Topography 1 of 2 power 3 (Part I)
| topography | n [U] (description of the) features, eg rivers, valleys, roads, of a place or district |
| of | prep 1 (indicating seperation in space or time): five miles south of Leeds; within a hundred yards of the station; within a year of his death. 2 (indicating origin, authorship) a man of humble origin, of royal descent, the works of Shakespeare, the Iliad of Homer. 3 (indicating cause): die of grief/hunger, etc; do sth of necessity/of one's own choice/of one's own accord; sick/proud/ashamed/ afraid/glad/tired, etc of sth or sb; taste/smell, etc of sth; because of; for fear of. The explosion couldn't have happened of itself, ie without an external cause. 4 (indicating relief, deprivation, riddance): cure sb of a disease/a bad habit. etc; rid a warehouse of rats; be/get rid of sth or sb; rob sn of his money; relieve sb of anxiety; cleare oneself of an accusation; destitute of sense; trees bare of leaevs; free of customs duty; independant of help; short of money. 5 (indicating material or substance): a table of wood; a house of stone; a dress of silk; made of steel and concrete; built of brick. 6 (forming adj phrases; descriptive genitive): goods of our own manufacture; tomatoes of my own growing, that I have grown myself; a girl of ten years, a girl ten years old, a ten-year old girl; a man of foreign appearance; a man of genius; a man of ability, an able man; a woman of no importance, an unimportant woman; the vice of drunkenness, the vice that is drunkenness; a coat of many colours, a many-coloured coat. 7 (in the pattern 'noun' of 'noun'): They live in a palace of a house, a house that is a palace, a palatial house. He has the devil of a temper, a develish temper. Where's that fool of an assistant, that foolish assistant? What a mountain of a wave, a mountainous wave! She's a fine figure of a woman, a woman with a fine figure. Where's your rascal of a husband, your rascally husband? 8 (objective genitive): a maker of pots, a man who makes pots; the love of study; the writing of a letter; loss of power/appetite; great eaters of fish, people who eat much fish; the fear of God, ie felt by men towards God 9 (subjective genitive): the love of God, God's love for mankind. (-> 8 above, the fear of God); the love of a mother, a mother's love, the love a mother has for her children. Cf his love of (ie for) his mother. 10 (indicating connection, reference or relation): the cause of the accident; the result of the debate; a topic of conversation; the first day of June; the manners of the present day; those of the middle classes; the master of the house; the wall of the garden, the garden wall; the leg of the tabl, the table leg; the opposite of what I intended; Doctor of Medicine; Master of Arts; think well of sb; admitting/allowing of no doubt; accused/ suspected/convicted of crime; speaking/talking/ dreaming of sth; sure/certain/confident/fond/ guilty/innocent, etc of sth; hard of hearing, deaf; blind of (=in respect of) one eye; at thirty years of age. What of (=about) the risk? Well, what of it? 11 (indicating partition, inclusion, measure): (a) a sheet of paper; a roll of cloth; a pint of milk; a ton of coal; 3 acres of land; 2 yards of cloth; some of that cake; one/a few/all of us; a lot/a great deal/not much of this stuff; no more of that; The car won't hold the six of us. (b) (after superlatives) : He is the most dangerous of enemies. You have had the best of teachers; the best of those teachers who were available. (c) (=out of): It surprises me that you, of all man, should be so foolish. On this day of all days. (d) (intensive): the song of songs; the Holy of Holies, the best deserving the name. 12 (in the pattern n + of + possessive) (a) from among the number of: a friend of mine; no business of yours; reading a volume of Ruskin's, a book, one of a number of which Ruskin is the author; a painting of the king's, one of a number belonging to, or painted by, the king. Cf a portrait of the king, a painting to show the king's appearance. (b) (used when n is the modified by a demonstrative or other word that cannot be combined with a possessive): that long nose of his; this essay of Green's; that foolish young wife of yours; that queer-looking hat of hers. 13 (in the pattern adj + of + n/pron): How kind of you to help! It was good of your brother to come. 14 (indicating time): What do you do of a Sunday, on Sundays? He sometimes comes in of an evening, in the evenings. In days of old/of yore, in the past; of late, recently; of late years, during recent years. 15 by: beloved of all. |
| power | n 1. [U] (in living things, persons) ability to do or act: It is not within/It is beyond/outside my ~ to help you, I am unable, or am not in a position, to do so. This animal, the chameleon, has the ~ of changing its colour. I will do everything in my ~ to help. 2 (pl) faculty of the body or mind: His ~s are failing. He is becoming weak. You are taxing your ~s too much. He's a an of great intellectual ~s.3 [U] strenght; force: the ~ of a blow. More ~ to your elbow! (phrase used to encourage sb). 4 [U] energy of force that can be used to work: 'water~; electric ~. 'horse~, -> horse. (attrib) '~-lathe/-loom/-mill, operated by mechanical ~, not by hand labour. '~-boat, one with an engine; motorboat (esp one used for racing, or towing waterskiers) '~-dive vt, n (put an aircraft into a) steep dive with the engines working. '~-house/-station, building where electric ~is generated for distribution. '~-point, socket on a wall, etc for plug to connect an electric circuit. 5 [U] right, control, authority: the ~ of the law; the ~ of Congress; have a person in one's ~, be able to do what one wishes with him; have ~ over sb; Spain at the height of her ~; fall into sb's ~. in ~, (of a person or political party) in office. ~ politics, diplomacy backed by force. 6 [C] right possessed by, or granted to, a person or group of persons: Are the ~s of the Prime Minister defined by law? The President has exceeded his ~s, has done more than he has authority to do. 7 [C] person or organization having great authority or influence: Is the press a great ~ in your country? Are the newspapers influential, etc? the ~s that be, (hum) those who are in authority. 8 [C] State having great authority or influence in international affairs. the Great P~s, the largest and strongest States. 9 [C] (maths) result obtained by multiplying a number or quantity by itself a certain number of times: the second, the third, fourth, etc ~ of x (=x2, x3, x4, etc); the fourth ~ of 3 (= 3 x 3 x 3 = 81). 10 [U] capacity to magnify: the ~ of a lens; a telescope of high ~. 11 (colloq) large number or amount: This brandy is doing me a ~ of good! 12 [C] god, spirit, etc: Preserve us from the ~s of darkness. |
Entries from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English, AS Hornby, Oxford University Press, 1974
20 July 1997