Sunday, June 11, 2006

Words:

Ambition noun [C/U]
a strong desire for success, achievement, power, or wealth
His presidential ambitions were frustrated in the 1980s.
No one ever accused him of lacking ambition.
She's got a lot of ambition.
[+ to infinitive] His ambition is ultimately to run his own business.
He has already achieved his main ambition in life - to become wealthy
.
political ambitions
She doubts whether she'll ever be able to fulfil her ambition.
I've always had a burning (= very great) ambition to be a film director.
After his heart attack, he abandoned his ambition to become Prime Minister.

ambitious adjective
1 having a great desire to be successful, powerful or wealthy:
an ambitious young lawyer
He's very ambitious for his children (= He's anxious that they should be successful).
Even as a young man he was ambitious and self-assured.

2 If a plan or idea is ambitious, it needs a great amount of skill and effort to be successful or be achieved:
She has some ambitious expansion plans for her business.
The government has announced an ambitious programme to modernize the railway network.
The original completion date was over-ambitious, so we have had to delay the opening by six months.
It was an ambitious project to restore the public parks
.
ambitiously adverb

Celebrity:

arrogant adjective
unpleasantly proud and behaving as if you are more important than, or know more than, other people:
I found him arrogant and rude.
arrogantly adverb
The authorities had behaved arrogantly, she said.

arrogance noun [U]
He has a self-confidence that is sometimes seen as arrogance.

naive, naïve adjective MAINLY DISAPPROVING
too willing to believe that someone is telling the truth, that people's intentions in general are good or that life is simple and fair. People are often naive because they are young and/or have not had much experience of life:
She was very naive to believe that he'd stay with her.
They make the naive assumption that because it's popular it must be good.
It was a little naive of you to think that they would listen to your suggestions.


naively, naïvely adverb
I, perhaps naively, believed he was telling the truth.

naivety, naïveté noun [U]
trust based on lack of experience:
DISAPPROVING He demonstrated a worrying naivety about political issues.
APPROVING I think her naivety is charming - she's so unspoilt and fresh.

foyer noun [C]
1 a large open area just inside the entrance of a public building such as a theatre or a hotel, where people can wait and meet each other:
I'll see you downstairs in the foyer in half an hour.
2 US (UK hall) the room in a house or apartment leading from the front door to other rooms, where items like coats and hats are kept

aisle noun [C]
1 a long narrow space between rows of seats in an aircraft, cinema or church:
Would you like an aisle seat or would you prefer to be by the window?

2 a long narrow space between the rows of shelves in a large shop:
You'll find the shampoo and the soap in the fourth aisle along from the entrance.
go/walk down the aisle INFORMAL to get married

wallflower (PLANT) noun [C]
a pleasant smelling garden plant that has yellow, orange or brown flowers which grow in groups
wallflower (SHY PERSON) noun [C] INFORMAL
a shy person, especially a girl or woman, who is frightened to involve herself in social activities and does not attract much interest or attention:
Sooner or later someone would take pity on the poor wallflower and ask her to dance.

gate-crasher noun [C]
a person who goes to a party although they have not been invited to it
The party was ruined by a couple of gate-crashers who got very drunk.

Weird adjective
strangely different from anything natural or ordinary
She is a little weird in the way she dresses, I have to admit.

Starve verb [I/T]
to become weak or die because there is not enough food to eat
Many people could starve because of the drought.
If someone says they are starving, they want to eat: I'm starved because I missed lunch today.


starvation noun [U]
The animals died of starvation.

Burst verb [I/T]
to break open or apart suddenly, or to cause (something) to break open or apart
Fireworks burst across the night sky.
I thought I might have burst a blood vessel.
(FIG.) If a person is bursting, they are extremely eager or enthusiastic: I was bursting with excitement.

If something is bursting at the seams, it is extremely full:
When everyone comes home, the house is bursting at the seams.

burst noun [C]
a sudden, brief increase in something, or a short appearance of something
With a burst of speed, the horse won easily.

burst in/intophrasal verb [T]
to enter (a place) suddenly or unexpectedly
He burst into the room and shouted orders at us.
burst into phrasal verb [T]
to begin to produce (something)
I burst into tears.
The car burst into flames
.
burst out phrasal verb [T]
to begin to do (something)
She burst out sobbing.
Everyone burst out laughing
.

bias (CLOTHING) noun [U] SPECIALIZED
a direction at an angle across the threads of woven material:
The dresses in his new winter collection are all cut on the bias (= in a diagonal direction across the cloth).

bias (PREFERENCE) noun
1 [C usually singular; U] a tendency to support or oppose a particular person or thing in an unfair way by allowing personal opinions to influence your judgment:
The government has accused the media of bias.
Reporters must be impartial and not show political bias.
There was clear evidence of a strong bias against her.
There has always been a slight bias in favour of/towards employing arts graduates in the company.

2 [C usually singular] a preference towards a particular subject or thing:
She showed a scientific bias at an early age.

bias verb [T] -ss- or US USUALLY -s-
The judge ruled that the information should be withheld on the grounds that it would bias the jury against (= influence them unfairly against) the accused.

biased, UK ALSO biassed adjective
showing an unreasonable like or dislike for a person based on personal opinions:
The newspapers gave a very biased report of the meeting.
I think she's beautiful but then I'm biased since she's my daughter.

NOTE: The opposite is unbiased.

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