound or music (as a means of cutting to a new scene or starting a new song).
verb
- disappear gradually
- move along rapidly and lightly; skim or dart
- (intransitive) To evanesce, disappear, die out.
- To cause to slip down the barrel of a capstan or windlass, as a rope or chain.
- (nautical) To move up a rope, so as to haul to more advantage; especially to draw apart the blocks of a tackle.
- To take the cream from; to skim.
- (ambitransitive) To hasten over; to cause to pass away lightly, or in mirth and joy.
- (ambitransitive) To pass over rapidly; to skim the surface of.
- (intransitive) To flee, to escape, to speed away.
- (nautical, intransitive, of people) To move or change in position.
adj
noun
- group of motor vehicles operating together under the same ownership
- a group of warships organized as a tactical unit
- a group of steamships operating together under the same ownership
- group of aircraft operating together under the same ownership
- (nautical) A location, as on a navigable river, where barges are secured.
- (dialectal, obsolete outside of place names) An arm of the sea; a run of water, such as an inlet or a creek.
- A group of vessels or vehicles.
- A large, coordinated group of people.
- (nautical) A number of vessels in company, especially war vessels; also, the collective naval force of a country, etc.
- (nautical, British Royal Navy) Any command of vessels exceeding a squadron in size, or a rear admiral's command, composed of five sail-of-the-line, with any number of smaller vessels.
- Any group of associated items.
- The individual waves in corrugated fiberboard.
adv
- So as to shrink, recede or move aside, or cause to do so.
- In a manner that impedes.
- To a later point in time. See also put back.
- Towards, into or in the past.
- In a direction opposite to that in which someone or something is facing or normally pointing.
- Away from someone or something; at a distance.
- (not comparable) To or in a previous condition or place.
- (not comparable) In a reciprocal manner; in return.
- (postpositive) Earlier, ago.
- In a direction opposite to the usual or desired direction of movement or progress, physically or figuratively.
- Away from the front or from an edge.
- in or to or toward a former location
- in reply
- at or to or toward the back or rear
- in repayment or retaliation
- in or to or toward a past time
- in or to or toward an original condition
adj
- (comparable, phonetics) Pronounced with the highest part of the body of the tongue toward the back of the mouth, near the soft palate (most often describing a vowel).
- At or near the rear.
- Not current.
- (predicative) Returned or restored to a previous place or condition.
- Situated away from the main or most frequented areas.
- Moving or operating backward.
- In arrears; overdue.
- located at or near the back of an animal
- of an earlier date
- related to or located at the back
noun
- (mining) The roof of a horizontal underground passage.
- (swimming) Clipping of backstroke.
- (slang, uncountable) Effort, usually physical.
- (sports) In some team sports, a position behind most players on the team.
- (figuratively) The upper part of a natural object which is considered to resemble an animal’s back.
- (slang, uncountable) Large and attractive buttocks.
- A support or resource in reserve.
- Area behind, such as the backyard of a house or the rear storeroom of a retail store.
- The reverse side; the side that is not normally seen.
- The side of a blade opposite the side used for cutting.
- Among leather dealers, one of the thickest and stoutest tanned hides.
- A ferryboat.
- The rear of the body, especially the part between the neck and the end of the spine and opposite the chest and belly.
- The part of something that goes last.
- The backrest, the part of a piece of furniture which receives the human back.
- (nautical) The keel and keelson of a ship.
- (figurative) The part of a piece of clothing which covers the back.
- A non-alcoholic drink (often water or a soft drink), to go with hard liquor or a cocktail.
- The side of any object which is opposite the front or useful side.
- The spine and associated tissues.
- The edge of a book which is bound.
- A large shallow vat; a cistern, tub, or trough, used by brewers, distillers, dyers, picklers, gluemakers, and others, for mixing or cooling wort, holding water, hot glue, etc.
- (printing) The inside margin of a page.
- That which is farthest away from the front.
