📖 P — The English dictionary · page 42

polite — Everyday, meaning 1: Behaving in a kind and respectful way, using good manners: saying please and thank you, not interrupting.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Done or said in a respectful way: a polite request.↗ Example: It's polite to say thank you.↗ · Please be polite to our visitors.↗ · She politely asked for another pencil.↗ · It's not polite to talk with your mouth full.↗ · He gave a polite smile.↗ · A polite way to ask is «May I have some water, please?»↗ · Being polite makes people happy to help you.↗ · You can be polite and still say no to a stranger.↗ · This polite speech pleased the princess very much.↗

politely — Everyday, meaning 1: Politely means in a kind, respectful way that shows good manners.↗ Example: Ask politely: «May I have some water, please?»↗ · She politely said no thank you.↗ · Wait politely for your turn to speak.↗ · He politely held the door open.↗ · Say thank you politely when you get a present.↗ · Knock politely before you go in.↗ · She politely asked the boy to stop.↗ · Speak politely even when you disagree.↗ · “Good evening, dear mother,” said he politely.↗

politeness — Everyday, meaning 1: Politeness is behaving with good manners and respect for other people, for example saying please and thank you.↗ Example: Politeness costs nothing.↗ · Out of politeness, he ate the soup he didn't like.↗ · The teacher praised our politeness on the trip.↗ · Saying «thank you» is basic politeness.↗ · She answered with great politeness.↗ · Politeness helps people get along.↗ · The king, and queen, and the whole court, were at tea with the princess; and he was received with great politeness.↗

politic — Everyday, meaning 1: Wise and careful in what one does, so as to get on well and avoid trouble.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Clever in a sly way, sometimes a little unfair.↗ Example: They were a very politic race.↗ · 'Oh!' said Little Klaus, 'that was just so politic of me.'↗ · It was politic to say nothing until the king had spoken.↗

political — Everyday, meaning 1: About government, how a country is run and the people in power.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: About political parties and elections.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: About power and arguments inside a group, like a school or a company.↗ Example: The country has three main political parties.↗ · A political map shows countries and their borders.↗ · They had a political argument at dinner.↗ · The mayor gave a political speech.↗ · Voting is a political right.↗ · Choosing the team captain became quite political.↗

politician — Everyday, meaning 1: A person whose job is in politics, especially someone elected to run a town, a region or a country, such as a member of parliament, a senator or a mayor.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (sometimes negative) A person who is clever at getting what they want by managing people.↗ Example: The politician gave a speech in the town square.↗ · People vote for politicians in an election.↗ · Our local politician visited the school.↗ · Politicians make laws in parliament.↗ · The politician promised to build a new hospital.↗ · She wants to be a politician when she grows up.↗ · He was something of a politician, and had always taken a prominent part in the local elections, so he knew the proper Parliamentary expressions to use.↗

politics — Everyday, meaning 1: Politics is the activities of governments and people who run a country, including elections and making laws.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Politics is the study of how countries are governed.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A person's politics are their opinions about how the country should be run.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: (informal) Politics can mean arguing and plotting for power in any group: office politics, playground politics.↗ Example: My uncle is interested in politics.↗ · People in politics make laws for the country.↗ · She wants to go into politics when she grows up.↗ · We don't talk about politics at dinner.↗ · There's a lot of politics in our football club.↗ · Politics is studied at university.↗ · About politics they had a good deal to say.↗

polka — Everyday, meaning 1: A lively, bouncy dance for couples that started in Central Europe in the 1800s, with quick hopping steps.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: The music played for this dance, usually with two beats in a bar.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (as in «polka dots») a pattern of round dots of the same size spread evenly over cloth.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: (verb, rare) To dance a polka.↗ Example: At the school ceilidh we learned to dance the polka.↗ · The band played a polka and everyone started hopping round the hall.↗ · A polka has two beats in each bar, so it is easy to clap along.↗ · My nan's favourite dress is red with white polka dots.↗ · Ladybirds look like they are wearing polka dots.↗ · The accordion player squeezed out a jolly polka.↗ · In art we printed polka dots with the ends of pencils.↗ · Grandad and Gran polkaed round the kitchen at Christmas.↗ · I am going to teach you to jump and bow, to dance a waltz and a polka, and even to stand on your head.”↗

