verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
an act becomes law
▪ In the 40 years since the Abortion Act became law there have been repeated attempts to amend or repeal it.
be made/become manifest (=be clearly shown)
▪ Their devotion to God is made manifest in ritual prayer.
be/become a thing of the past (=not exist any more, or stop existing)
▪ We hope that smoking will become a thing of the past.
be/become an embarrassment
▪ Your behaviour is becoming an embarrassment to the school.
be/become aware of sb's presence
▪ It was only when I coughed that he became aware of my presence.
be/become the norm
▪ Short term contracts are now the norm with some big companies.
be/become/get paranoid
▪ Malcolm got really paranoid, deciding that there was a conspiracy out to get him.
be/become/prove an attraction
▪ The organisers hope the event will become an annual attraction.
became aware
▪ Bill became aware that he was still holding his glass.
became dominant
▪ Japan became dominant in the mass market during the 1980s.
became evident
▪ It soon became evident that she was seriously ill.
became independent
▪ India became independent in 1947.
became obsolete
▪ computer hardware that quickly became obsolete
became operational
▪ The new system became operational in March.
became politicised
▪ He became politicised during his years in prison.
became...disillusioned
▪ As she grew older, Laura became increasingly disillusioned with politics.
became...withdrawn
▪ After his wife’s death he became more and more withdrawn.
become a cliché
▪ It has become a cliché to say that Prague is the most beautiful city in Europe.
become a hero
▪ He became a national hero for his part in the war.
become a member
▪ Germany became a member of N.A.T.O. in 1954.
become a reality (=really happen, after being hoped for, feared, etc by someone)
▪ Last June, her longed-for baby finally became a reality.
become a way of life
▪ For Mark, travelling has become a way of life.
become an obsession
▪ For Rosie, losing weight had become an obsession.
become available
▪ Luckily a house soon became available for us.
become champion
▪ Every sportsperson dreams of becoming a world champion.
become cold (also get coldinformal)
▪ In my country, it never really gets cold.
become committed
▪ They became committed Christians.
become entangled
▪ I didn’t want to become entangled with my best friend’s wife.
become extinct
▪ Pandas could become extinct in the wild.
become friends
▪ Liz and Vanessa soon became friends.
become ill (also get illinformal)
▪ She became ill after eating oysters.
become illegal
▪ The drug did not become illegal until the 1970s.
become impossible
▪ As it became darker, it became impossible for the players to see the ball.
become king
▪ Prince Charles will become king when his mother, Queen Elizabeth, dies.
become law (=officially be made a law)
▪ For a bill to become law, it must be approved by both Houses of Parliament.
become legend/pass into legend
▪ The incident became legend.
become obvious
▪ It soon became obvious that the boy was not really interested.
become operative
▪ the steps to be taken before the scheme can become operative
become organic (=use only organic methods to farm)
▪ More farms are becoming organic, but it is not always an easy choice.
become pregnant
▪ Sally became pregnant, and gave birth to a baby son.
become queen
▪ Mary Tudor became queen in 1553.
become rich
▪ Over the years, he became enormously rich.
become the basis of/for sth
▪ Some of these ideas became the basis for the Parents’ Educational Union.
become the focus
▪ When you give a talk you become the focus of attention.
become/get vested (in sth)
▪ He only took the job to get vested in the pension fund.
become/grow impatient (with sb/sth)
▪ We are growing impatient with the lack of results.
become/grow/get accustomed to sth
▪ Her eyes quickly became accustomed to the dark.
become/grow/get restless
▪ The children had been indoors all day, and were getting restless.
become/turn into a nightmare
▪ Their honeymoon turned into a nightmare when they were involved in a car accident.
becoming an uncle (=your sister or your brother’s wife has a child)
▪ I was very excited about becoming an uncle.
becoming...vegetarian
▪ I’m thinking about becoming a vegetarian.
fast becoming/disappearing/approaching etc
▪ Access to the Internet is fast becoming a necessity.
get into an argument/become involved in an argument
▪ She didn’t want to get into another argument about money.
▪ I left to avoid becoming involved in an argument.
get/become depressed
▪ If you get depressed, talk to someone about it.
get/become embarrassed
▪ Sometimes I get embarrassed, and I start to stutter.
get/become emotional
▪ He became very emotional when we had to leave.
get/become frantic
▪ There was still no news of Jill, and her parents were getting frantic.
get/become nervous
▪ Everyone gets nervous before a big game.
get/become worried
▪ You should have called me. I was getting worried.
get/become/grow worse
▪ The recession was getting worse.
get/grow/become maudlin
▪ Sir Ralph was becoming maudlin after his third glass of claret.
sth becomes a habit
▪ Once you you have been driving for a few weeks, it becomes a habit.
tempers get/become frayedBritish English (= people become annoyed)
▪ People were pushing each other, and tempers were becoming frayed.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
increasingly
▪ It is typical of the farmland which will increasingly become redundant.
