UNITS 11&12 • PAT Flashcards
chance
uk |tʃɑːns| us |tʃæns|
noun
1. an occasion that allows something to be done [C]
* “I didn’t get a chance to speak to her.”
* “If you have a chance, try the steak.”
* “[give someone a chance] He’s a very smart kid and just needs someone to give him a chance.”
* ”[+ to infinitive] If you give me a chance to speak, I’ll explain.”
* “He wanted to change, but he was never given the chance.”
* “Society has to give prisoners a second chance when they come out of jail.”
* “[miss your chance] He left and I missed my chance to say goodbye to him.”
* “[given half a chance] I’d go now given half a chance (= if I had the slightest opportunity).”
chance
uk |tʃɑːns| us |tʃæns|
verb
1. to risk something [T]
* “You’d be a fool to chance your life savings on a single investment.”
2. to happen or do something by chance [I old-fashioned/literary]
* ”[+ to infinitive] They chanced to be in the restaurant when I arrived.”
* “[chance on] I chanced on (= found unexpectedly) some old love letters in a drawer.”
* “[chance upon] Ten years after leaving school, we chanced upon (= unexpectedly met) each other in Regent Street.”
chance
uk |tʃɑːns| us |tʃæns|
adjective
1. happening in a way that is not planned or does not have any known cause or reason
* “Her chance discovery of the letters led to their publication.”
* “[chance meeting] Their relationship began with a chance meeting on a ski lift in Vail, Colorado.”
* “[chance encounter] A chance encounter with another artist would change her life.”
come across
uk |kʌm| us |kʌm|
verb
1. to behave in a way that makes people believe that you have a particular characteristic
* “She comes across really well (= creates a positive image) on television.”
* “[come across as] He comes across as a bit of a bore in an interview.”
2. If an idea or emotion comes across in writing, film, music, or when someone is speaking, it is expressed clearly and people notice it
* “What comes across in his later poetry is a great sense of sadness.”
come across something
uk |kʌm| us |kʌm|
verb
1. to find something by chance
* “He came across some of his old love letters in his wife’s desk.”
cool down
us |kul|
verb
1. to continue to exercise gently to prevent injury after you have done more difficult exercises
* “After you’ve cooled down from a hard run, you should refuel as soon as you can.”
cut back
uk |kʌt| us |kʌt|
verb
1. to spend less, do less, or use less of something
* “[cut back on] The government has announced plans to cut back on defence spending by 10 percent next year.”
* “If exercise is causing you pain, you should cut back.”
cut something back
uk |kʌt| us |kʌt|
verb
1. to reduce something, or to reduce it by a particular amount
* “We have had to cut back deliveries.”
* “The government has cut back $150 million of funding.”
2. to cut off parts of a tree or other plant so that it becomes smaller
* “Some shrubs need to be cut back to allow more light to reach them.”
die out
uk |daɪ| us |daɪ|
verb
1. to become less common and finally stop existing
* “Dinosaurs died out millions of years ago.”
* “It’s a custom that is beginning to die out.”
dig something up
uk |dɪɡ| us |dɪɡ|
verb
1. to take something out of the ground by digging
* “It’s time we dug up those potatoes.”
2. to break the ground or to make a hole in it with a tool, machine, etc.
* “They’re digging up the road outside to fix a faulty water main.”
3. to discover secret or forgotten facts by searching very carefully
* “I’ve been doing some research on our family history and I’ve dug up some interesting information.”
* “[dig up dirt on] She’s one of those reporters who’s always trying to dig up dirt on (= unpleasant private details about) celebrities.”
dry something up
uk |draɪ| us |draɪ|
verb
1. to dry plates, cups, etc. with a cloth after they have been washed
dry up
uk |draɪ| us |draɪ|
verb
1. If a river, lake, etc. dries up, the water in it disappears.
2. If a supply of something dries up, it ends
* “His main source of work had dried up, leaving him short of money.”
get through
uk |ɡet| us |ɡet|
verb
1. to succeed in talking to someone on the phone
* “I tried to call her but couldn’t get through.”
* “[get through to] I got through to the wrong department.”
get through something
uk |ɡet| us |ɡet|
verb
1. to succeed in an exam or competition
* “She got through her exams without too much trouble.”
2. to finish something
* “I can get through a lot more work when I’m on my own.”
* “We’ve got a lot to get through today.”
3. to use up something [UK (US go through)]
* “We’re getting through a lot of coffee/toilet paper.”
* “She gets through ten bars of chocolate each week.”
get (someone) through something
uk |ɡet| us |ɡet|
verb
1. to deal with a difficult or unpleasant experience, or to help someone do this
* “I don’t know how I got through the first couple of months after Andy’s death.”
* “We need to conserve our supplies so we can get through the winter.”
heat up something
us |hit|
verb
1. to make something warm or hot
* “Let’s see what happens when I heat it up.”
