double figures 100 drain
ice cream. í
plural noun
doubles ten-
nis game for two people on either side
í
verb
to multiply something by two ć
Think of a number and then double it.
double figures
double figures /db(ə)l fəz/
plural
noun
the numbers with two figures,
from 10 to 99
doubt
doubt /daυt/
noun
1. not being sure ć
Everyone sometimes has doubts about
what they really want to do.
˽ to cast
doubt on something to make people
feel less sure about something
ć He cast
doubt on the whole proposal.
2. ˽ no
doubt certainly
ć No doubt they will be
asking for more money soon.
˽ in doubt

ć The ball ran down the
hill.
2. away from where the person
speaking is standing
ć He went down
the road to the shop.
ć The police sta-
tion is just down the street.
í
adverb
1.
towards the bottom, towards a lower po-
sition
ć Put the box down in the corner.
ć I looked in the cellar, but there’s no
one down there.
2. in writing ć Did you
note down the number of the car?
ć The
policeman took down her address.
3.
used for showing criticism ć Down with
the government!
ć Down with exams!
(NOTE: Down is often used with verbs,
e.g. to go down, to fall down, to sit
down, to lie down.)
downhill
downhill /daυn


ground floor of a building
ć The down-
stairs has three rooms.
ć The down-
stairs of the house is larger than the up-
stairs. Compare
upstairs
downwards
downwards /daυnwədz/
adverb
to-
wards the bottom
doze
doze /dəυz/
verb
to sleep a little ć She
dozed for a while after lunch.
í
noun
a
short sleep
dozen
dozen /dz(ə)n/
noun
1. ć I need a doz-
en eggs for this recipe.
ć We ordered
two dozen (= 24) chairs.
˽ a dozen
twelve

drag /dr/
verb
to pull something heavy
along the ground
ć She dragged her
suitcase across the floor.
ć The police
dragged the men away from the gate.
(NOTE: drags – dragging – dragged)
í
noun
a boring thing, which stops you
doing things you really want to do
ć It’s
a drag, having to write all the Christmas
cards.
drag on
phrasal verb
(
of time or an
event
) to seem to pass slowly ć The
dinner party seemed to drag on for
hours.
drain
drain /dren/
noun
a pipe for carrying
waste water away
ć In the autumn the

drama student or She’s studying drama.
2. a series of serious and exciting events
ć a day of high drama in the court ć the
drama of the rescue by helicopter
ć He
always makes a drama out of every-
thing.
dramatic
dramatic /drə

mtk/
adjective
sudden,
unexpected and very noticeable
ć the
dramatic moment in the film, when the
dinosaurs start to attack them
ć The
door was thrown open and she made a
dramatic entrance.
ć The TV news
showed dramatic pictures of the disas-
ter.
drank
drank /drŋk/ past tense of drink
draught
draught /drɑft/
noun
a flow of cool air
into a room

ć Can you draw the curtains
– I don’t want anyone to see us in here.
(NOTE: draws – drawing – drew /dru/
– has drawn /
drɔn/)
draw up
phrasal verb
1. (
of a vehicle
)
to come close and stop ć As I was stand-
ing at the bus stop, a car drew up and
the driver asked if I wanted a lift.
2. to
write down something, e.g. a plan
ć
They have drawn up a plan to save mon-
ey.
ć Have you drawn up a list of people
you want to invite to the party?
drawer
drawer /drɔə/
noun
a part of a desk or
cupboard like an open box which slides
in and out when you pull its handle
ć I
keep my cheque book in the top drawer
of my desk.
drawing

verb
to fear something very
much
ć I’m dreading taking my driving
test.
ć She dreads her weekly visit to the
doctor.
dreadful
dreadful /dredf(ə)l/
adjective
very bad
or unpleasant
ć What a dreadful film!
dreadfully
dreadfully /dredf(ə)li/
adverb
ex-
tremely¸ in a way that is not good or
pleasant
dream
dream /drim/
noun
a story or series of
events that you think about while you
are sleeping
ć She had a dream about
big pink elephants.
í
verb
to experience

