noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a phone conversation
▪ Neither man denies the phone conversation took place.
a rational conversation/discussion
▪ Let's all calm down and have a rational discussion.
a subject of conversation
▪ She searched for a new subject of conversation.
a telephone conversation
▪ We had a long telephone conversation.
a topic of conversation
▪ Her favourite topic of conversation is herself.
animated discussion/conversation
▪ The performance was followed by an animated discussion.
conversation drifted
▪ The conversation drifted from one topic to another.
conversation piece
engage sb in conversation (=start talking to them)
engrossed in conversation with
▪ Who’s that guy Ally’s been engrossed in conversation with all night?
fell into conversation
▪ I fell into conversation with some guys from New York.
in earnest conversation
▪ Matthews was in earnest conversation with a young girl.
lighten the atmosphere/mood/conversation
▪ Nora didn’t respond to my attempts to lighten the conversation.
polite remarks/conversation/interest etc
▪ While they ate, they made polite conversation about the weather.
▪ Jan expressed polite interest in Edward’s stamp collection.
steer the conversation
▪ Helen tried to steer the conversation away from herself.
stilted conversation
▪ a stilted conversation
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
casual
▪ He knew instinctively that this was no casual conversation and that for Cora-Beth's sake he must be honest.
▪ People in his office view him with respect as some one who is self-contained and does not choose to join in casual conversation.
▪ But the compensations for being unable to read or carry on a casual conversation are overwhelming.
▪ Serious issues have been made into casual conversation.
▪ I'd forgotten how funny it is; from now on I shall be using it in casual conversation more often.
▪ It was into this quiet atmosphere of cigarette smoke and casual conversation that the sudden crackle of Foster's radio transmission sounded.
deep
▪ Anthea and the professor had been deep in conversation with an eager group of ladies from Leicester, leaving Meryl momentarily alone.
▪ The Count was deep in conversation with the mayor, who was staring down at his feet.
▪ Clarence and the mayor were still deep in conversation.
▪ Ranulf watched Corbett, the lay brother acting as interpreter, in deep conversation with the tavern-keeper.
▪ I found him in his trench enjoying a mug of tea and in deep conversation with a Commando friend of his.
▪ Two colleagues are deep in conversation.
long
▪ Herscovici is also thinking of writing a book based on his long conversations with Georgette Magritte.
▪ But after a few minutes the door finally opened, and a long conversation ensued.
▪ Throughout our long conversation his head is constantly in motion, eyes darting to and fro consciously avoiding my gaze.
▪ A long conspiratorial conversation ensues, punctuated by jokes and laughter.
▪ It was obviously going to be a long conversation.
▪ Last night, I had another long conversation with Maryvonne.
▪ They looked as if they had already had a long and intimate conversation together.
▪ Recently I had a long conversation with the credit manager of a department store in Grand Rapids.
normal
▪ How can human beings in normal conversation makes sense of 5,000 words an hour of confusing, semi-organized information?
▪ No one was talking because the noise of the wind and waves made normal conversation impossible.
▪ Explanations which are produced in normal conversation are likely to have a sharing function.
▪ Casper says they had a perfectly normal conversation.
▪ In the normal course of conversation I wouldn't talk about politics, I'd talk more about shagging.
▪ Her memory is extremely poor and she can not sustain a normal conversation.
▪ Indeed normal conversation in their house was of such pitch and volume that a scream would hardly have been heard.
▪ If you find that you can not hold a normal conversation after exercising, then you are overdoing it. 4.
polite
▪ This is not the kind of guy who makes polite conversation.
▪ Instead, you exchange polite business conversation, neither of you mentioning your written work.
▪ I decided that I had not come all this way only to indulge in polite conversation.
▪ I wanted live action, not polite conversation and chicken cordon bleu.
▪ He spent a few minutes making polite, nondescript conversation, then he proceeded to devote the remainder of the meal to Alyssia.
▪ Even so, there was not much that could be said, other than polite conversation.
▪ All she'd done was to make a bit of polite conversation!
▪ He would acknowledge the source - he was not a plagiarist - but his polite conversation was, he knew, poor.
private
▪ May I ask the House not to indulge in private conversations.
▪ They moved away to have a more private conversation, from which I gathered problems existed.
▪ The telephone was just as it should be, with no bugging device to turn his private conversations into public knowledge.
▪ And there were endless meetings and private conversations and arcane machinations, many never recorded.
▪ The hubbub was so intense that it would be impossible to hold any private conversation.
▪ Clinton went on to quote it again during the State of the Union and in other public remarks or private conversations.
