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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
groundwork
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
lay
▪ Fox is clearly laying the groundwork for peace talks to restart.
▪ They decided among themselves they needed to lay the groundwork.
▪ After laying the groundwork, he announced this initiative in a broadcast address from the Elysée Palace on 16 September 1959.
▪ The defense Monday seemed to lay the groundwork for an argument about damages.
▪ What he is doing is laying the groundwork for the decisive moment and preparing his getaway.
▪ Then the elite persuaded the newly elected mayor to appoint a committee to lay the groundwork for redevelopment.
▪ The project is intended to lay the groundwork for a subsequent full-scale study.
▪ Their task, simply put, was to lay the scientific groundwork for the manned landing missions that were then being planned.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
lay the foundations/groundwork/base
▪ Because Save the Children want to lay the foundations for a better future.
▪ He laid the foundations by cutting one percent off interest rates, scrapping special car tax, and boosting the housing industry.
▪ He said he hoped they had laid the foundations for peace - but admitted obstacles could lie ahead.
▪ One of my officials chairs the experts committee that laid the groundwork for this achievement.
▪ Progress in primary schools has laid the foundations for the drive to raise standards in secondary schools, announced last month.
▪ The defense Monday seemed to lay the groundwork for an argument about damages.
▪ Then the elite persuaded the newly elected mayor to appoint a committee to lay the groundwork for redevelopment.
▪ Will took advantage of this opportunity to lay the groundwork for his epitaph.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ The groundwork for next year's conference has already begun.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ At this early stage the groundwork is also laid for an effective alliance between parents and professionals concerning treatment.
▪ By this stage, the groundwork necessary for manned missions has been accomplished.
▪ In short, we provide the groundwork, the teamwork and the network.
▪ It is a transitory work which lays the groundwork for themes and styles found in the theater sixty years later.
▪ It is vital that the United Nations should now act on that groundwork and drive the peacemaking process forward.
▪ Prosecution solicitors, Messrs Greene and Cowper, had done their groundwork well.
▪ The unprecedented federal proposal may have a better chance in a non-election year, building on the groundwork laid this year.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Groundwork

Groundwork \Ground"work`\ (ground"w[^u]rk`), n. That which forms the foundation or support of anything; the basis; the essential or fundamental part; first principle; as, development of a convenient DNA sequencing technique layed the groundwork for many of the subsequent advances in molecular genetics.
--Dryden.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
groundwork

mid-15c., from ground (n.) + work (n.). Similar formation in Middle Dutch grontwerck, Dutch grondwerk, German grundwerk. Originally "the solid base on which a structure is built;" figurative sense is from 1550s.

Wiktionary
groundwork

n. The foundation; the basic or fundamental parts that support or allow for the rest.

WordNet
groundwork
  1. n. the fundamental assumptions from which something is begun or developed or calculated or explained; "the whole argument rested on a basis of conjecture" [syn: basis, base, foundation, fundament, cornerstone]

  2. lowest support of a structure; "it was built on a base of solid rock"; "he stood at the foot of the tower" [syn: foundation, base, fundament, foot, substructure, understructure]

  3. preliminary preparation as a basis or foundation; "we are prepared today because of groundwork that was done ten years ago"

Wikipedia
Groundwork

Groundwork or ground work may refer to:

Usage examples of "groundwork".

In addition to exegetical studies on Buddhism and Confucianism, they compiled dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference-type materials that provided the groundwork for nearly all subsequent scholarly activity in premodern Japan.

Headley, that the groundwork here, so far as we can observe it through the dense growth of hydrozoa and silicious sponges, is pumicestone and the black slag of basalt, pointing to ancient plutonic activities.

Once Jens has done the groundwork in Phnom Penh, we all move into Cambodia.

Wilson was not to persuade this fairly intelligent Massachusetts politician to abandon the opinion of most of his constituents, but to lay the groundwork for his toleration of opposing views later.

With a host of publicity-seeking lawyers visiting him daily, Joel terminated the services of Sale, even though Sale had already conferred with a host of forensic psychiatrists and set up a battery of tests that could have laid the groundwork for a successful insanity defense.

Common ideas of necessity form the groundwork for the broidery of our advanced thought.

Biair's purpose in arguing with Wilson was not to persuade this fairly intelligent Massachusetts politician to abandon the opinion of most of his constituents, but to lay the groundwork for his toleration of opposing views later.

Lucie, Esther, her father, their hatred of me, and my hatred of myself, were the groundwork of my dreams.

Take our thanks: we read that this conjuncture undesigned I "Unfolds felicitous means of showing you that still our eyes are set, as yours, on peace, II "To which great end the Treaty of Amiens must be the groundwork of our amities.

The wars behind him, at least for the present, Arthur turned his genius to political and social reform, establishing elective bodies of legislators, the Royal Senate and Assembly, restoring the House of Peers, formulating a new judicial system on the remains of the old brehon laws, and laying the groundwork for a standing battle force.

For the rest he dimly remembered golden pillars, and silver chequer-work, huge Chinese paintings on a groundwork of inlaid pearl, mirrors flashing back the lights of the lustres, crimson draperies and chairs, and piers between the windows covered with fluted silks of pale blue.

Everyone from the senior partners down agrees that his unsparing efforts laid the groundwork for the firm to proceed with the complex terms of the merger being negotiated between their marketing and evangelical arms but as I said earlier, this inclination of the press to turn momentous events into comical diversions pandering to the jaded tastes of their readers, anything you may read about a plan to use the soft drink in the communion service is purely a.

That is a source of amusement to those at the court who are not entirely my friends and it would not surprise anyone here that I should be concerned about laying the groundwork for the forthcoming Decennial Convention.

BY MIDAFTERNOON, EXCHANGE RATES HAD BEEN decided and some groundwork laid for an exchange board.

I want to start laying the groundwork to get Ultra at least considered for the expedited track.