The plural is dresses.)
í
verb
1. to put
clothes on someone
ć She dressed her
little girl all in blue.
2. to get dressed
to put clothes on yourself ć He got up,
got dressed and left the house.
3. to
clean an injury and cover it with a band-
age
ć The nurse will dress the cut on
your knee.
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dressed 102 driver
dressed
dressed /drest/
adjective
wearing
clothes
ć I can’t come down to see the
visitors – I’m not dressed yet.
í
dressed in wearing a particular colour

kick a football along as you are running,
or to move a ball along with one hand as
you are running
dried, drier, dries, driest
dried, drier, dries, driest /drad,
draə, draz, draəst
/  dry
drill
drill /drl/
noun
1. a tool for making holes
in a hard substance such as wood or
metal
ć He used an electric drill to
make the holes in the wall.
2. the action
of practising marching, especially in the
armed forces
ć New recruits spend
hours practising their drill.
í
verb
1. to
use a drill to make a hole in something
ć Check how solid the wall is before you
drill a hole in it.
ć He drilled two holes
for the screws.
2. to do military practice
ć The soldiers were drilling on the pa-

drinking – drank /
drŋk/ – has
drunk /
drŋk/)
drink up
phrasal verb
to drink all of a
liquid
ć The baby drank all her milk up.
ć Come on, drink up – we’re leaving
now.
drip
drip /drp/
noun
a small drop of water ć
There’s a hole in the tent – a drip just
fell on my nose.
í
verb
1. (
of a liquid
) to
fall in small drops
ć Water was slowly
dripping from the ceiling.
2. (
of e.g. a
tap
) to produce small drops ć I must fix
that tap – it’s dripping.

drəυv/ – has driven
/
drv(ə)n/) ȣ to drive someone cra-
zy
or
mad to have an effect on someone
so that they become very annoyed
(
informal
) ć The noise is driving me
mad.
ć All this work is driving her cra-
zy.
drive away
phrasal verb
1. to ride
away in a motor vehicle
ć The bank
robbers leapt into a car and drove away
at top speed.
2. to take someone away in
a motor vehicle
ć The children were
driven away in a police car.
drive back
phrasal verb
to go back or
to come back in a motor vehicle
ć We
were driving back to London after a day

(
of rain or
snow
) blown horizontally by the wind ć
They were forced to turn back because
of the driving rain.
í
noun
the action of
driving a motor vehicle
ć Driving in the
centre of London can be very frustrat-
ing.
ć She’s taking driving lessons.
driving licence
driving licence /dravŋ las(ə)ns/
noun
a permit which allows someone to
drive a vehicle on public roads
drizzle
drizzle /drz(ə)l/
noun
light rain ć A
thin drizzle was falling so we took our
umbrellas.
í
verb
to rain a little ć It’s
drizzling outside, so you need a rain-
coat.

to call on some-
one, to visit someone
drop off
phrasal verb
1. to fall asleep ć
She dropped off in front of the TV. ć It
took me ages to drop off.
2. to let some-
one get off a bus or car at a place
ć
Where would you like me to drop you
off?
drought
drought /draυt/
noun
a long period
when there is no rain and when the land
is dry
drove
drove /drəυv/ past tense of drive
drown
drown /draυn/
verb
to die by being una-
ble to breathe in water
ć He drowned in
a shallow pool.
drudgery
drudgery /drdəri/
noun

1. a large round mu-
sical instrument which you hit with a
stick
ć He plays the drums in the band.
2. a large barrel or container shaped like
a cylinder
ć oil drums í
verb
1. to play
on a drum
2. to hit something frequently
ć He drummed his fingers on the table.
(NOTE: drums – drumming –
drummed)
drum into
phrasal verb
˽ to drum
something into someone to make
someone learn something
ć My grand-
father drummed it into me that I had to
be polite to customers.
drunk
drunk /drŋk/
adjective
excited or ill
from drinking too much alcohol
ć Do
you think she was drunk?
ć It doesn’t

ć He dried himself
with a towel.
(NOTE: dries – drying –
dried)
dubious
dubious /djubiəs/
adjective
thinking
that something might not be true or
good
ć Everyone else seems to believe
her story, but personally I’m dubious
about it.
ć I’m dubious about getting in-
volved.
duck
duck /dk/
noun
1. a common water bird
ć Let’s go and feed the ducks in the
park.
(NOTE: The male is a drake, the
female a duck and the young are
ducklings.) 2.
the meat of this bird ć
We’re having roast duck for dinner. í
verb
to lower your head quickly to avoid
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ć To give him his
due, he works very hard.
ȣ in due
course
later
due to
due to /dju tu/
preposition
because of
ć The trains are late due to fog.
dug
dug /d/ past tense and past participle of
dig
dull
dull /dl/
adjective
1. not exciting or in-
teresting
ć The story is rather dull. ć
What’s so interesting about old church-
es? – I find them dull.
2. (
of weather
)
grey and cloudy ć a dull rainy day 3. (
of
colours
) not bright ć They painted the
sitting room a dull green.
dumb