▪ I have had several private conversations with Steve about this.
■ NOUN
phone
▪ Buckingham Palace holds a secret tape of phone conversations by Diana.
▪ Records of several cellular phone conversations between Ramsey and other individuals confirmed this, Wasserman said.
▪ Fulton recorded a phone conversation with his handler earlier this year.
▪ In a phone conversation with Jackson after the article appeared, Gingrich dissociated himself from Watts' remark, according to Jackson.
▪ Finally Audio notepad will enable the user to recording their phone conversation at the click of a button.
▪ Only then did I acknowledge that she had said something like this in several of our phone conversations.
▪ He recalled another phone conversation with Sandy three weeks earlier.
▪ It is illegal to intentionally intercept phone conversations or knowingly distribute their contents.
telephone
▪ Here a telephone conversation will usually have to suffice.
▪ My sister, my father has told me in a telephone conversation, is returning to the West Coast.
▪ The 1953 Conference Further to our recent telephone conversation I now enclose the 1953 Conference photograph.
▪ He said Nathanson turned him down in a July 1991 telephone conversation and said she would be interested in representing his wife.
▪ My first question is a result of a telephone conversation with Graham Bowie, chief executive of Lothian region.
▪ Our telephone conversations were eavesdropped, letters were posted unsealed and read by censors before going out into the world.
▪ Rain interrupted her telephone conversation to ask to see it.
▪ Our telephone conversations cement our client relationships. 6.
■ VERB
carry
▪ All of us have our underworld and nether world creatures with whom we carry on some inner conversation.
▪ She remembered giving secret names to things, carrying on conversations with chairs and trees.
▪ She sipped the wine, picked at the first course and let James Hamilton carry the conversation.
▪ He would talk to him in his imagination, carrying on whole conversations about baseball and school and girls.
▪ Midge and Angela, close together in the back, were carrying on their own conversation.
▪ Have you ever carried on a conversation with some one who has been smoking and drinking?
▪ Others achieved considerable proficiency and could carry on extended conversations.
continue
▪ When the pubs opened at five-thirty they went up the road to the Prince Albert and continued their conversation.
▪ So eventually they went downstairs to the parlor and continued the conversation there.
▪ They had continued their conversation after dinner, sitting in the comfortable bar.
▪ Hope and I continued our conversation a few weeks later, this time at his terraced house in Stoke Newington.
▪ I was thrilled at the prospect of continuing the conversation.
▪ The threat of the lawsuit continues to drive the conversation.
end
▪ Carlson didn't feel that this was the best way to end a conversation.
▪ They hurried to end any conversation and get on their way.
▪ Isabel turned, wanting to end the conversation.
▪ That ended our conversation, and a pall fell on our relationship after that.
▪ William No, stop-we can't end the conversation there.
engage
▪ In the office, some girls have engaged the secretary in conversation.
▪ They do not engage in conversation, nor do their faces express a desire to.
▪ Fingers subconsciously searching out damage beneath the glossy surface, while he otherwise engages in conversation.
▪ I was in terror that he might try to engage me in conversation.
▪ He'd got engaged in a conversation with Morag and was taking his time, but who could blame him?
▪ Imagine that you could engage in a conversation with the political gladiator, contemporary or historical, who most fascinates you.
▪ For a moment or two Joan and Atkins were engaged in a separate conversation from the rest of the group.
▪ Through the all-night watches he engaged officers in conversation, asked them questions about world affairs.
hear
▪ I had only half heard the conversation because part of my mind was far away.
▪ I could hear muffled conversation in the background.
▪ Carl had heard half of the conversation.
▪ She says she usually gets so engrossed that she doesn't hear conversations anywhere near her.
▪ You can hear their conversation if you like.
▪ He spoke so that you could not avoid hearing his conversation.
▪ You need to hear the conversation in your mind.
hold
▪ She's getting better at speech now, and hold a conversation, but she doesn't understand some things.
▪ Wynns held a colorful conversation with Sierra Club representative Howard Strassner to see if they could find middle ground.
▪ In any case, she couldn't have held a conversation there.
▪ If you tried at all to hold a conversation with her, you found she was almost impossible to understand.
▪ He can recite the alphabet and hold an intelligent conversation.
▪ If you can not hold a conversation with some one without getting out of breath then you are going too fast.
▪ For the first time ever, he felt that he had held an adult conversation with his son.
▪ He just wouldn't hold a conversation with him.
keep
▪ So Renwick kept the conversation innocuous, nothing to stir up any more tension in Moore.
▪ I told him I thought it would be prudent for both of us to keep our conversation between ourselves.