- (football) a person who plays in the backfield
- the part of a garment that covers the back of your body
- (American football) the position of a player on a football team who is stationed behind the line of scrimmage
- the protective covering on the front, back, and spine of a book
- the series of vertebrae forming the axis of the skeleton and protecting the spinal cord
- the part of something that is furthest from the normal viewer
- the posterior part of a human (or animal) body from the neck to the end of the spine
- the side that goes last or is not normally seen
- a support that you can lean against while sitting
verb
- (transitive) To push or force backwards.
- (law, of a justice of the peace) To sign or endorse (a warrant, issued in another county, to apprehend an offender).
- (transitive) To support.
- (MLE, transitive) To draw from behind the back (a knife etc.) (as also back out).
- (intransitive) To go in the reverse direction.
- (nautical, of the wind) To change direction contrary to the normal pattern; that is, to shift anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere, or clockwise in the southern hemisphere.
- (UK, of a hunting dog) To stand still behind another dog which has pointed.
- To row backward with (oars).
- (nautical, of a square sail) To brace the yards so that the wind presses on the front of the sail, to slow the ship.
- To make a back for; to furnish with a back.
- To adjoin behind; to be at the back of.
- (nautical, of an anchor) To lay out a second, smaller anchor to provide additional holding power.
- (Nigeria, transitive) To carry an infant on one’s back.
- To write upon the back of, possibly as an endorsement.
- be in back of
- travel backward
- establish as valid or genuine
- place a bet on
- give support or one's approval to
- strengthen by providing with a back or backing
- shift to a counterclockwise direction
- support financial backing for
- be behind; approve of
- cause to travel backward
adj
- Capable of being reduced.
- (mathematics, of an integer) Able to be factored into smaller integers; composite.
- (mathematics, of a polynomial) Able to be factored into polynomials of lower degree, as x²-1.
- (topology, of a manifold) Containing a sphere of codimension 1 that is not the boundary of a ball.
- capable of being reduced
adj
- becoming progressively lower
- being put out in a game of baseball
- lower than previously
- extending or moving from a higher to a lower place
- filled with melancholy and despondency
- understood perfectly
- shut
- not functioning (temporarily or permanently)
- being or moving lower in position or less in some value
- (baseball, cricket, colloquial, following the noun modified) Out.
- (not comparable, military, law enforcement, slang, of a person) Wounded and unable to move normally, or killed.
- (not comparable) Inoperable; out of order; out of service.
- Having a lower score than an opponent.
- (veterinary medicine, of a cow) Stranded in a recumbent position; unable to stand.
- (rail transport, of a train) Travelling in the direction leading away from the principal terminus, away from milepost zero.
- Finished (of a task); defeated or dealt with (of an opponent or obstacle); elapsed (of time). Often coupled with to go (remaining).
- (normally in the combination 'down with') Sick or ill.
- (informal) Sad, unhappy, depressed, feeling low.
- (slang) In prison.
- (of a tree, limb, etc) Fallen or felled.
- At a lower level than before.
- (colloquial, with "on") Negative about; hostile to.
- (Canada, US, slang) Comfortable [with]; accepting [of]; okay [with].
- Facing downwards.
- Thoroughly practiced, learned or memorised; mastered. (Compare down pat.)
- (not comparable, military, aviation, slang, of an aircraft) Mechanically failed, collided, shot down, or otherwise suddenly unable to fly.
- (African-American Vernacular, slang) Accepted, respected, or loyally participating in the (thug) community.
noun
- fine soft dense hair (as the fine short hair of cattle or deer or the wool of sheep or the undercoat of certain dogs)
- soft fine feathers
- (usually plural) a rolling treeless highland with little soil
- (American football) a complete play to advance the football
- Soft, fluffy immature feathers which grow on young birds. Used as insulating material in duvets, sleeping bags and jackets.
- The lightest quark with a charge number of −¹⁄₃.
- (usually in the plural) A field, especially one used for horse racing.