poll — Everyday, meaning 1: A poll is a survey in which many people are asked the same question to find out what most of them think.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: The polls are an election, the time when people vote: «go to the polls».↗ Everyday, meaning 3: To poll people is to ask them questions in a survey.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: (formal) The number of votes in an election.↗ Everyday, meaning 5: (old use) The head; a «poll tax» is a tax that every person must pay.↗ Example: We took a poll to choose the class pet.↗ · The poll showed that most pupils like pizza best.↗ · Grown-ups vote at a polling station.↗ · The country goes to the polls next month.↗ · The newspaper polled a thousand people.↗ · An exit poll asks people how they voted as they leave.↗ · Twelve of the twenty-five children voted for a hamster in the poll.↗ · Its little brothers and sisters around the bed were flat-nosed imps with pointed ears, who made faces at one another, and scratched their polls.↗ · thou shalt take five shekels apiece by the poll; after the shekel of the sanctuary shalt thou take them — the shekel is twenty gerahs.↗ (Torah NUM.3.47, JPS 1917)↗ · 'Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, every male, by their polls; (Torah NUM.1.2, JPS 1917)↗ · Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that have the corners of their hair polled; (Prophets JER.25.23, JPS 1917)↗ · Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long; they shall only poll their heads.↗ (Prophets EZK.44.20, JPS 1917)↗ · And the Levites were numbered from thirty years old and upward; and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty and eight thousand.↗ (Writings 1CH.23.3, JPS 1917)↗

pollen — Everyday, meaning 1: Pollen is a fine yellow powder made by flowers.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: It must be carried from one flower to another, by insects or the wind, so the plant can make seeds.↗ Example: Bees carry pollen from flower to flower.↗ · The lily left yellow pollen on my nose.↗ · A high pollen count makes my hay fever worse.↗ · Wind blows pollen from grasses and trees.↗ · Without pollen, plants could not make seeds.↗ · The bee's legs were covered in pollen.↗ · Pollen is made in the stamens of a flower.↗ · If you do this the pollen will cause your fur to grow again, and you will be quite well in a little while.”↗

pollinate — Everyday, meaning 1: To carry pollen from the male part (stamen) of a flower to the female part (stigma) of the same or another flower, so seeds can form.↗ Example: Bees pollinate flowers while they collect nectar.↗ · The wind pollinates grasses.↗ · Without bees to pollinate them, apple trees would have few apples.↗ · Brightly coloured flowers attract insects to pollinate them.↗ · Farmers bring hives to the fields to pollinate the crops.↗ · Hummingbirds pollinate some flowers with long tubes.↗ · Pollen from one flower can pollinate another.↗ · After a flower is pollinated, it grows seeds.↗

pollination — Everyday, meaning 1: Pollination is the moving of pollen from the male part of a flower (the anther) to the female part (the stigma), so that seeds can form.↗ Example: Bees help with pollination.↗ · Pollination happens when pollen reaches the stigma.↗ · Some flowers use the wind for pollination.↗ · Bright petals and sweet nectar attract insects for pollination.↗ · After pollination, the flower makes seeds.↗ · Without pollination we would have fewer apples.↗

pollinator — Everyday, meaning 1: A pollinator is an animal, usually an insect like a bee, butterfly or moth, that carries pollen from one flower to another so the plant can make seeds and fruit.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Some birds (like hummingbirds), bats and even the wind can act as pollinators.↗ Example: Bees are the best-known pollinators.↗ · Hummingbirds are pollinators in the Americas.↗ · We planted lavender to attract pollinators.↗ · Without pollinators, there would be far fewer apples.↗ · Moths are night-time pollinators.↗ · Pesticides can harm pollinators.↗ · Our school made a pollinator garden by the playground.↗

pollock — Everyday, meaning 1: A sea fish of the North Atlantic, related to the cod, often eaten as fish fingers or fish and chips.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (a name) Pollock is a surname; Jackson Pollock was an American painter famous for dripping and splashing paint on large canvases.↗ Example: These fish fingers are made from pollock.↗ · Pollock is a white fish like cod.↗ · Fishermen caught pollock off the coast of Ireland.↗ · We made splashy pictures like Jackson Pollock.↗ · Pollock's paintings look messy but he planned them carefully.↗ · Mum grilled pollock with lemon for tea.↗

