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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
accomplish
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a talented/accomplished actor
▪ Jacobsen was one of the most accomplished actors of his generation.
achieve/accomplish an objective (also attain an objectiveformal)
▪ The policy should help us achieve our objective of reducing paper waste.
perform/accomplish/achieve a feat
▪ the woman who performed the feat of sailing around the world alone
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
easily
▪ Tasks usually easily accomplished become major dilemmas.
▪ This is not easily accomplished, by any means.
▪ Since the main responsibilities of a manager are to manage, this is not easily accomplished from afar.
most
▪ He was immediately recognised as one of the most accomplished pianists of our time.
▪ What is good for the most accomplished students should be good for all students.
▪ It proved, in fact, one of the most accomplished films at the festival, with a superb performance from Bale.
much
▪ Indeed very few presidents in the last half century have accomplished much in the way of substantial policy change.
■ NOUN
feat
▪ Now you reset the glasses and invite others to accomplish your feat.
▪ How do babies accomplish such a remarkable feat?
▪ Ian Wilmut, of the Roslin Institute, near Edinburgh, has already accomplished this feat in his second cloned sheep.
▪ The lucky boy accomplished the feat, and caught the evil, greedy king in a curse at the same time.
▪ How can they accomplish this feat?
▪ He collected the $ 25, 000 prize Raymond Orteig had put up for anyone who could accomplish the astounding feat.
▪ Athletes, it seems, also appropriate this knowing to accomplish extraordinary feats.
goal
▪ Mr Sharpe has the right idea that prohibition fails to accomplish its goals.
▪ We will look at the means of accomplishing this goal in the final chapter of this book, Chapter 9.
▪ Over-permissive parents attempt always to use reason instead of overt authority to accomplish their goals.
▪ Transfer stations like the one the county owns in Carlsbad will be key to accomplishing that goal, they said.
▪ To accomplish that goal, the company intends to focus on global investments in exploration, pipeline and power projects.
▪ Since then, they have struggled to find other ways to accomplish the same goal.
▪ Few of his previous 11 were given much chance of accomplishing the goal.
▪ Now, that public endorsement is tempered by deep skepticism that the government and the army can accomplish their goals.
mission
▪ Two new fortresses were built far from Ulthuan to enable these long range missions to be accomplished.
▪ Holbrooke returns to his Wall Street investment banking job with mission accomplished.
▪ There was no way out. Mission half accomplished, we went for an evening walk.
▪ By this stage, the groundwork necessary for manned missions has been accomplished.
▪ His mission accomplished, Pierpont turned the plane back to Liuzhou.
objective
▪ The 1974 legislation would appear to have accomplished this objective.
▪ Would another strategy accomplish the same objective at lower costs?
▪ Perhaps her plan had accomplished its objective after all.
▪ We do not agree, however, that the trimester approach is necessary to accomplish this objective.
▪ We can see that managers do indeed use power strategies to accomplish their objectives, and they can clearly articulate them.
▪ A successful system for evaluating work-inhibited students must accomplish two major objectives.
▪ Anti-aircraft fire was intense but largely ineffectual, and we quickly accomplished our objectives.
purpose
▪ But not all pretended deeds have to fall short of their normal function in order to accomplish their communicative purpose.
▪ Teams must agree on how they will work together to accomplish their purpose and goals.
▪ This new structure must accomplish two special purposes.
▪ We could get up now and leave if we were merely here to accomplish the previously announced purpose of our visit.
task
▪ The first two tasks have been accomplished.
▪ Was the task possible to accomplish?
▪ Cross off tasks you have accomplished and take satisfaction from doing so.
▪ Will I reach the other side gasping with exhilaration at the effort, the risk, the task successfully accomplished?
thing
▪ The passage, however, included a bit about small men being unable to accomplish great things.
▪ They accomplished great things in their time, but somewhere along the line they got away from us.
▪ I have a drive to accomplish things and make money, be with people.
▪ Then ask yourself: What did I know how to do that helped me accomplish those things?
▪ I can do what she wants to do and have the gratification of helping her accomplish things.