▪ As a result, tans made in the shade are becoming increasingly popular with those wanting to practice safe sun.
▪ It may become increasingly necessary to avoid contact with certain people as much as possible.
▪ Over the next forty days, the liturgies would become increasingly meditative.
▪ The use of corpora is becoming increasingly important in the production of dictionaries.
▪ As the war progressed the two combatants became increasingly receptive to representations from non-involved powers.
▪ Their bowed shape can be justified on the assumption that both inflation and unemployment become increasingly unpopular the higher they are.
▪ The Left became increasingly middle-class and this reinforced the already strong opposition to it among trade union officials.
less
▪ Moreover, as a worker gets older, overtime, shift work and so on become less and less a physical possibility.
▪ Her letters to Jacqueline, too, became less frequent.
▪ Drew became less punctual, he muffed his lines, and was often replaced by an understudy.
▪ As the outgunned enemy tried to fire back, our fire became less random.
▪ As agricultural specialization increased and farmers became less self-sufficient they, too, had consumer needs to be catered for.
▪ In addition, you become less sensitive to light and sound and are therefore difficult to awaken.
▪ In the later years, teaching generally becomes less formal.
▪ The same gradual process will be needed to help a child become less aggressive.
more
▪ During recent years, librarians have become more aware of the need to evaluate programmes of library instruction.
▪ I see three important constituent elements of the digital realm becoming more evident every day: malleability, anonymity and connectivity.
▪ Sharp's graphics became more lurid.
▪ Production becomes more important to the leader as his or her rating advances on the horizontal scale.
▪ The riding became more regular and I wanted to ride more often than I could.
▪ Over time Miles's maps have become more accurate, in part because of his earlier efforts.
▪ These systems are going to become more and more simple, to accomplish more and more complex tasks.
▪ Anthropologists have also noted that the intensity of parental interaction with children increases as societies become more complex.
so
▪ I had become so interested in a nice neat pattern that I hadn't checked if I had found all the shapes.
▪ Who immediately became so righteously pissed that one of them quit and the other demanded a raise.
▪ The first company to market them in tomato sauce became so favoured as to make the others almost unsaleable.
▪ Life has become so dreary and exhausting.
▪ His neck and shoulders gradually became so stiff that he had to turn in one piece from the waist up.
▪ I even became so desperate that I thought of returning to corporate life.
▪ But the winds became so fierce that the whole forest shook.
▪ The ogre became so wealthy by being a great landowner; people had to pay tribute to him to get any-thing.
soon
▪ Great plans are afoot to ban smoking in public places, resulting in smokers soon becoming complete outcasts in society.
▪ Dozens, however, soon became effective leaders in the struggle to desegregate the Boston schools.
▪ It was published on 22 July, and it soon became clear that the schools were not interested.
▪ However, if functionally one is considered an unequal, ontology soon becomes irrelevant.
▪ With migraines results often take longer, but the attacks soon become less frequent and their intensity decreases.
▪ Without new drugs, Vitor and other patients may soon become untreatable.
▪ Such systems could operate at lower cost than current methods and may soon become commercialized.
too
▪ The team would do what the individual could no longer do because the organisation was becoming too large and/or complex.
▪ With a longer life span, a lot of people are just becoming too frail to take care of themselves.
▪ Mama had stopped using the notebook when she'd become too ill for them to have any more happy times together.
▪ Its peeling paint and broken windows stand testimony that it went out of business because it had become too costly to maintain.
▪ The calves grow quickly and can be taken to substantial weights without becoming too fat, providing prime beef.
▪ She had not allowed herself to become too attached to the child.
▪ It was only decisively ended by the Revolution of 1688, Muddiman having become too closely associated with the fallen regime.
▪ Once again, Williams tried to play through the pain, but after a while, it became too much to bear.
very
▪ First, any distinction between party officials and state officials becomes very blurred.
▪ It became very popular with the men of our company.
▪ They became very good friends indeed, which, naturally, did not please Lord Burlesdon.
▪ When epileptic areas are close to language areas-and often they are-it becomes very important to map language abilities before removing anything.
▪ The justification for this chapter now becomes very clear.
▪ The Golden Globes have become very prominent.
▪ Such places have become very popular growth points for industries which cluster together at them.
