📖 C — The English dictionary · page 56

composure — Everyday, meaning 1: Being calm and in control of your feelings, especially in a difficult or stressful moment.↗ Example: She kept her composure even when the crowd booed.↗ · He lost his composure and started to cry.↗ · After a deep breath, I regained my composure.↗ · The goalkeeper showed great composure in the penalty shootout.↗ · The teacher spoke with composure during the fire alarm.↗ · It's hard to keep your composure when you're very nervous.↗ · The pilot's composure kept the passengers calm.↗ · It was hard for any one to preserve composure on such a day; but these people had strong wills, as unbending as their hard fortune.↗

compote — Everyday, meaning 1: Fruit cooked slowly with sugar and a little water until soft, served cold or warm as a dessert or with yoghurt, porridge or pancakes.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (Ukraine, Russia, Poland) A sweet drink made by boiling fruit or berries in water with sugar, often kept in big jars for winter.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (rare) A bowl on a stem for serving fruit or sweets, also called a compotier.↗ Example: We had pancakes with warm berry compote.↗ · Grandma made apple compote with cinnamon.↗ · Simmer the plums with sugar to make a compote.↗ · My Ukrainian friend's mum gave us a glass of cherry compote to drink.↗ · Compote is nice on top of porridge or yoghurt.↗ · The shelves in the cellar were full of jars of compote for winter.↗

compound — Everyday, meaning 1: (science) A substance made of two or more elements joined chemically: water is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (grammar) A word made from two or more words.↗ e.g. "football" is a compound word.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: An area of buildings surrounded by a fence or wall: a prison compound.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: (adjective) Made of several parts: a compound sentence.↗ Everyday, meaning 5: (verb, formal) To make a problem worse: the cold compounded our troubles.↗ Everyday, meaning 6: (maths, adjective) Compound interest: interest earned on the interest too, not just on the starting money.↗ Everyday, meaning 7: To be compounded of several things means to be made by mixing them together.↗ Example: Water is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen.↗ · "Sunflower" is a compound word.↗ · Find the area of the compound shape by splitting it into two rectangles.↗ · A compound sentence joins two sentences with "and", "but" or "so".↗ · The soldiers lived in a fenced compound.↗ · (formal) The rain compounded the problems after the flood.↗ · With compound interest, 100 at 10% becomes 110, then 121.↗ · The first part is compounded of a comic and a serious theme.↗ · And thou shalt make it a holy anointing oil, a perfume compounded after the art of the perfumer; it shall be a holy anointing oil.↗ (Torah EXO.30.25, JPS 1917)↗

comprehend — Everyday, meaning 1: (formal) To understand something fully.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (formal) To include or contain.↗ Example: I can't comprehend how big space is.↗ · Read slowly so you comprehend each sentence.↗ · The puppy did not comprehend the command.↗ · The scientists struggled to comprehend the results.↗ · Reading comprehension tests check you understood the story.↗ · It's hard to comprehend such a large number.↗ · Dear Cadmus, you do not comprehend me.↗ · Comprehend this great wisdom, understand this [7] knowledge, inquire into it and ponder on it, render it evident and lead [8] the Creator back to His throne again.↗ (Sefer Yetzirah, Kalisch 1877)↗ · The Decad, which is the sum of the four former, comprehends all arithmetical and musical proportions.↗ (Mordell, The Origin of Letters and Numerals according to Sefer Yetzirah (1914))↗ · To know wisdom and instruction; to comprehend the words of understanding; (Writings PRO.1.2, JPS 1917)↗ · God thundereth marvellously with His voice; great things doeth He, which we cannot comprehend.↗ (Writings JOB.37.5, JPS 1917)↗ · Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?↗ (Prophets ISA.40.12, JPS 1917)↗

comprehensible — In Jewish tradition, meaning 1: Able to be understood.↗ Example: The Notes have been extended, and it is hoped that they explain and illustrate difficult passages, and render this abstruse treatise more comprehensible than it has been hitherto found.↗ (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893)↗

comprehension — Everyday, meaning 1: Comprehension is understanding: being able to know what something means.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (school) A comprehension is a reading exercise where you read a text and answer questions about it.↗ Example: We did a comprehension about a lighthouse keeper.↗ · Read the passage, then answer the comprehension questions.↗ · Her comprehension of maths improved a lot.↗ · The size of the universe is beyond comprehension.↗ · Listening comprehension is part of the French test.↗ · Good comprehension means reading carefully.↗ · It is a matter of state policy, and therefore quite beyond thy weak comprehension.↗