- (UK, chiefly in the plural) A tract of poor, sandy, undulating or hilly land near the sea, covered with fine turf which serves chiefly for the grazing of sheep.
- (gambling) The shift or period of time during which a dealer manages a given table before rotating to the next table at a casino or cardroom, which is often 30 minutes.
- (American football) A single play, from the time the ball is snapped (the start) to the time the whistle is blown (the end) when the ball is down, or is downed.
- A downstairs room of a two-story house.
- The soft hair of the face when beginning to appear.
- A negative aspect; a downer, a downside.
- That which is made of down, as a bed or pillow; that which affords ease and repose, like a bed of down.
- (especially Southern England, also Australia, often plural, often in place names) A hill; in England, especially a chalk hill.
- (crosswording) A clue whose solution runs vertically in the grid.
- (botany) The pubescence of plants; the hairy crown or envelope of the seeds of certain plants, such as the thistle.
- Down payment.
- A downer, depressant.
- An act of swallowing an entire drink at once.
adv
- away from a more central or a more northerly place
- from an earlier time
- in an inactive or inoperative state
- to a lower intensity
- spatially or metaphorically from a higher to a lower level or position
- paid in cash at time of purchase
- At or towards any place that is visualised as 'down' by virtue of local features or local convention, or arbitrarily, irrespective of direction or elevation change.
- Away from the city (regardless of direction).
- (crosswords, in relation to a numbered clued word) In a downwards direction; vertically.
- To the south (as south is at the bottom of typical maps).
- (sentence substitute, imperative) Get down.
- Forward, straight ahead.
- On paper (or in a durable record).
- To a subordinate or less prestigious position or rank.
- So as to be cowed into silence.
- Into a state of non-operation.
- (comparable) From a higher position to a lower one; downwards.
- From less to greater detail.
- Used with verbs to indicate that the action of the verb was carried to some state of completion, permanence, or success rather than being of indefinite duration.
- (comparable) At a lower or further place or position along a set path.
- To or towards what is considered the bottom of something, irrespective of whether this is presently physically lower.
- So as to lessen quantity, level or intensity.
- (sports) Towards the opponent's side (in ball-sports).
- From a remoter or higher antiquity.
- (rail transport) In the direction leading away from the principal terminus, away from milepost zero.
- As a down payment.
- So as to reduce size, weight or volume.
- So as to secure or compress something to the floor, ground, or other (usually horizontal) surface.
verb
- eat up completely, as with great appetite
- shoot at and force to come down
- improve or perfect by pruning or polishing
- bring down or defeat (an opponent)
- drink down entirely
- cause to come or go down
- (transitive, golf, pocket billiards) To sink (a ball) into a hole or pocket.
- (transitive) To knock (someone or something) down; to cause to come down; to fell.
- (transitive, colloquial) To drink or swallow, especially without stopping before the vessel containing the liquid is empty.
- (transitive) Specifically, to cause (something in the air) to fall to the ground; to bring down (with a missile etc.).
- (transitive, colloquial) To disparage; to put down.
- (transitive, American football, Canadian football) To render (the ball) dead, typically by touching the ground while in possession.
- (transitive, figurative) To defeat; to overpower.
- (transitive) To cover, ornament, line, or stuff with down.
- (transitive) To lower; to put (something) down.
prep
- From one end to another of (in any direction); along.
- Towards the mouth of (a river); in the direction of flow of.
- (UK, Ireland) To (a given place that is seen as removed from one's present location or other point of reference).
- From north to south of.
- (UK, Ireland) At (a given place that is seen as removed from one's present location or other point of reference).
- From the higher end to the lower of.
adj
- impaired by diminution
- (of an organ or body part) diminished in size or strength as a result of disease or injury or lack of use
- (of musical intervals) reduction by a semitone of any perfect or minor musical interval
- made to seem smaller or less (especially in worth)
- (music) reduced by a semitone
- made to seem less important, impressive, or valuable
- lessened, reduced