I.nounCOLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a big/smash/number 1 etc hit
▪ the Beatles’ greatest hits
▪ Which band had a hit with ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’?
a card number
▪ What's your card number?
a combination/variety/number of factors
▪ A combination of factors led to the closure of the factory.
a four/five/six etc figure number (=a number in the thousands/ten thousands/hundred thousands etc)
▪ Choose a four figure number that you can easily remember.
A growing number
▪ A growing number of people are taking part-time jobs.
a number of occasions
▪ The crowd interrupted her speech on a number of occasions.
a phone number
▪ Can I have your phone number?
a random number
▪ Pick a random number.
a record number/level/time etc
▪ Pollution in the lake has reached record levels.
a rise in the number of sth
▪ There has been a rise in the number of arrests for drug offences.
an equal number/amount
▪ Both candidates received an equal number of votes.
an infinite number/variety of sth
▪ There was an infinite variety of drinks to choose from.
An unknown number of
▪ An unknown number of people were killed.
atomic number
be equal in number/numbers
▪ In higher education, women are equal in numbers to men.
be equal in number/numbers
▪ In higher education, women are equal in numbers to men.
be ranked fourth/number one etc
▪ Agassi was at that time ranked sixth in the world.
box number
cardinal number
considerable amount/number etc of sth
▪ We’ve saved a considerable amount of money.
cushy number (=an easy job or life)
▪ a very cushy number
daytime telephone number (=the number of the telephone you use during the day)
▪ Can I take your daytime telephone number ?
double in size/number/value etc
▪ Within two years the company had doubled in size.
double the amount/number/size etc
▪ We’ll need double this amount for eight people.
double the size/number/amount etc (of sth)
▪ A promise was given to double the number of police on duty.
E number
extension number
▪ Do you know Mr Brown’s extension number?
home address/number (=the address or telephone number of your house)
ICE number
insignificant number/amount
large number
▪ A large number of students have signed up for the course.
limited number/amount/time etc
▪ There are only a limited number of tickets available.
look out for yourself/number one (=think only of the advantages you can get for yourself)
maximum amount/number etc
▪ Work out the maximum amount you can afford to spend.
number 1/5/15 etc in the charts
▪ In 1962 'Love Me Do' reached only number 17 in the charts.
number cruncher
number crunching
number one
▪ The University of Maine has the number one hockey team in the country.
number one
▪ Until his marriage, his job was number one in his life.
number plate
Number Ten
number two
number/license/registration plate (=on a car)
▪ Did anyone see the car’s license plate?
ordinal number
personal identification number
prime number
production number
registration number
sb’s number one fan
▪ She told Dave that she was his number one fan.
serial number
▪ Each computer has a serial number on it.
sizeable amount/number
▪ a sizeable amount of money
small number
▪ Only a relatively small number of people were affected.
swell the ranks/numbers of sth (=increase the number of people in a particular situation)
▪ Large numbers of refugees have swollen the ranks of the unemployed.
telephone number
▪ What’s your telephone number?
the exact amount/number/figure
▪ I don’t know the exact amount, but it was a lot.
the flight number
▪ Write the flight number on all your luggage labels.
the number one suspect (=the main suspect)
▪ I was the one who found her. And that makes me the number one suspect for her murder.
the top/main/number one priority
▪ Controlling spending is his top priority.
three-digit/four-digit etc number
▪ 4305 is a four-digit number.
twice the size/number/rate/amount etc
▪ an area twice the size of Britain
unlimited number
▪ The system can support an unlimited number of users.
vast amounts/numbers/quantities/sums etc (of sth)
▪ The government will have to borrow vast amounts of money.
▪ The refugees come across the border in vast numbers.
whole number
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
considerable
▪ There are thus a considerable number who appear in the autobiographies as simple vignettes.
▪ A review of several estimates of natural gas available between 1980 and 2000 reveals a considerable range of numbers and opinions.
▪ Besides such large and expensive works, Stanton produced a considerable number of relatively simple mural tablets, in a distinctive style.
▪ And a considerable number of economists, though not always in full knowledge of the implications, have conceded the point.
▪ There are a considerable number of provisions which the taxpayer must carefully take into account when setting up an overseas trust.
▪ While a considerable number of the best people stayed on, many also left.
▪ There will often be a considerable number of courses of action which the system itself will not be able to choose between.
▪ A private company differs from a public company in a considerable number of ways.
equal
▪ For example, the customer might ask to be given equal numbers of 5p and 20p coins for use in a vending machine.