comprehensive — Everyday, meaning 1: Including everything or almost everything that is needed; complete and thorough: «a comprehensive guide to birds».↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (UK) A comprehensive school is a state secondary school that takes children of all abilities without an entrance test; people often just say «a comprehensive».↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (sport) A comprehensive win is a very big, clear win.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: (insurance) Comprehensive car insurance covers damage to your own car as well as to other people's.↗ Example: This book is a comprehensive guide to the planets.↗ · My big sister goes to the local comprehensive.↗ · The teacher gave us a comprehensive list of spellings to learn.↗ · City won a comprehensive victory, six–nil.↗ · The museum has a comprehensive collection of fossils.↗ · Dad needs comprehensive insurance for his new car.↗ · Our science report must be comprehensive and include every result.↗

compress — Everyday, meaning 1: To compress something is to press or squeeze it so it takes up less space.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (computing) To compress a file is to make it smaller so it is quicker to send or store.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: To compress words or time is to make them shorter: «compress the story into one page».↗ Everyday, meaning 4: A compress is a pad of cloth, often cold or warm and wet, pressed on the body to ease pain or swelling.↗ Example: When you squash a sponge, you compress it.↗ · The air in a bicycle pump is compressed.↗ · Dad compressed the photos so he could email them.↗ · Put a cold compress on the bruise.↗ · The spring compresses when you press it and springs back.↗ · Gases can be compressed much more than liquids.↗ · We had to compress our story into 100 words.↗

compressed — Everyday, meaning 1: Pressed or squeezed into a smaller space: compressed air.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Made shorter or smaller: a compressed timetable.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (computing) Made into a smaller file that takes less space: a compressed folder.↗ Example: Divers breathe compressed air from tanks.↗ · The sponge compressed when I squeezed it.↗ · Gases can be compressed, but liquids cannot easily be.↗ · Dad compressed the photos into one small file.↗ · The whole year's work was compressed into one week.↗ · Compressed gas cans can explode if heated.↗

compression — Everyday, meaning 1: Compression is pressing or squeezing something so it takes up less space.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Compression is making a computer file smaller so it is quicker to send.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: In first aid, compressions are pushes on the chest in CPR.↗ Example: Squeezing the spring is compression.↗ · Air can be squashed by compression, but water hardly at all.↗ · Chest compressions are part of CPR.↗ · File compression makes pictures quicker to send.↗ · The bridge must stand up to compression and tension.↗ · A compression bandage helped my swollen ankle.↗

compressor — Everyday, meaning 1: A machine that squeezes air or gas into a smaller space, making its pressure higher, used to pump tyres, power tools and fridges.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (music) A sound device that evens out loud and quiet parts.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (medicine) A muscle or tool that presses something.↗ Example: The garage used an air compressor to pump up the tyres.↗ · A fridge hums when its compressor is running.↗ · Divers' tanks are filled with a compressor.↗ · The compressor squashes air into the tank.↗ · The builders' compressor powered the drill.↗ · Gases can be compressed, but liquids are hard to squash.↗

comprise — Everyday, meaning 1: (formal) To be made up of certain parts; to consist of.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (formal) To make up or form a whole (this use is common but some people think it is wrong).↗ Example: The class comprises 15 boys and 12 girls.↗ · The team comprises eleven players.↗ · A week comprises seven days.↗ · The house comprises three bedrooms and a kitchen.↗ · The test comprised twenty questions.↗ · Water is comprised of hydrogen and oxygen.↗ · The sword was the sword of Murakumo, one of the three sacred treasures which comprise the insignia of the Imperial House of Japan.↗ · Heaven was created from fire or ether; the earth (comprising sea and land) from the elementary water; and the atmospheric air from the elementary air, or spirit, which establishes the balance among them.↗ (Sefer Yetzirah, Kalisch 1877)↗ · 7) Like Pythagoras, who taught that the digits inclusive number ten which are typified in Tetraktys, (Τετρακτὺς) namely: 1 plus 2 plus 3 plus 4 equal 10, and which comprise the whole arithmetical system of nature, etc. (Sefer Yetzirah, Kalisch 1877)↗

compromise — Everyday, meaning 1: An agreement where each side gives up a little of what it wants so they can agree.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (verb) To settle an argument by each side giving up something.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (verb) To put something in danger or make it weaker: «compromise your safety».↗ Example: We both wanted the swing, so we made a compromise and took turns.↗ · Mum and Dad compromised: pizza tonight, fish tomorrow.↗ · A good compromise leaves both sides fairly happy.↗ · Never compromise your safety to look brave.↗ · After a long talk, the two teams reached a compromise.↗ · I wanted two hours of TV and Mum wanted none; we agreed on one hour.↗ · No compromise was possible, and so they went at it tooth and claw.↗