▪ Newman had kept the conversation general, fending Evelyn off when she tried to bring it on a more personal basis.
▪ I asked Fontaine to keep our conversation completely confidential.
▪ Anything to keep the conversation simple and unthreatening.
▪ It's like two people trying to keep up a conversation.
▪ Cara kept up a one-sided conversation.
▪ Okay - we both want to keep the conversation in neutral.
listen
▪ Four Galks stood listening to the conversation.
▪ I was certain that all the writers were listening to my conversation and were amused by it.
▪ Molassi had listened to the conversation between the clever boy and the pretty lady.
▪ Day after day, skilled linguists don headsets and listen to the stolen conversations of foreign leaders in more than 100 languages.
▪ I can also listen to a conversation between mining engineers and understand ninety-five percent of it, even after all these years.
▪ I melted into the wall and listened to snatches of conversation.
▪ Also, listening to people's conversations can be very enlightening and suggestive of ideas.
▪ I was listening to a conversation that had been going on for generations.
overhear
▪ Some one could follow you home after overhearing your conversation.
▪ I think I must have overheard telephone conversations about Margarett getting drunk and late-night parties at Prides.
▪ Rostov wondered if the Manchu had overheard the conversation, but he gave no sign.
▪ Hansel overheard the conversation and prepared for the inevitable by filling his pockets with pebbles.
▪ I overheard his name in conversation.
▪ People overhear conversations, what people have bought, what money they have.
▪ The man claims he overheard cockpit conversation about mechanical problems, not paperwork.
record
▪ But a tape, on which she recorded a conversation she had with Maurice a few weeks before her death.
▪ They often record the conversation and claim the recording is proof the deal is legitimate.
▪ Harvard responded by installing tapes to record all telephone conversations.
▪ That yielded, among other things, 50 hours of recorded conversation with Ames.
▪ He'd recorded a telephone conversation - a call he'd taken at home.
▪ They can zero in on this big wall map and pick any phone they want, and record the conversation.
▪ Fulton recorded a phone conversation with his handler earlier this year.
▪ I had the oddest feeling that he wanted to record our conversation.
remember
▪ But is it really possible for researchers to remember details of conversations as they claim to do?
▪ Dan and his brothers remembered that conversation on the porch.
▪ Many researchers are surprised and delighted at their ability to remember conversations almost word for word.
▪ Truitte remembered the conversation as lasting about seven minutes, a quick, relatively cool severance of an eight-year relationship.
▪ I remember two conversations I had with him during that first day's play.
▪ Vaguely she remembered a conversation she and Susan had had on Christmas Eve.
▪ She remembered now the conversation she had had with Bella about the Lock.
▪ But then I remembered a conversation I had overheard her having with her sister-in-law.
start
▪ She wished she hadn't started the conversation.
▪ The only way to act over this is to start a conversation with that person.
▪ We start with safe conversation and straight faces.
▪ The guy was oddly fascinated with Primo and kept trying to start a conversation.
▪ After I got started and into the conversation I felt a lot more comfortable.
▪ He starts a conversation and ends up heaven knows where.
▪ They tried to start a conversation, but it wasn't easy to make themselves heard above the music and chatter.
▪ We were being very careful not to start a conversation with any feeling in it.
steer
▪ Whenever this happens, the onus is on you to control the call and steer the conversation to a successful conclusion.
▪ Gordon finally roused himself and tried to steer the conversation toward shallower waters.
▪ Charles consumed most of the Valpolicella and tried to steer the conversation away from anything to do with Marius Steen.
▪ Maybe he was just trying to steer the conversation away from Theresa.
▪ Over breakfast Rain would steer the conversation around to asking Tim what he was arguing about with Sabine Jourdain.
▪ Then we were supposed to steer the conversation to a safer topic.
▪ Tonight, however, she was keen to steer the conversation round to the subject of Hugh Puddephat.
strike
▪ He struck up a conversation, first asking his name.
▪ Demonstrators will attempt to surround the police, strike up conversations and present them with letters.
▪ I recalled he had struck up an intimate conversation with her in the lobby after breakfast.
▪ Others prefer to strike up a conversation with table mates.
▪ Besides, Anna had struck up a conversation with a young girl who'd been swimming in the pool.
▪ I was clueless, of course, but it was an opportunity to strike up an amusing conversation.
▪ However, on striking up a conversation, Chalk, a little the worse for drink, became talkative and boastful.
▪ I, of course, had no choice but to strike up a conversation with the girl who sat next to me.
tape
▪ Even then they will have no evidence - unless perhaps they tape all conversations with their dealers, for themselves.