▪ Jinnah had an equal number of meetings with Mountbatten in the same period.
▪ The classes contain approximately equal numbers of members.
▪ One hundred fifty years after the event equal numbers of people might each choose one of the above descriptions.
▪ Foster's office bookcase contains about equal numbers of books on chemistry and on accountancy.
▪ Tracey made a tree with an equal number of rods protruding from each side and all of the same size.
▪ A new civilian police force has been created, with equal numbers of ex-soldiers and ex-guerrillas in its ranks.
▪ While a few felt that the social workers, were helpful and supportive an equal number considered them to be patronizing and authoritarian.
great
▪ It now covered a greater geographical area and involved a greater number of powerful States than ever before.
▪ We are in favor of abortion rights and reproductive freedom in greater numbers than men.
▪ To remove such a sacred mound would cause much distress to a great number of people.
▪ Obviously, Camby had great numbers, but how about Edgar Padilla?
▪ The strategy of continuing to exclude women from the union did not prevent their recruitment in ever greater numbers by the employers.
▪ The countryside has been buried under layers of concrete to facilitate its movement in ever greater numbers.
▪ And so ostensibly are the greatest cardinal number and the abominable snowman.
▪ Take the familiar mathematical example of the greatest cardinal number.
growing
▪ The old bill might be straight in Leyton but there are growing numbers who smoke weed and support calls for legalisation.
▪ A new report says growing numbers of tenants are facing illegal evictions or even threats of violence.
▪ Teachers were leaving the profession in growing numbers because of poor pay and conditions, especially in country areas.
▪ But it is a few rich people who are responsible for this, not the growing numbers of the poor.
▪ The first is the threat which a growing number of them see to the strength and stability of their currency.
▪ A growing number of black intellectuals, and white politicians, disagree.
▪ Another service attracting a growing number of subscribers is Commercial Payment Profile.
▪ We, like our growing number of thinking Ulsterfolk, envisage no future under Westminster dictatorship.
high
▪ Willesden County Court, has dealt with the second highest number of repossessions in the country.
▪ The high number of craters suggest Mathilde has been taking hits for several billion years.
▪ We found a much higher number of HAPCs in children than previously reported in adults.
▪ Because demand is so high, the number of listings is at a historic low, too.
▪ Speyside had by far the highest number of farmers requesting the courses themselves - three out of every four.
▪ The company said job losses are likely to be minimal because of the high number of jobs currently open at Home Savings.
▪ He gave warning that the higher the number of small authorities set up, the more the cost would increase.
▪ Franken also avoided military service with student deferments while at Harvard and, ultimately, a high lottery number.
increasing
▪ In an increasing number of countries, use of seat belts in cars is now obligatory.
▪ The involvement of an increasing number of staff in financial planning is another interesting area.
▪ It is sold at the monuments, tourist information centres and through an increasing number of travel trade operators.
▪ These nouveau-riches elites were getting worried about the increasing numbers of poor families camped outside their large houses.
▪ An increasing number of studies using faeces as a sample source have been published recently.
▪ An increasing number of calls come from people looking for start-up premises for small businesses.
▪ An increasing number of builders now offer a service of drawing and submitting plans, although an architect may be more creative.
▪ Many women are teachers and there is an increasing number of women politicians, accountants, lawyers, doctors.
large
▪ Thus for large numbers of older workers, poverty is experienced to the official pension ages.
▪ Inclusion of large numbers of very old elderly in the study population will produce the opposite effect.
▪ However, warmth and moisture favour development and allow the accumulation of large numbers of infective stages.
▪ The tale of Gormenghast requires a large number of refractory animals, few of them capable of taking direction.
▪ After all, the Minister is surrounded by a large number of them on the Conservative Benches.
▪ Spread over 112,000 acres, the Sterkfontein and associated sites contain the largest number of fossils found anywhere in the world.
▪ A falling birth-rate is brought about by a large number of changes in society.
▪ But large numbers of people set a value by this differential service, by no means restricted to those one could regard as rich.
limited
▪ The faculty receives a very large number of applications for the limited number of places available.
▪ These ten programs contend for a limited number of real and symbolic resources.
▪ There is a limited number of places available for our workshop.
▪ Active volcanism at any one time is normally confined to a limited number of centres within a particular cluster.
▪ The research will be conducted by means of a limited number of case studies and will include analysis at three levels.