compsognathus — Everyday, meaning 1: A small meat-eating dinosaur about the size of a chicken or turkey, which ran on two legs and lived about 150 million years ago in what is now Germany and France.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Its name means «pretty jaw».↗ Example: Compsognathus was only about the size of a turkey.↗ · Scientists found a lizard inside a Compsognathus fossil.↗ · Compsognathus ran fast on two thin legs.↗ · Its name means «pretty jaw».↗ · Compsognathus lived in the Jurassic period.↗ · In the film, a pack of compies chased the boy.↗

compulsion — Everyday, meaning 1: A very strong wish to do something that is hard to stop, even when you know you shouldn't.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Being forced to do something by a rule or by another person ("under compulsion").↗ Example: I felt a compulsion to look in the box.↗ · There is no compulsion to join the club; it's your choice.↗ · He had a compulsion to wash his hands again and again.↗ · She signed the paper under compulsion.↗ · The compulsion to eat sweets can be strong.↗ · Some people have a compulsion to gamble, which can harm their family.↗ · Attendance at school is a legal compulsion for children.↗ · Is it of your own accord, or on compulsion?"↗

compulsory — Everyday, meaning 1: Compulsory means something must be done because a rule or law says so; you have no choice.↗ Example: English and maths are compulsory subjects.↗ · Wearing a seat belt is compulsory in a car.↗ · School is compulsory for children in many countries.↗ · Helmets are compulsory at the skate park.↗ · The trip is not compulsory; you can choose to stay.↗ · It is compulsory to wear goggles in the lab.↗

compunction — Everyday, meaning 1: A feeling of guilt or unease that stops you doing something you think is wrong.↗ Example: He had no compunction about eating the last cake.↗ · Urashima felt some compunction in taking the gift.↗ · She felt compunction after she told a lie.↗

compute — Everyday, meaning 1: (formal) To work out an answer or amount by calculating.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (informal, often «it doesn't compute») To make sense.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (formal, exam) A command word: «Compute the total expenditure» means calculate it.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: (casual) In everyday talk people say «work out», «add up», «do the maths» (UK, Australia: «maths»; US: «math»), «crunch the numbers».↗ Everyday, meaning 5: (casual, joking) «Does not compute» in a robot voice means this makes no sense.↗ Example: Compute the area of a rectangle 6 m long and 4 m wide.↗ · The computer can compute huge sums in a second.↗ · Compute 25 times 4 in your head.↗ · She computed how much money she had left.↗ · Compute the average of 3, 5 and 7.↗ · He says he is tired but he ran all day?↗ That doesn't compute.↗ · Compute the total expenditure incurred in the purchase of 4 pens at 30 cents per pen.↗ (formal exam)↗ · do the maths, 3 of us, 12 sweets, that's 4 each (casual)↗ · Crunch the numbers and tell me if we can afford it.↗ (casual)↗ · You got 30 for 6 × 4?↗ Doesn't compute, mate, it's 24.↗ (rough, joking)↗

computer — Everyday, meaning 1: A computer is a machine that stores information and follows instructions to help us write, count, draw, play, send messages and look things up.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Laptops, tablets and even phones are kinds of computers.↗ Example: The class has 12 computers for 24 pupils.↗ · A computer costs 400 dollars.↗ · She used the computer for 45 minutes.↗ · How many children share each computer?↗ · We write stories on the computer at school.↗ · Turn off the computer when you are finished.↗ · The computer saves your work every few minutes.↗ · He played a computer game after his homework.↗ · A computer follows the steps of a program.↗

comrade — Everyday, meaning 1: A friend or companion, especially someone who shares difficult work or danger with you, such as a fellow soldier (comrades in arms).↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A fellow member of a socialist or communist party or trade union, used as a title («Comrade Petrov»), especially in the old Soviet Union.↗ Example: The old soldier remembered his comrades from the war.↗ · They were comrades in arms through the long winter.↗ · In the Soviet Union people called each other "Comrade".↗ · On Remembrance Day we honour fallen comrades.↗ · The explorers were loyal comrades on the icy journey.↗ · "Well done, comrade!" he joked to his friend.↗ · "I'm going to my comrade's grave.↗