▪ How clear is the link between performance results and the capabilities the organization must become very good at?
■ NOUN
focus
▪ Children's behaviour problems become a focus of concern when the child is behaving inappropriately or excessively for their age.
▪ As geology has become the focus of more attention, it has aroused the curiosity of young people about nature in general.
▪ This is because health and the quality and availability of health care often become the focus of community struggle.
▪ I made two more visits to Knowlton, and it has now become a focus for my own particular pilgrimage.
▪ The part of the wood where we were had become the focus to which all the firing converged.
▪ Mrs Chan, who epitomises the tradition, became a focus for his frustrations.
▪ The fate of the bears has become the focus for battles between conservationists and developers.
member
▪ Buyers would become members in the same way, and with similar rights.
▪ For example, he could become a member of a team, or a technical advisor available to all teams.
▪ By 1652 he had become a member of a syndicate engaged in victualling the navy.
▪ Her prayers and heroic patience caused the conversion of her husband, who became a member of the Franciscan Third Order.
▪ Indeed, our self-identity as a nation is integrally related to our response to those who seek to become members.
reality
▪ During the next couple of years, however, this dream may have a chance of becoming a reality.
▪ The hype became reality when Gretzky skated to the center circle to face off with Trevor Linden.
▪ What a shame it must one day become reality - it will never match these views for charm and elegance.
▪ More than 100 years ago, Jules Verne was writing about them, but now they are becoming a reality.
▪ Hope had betrayed her into thinking dreams could become reality.
▪ Whatever the reason, his perception became reality.
▪ We shall have to see if one of the more interesting measures in the Budget ever becomes reality.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be/become a victim of its own success
▪ The helpline is a victim of its own success with so many people calling that no one can get through.
▪ Moreover, to a great extent the health service is a victim of its own success.
be/become attuned to sth
▪ And so maybe then, gradually at first, Kathy became attuned to a curious new odor in the air.
▪ But we try to be attuned to modern artifacts and what active players are doing, too.
▪ Having become attuned to them, I now hear them everywhere, every day.
▪ I became attuned to the high-toned squeaking of shrews, which appeared to be engaged in conflict.
be/become habituated to (doing) sth
▪ Some patients with severe headache problems become habituated to ergotamines and other non-narcotic drugs.
▪ Un-learning is more difficult than learning - because we become habituated to thinking or feeling in certain ways over time.
be/become part of the furniture
be/become second nature (to sb)
▪ Typing becomes second nature after a while.
▪ But the main reason for my silence was that secrecy and deception had by then become second nature to me.
▪ By the time you die, you should be so used to paying taxes that it would almost be second nature anyway.
▪ Gradually those qualities become second nature.
▪ If one is well grounded in youth, the object of love and sound toilet training, these things become second nature.
▪ Management by objective was becoming second nature in the West Wing.
▪ Pay close attention to the sweep pattern and strokes, and this will eventually become second nature.
▪ Practice breathing in this way for twenty minutes each day until it becomes second nature.
▪ The strange and difficult was becoming second nature in the way that it had when I'd learned to fly.
be/become/be declared persona non grata
become hardened (to sth)
▪ He did not become hardened or accustomed.
▪ Many people become human relations victims over and over again without becoming hardened, insensitive or recluses.
▪ Once a happy, handsome country boy, Inman has become hardened, cynical, burned out.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ After a while my eyes became accustomed to the dark.
▪ After the death of her father, she became the richest woman in the world.
▪ Baker became head coach.
▪ Bradley went on to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
▪ Even when I was a kid, I wanted to become a psychologist.
▪ Every time you open the newspaper these days someone else has just become a millionaire.
▪ I don't think that outfit really becomes you, Sheryl.
▪ It is becoming harder to find decent housing in the city.
▪ It soon became clear that the fire was out of control.
▪ Julian's book was a big success and he quickly became rich and famous.
▪ Mobile phones have now become fashion accessories for schoolkids and teenagers.
▪ My friend Kyle stayed with the company and became a departmental manager.
▪ She started to become anxious about her son.
▪ Since winning all that money he's become a very unpleasant person.
▪ Slowly she became aware that there was someone else in the room.
▪ The weather is becoming warmer.
▪ These kinds of partnerships are becoming more common.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ By this time he had become an enduring institution.
▪ Many people, who had once been middle-class, who had once had dignity, became irrational.
▪ Somehow they manage to become smaller than life.
▪ Swindon became the end of the line for east bound Inter City trains.
▪ The main point is that the clash procedure becomes an end in itself.
▪ Their world became a blinding wall of white, howling towards them, too fast for thought or action.