▪ They suggest that peculiar factors may account for the high levels recorded on a limited number of ground-based instruments.
▪ A limited number of these vouchers were issued each year.
▪ It is only a limited number of pensioners who at present enjoy substantial occupational pensions.
maximum
▪ For the unfit individual, three times per week should be the maximum number of exercise sessions.
▪ It requires each clinic to have a written policy stating a maximum number of pregnancies per donor.
▪ This was done by giving subjects a maximum number of accidents which their estimates could not exceed.
▪ The maximum number of persons working on the site of the establishment and particularly of those persons exposed to hazard 3.
▪ The maximum number of rattles observed is 20.
▪ Action: The maximum number of modules in one package is 30.
▪ What is the maximum number of diners which will have to be accommodated at a sit-down meal?
▪ Finding the maximum number of customers a bank can serve is mind-numbingly complicated.
opposite
▪ He refused to swap it with opposite number Willie Carne after the game because he had promised it to the Mirror.
▪ Aki Hill is there, her opposite number at rival school Oregon State.
▪ So does his opposite number in the Senate, Bennett Johnston of Louisiana.
▪ Finding an opposite number is not always easy.
▪ My opposite numbers, you understand.
▪ His opposite number, Clive Lloyd, had already been through the two formative experiences of his captaincy.
▪ It has its opposite number which is opposed to its life-giving properties.
serial
▪ Training returns, ammo expenditure, equipment serial number, vehicle mileage - all have to be documented.
▪ They traced the serial numbers and found he had probably killed a military policeman.
▪ The number before each name is the serial number of each claim, and amounts are those due to each creditor.
▪ They arrested me for having a gun with an altered serial number on it.
▪ This register lists them by serial number, price, type of lathe, date sold and to whom.
▪ Each player attempts to fool the others about the serial numbers printed on the face of his dollar bill.
▪ Then, and only then, do the players reveal their serial numbers and determine who is bluffing whom.
significant
▪ Where a significant number of individuals share a colour that deviates from the species norm, we term it a colour morph.
▪ Morgenson said the letter went out to hundreds of potential supporters and has yielded a significant number of donations.
▪ In recent times, anthropologists have noted that Inuit had almost universally perfect eyesight until significant numbers of them became literate.
▪ Politicians have perceived little gain in granting petitions for something that offends the sensibilities of a significant number of the heterosexual majority.
▪ Macmillan was fortunate to have been granted a significant number of share options in his employer.
▪ But three other regulars also missed a significant number of games.
▪ However, some passenger seat cushions and a significant number of passengers' bodies were recovered and taken to Rhodes.
▪ Korda lacked the resources to lure away a significant number of Rank's key directors.
small
▪ Postgraduate Teaching Awards A small number of teaching assistantships and teaching supplements are available annually in some Faculties.
▪ A small number of new initiatives were launched.
▪ This latter point is not easily achieved, especially when questionnaires are used with small numbers.
▪ They did, in fact, take in a small number of elderly people.
▪ He has a scheme to take over a small number of simple churches and adapt them as retreats.
▪ This research aims to investigate, in detail, activity in a small number of committees which vary in operation and intentions.
▪ These large gametes will inevitably be produced in smaller numbers and they will lack mobility.
▪ Only a small number of men accompanied him into the forest.
total
▪ Multiply the number of widths by the number of pattern repeats per drop to give the total number of pattern repeats required.
▪ So the total number of dinners on the island is 200, eaten in the comfort of 90 huts.
▪ The total number of cells and of labelled cells within a randomly selected field of view were counted.
▪ The total number of adults diagnosed with diabetes in California is estimated to be 1,393,105.
▪ Multiply the total number of pattern repeats by the size of the repeat to give your total fabric requirement.
▪ The latest redundancies bring the total number of job losses at the factory to thirteen hundred, in less than three years.
▪ This combined number of fewer than 300 audit firms represents less than 3% of the total number registered.
▪ The total number of academic staff has risen from 284 in 1987/88 to 348 in 1991/92.
vast
▪ Has not the experiment proved a disaster for vast numbers of national health service patients?
▪ Hospitals save a vast number of lives and prevent a vast amount of pain.
▪ There is obviously a vast number of such possible trajectories.
▪ Molly often stayed in her office late into the night, responding by hand to the vast numbers of letters we received.
▪ The South West Region plays host to a vast number of divers all over the country.
▪ Endemic diseases carried away additional vast numbers of people.