2. If a situation heats up, it becomes more extreme
* “With the political climate heating up, we can expect to hear a lot more from both candidates.”
kill
uk |kɪl| us |kɪl|
verb
1. to cause someone or something to die [I/T]
* “Her parents were killed in a plane crash.”
* “Smoking can kill.”
* “Food must be heated to a high temperature to kill harmful bacteria.”
2. to stop or destroy a relationship, activity, or experience [T]
* “Lack of romance can kill a marriage.”
* “They gave her some tablets to kill the pain.”
* “Kill your speed.”
3. to drink all of something [T mainly US informal (also kill off)]
* “We killed off two six-packs watching the game.”
4. to cause someone a lot of effort or difficulty [T informal]
* “It wouldn’t kill you to apologize.”
* “He didn’t exactly kill himself trying to get the work finished.”
5. to cause someone a lot of pain [T informal]
* “I must sit down, my feet are killing me!”
6. If you say that someone will kill you, you mean that they will be very angry with you [T informal]
* “My sister would kill me if she heard me say that.”
7. to make someone laugh a lot [T mainly US informal]
* “That comedian kills me.”
kill
uk |kɪl| us |kɪl|
noun
1. an animal or bird that has been hunted and killed, or the action of killing [C usually singular]
* “The leopard seizes its kill and begins to eat.”
* “[move in for the kill] Like other birds of prey, it quickly moves in for the kill.”
2. in ice hockey, a successful attempt to prevent an opposing team from scoring during a time when your team has one fewer player because of a penalty (= punishment for breaking the rules) [C/U (also penalty kill)]
* “He’s a big, physical defenceman who moves the puck well and is great on the penalty kill.”
put something/someone down
uk |pʊt| us |pʊt|
verb
1. to put an object that you are holding onto the floor or onto another surface, or to stop carrying someone
* “I put my bags down while we spoke.”
* “Put me down, Daddy!”
2. to write someone’s name on a list or document, usually in order to include that person in an event or activity
* “Do you want me to put you down for the trip to London?”
* “I’ve put myself down for the office football team.”
* “If you want to get your children into that school, you have to put their names down at birth.”
put something down
uk |pʊt| us |pʊt|
verb
1. If you put the phone down, you place it or the receiver back in the position you keep it in when it is not being used.
2. to pay part of the cost and promise to pay the rest later
* “I’ve put a deposit down on a new car.”
put someone down
uk |pʊt| us |pʊt|
verb
1. to make someone feel silly or not important by criticizing them [informal]
* “Why did you have to put me down in front of everybody like that?”
2. to place and make a baby comfortable in the place where it sleeps
* “I’d just put Jack down for his nap.”
put something down
uk |pʊt| us |pʊt|
verb
1. to kill an animal that is old, sick, or injured, to prevent it from suffering
* “If a horse breaks its leg, it usually has to be put down.”
2. to stop or limit an opposing political event or group
* “Police used tear gas to put the riot down.”
* “Thousands of troops were needed to put down the uprising.”
3. to reduce a price or a charge [UK (UK and US bring something down)]
* “Shops are being forced to put their prices down in order to attract customers.”
* “It’s time that the government put down interest rates.”
put (something) down (somewhere)
uk |pʊt| us |pʊt|
verb
1. When an aircraft puts down, it lands, and when pilots put down their aircraft, they land
* “She put down safely in the corner of the airfield.”
put someone down somewhere
uk |pʊt| us |pʊt|
verb
1. to stop a vehicle and allow someone to get out of it or off it
* “Ask the taxi driver to put you down outside the church.”
put-down
uk |ˈpʊt.daʊn| us |ˈpʊt.daʊn|
noun
1. an unkind remark that makes someone seem silly
* “One of the big put-downs of the presidential election campaign was the comment that he was “no Jack Kennedy”.”
slip up
uk |slɪp| us |slɪp|
verb
1. to make a mistake
* “These figures don’t make sense - have we slipped up somewhere?”
slip-up
uk |ˈslɪp.ʌp| us |ˈslɪp.ʌp|
noun
1. a mistake or something that goes wrong
spring up
uk |sprɪŋ| us |sprɪŋ|
verb
1. to start to exist suddenly
* “Thousands of new businesses have sprung up in the past couple of years.”
throw something out
uk |θrəʊ| us |θroʊ|
verb
1. see throw something away/out
2. If people in authority throw out a plan, idea, case, etc. they refuse to accept or use it
* “The case was thrown out by the courts due to lack of evidence.”
throw someone out
uk |θrəʊ| us |θroʊ|
verb
1. to force someone to leave a college, school, house, or organization
* “[be thrown out of] She was thrown out of college after she was caught using drugs.”