2. to
throw something away, to get rid of
something
ć Someone has dumped an
old pram in the car park.
duplicate
duplicate
1
/djuplkət/
adjective
made
as a copy of something
ć Put the dupli-
cate invoices in the file.
í
noun
a copy
ć She sent the invoice and filed the du-
plicate.
duplicate
duplicate
2
/djuplket/
verb
1. to
make a copy of a document such as a let-
ter
ć She duplicated the letter and put
the copy into a file.
2. to do again some-

a large contain-
er for rubbish, kept outside a house
dusty
dusty /dsti/
adjective
covered with
dust
(NOTE: dustier – dustiest)
duty
duty /djuti/
noun
1. something which
you are legally or morally expected to
do
ć We have a duty to inform the au-
thorities about what we saw.
2. ˽ on
duty doing official work which you
have to do in a job
ć He’s on duty from
9.00 to 6.00.
ć She’s been on duty all
day.
3. a tax which has to be paid í
plu-
ral noun
duties different jobs that have
to be done as part of your official work
ć One of his duties is to see that the
main doors are locked at night.

every ć Each five
pound note has a number.
ć He was
holding a towel in each hand.
ć Each
one of us has a separate office.
í
pro-
noun
1. every person ć They have two
houses each. or Each of them has two
houses.
ć She gave them each five
pounds or She gave them five pounds
each or She gave each of them five
pounds.
2. every thing ć Each of the
books has three hundred pages or The
books have three hundred pages each.
each other
each other /itʃ ðə/
pronoun
the oth-
er one of two people or of two things
ć
They were shouting at each other. ć We
always send each other presents on our
birthdays.
ć The boxes fit into each oth-
er.

mentioned
ć Can’t you come any earli-
er than Tuesday?
ć I tried to phone ear-
lier but you were out.
early
early /l/
adverb
1. before the usual
time
ć The plane arrived five minutes
early.
ć We must get up early tomorrow
morning if we want to catch the first
boat to France.
2. at the beginning of a
period of time
ć We went out early in
the evening.
ć The snow came early in
the year.
earn
earn /n/
verb
to be paid money for
working
ć He earns £20,000 a year. ć
How much does a bus driver earn?
earring
earring /ərŋ/

verb
to make less painful
ć A couple of aspirins should ease the
pain.
easily
easily /izli/
adverb
1. without any dif-
ficulty
ć I passed my driving test easily.
ć I can easily get there by 9 o’clock. 2.
a lot (
for emphasis before compara-
tives or superlatives
) ć Her work was
easily better than yours.
ć He is easily
the tallest man in the team.
ć Our shop
is easily the biggest in the High Street.
east
east /ist/
noun
1. the direction of where
the sun rises
ć The sun rises in the east
and sets in the west.
ć Germany is to the
east of France.
ć The wind is blowing

eastern /ist(ə)n/
adjective
from, of or
in the east
ć Bulgaria is part of Eastern
Europe.
ć The best snow is in the east-
ern part of the mountains.
easy
easy /izi/
adjective
not difficult, or not
needing a lot of effort
ć The test was
easier than I expected.
ć My boss is
very easy to get on with.
eat
eat /it/
verb
1. to put food into your
mouth and swallow it
ć I’m hungry – is
there anything to eat?
ć We haven’t eat-
en anything since breakfast.
ć The chil-
dren ate all the sandwiches.
ć Eat as
much as you like for £5.95!

go to the Whispering Gallery in the
dome of St Paul’s Cathedral you can
hear the echo very clearly.
(NOTE: The
plural is echoes.)
í
verb
1. (
of sound
)
to make an echo ć Their voices echoed
down the tunnel.
2. to repeat ć The
newspaper article echoed the opinions
put forward in the minister’s speech.
(NOTE: echoes – echoing – echoed)
economic
economic /ikə

nɒmk/
adjective
1.
relating to the economy ć I don’t agree
with the government’s economic policy.
ć The government has introduced con-
trols to solve the current economic cri-
sis.
ć The country enjoyed a period of
economic growth in the 1980s.
2. not