▪ After commissions were cut at Harvard, a vast number of Harvard dealers joined the search.
▪ There are a vast number of medicines used to treat troubled sleep, aching joints, headaches and other symptoms.
■ NOUN
phone
▪ He kissed her and pressed a list of phone numbers and dates and times into her hand.
▪ Call the phone number on the correspondence and explain clearly why you do not owe the tax.
▪ She knew their hotel's phone number.
▪ We cleaned up with Kleenexes, exchanged phone numbers.
▪ Most entertainers give out cards with their own or the agency's phone number on it.
▪ Give a phone number if at all possible.
▪ Customers must provide only their name, address and phone number to be eligible.
telephone
▪ For further details about transitional relief ask your charging authority - the address and telephone number are included with this bill.
▪ Rambam printed business cards carrying a working telephone number complete with voice mail.
▪ I have omitted the address and telephone number Take an imperial sheet of cartridge paper and a small roll of gummed tape.
▪ Selective blocking allows the telephone number to appear on all calls unless customers enter 67 before dialing.
▪ This feature enables both halves of postcodes to be kept together and similarly for telephone numbers.
▪ In his letter to the student the dean included his home telephone number.
▪ Distances to resorts, information on speed limits, tolls, accident procedure and useful telephone numbers are also mentioned.
▪ In the employee newsletter, telephone numbers are listed to report suspicions about co-workers.
■ VERB
double
▪ The move will double the number of people who can attend this popular event, from 4000 to 8000.
▪ Can you double the number of homes on a plot of land without making the residents claustrophobic or the neighbors ballistic?
▪ We will double the number of Safer Cities Schemes to cover 40 urban areas.
▪ With this aspect behind it, applications shot up, nearly doubling the number of EMs in the program.
▪ In Leicester youth court, the influx of 17-year-olds has doubled the number of juvenile offenders coming before magistrates.
▪ In one facetious article he promised to show the government how to double the number of jobs in the railroad industry.
▪ As to the enforcement of lorry weights, we have doubled the number of inspections over the past five years.
▪ The way to outvote them was to double the number of people who held to the old ways.
grow
▪ A growing number of workers are put on short-term contracts which are renewed only if their work is up to scratch.
▪ Such conditions were ideal for spreading the disease; men contracted it in growing numbers and brought it home.
▪ This organism often grows in low numbers, and many laboratories still regard it as a contaminant.
▪ Brighter street lights, however, could not direct attention from the growing number of commercial eyesores taking power from the canal.
▪ A growing number had already been worrying about the social and corporate consequences of such massive restructurings.
▪ But a small rebellion has started and is growing, say a number of shoe designers and manufacturers and doctors.
▪ It was a good march, a splendid march which grew in numbers and confidence with every step along the way.
▪ There were, however, a growing number of black announcers, most notably Jack Cooper, whose career began in 1929.
increase
▪ A parallel trend which has been widely perceived but less well documented is that of increasing numbers of authors per article.
▪ An increasing number of parents are requesting this experience.
▪ A meeting with the Planning Inspectorate considered increasing the number of architect inspectors.
▪ Since then the number of dwellings has actually increased faster than the number of families.
▪ The local council in Yokohama hopes to increase the number of these trucks to 30 in the near future.
▪ Once uncommon in our waters, they have become more abundant as anchovies, a favored food, have increased in numbers.
▪ The poll tax will increase the numbers eligible for housing benefit.
▪ Inexpensive ways of getting online could increase the number in the next few years.
limit
▪ Like others, Alexander wants to cut congressional pensions and limit the number of terms that lawmakers can serve.
▪ Both are equally limited in the number of troops, tanks and artillery they can position near the border.
▪ They deliberately limit the number of guests to six at any one time as they aim to preserve the home-from-home atmosphere.
▪ A college football association is charged with conspiring to limit the number of college games that football fans can see on television.
▪ They would limit the number of performance quality breakthroughs in round two to between twenty and twenty-five.
▪ She is most strict on where we go and limits the number of our visitors.
▪ What is needed is a system rather than a handful of programs limited to a small number of schools and companies.
reduce
▪ Polio, apparently passed on from a human epidemic in the region, had already reduced their numbers.
▪ What more would local leaders and social service providers like to see done to reduce the ominous numbers?
▪ Meanwhile police have launched a new campaign to reduce the number of distraction burglaries, which increased by fifteen percent last year.
▪ Those who stayed in business reduced their herd to numbers which they could more easily feed and take care of year round.