▪ If you allot your time, you can accomplish fantastic things.
▪ How are parents supposed to accomplish these things?
▪ It is true that a few rare geniuses accomplish great things with an effortlessness that is amazing.
things
▪ The passage, however, included a bit about small men being unable to accomplish great things.
▪ They accomplished great things in their time, but somewhere along the line they got away from us.
▪ I have a drive to accomplish things and make money, be with people.
▪ Then ask yourself: What did I know how to do that helped me accomplish those things?
▪ I can do what she wants to do and have the gratification of helping her accomplish things.
▪ If you allot your time, you can accomplish fantastic things.
▪ How are parents supposed to accomplish these things?
▪ It is true that a few rare geniuses accomplish great things with an effortlessness that is amazing.
ways
▪ There are two different ways of accomplishing this objective.
▪ Since then, they have struggled to find other ways to accomplish the same goal.
▪ If having more discretionary money would help you feel more in control, there are many ways to accomplish that.
▪ The various ways to accomplish this are the techniques and arts of therapy.
▪ But it remained split three ways on how to accomplish that goal.
▪ When they take that habit back to their own office, they often dream up better ways to accomplish their goals.
work
▪ This was the gift through which the Messiah had accomplished his work.
▪ If that can be accomplished with work rules the employees prefer, so much the better.
▪ Instead the curator is a collaborator, often engaging with the artist to accomplish the work.
▪ Under these conditions the subjects were able to accomplish more work than usual.
■ VERB
hope
▪ For myself, I hope to accomplish it without too much pain, and with present-day drug developments this seems probable.
▪ She will have to focus on basketball, become single-minded about the season if she hopes to accomplish anything.
▪ It was hoped to accomplish all this within a week.
▪ What did Khrushchev hope to accomplish?
▪ What led you to undertake the reinstallation, and what do you hope to accomplish?
▪ What do I possibly hope to accomplish?
try
▪ I was trying to accomplish within my own small person what the malais hadn't been able to do to a nation.
▪ Part of what Wilson will try to accomplish in his last three years already has been revealed.
▪ The research study also underscores the importance of playing it straight when trying to get things accomplished.
▪ All our lives we try to accomplish something, to do some-thing.
▪ Because what we are trying to accomplish is complex, and not easily attained.
▪ Everyone knows what I was trying to accomplish.
▪ Some city residents who oppose annexation are concentrating on trying to accomplish positive alternatives.
want
▪ Alice Caldwell obviously had not clarified in her own mind what she wanted her memo to accomplish.
▪ Know what you want to accomplish before you reach the bargaining table.&038;.
▪ His most consistent phrase was that he wants to accomplish in Washington what the governors have done in their states.
▪ But what I want them to accomplish is responsibility for them-selves and also a respect for others.
▪ And he has things he wants to accomplish above and beyond another Super Bowl.
▪ Every time I wanted to accomplish anything in my life, some contrary force was directed against me and made it fail.
▪ They have to be committed to what management wants them to accomplish.
▪ And there are things I want to accomplish, sure.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
an accomplished fact
▪ At first, the Soviets refused to accept Lithuania's secession as an accomplished fact.
mission accomplished
▪ His mission accomplished, Pierpont turned the plane back to Liuzhou.
▪ Holbrooke returns to his Wall Street investment banking job with mission accomplished.
▪ Napier fired the buildings and, his mission accomplished, withdrew to the coast.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Amy's very proud of what she's accomplished.
▪ She found the job frustrating, and felt she wasn't accomplishing anything there.
▪ What exactly do you hope to accomplish this year?
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ As you accomplish tasks, cross them off your list.
▪ At any rate, it had been accomplished.
▪ But not all pretended deeds have to fall short of their normal function in order to accomplish their communicative purpose.
▪ Easy enough to say, but sometimes hard to accomplish!
▪ How can so much movement in the wrong direction be accomplished in one year?
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Accomplish