ć He put his plate down on the edge
of the table.
ć She lay down on the roof
and looked over the edge.
ć Can you
stand this coin on its edge?
ć The axe
has a very sharp edge.
2. an imaginary
line where an area ends
ć He lived in a
house at the edge of the forest.
ć The
factory is built right on the edge of the
town.
edible
edible /edb(ə)l/
adjective
which is
good enough or safe to eat
edit
edit /edt/
verb
1. to be in charge of a
newspaper or magazine
ć He edited the
‘Sunday Express’ for more than twenty
years.
2. to prepare a book for publish-
ing by doing such things as correcting

of alcohol.
educated
educated /edjυketd/
adjective
hav-
ing been to school and university
education
education /edjυ

keʃ(ə)n/
noun
the
system of teaching, or of being taught
ć
Our children deserve the best educa-
tion.
ć We spent a lot of money on his
education, and he’s got a job as a dust-
man!
educational
educational /edjυ

keʃ(ə)nəl/
adjec-
tive
relating to education, teaching and
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produces the required result
ć His meth-
od of keeping the children quiet is very
effective.
ć Advertising on TV is a very
effective way of selling.
2. which takes
effect
ć an order which is effective from
January 1st
effectively
effectively /

fektvli/
adverb
in a way
which produces a good result
ć The
floodlighting worked very effectively.
effectiveness
effectiveness /

fektvnəs/
noun
the
ability to produce an effective result
efficient
efficient /

fʃ(ə)nt/

more than £10,000 for the children’s
hospital.
egg
egg /e/
noun
1. a round object with a
hard shell, produced by a female bird or,
e.g. snake, in which a baby bird devel-
ops
ć The owl laid three eggs in the
nest.
ć Turtles lay their eggs in the sand.
2. a chicken’s egg, used as food ć You
need three eggs to make this cake.
eight
eight /et/
noun
the number 8 ć He ate
eight chocolates.
ć The little girl is
eight (years old).
ć I usually have
breakfast before eight (o’clock).
eighteen
eighteen /e

tin/
noun
the number 18
ć There are eighteen people in our

relating to
number 8 in a series
ć The eighth of
February or February the eighth (Feb-
ruary 8th).
ć His eighth birthday is next
Monday.
í
noun
number eight in a se-
ries
ć He’s the eighth in line to the
throne.
ć King Henry the Eighth (Henry
VIII) had six wives.
(NOTE: eighth is
usually written 8th in dates:
April 8th,
1999; September 8th, 1866
(American
style is September 8, 1866), say ‘the
eighth of September’ or ‘September
the eighth’ (American style is ‘Septem-
ber eighth’); with names of kings and
queens, eighth is usually written VIII:
King Henry VIII
, say: ‘King Henry the
Eighth’.)
eightieth
eightieth /etiəθ/, 80th

ć Some people don’t take sug-
ar in their coffee, some don’t take milk,
and some don’t take either.
í
adverb
used with two negatives to show that
two people or things are similar in some
way
ć He isn’t Irish and he isn’t Scot-
tish either.
ć She doesn’t want to go,
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elastic 108 elsewhere
and I don’t want to go either. ć The re-
port wasn’t on the TV news, and it
wasn’t on the radio either.
elastic
elastic /

lstk/
noun
a material which
stretches
ć You’ll need to sew this piece
of elastic onto the ballet shoes.
í

to choose someone by
voting
ć She was elected MP for the
town.
ć The president is elected for a
term of four years.
ć The chairman is
elected by the members of the commit-
tee.
election
election /

lekʃən/
noun
the process of
choosing by voting
ć After the election,
the crowds were dancing in the streets.
ć The next item on the agenda is the
election of a new treasurer for the club.
electric
electric /

lektrk/
adjective
1. worked
by electricity
ć Is your cooker electric
or gas?
ć He plays an electric guitar. ć

energy
used to make light, heat, or power
ć We
haven’t paid the electricity bill this
month.
ć The electricity was cut off this
morning.
ć The heating is run by elec-
tricity.
ć The cottage is in the mountains
and doesn’t have any electricity.
(NOTE:
no plural)
electronic
electronic /elek

trɒnk/
adjective
us-
ing electricity and very small parts
which affect the electric current which
passes through them
ć an electronic ad-
dress book
ć My car has an electronic
ignition.
electronics
electronics /elek

trɒnks/

elevator /elvetə/
noun US
a machine
for moving people up or down from
floor to floor inside a building
ć Take
the elevator to the 26th floor.
eleven
eleven /

lev(ə)n/
noun
the number 11 ć
When you’re eleven (years old) you will
go to secondary school.
ć Come and see
me at eleven (o’clock).
eleventh
eleventh /

lev(ə)nθ/, 11th
adjective
re-
lating to number 11 in a series
ć The
eleventh of July/July the eleventh (July
11th).
ć Today’s the tenth, so tomorrow
must be the eleventh.
ć That’s the elev-

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