▪ Later, Fornek reported on his efforts to question Gingrich about the taped conversation that was picked up on a police scanner.
▪ A bodyguard taped their conversations, escaped abroad, then leaked excerpts to the opposition.
▪ Two days later, the taped conversation was in the papers.
▪ It is not known who taped the conversation or how.
▪ John and Alice Martin said in a news conference Monday that they had taped the conversation and given the tape to McDermott.
▪ Jim McDermott, D-Wash., after he was implicated in the leaking of a taped telephone conversation, Rep.
▪ Taken together, the taped conversations reveal a president seemingly consumed with the details of illegal plots against his enemies.
try
▪ When he came back on deck she tried once more to make conversation.
▪ Gordon finally roused himself and tried to steer the conversation toward shallower waters.
▪ But I don't like going to posh functions, trying to make conversation with silly people who have nothing to say.
▪ Maybe he was just trying to steer the conversation away from Theresa.
▪ He stank, kept trying to make slurred conversation, then fell asleep with his head on my shoulder.
▪ The guy was oddly fascinated with Primo and kept trying to start a conversation.
▪ Fred had tried to relate the conversation to Louise and Riley as he had heard it.
▪ Is that what you do when some one tries to have a conversation with you.
turn
▪ The telephone was just as it should be, with no bugging device to turn his private conversations into public knowledge.
▪ I am upset that these pointless matters turn our conversations negative.
▪ I often turn a conversation around to my interests. 12.
▪ But turn the conversation to education and all bets are off.
▪ How was he going to turn the conversation round to the subject of poison?
▪ But he turned the conversation to the actual sum they had amassed.
▪ When the impetuous wealthy young man rushed up to him, he turned the conversation to the subject of money.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a snatch of conversation/music/song etc
bring the conversation around/round to sth
▪ With the rector, however, Arthur still can not bring the conversation around to the confession he once planned to make.
deep in thought/conversation etc
▪ Anthea and the professor had been deep in conversation with an eager group of ladies from Leicester, leaving Meryl momentarily alone.
▪ Clarence and the mayor were still deep in conversation.
▪ He was deep in conversation with the daughter of the house, a little girl of about twelve.
▪ The boy-him, he had to remind himself-looked deep in thought.
▪ The Count was deep in conversation with the mayor, who was staring down at his feet.
hold a conversation
▪ Aileen knew how to hold a conversation with twelve people and work hard at the same time.
▪ He just wouldn't hold a conversation with him.
▪ If you can not hold a conversation with some one without getting out of breath then you are going too fast.
▪ If you tried at all to hold a conversation with her, you found she was almost impossible to understand.
▪ In any case, she couldn't have held a conversation there.
▪ She's getting better at speech now, and hold a conversation, but she doesn't understand some things.
▪ This involved being around, or hanging around, just watching, recording, holding conversations.
▪ What she did increasingly was to hold conversations with ha father from which Cara was carefully and deliberately excluded.
strike up a friendship/relationship/conversation etc
▪ At that time Worsley, who is married to Moody, had also struck up a friendship with Nance.
▪ Besides, Anna had struck up a conversation with a young girl who'd been swimming in the pool.
▪ Demonstrators will attempt to surround the police, strike up conversations and present them with letters.
▪ Eleanor wrote back wittily and they struck up a friendship.
▪ He struck up a conversation, first asking his name.
▪ He and Matthew struck up a friendship - they had something in common; their attitude to life.
▪ Others prefer to strike up a conversation with table mates.
▪ Peggy and James strike up a friendship.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a telephone conversation
▪ Baker's resignation became a hot topic of conversation around the office.
▪ Every time his father's name came up in conversation, Tom became nervous.
▪ I was too shy to start a conversation with anyone there.
▪ Martha's a fascinating woman. I really enjoyed our conversation.
▪ The buzz of conversation filled the hall.
▪ The noise of the traffic made conversation almost impossible.
▪ They didn't realize someone was taping their telephone conversation.
▪ Vicky was having a long conversation with the bartender.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Clinton went on to quote it again during the State of the Union and in other public remarks or private conversations.
▪ Cooley presents a report of conversation with a former and a description of social conventions.
▪ Once my status is ascertained, the conversation quickly reverts to repartee.
▪ She did not wish to be having this conversation.
▪ She said Gloria was always trying to bust up their conversations.
▪ She shivered and watched Mrs Frizzell apprehensively as the buzz of conversation continued.
▪ The prototype of reciprocal discourse is face-to-face conversation.