Accomplish \Ac*com"plish\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Accomplished, p. pr. & vb. n. Accomplishing.] [OE. acomplissen, OF. accomplir, F. accomplir; L. ad + complere to fill up, complete. See Complete, Finish.]

  1. To complete, as time or distance.

    That He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
    --Dan. ix.

  2. He had accomplished half a league or more.
    --Prescott.

    2. To bring to an issue of full success; to effect; to perform; to execute fully; to fulfill; as, to accomplish a design, an object, a promise.

    This that is written must yet be accomplished in me.
    --Luke xxii. 37.

  3. To equip or furnish thoroughly; hence, to complete in acquirements; to render accomplished; to polish.

    The armorers accomplishing the knights.
    --Shak.

    It [the moon] is fully accomplished for all those ends to which Providence did appoint it.
    --Wilkins.

    These qualities . . . go to accomplish a perfect woman.
    --Cowden Clarke.

  4. To gain; to obtain. [Obs.]
    --Shak.

    Syn: To do; perform; fulfill; realize; effect; effectuate; complete; consummate; execute; achieve; perfect; equip; furnish.

    Usage: To Accomplish, Effect, Execute, Achieve, Perform. These words agree in the general idea of carrying out to some end proposed. To accomplish (to fill up to the measure of the intention) generally implies perseverance and skill; as, to accomplish a plan proposed by one's self, an object, a design, an undertaking. ``Thou shalt accomplish my desire.''
    --1 Kings v. 9.

    He . . . expressed his desire to see a union accomplished between England and Scotland.
    --Macaulay. [1913 Webster] To effect (to work out) is much like accomplish. It usually implies some degree of difficulty contended with; as, he effected or accomplished what he intended, his purpose, but little. ``What he decreed, he effected.''
    --Milton.

    To work in close design by fraud or guile What force effected not.
    --Milton. [1913 Webster] To execute (to follow out to the end, to carry out, or into effect) implies a set mode of operation; as, to execute the laws or the orders of another; to execute a work, a purpose, design, plan, project. To perform is much like to do, though less generally applied. It conveys a notion of protracted and methodical effort; as, to perform a mission, a part, a task, a work. ``Thou canst best perform that office.''
    --Milton.

    The Saints, like stars, around his seat Perform their courses still.
    --Keble. [1913 Webster] To achieve (to come to the end or arrive at one's purpose) usually implies some enterprise or undertaking of importance, difficulty, and excellence.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
accomplish

late 14c., from Old French acompliss-, present participle stem of acomplir "to fulfill, fill up, complete" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *accomplere, from Latin ad- "to" (see ad-) + complere "fill up" (see complete (adj.)). Related: Accomplished; accomplishing.

Wiktionary
accomplish

vb. 1 (context transitive English) To finish successfully. 2 (context transitive English) To complete, as time or distance. 3 (context transitive English) To bring to an issue of full success; to effect; to perform; to execute fully; to fulfill; as, to '''accomplish''' a design, an object, a promise. 4 (context transitive archaic English) To equip or furnish thoroughly; hence, to complete in acquirements; to render accomplished; to polish. 5 (context transitive obsolete English) To gain; to obtain

WordNet
accomplish
  1. v. put in effect; "carry out a task"; "execute the decision of the people"; "He actioned the operation" [syn: carry through, execute, carry out, action, fulfill, fulfil]

  2. to gain with effort; "she achieved her goal despite setbacks" [syn: achieve, attain, reach]

Usage examples of "accomplish".

Their example was universally imitated by their principal subjects, who were not afraid of declaring to the world that they had spirit to conceive, and wealth to accomplish, the noblest undertakings.

To accomplish these salutary ends, the constant residence of an Imperial governor, supported by a numerous army, was indispensably requisite.

Fritigern was doubtful whether he could accomplish the conclusion of the treaty, unless he found himself supported by the presence and terrors of an Imperial army.

It was naturally supposed, that the pious and humble monks, who had renounced the world to accomplish the work of their salvation, were the best qualified for the spiritual government of the Christians.

To accomplish that salutary end, Recared convened an assembly of the Arian clergy and nobles, declared himself a Catholic, and exhorted them to imitate the example of their prince.

To accomplish this design, he studied to protect his industrious subjects, and to moderate the violence, without enervating the valor, of his soldiers, who were maintained for the public defence.

The ample jurisdiction required by the farmers of the revenue to accomplish their engagements might be placed in an odious light, as if they had purchased from the emperor the lives and fortunes of their fellow-citizens.

As soon as they were relieved by the absence of the plebeian multitude, they encouraged each other, by interviews and messages, to accomplish their vow, and hasten their departure.

By planning openly and frequently, we will achieve more in a few months than we have been able to accomplish in decades.

A strict taskmaster, he would make certain the slaves behaved for her, so Norma could accomplish her goals on time.

The thinking machines had been eradicated here, and the humans had caused so much damage to accomplish it that even they could no longer live on their own ancestral home planet.

But only Ginaz warriors could be expected to accomplish missions such as these.

And you alone shall share it with me, keeping me strong, and helping me accomplish what I must.

He knew in his heart, though, that what he was about to do would accomplish far more.

None of her predecessors on Rossak had ever been able to accomplish anything approaching this.