▪ This helps to reduce the number of green tubers.
▪ Amanda immediately hired additional support personnel and reduced the number of calls each of her teams were expected to make each week.
▪ If the drill is a success, it could reduce the numbers of offshore rigs needed for drilling at sea.
▪ The Clinton administration has pressed all agencies to reduce the number of supervisors.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
X number of people/things
a fair size/amount/number/bit/distance etc
▪ But a fair number of them went on to greater things.
▪ It prefers a fair amount of nutritious detritus.
▪ Scientists must proceed cautiously, moving ahead only with the assent of a fair number of their colleagues.
▪ Thanks to the inherently leaky nature of the water industry, there is already a fair amount of information to go on.
▪ That involved a fair amount of travel.
▪ There was a fair amount going on.
▪ They'd have a fair bit of tidying up to do before they left.
▪ You may also be involved in a fair amount of travel.
a goodish distance/number etc
a goodly number/sum/amount etc
▪ It seems fair to assume that she will attract the attention of a goodly number of our countrymen.
▪ Small Dave had spent a goodly amount of time impressing upon him the importance of finding a camel.
▪ The Thatcher Years have been splendid ones for a goodly number of golf members throughout this Royal and Ancient land of ours.
back issue/copy/number
▪ A little later Bacon appeared, walked up to their table and asked Minton why he did not look after his back numbers.
▪ Anyway, I thought you ought to know you have your reader back, and I enclose £4 for 4 back issues.
▪ Lifelong readers who kept the back issues piled in their attics renewed their subscriptions like clockwork at the five-year rate.
▪ Mackey had seen handbooks on guerrilla tactics, back issues of a racist magazine Guy published.
▪ My parents collected all their copies of Wimpey News and we have back numbers going back to the 1940s.
▪ Six issues cost $ 39, and new and back issues are available.
bring the total/number/score etc to sth
▪ A $ 7 parking fee and an automatic $ 12. 15 tip brought the total to $ 93. 15.
▪ By the time it was eventually closed in 1988, new investors had brought the total to £116 million.
▪ Cruz also said Muni planned to hire at least 12 additional safety staffers, bringing the total to 72.
▪ It is estimated that this element would bring the total to over 20,000.
▪ Michael Forbes of New York, already had declared his opposition to Gingrich, bringing the total to four.
▪ More than 30 square miles have been annexed into the city, bringing the total to 193.
▪ The armed forces are said to have sent an extra 2,000 troops to the border area, bringing the total to 3,500.
contact number/address/details
▪ Books can be entered and modified as can contact details.
▪ Frequently there is no contact number, so even if we like the music, we can't do much about it.
▪ Gave the name of his solicitors in London as his contact address.
▪ The video box illustration carries various official body contact addresses on the back for further information on the river.
▪ These advertisements generally use a Box number at the publication as the contact address and may be placed by the client.
▪ These provide the contact details and an indication of charges for more than 20 online brokers.
▪ This time we have remembered to put our contact numbers below.
crunch (the) numbers
▪ Linked together, they can crunch numbers as fast as any mainframe, but at a fraction of the cost.
▪ One crunched numbers; they were very important to him.
▪ She lived for the day when she could crunch numbers in the dry air of West Texas.
look out for number one
▪ We manoeuvre in the world constantly looking out for Number One.
magic number/word
▪ The Maharishi's followers say that 7000 is a magic number.
▪ Al knew at once that he had heard A very secret magic word.
▪ Bacon could argue that Antichrist would invoke stellar influences and magic words having the power to produce physical effects.
▪ Charles would capture one of the boys and only release him if he said the magic word.
▪ For Geteles and others, potential was the magic word, the answer to all the talk about standards.
▪ If that magic number is reached, the deal becomes an international treaty.
▪ Once a patient has his magic number, does it have any effect?
▪ The magic words had been uttered.
▪ This is done by listening to a tape and writing on your application form a magic number.
number one/two/three etc seed
odd number
▪ An odd number of classes provides a neutral mid-point.
▪ An individual scorer might be useful where an odd number of people are concerned.
▪ Clearly the northern fleet is being reinforced from the southern; but why the odd numbers?
▪ Erect verticals upon the odd numbers, 1, 3, 5, 7, etc.
▪ He said that we have to prove that no odd number can be perfect.
▪ I have no idea why it is always an odd number.
▪ Three arrangements with eight fences; five with ten fences ... odd numbers ... Was there a pattern?