* “They had a big row and she threw him out (= made him leave the house).”
throw-out
uk |ˈθrəʊ.aʊt| us |ˈθroʊ.aʊt|
noun
1. in football, an occasion when a goalkeeper throws the ball to another player after catching it
* “They failed to capitalize on a poor throw-out by the goalkeeper.”
* “Kirk sent Bell sprinting through with a brilliant throw-out.”
throw (something) up
uk |θrəʊ| us |θroʊ|
verb
1. to vomit
* “I spent all night throwing up.”
* “He threw up his breakfast all over the back seat of the car.”
throw something up
uk |θrəʊ| us |θroʊ|
verb
1. to produce new problems or ideas
* “The meeting threw up some interesting ideas.”
2. If you throw up your job, you choose to leave it or stop doing it [UK informal]
* “He’s thrown up his job and gone off to Africa to work for a children’s charity.”
bet big on something/someone
idiom
1. to invest or risk a lot of money in the belief that something will happen
* “Global currency markets bet big on the pound remaining weak.”
2. to give a lot of support to something or someone, in a way that risks losing money or something else if they are not successful
* “Sponsors have found that betting big on one athlete is risky.”
be a safe bet
idiom
1. to be something that you are certain will happen
* “It’s a safe bet that Martin will be the last to arrive.”
for sure
phrase
1. certain or certainly
* “I know for sure that I won’t be able to go to the party.”
* “One thing’s for sure - once the baby’s born, your lives will never be the same again.”
* “He won’t be back again, that’s for sure.”
* “We will never know for sure what happened.”
* “It’s still too early to know for sure, but we think she has a good chance of recovery.”
make certain/sure
phrase
1. to take action so that you are certain that something happens, is true, etc.
* “I’ll just make sure I’ve turned the oven off.”
* “[make certain/sure (that)] Make certain (that) we have enough food for the party.”
* “Make sure you’re home by midnight.”
* “Jones made sure of his place on the team with three great goals.”
* “[just to make certain/sure] I think I locked the door but I’ll go back and check just to make sure.”
take a chance
collocation
1. to take a risk
* “They took a chance and cast an unknown actor in the lead role.”
* “I’m delivering my work by hand - I’m not taking any chances.”
* “Yes, it could all go terribly wrong but that’s a chance I have to take.”
second chance
uk |ˌsek.ənd ˈtʃɑːns| us |ˌsek.ənd ˈtʃæns|
noun
1. another opportunity to do something, especially after someone has made a mistake
* “Society has to give prisoners a second chance when they come out of jail.”
* “Don’t mess up — you might not get a second chance.”
waste disposal
uk |ˈweɪst dɪˌspəʊ.zəl| us |ˈweɪst dɪˌspoʊ.zəl|
noun
1. an electrical machine, connected to a kitchen sink, that cuts up food waste so that it will flow easily through the pipes
find your way
phrase
1. to get somewhere you are trying to reach
* “I had a map but I still couldn’t find my way back to the hotel.”
* “I’m afraid you’ll have to find your own way home.”
* “The child had managed to find her way to the first aid tent.”
* “He was trying to find his way to his sister’s house.”
* “We found our way to the nearest police station.”
green belt
uk |ˈɡriːn ˌbelt| us |ˈɡriːn ˌbelt|
noun
1. a strip of countryside round a city or town where building is not allowed
greenhouse
uk |ˈɡriːn.haʊs| us |ˈɡriːn.haʊs|
noun
1. a building with a roof and sides made of glass, used for growing plants that need warmth and protection
* “Gladys grows a lot of tomatoes in her greenhouse.”
guess at something
uk |ɡes| us |ɡes|
verb
1. to try to imagine something when you have little knowledge or experience of it
* “There are no photographs of him, so we can only guess at what he looked like.”
at a guess
idiom
1. used when you are giving an approximate amount, measurement, etc. to show that you are not certain it is correct
* “At a guess he was in his early sixties.”
* “In front of us was a sheer drop of a hundred metres, at a guess.”
* “At a rough guess, I would say I earned twice as much in the first six months of last year as I did in the same period this year.”
stick by something/someone
uk |stɪk| us |stɪk|
verb
1. to continue to support something or someone, especially in a difficult situation
* “We must stick by our decision.”
push your luck
idiom
1. to try too hard to get a particular result and risk losing what you have achieved
* “She’s agreed to help on Saturday, but I think I’d be pushing my luck if I asked her to be here the whole weekend.”
be the luck of the draw
idiom
1. to be the result of chance and something that you have no control over
* “You can’t choose who you play against - it’s just the luck of the draw.”
as luck would have it
idiom
1. by chance
* “We ran out of petrol on the way home, but as luck would have it, we were very near a garage.”
with any luck
idiom
1. used before describing an event or a result that you are hoping for
* “With any luck (= I hope that) we should get to Newcastle by early evening.”
by nature, profession, trade, etc.
phrase
1. used when describing someone’s character, job, etc.