pollutant — Everyday, meaning 1: A substance that makes air, water or soil dirty and harmful to living things.↗ Example: Car exhaust contains pollutants that are bad for our lungs.↗ · Plastic is a pollutant in the oceans.↗ · The factory let pollutants into the river.↗ · Trees can trap some air pollutants.↗ · Fertiliser running off fields can be a pollutant.↗ · Scientists measured the pollutants near the school gate.↗

pollute — Everyday, meaning 1: To pollute is to make air, water or land dirty and harmful by adding waste, smoke or chemicals.↗ Example: Cars pollute the air with fumes.↗ · Do not pollute the river with rubbish.↗ · Plastic bags pollute the ocean.↗ · The factory was fined for polluting the lake.↗ · Polluted water can make animals ill.↗ · How can we pollute less?↗ · Smoke from fires pollutes the air.↗ · Ginsburg asserts that the system of vowel polluting was invented by a Rabbi Mocha in Palestine about a.d.↗ 570, who designed it to assist his pupils.↗ (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893)↗ · Will not that land be greatly polluted?↗ (Prophets JER.3.1, JPS 1917)↗ · Ye offer polluted bread upon Mine altar.↗ (Prophets MAL.1.7, JPS 1917)↗ · Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city!↗ (Prophets ZEP.3.1, JPS 1917)↗

pollution — Everyday, meaning 1: Pollution is dirt, poison or waste in the air, water or land that harms living things.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: The act of making things dirty and harmful.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: Unwanted noise or light: noise pollution, light pollution.↗ Example: Air pollution can make it hard to breathe.↗ · Plastic pollution harms sea turtles.↗ · Cities have more light pollution, so you see fewer stars.↗ · We made posters about pollution.↗ · The river was cleaned and the pollution went down.↗ · Noise pollution from the airport keeps people awake.↗ · Walking to school reduces pollution.↗

polo — Everyday, meaning 1: Polo is a game played on horseback in which two teams use long-handled wooden mallets to hit a small ball into the other team's goal.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Water polo is a team game played in a swimming pool, where swimmers throw a ball into a goal.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A polo, or polo shirt, is a short-sleeved cotton shirt with a collar and a few buttons at the neck.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: A polo neck is a jumper with a high, folded collar round the neck (in the USA a turtleneck).↗ Example: The polo players galloped after the ball.↗ · Our school uniform is a blue polo shirt and grey trousers.↗ · I joined the water polo club at the swimming pool.↗ · Grandma knitted me a woolly polo neck jumper.↗ · Polo was first played in ancient Persia.↗ · Marco Polo travelled all the way to China.↗ · A polo team has four riders.↗ · He told him that he wished him to play at polo.↗

polonium — Everyday, meaning 1: Polonium is a rare, extremely radioactive and poisonous chemical element, number 84, symbol Po, discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie.↗ Example: Marie Curie discovered polonium more than a hundred years ago.↗ · Polonium was named after Poland.↗ · Polonium is highly radioactive.↗ · The symbol for polonium is Po.↗ · Polonium is very rare in nature.↗ · Scientists handle polonium with great care.↗

polygraph — Everyday, meaning 1: A polygraph is a machine that measures a person's breathing, heartbeat, blood pressure and sweating while they answer questions; it is often called a «lie detector».↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A polygraph test is the questioning done with this machine.↗ Example: The detective asked the suspect to take a polygraph test.↗ · A polygraph measures how fast your heart beats.↗ · He was so nervous that the polygraph showed he was lying, but he was telling the truth.↗ · Scientists say polygraphs are not always right.↗ · In the film the spy fooled the polygraph.↗ · The polygraph has wires that go on your fingers and chest.↗

polymer — Everyday, meaning 1: (science) A polymer is a substance made of very long chain-like molecules, built from many small units (called monomers) joined together.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Plastics are polymers, but so are many natural things such as rubber, wool, silk, starch and the DNA in our cells.↗ Example: Plastic is a polymer made from many small molecules joined in a chain.↗ · We made slime in class, and it is a kind of polymer.↗ · Rubber is a natural polymer that comes from trees.↗ · Australian and British banknotes are made of polymer, not paper.↗ · Silk and wool are natural polymers made by animals.↗ · Some polymers take hundreds of years to break down.↗ · A polymer chain is like a long string of beads.↗