▪ You need to have an odd number of colours, including the background.
premium rate number/line/service
▪ Because of the high cost of providing and gathering this information, Climbline would not exist were it not a premium rate service.
▪ Choice has not been considered in premium rate services.
▪ That is certainly true in the context of telecommunications and, more specifically, in premium rate services.
public enemy number one
▪ Rats have been branded public enemy No. 1 in Bangladesh.
▪ She had done nothing wrong, yet between them Rourke and Rebecca were making her feel like public enemy number one.
▪ Taylor has turned into public enemy number one.
public enemy number one
▪ She had done nothing wrong, yet between them Rourke and Rebecca were making her feel like public enemy number one.
▪ Taylor has turned into public enemy number one.
sb's opposite number
shoot to number one/to the top of the charts etc
there is safety in numbers
total number/amount/cost etc
▪ Additional disk space is a dollar or two per megabyte per month, depending on total amount.
▪ Microcell bid only in southern Ontario for a total cost of $ 19.2-million.
▪ Multiply the number of widths by the number of pattern repeats per drop to give the total number of pattern repeats required.
▪ The total amount of contributions and tax paid by each employee is entered on the P35.
▪ The total cost has been several million pounds more than budgeted.
▪ The total number of jobless rose to 615, 830 from 609, 670.
▪ The total number of registered voters was 1,732,000 aged 16 and over.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ "The show's not very good." "We can leave after this number if you want."
▪ A large number of reporters had gathered outside the house.
▪ All the doors on this side of the street have odd numbers.
▪ An enormous number of people wrote to complain about last night's show.
▪ Ann's phone number is 555-3234.
▪ By next year, the number of homes with either cable or satellite television is expected to be just over 10 million.
▪ Cast members performed the new dance number.
▪ Double check the account number to make sure it's right.
▪ Each player has a number on the back of their shirt.
▪ I live at number 12 Liverpool Road.
▪ May I please have your Social Security number?
▪ Nell Carter also appeared and performed a couple of upbeat numbers.
▪ Pick a number between one and ten.
▪ Raffle ticket number 241 wins the dinner for two at La Fiorentina.
▪ Take a look at question number three.
▪ The number of cars on the roads increased by 22% last year.
▪ The number of working days lost through strikes has continued to rise.
▪ The game works best with an even number of children.
▪ The regulations limit the number of students in each class.
▪ There have been several cases of tuberculosis, and the number is rising.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ By the end of last month, the number had increased to 41. 2 percent.
▪ DeBuono attributes the higher number of cases in Monroe County to better hospital reporting.
▪ He mentioned the number eight or nine times.
▪ However, the grammar must be able to correctly distinguish word hypotheses or the number of paths will grow exponentially.
▪ It is directly responsible for 35,000 deaths from lung cancer and twice this number from other diseases every year.
▪ The number of police officers has increased enormously during the past 10 years.
▪ The rain had stopped but the mosquitoes were out in alarming numbers and there was no jeep to ride in.
▪ The result was a large number of takeovers and mergers.
II.verbCOLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
about
▪ By 1907 it had its own herdbook and numbered about 35,000.
▪ The attempt at adding-machine accuracy shows how serious the priests were about numbering the new saints bound for heaven.
▪ At the rally, numbering about 1,500 as Scargill predicted, I eavesdrop unashamedly.
▪ The whole community with their servants numbered about thirty.
▪ The music-loving elector had immediately installed a substantial orchestra, which by 1777 numbered about 45 players.
around
▪ A count of women and children at copper mines in 1787 suggests that then women workers may have numbered around 1,500.
▪ We pass our phone numbers around for various league-ball possibilities.
▪ Nevertheless the future of the red kite looks secure, numbering around forty eight pairs in recent years.
▪ Today its workforce numbers around 100.
▪ The Karavas, whose traditional occupation was fishing, numbered around ten percent of the Sinhalese population.
▪ The vast army numbered around 100,000 cavalry and 25,000 musketeers as well as divisions of war elephants and camel-artillery.
consecutively
▪ Each pad has an identifying number, and each check is numbered consecutively.
▪ Except in the shortest of particulars of claim, allegations should be divided into paragraphs and numbered consecutively.
nearly
▪ All told, the assault force and its reserves probably numbered nearly 15, 000 men.
now
▪ His days are now numbered as Chancellor, but who the Hell cares about Norman Lamont?