* “She is, by nature, a sunny, positive kind of person.”
* “He’s a plumber by trade.”
* “She was, by profession, a lawyer.”
* “He is cautious and risk-averse by nature.”
* “A dentist by profession, she was active in local politics in the 1980s.”
* “A carpenter by trade, he had always been interested in conservation.”
second nature
uk |ˌsek.ənd ˈneɪ.tʃər| us |ˌsek.ənd ˈneɪ.tʃɚ|
noun
1. If something is second nature to you, you are so familiar with it that you can do it easily without needing to think very much about it
* “I used to hate computers, but using them is second nature to me now.”
over the odds
idiom
1. more than something is really worth
* “It’s a nice enough car but I’m sure she paid over the odds for it.”
rainwater
uk |ˈreɪnˌwɔː.tər| us |ˈreɪnˌwɑː.t̬ɚ|
noun
1. water that has fallen as rain, rather than water that has come from a tap
* “I collect rainwater to water my plants.”
at the risk of doing something
idiom
1. used before you say something that may seem offensive or stupid
* “At the risk of seeming rude, I’m afraid I have to leave now.”
* “At the risk of sounding stupid, how do I send this email?”
a place in the sun
idiom
1. a good or lucky position
* “He certainly earned his place in the sun.”
pose as someone
uk |pəʊz| us |poʊz|
verb
1. If you pose as a particular person, you pretend to be that person in order to deceive people
* “He’s posing as her date, but he’s really her bodyguard.”
in all weathers
idiom
1. If something is done in all weathers, it is done in every type of weather
* “He goes fishing in all weathers.”
weatherproof
uk |ˈweð.ə.pruːf| us |ˈweð.ɚ.pruːf|
adjective
1. protected from the bad effects of weather, especially protected from wind or rain by not allowing it to pass through
* “a weatherproof tent/coat”
* “Photographers will be happy to know that this camera is weatherproof.”
* “Tiles and window frames will also have to be replaced to make the structure weatherproof.”
* “The tents, made from weatherproofed cotton, are designed to withstand a 135mph blizzard.”
weatherproof
uk |ˈweð.ə.pruːf| us |ˈweð.ɚ.pruːf|
verb
1. to make something weatherproof, so that it does not allow bad weather, especially wind or rain, to affect it or pass through it
* “Consumers must be willing to turn down their thermostats and weatherproof their homes.”
gust
uk |ɡʌst| us |ɡʌst|
noun
1. a sudden strong wind
* “[gust of] A sudden gust of wind blew his umbrella inside out.”
* “[figurative] She could hear gusts of laughter (= sudden, loud laughter) from within the room.”
gust
uk |ɡʌst| us |ɡʌst|
verb
1. to blow strongly
* “[gust to] Winds gusting to 50 mph brought down power lines.”
in the wind
idiom
1. If something is in the wind, people are talking about it and it may happen, but no one is sure
* “Rumours of a takeover are in the wind.”
2. If someone is in the wind, they are missing, especially after escaping
* “The suspects are in the wind.”
act of God
idiom
1. a natural event that cannot be controlled or prevented by humans, especially one that causes a lot of damage, such as an earthquake or a flood
* “Primitive people regarded storms as an act of God.”
* “Acts of God, such as lightning strikes, were traditionally excluded from insurance policies.”
* “Your home warranty will not cover a system’s failure from normal wear and tear, but will cover failure from an act of God.”
come rain or shine
idiom
1. whatever happens
* “Come rain or shine, I’ll see you on Thursday.”
be down on your luck
idiom
1. to be experiencing a bad situation or to have very little money
* “He’s been down on his luck recently.”
draw/get the short straw
idiom
1. to have to do the least enjoyable of a range of duties, often because you have been chosen to do it
* “Mike drew the short straw and had to clean the bathroom.”
green fingers
uk |ˌɡriːn ˈfɪŋ.ɡəz| us |ˌɡriːn ˈfɪŋ.ɡɚz|
noun
1. the ability to make plants grow
let nature take its course
idiom
1. to allow someone or something to live or die naturally
* “He could be kept alive artificially, but I think it would be kinder to let nature take its course.”
be no/without rhyme or reason
idiom
1. to be without any obvious reasonable explanation
* “Government money was given out to some people and not to others, apparently without rhyme or reason.”
* “There is no rhyme or reason to her behaviour.”
out of the blue
idiom
1. If something happens out of the blue, it is completely unexpected
* “One day, out of the blue, she announced that she was leaving.”
touch wood
idiom
1. said in order to avoid bad luck, either when you mention good luck that you have had in the past or when you mention hopes you have for the future
* “The deal will be agreed on Wednesday, touch wood.”