▪ Republicans now number 3 million and Democrats 3. 5 million.
▪ Over 23,000 new members joined thanks to the 1990 campaign and membership currently stands at 190,000, with Governors now numbering 29,676.
▪ It still seems like a recession to the unemployed workers, now numbering 5 percent of the workforce.
▪ The student body now numbers some 500, of which about seventy per cent come from the department of Ayacucho.
only
▪ By 1640, 100,000 planters had arrived in Ireland when the native population numbered only one million inhabitants.
▪ But after the hoopla, the exposition slumped, admissions at first numbering only fifteen or twenty thousand per day.
▪ These pioneer clinics, which numbered only sixteen even by 1930, had treated only 21,000 women by that time.
■ NOUN
army
▪ The vast army numbered around 100,000 cavalry and 25,000 musketeers as well as divisions of war elephants and camel-artillery.
▪ Later it was recorded that the castellan of Amboise's army numbered 200 knights and 1,000 footsoldiers.
days
▪ After you have numbered the days, you tear off the page.
group
▪ Most meat distributions involve a local group numbering between fifty and one hundred individuals.
▪ This group numbers 167. 5 million, of whom half are adolescents.
▪ The caretaking group numbered nine men.
man
▪ A very substantial force, perhaps numbering 15,000 men, assembled at Portsmouth in July 1346.
▪ The caretaking group numbered nine men.
million
▪ They numbered about a million people.
▪ This group numbers 167. 5 million, of whom half are adolescents.
▪ Individual recipients numbered 14. 2 million, including 9 million children.
▪ Republicans now number 3 million and Democrats 3. 5 million.
page
▪ Similarly, each page is uniquely numbered.
▪ One of the fastest ways to list is simply to drop your points on the page, numbering as you go.
▪ Select option 6 for page numbering in the bottom center of every page.
▪ And leafing through the book, I read the page numbers out loud, too.
▪ This is another annoying trend among some of the slicker glossies: leaving page numbers out whenever they feel like it.
▪ The page numbering will now begin with this page, the first page of actual text. 4.
phone
▪ We pass our phone numbers around for various league-ball possibilities.
▪ They include: How new local phone numbers would be created.
population
▪ By 1640, 100,000 planters had arrived in Ireland when the native population numbered only one million inhabitants.
security
▪ The firm began making Social Security numbers available through its P-Trak service last year, something competing firms have done for years.
telephone
▪ On one he found four telephone numbers with out-of-state area codes.
▪ There are spaces for emergency telephone numbers, parents' and neighbors' numbers and additional numbers.
thousands
▪ Outside the breeding season they form flocks, sometimes numbering thousands.
▪ Rules numbered in the thousands, requiring a large investment in experts' time, rule development, and rule maintenance.
▪ But since those men were numbered in thousands - with every opportunity in the world for rekindling those ugly sparks of revolution.
▪ Their flocks numbered in the thousands, earning them the nickname of migrating millionaires'.
▪ The private Acts of Parliament affecting local authorities were numbered in thousands.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
X number of people/things
a fair size/amount/number/bit/distance etc
▪ But a fair number of them went on to greater things.
▪ It prefers a fair amount of nutritious detritus.
▪ Scientists must proceed cautiously, moving ahead only with the assent of a fair number of their colleagues.
▪ Thanks to the inherently leaky nature of the water industry, there is already a fair amount of information to go on.
▪ That involved a fair amount of travel.
▪ There was a fair amount going on.
▪ They'd have a fair bit of tidying up to do before they left.
▪ You may also be involved in a fair amount of travel.
a goodish distance/number etc
a goodly number/sum/amount etc
▪ It seems fair to assume that she will attract the attention of a goodly number of our countrymen.
▪ Small Dave had spent a goodly amount of time impressing upon him the importance of finding a camel.
▪ The Thatcher Years have been splendid ones for a goodly number of golf members throughout this Royal and Ancient land of ours.
back issue/copy/number
▪ A little later Bacon appeared, walked up to their table and asked Minton why he did not look after his back numbers.
▪ Anyway, I thought you ought to know you have your reader back, and I enclose £4 for 4 back issues.
▪ Lifelong readers who kept the back issues piled in their attics renewed their subscriptions like clockwork at the five-year rate.
▪ Mackey had seen handbooks on guerrilla tactics, back issues of a racist magazine Guy published.
▪ My parents collected all their copies of Wimpey News and we have back numbers going back to the 1940s.
▪ Six issues cost $ 39, and new and back issues are available.
contact number/address/details
▪ Books can be entered and modified as can contact details.
▪ Frequently there is no contact number, so even if we like the music, we can't do much about it.
▪ Gave the name of his solicitors in London as his contact address.
▪ The video box illustration carries various official body contact addresses on the back for further information on the river.
▪ These advertisements generally use a Box number at the publication as the contact address and may be placed by the client.
▪ These provide the contact details and an indication of charges for more than 20 online brokers.
▪ This time we have remembered to put our contact numbers below.
look out for number one
▪ We manoeuvre in the world constantly looking out for Number One.
magic number/word
▪ The Maharishi's followers say that 7000 is a magic number.
▪ Al knew at once that he had heard A very secret magic word.
▪ Bacon could argue that Antichrist would invoke stellar influences and magic words having the power to produce physical effects.
▪ Charles would capture one of the boys and only release him if he said the magic word.
▪ For Geteles and others, potential was the magic word, the answer to all the talk about standards.
▪ If that magic number is reached, the deal becomes an international treaty.
▪ Once a patient has his magic number, does it have any effect?
▪ The magic words had been uttered.
▪ This is done by listening to a tape and writing on your application form a magic number.
number one/two/three etc seed
odd number
▪ An odd number of classes provides a neutral mid-point.
▪ An individual scorer might be useful where an odd number of people are concerned.
▪ Clearly the northern fleet is being reinforced from the southern; but why the odd numbers?
▪ Erect verticals upon the odd numbers, 1, 3, 5, 7, etc.
▪ He said that we have to prove that no odd number can be perfect.
▪ I have no idea why it is always an odd number.
▪ Three arrangements with eight fences; five with ten fences ... odd numbers ... Was there a pattern?
▪ You need to have an odd number of colours, including the background.
premium rate number/line/service
▪ Because of the high cost of providing and gathering this information, Climbline would not exist were it not a premium rate service.
▪ Choice has not been considered in premium rate services.
▪ That is certainly true in the context of telecommunications and, more specifically, in premium rate services.
public enemy number one
▪ Rats have been branded public enemy No. 1 in Bangladesh.
▪ She had done nothing wrong, yet between them Rourke and Rebecca were making her feel like public enemy number one.
▪ Taylor has turned into public enemy number one.
public enemy number one
▪ She had done nothing wrong, yet between them Rourke and Rebecca were making her feel like public enemy number one.
▪ Taylor has turned into public enemy number one.
sb's opposite number
sb's/sth's days are numbered
▪ I think Harry's days as a bachelor are numbered.
▪ But if the church has its way, the garden's days are numbered.
▪ He knows his days are numbered.
▪ If Gordon Gekko is still around, his days are numbered.
▪ My image flickers and your days are numbered.
▪ Whatever the protests, it seems that Hospital's days are numbered.
there is safety in numbers
total number/amount/cost etc
▪ Additional disk space is a dollar or two per megabyte per month, depending on total amount.
▪ Microcell bid only in southern Ontario for a total cost of $ 19.2-million.
▪ Multiply the number of widths by the number of pattern repeats per drop to give the total number of pattern repeats required.
▪ The total amount of contributions and tax paid by each employee is entered on the P35.
▪ The total cost has been several million pounds more than budgeted.
▪ The total number of jobless rose to 615, 830 from 609, 670.
▪ The total number of registered voters was 1,732,000 aged 16 and over.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Fifteen years ago, Kenya's elephant population numbered 65,000.
▪ If you don't number your answers, how will I know which questions they refer to?
▪ In the capital, unemployed workers now number 12% of the workforce.
▪ Our student body numbered 400 last year.
▪ The crowd of students numbered at least 2000.
▪ The program will automatically number the pages of your reports.
▪ The streets in the Bronx are numbered.
▪ This function numbers all the pages in a document.
▪ We finished numbering the seats just as the audience began to arrive.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ It still seems like a recession to the unemployed workers, now numbering 5 percent of the workforce.
▪ Outside the breeding season they form flocks, sometimes numbering thousands.
▪ Republicans now number 3 million and Democrats 3. 5 million.
▪ The first batch of railcoaches took fleet numbers 200-224, and a second was delivered in 1935 numbered 264-283.
▪ The street door was locked so I pressed the button numbered 11 on the squawk box built into the porch.
▪ We will use squares numbered 2 to 41 on the width and squares 2 to 38 high, or multiples of this.