adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
an emergency/urgent meeting
▪ The Council has called an emergency meeting to decide what action to take.
an urgent appeal
▪ The fire service has made an urgent appeal for more part-time firefighters.
an urgent appointment
▪ I can’t talk now – I have an urgent appointment to get to.
an urgent matter (=something that needs to be dealt with quickly)
an urgent need (=one that must be dealt with quickly)
▪ The most urgent need was for more teachers.
an urgent priority
▪ He sees these negotiations as an urgent priority.
an urgent request
▪ The family made an urgent request on television for help in finding their daughter.
an urgent whisper
▪ ‘Daddy!’ he said in an urgent whisper.
an urgent/important message
▪ an urgent message for the commanding officer
mark sth personal/fragile/urgent etc
▪ a document marked ‘confidential’
urgent action (=that needs to be done immediately)
▪ The Opposition called for urgent action to reduce unemployment.
urgent consideration
▪ I would be grateful if you would give this matter urgent consideration.
urgent repairs
▪ More than £40,000 is needed for urgent repairs to the tower.
urgent talks
▪ The Prime Minister called ministers together for urgent talks.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
increasingly
▪ Hence criteria to regulate and deploy their use become increasingly urgent.
▪ I have an increasingly urgent desire to move altogether elsewhere.
▪ Our Government's own advisers concur, and have been uttering increasingly urgent exhortations for change.
▪ The increasingly urgent political situation at home and abroad gave Marxism an appropriate context.
▪ But if Alabama's leaders have scarcely evolved, its problems are increasingly urgent.
▪ The need to tackle and solve the energy problem is becoming increasingly urgent.
less
▪ The Origins of School to Work Twenty years ago, the need to connect school and work was less urgent.
▪ However it was reported that member countries considered oil and energy problems less urgent than in the past.
▪ More recently, the demand for fast breeder reactors has seemed less urgent as worldwide supplies of uranium have become more plentiful.
more
▪ Seldom has the time been more appropriate or the need more urgent for a Bill of this kind.
▪ Once the team arrived, the signs quickly grew more urgent.
▪ Recognition that market provision is preferred makes the socialist project more urgent.
▪ Their looks were more urgent, even less forgiving.
▪ The need for cash has never been more urgent.
▪ Having nothing more urgent to do, I decided to seek out Tip Anderson.
▪ There was nothing more urgent than making him happy.
most
▪ The most urgent requirement was food.
▪ By far the most urgent is that of nuclear weapons.
▪ That's the biggest and most urgent task facing the restorers, a company from Hay on Wye.
▪ The Civil War had been fought in the main in the borderlands, precisely where the national question was at its most urgent.
▪ That morning seemed endless as we waited for an ambulance to transport the most urgent cases to the hospital.
▪ One of the most urgent measures is a blanket ban on all animal and bone meal in animal feed.
▪ The most urgent thing was to find him, and then to check on the extent of the damage.
so
▪ He wondered what it could be that was so urgent, and why he hadn't mentioned it yesterday over lunch.
▪ But so urgent was getting the planer working that this time Taylor yielded.
▪ But they won't have explained why it's so urgent.
▪ He wondered why it was so urgent for her to see him that night and told himself he would soon know.
▪ Besides, it is not quite so urgent as I thought.
▪ Why are you so urgent to get away from your husband's house and back to your father's?
very
▪ I think people live very urgent lives.
▪ Production for the sake of the goods produced is no longer very urgent.
▪ I've a very urgent message for you from Mr Norris.
▪ George, I just realized I must make a very urgent call to the States.
▪ The neighbours did get the work done eventually - when their son arrived - in answer to a very urgent summons from his parents.
▪ After mass he has a cantata sung, during which he sometimes dispatches very urgent business.
▪ But Eva had to keep them away from him, saying if it was very urgent they could leave a note.
■ NOUN
action
▪ The report was criticised for not calling for urgent action to reduce lead in petrol.
▪ At a special meeting with the minister, an all-party delegation from the capital's boroughs will press for urgent action.
▪ Earlier this year Aberconwy Community Health Council called for urgent action to tackle the situation.
▪ Change tack immediately and take urgent action to get some talented protégés into your fast lane.
▪ But the law-abiding people of Dundalk agree urgent action needs to be taken.
▪ After 10 years nothing had happened, so in 1968 the Institute of Trademarks Agents called for urgent action.
▪ Occasionally, severe shocks will rock the system and urgent action will be needed.
▪ Also alleging rape and torture, Amnesty urged the government to take urgent action against the security forces.
appeal
▪ The urgent appeal won the hearts and minds of all who love and know Snowdon, and the response has been incredible.
▪ Mrs Earley's grand-daughter Mandy made an urgent appeal to council housing officers.
▪ Two sawn-off shotguns were found nearby, and detectives are making an urgent appeal for information.
attention
▪ Joint accounts and shared monies need urgent attention.
▪ The First Lady had an upcoming swing through four cities that required my urgent attention.
▪ These measurements, which will show trends in energy use, identify areas needing urgent attention.
▪ Please would you give this matter your urgent attention.
▪ It's the most obvious sign of the serious defects that need urgent attention.
▪ Will the Minister pay more urgent attention to the problem?
▪ I find they continually jam - ludicrous on the garment of this price and an area needing urgent attention by the manufacturers.
▪ Both these studies highlight issues that needed urgent attention from policy and practice.
business
▪ You go and tell the Mamur Zapt that there is urgent business at the river.
▪ Very urgent business which he'd been putting off.
▪ Officials in their variety of blue uniforms hurried to and fro on urgent business.
▪ This was the urgent business she'd spoken of to Silvia.
▪ He must have some urgent business with the monks to make this cold, lonely journey.
▪ But, desperately uncertain about my future employment, I was very soon making it my urgent business to find out.
▪ After mass he has a cantata sung, during which he sometimes dispatches very urgent business.
call
▪ I was going to an urgent call - certainly not spying.
▪ George, I just realized I must make a very urgent call to the States.
▪ One even refused to respond to an urgent call from a nurse two days before Mrs Craig died.
▪ Since the urgent call to his small London house just after dawn the previous day, he had not stopped working.
case
▪ An initial sum of £2m will be put into the more urgent cases, he said, with more to follow.
▪ When I made him more comfortable, I went across to the other hall to attend to an urgent case.
▪ The hospital is now insisting that hi-tec scans will be available in all urgent cases.
▪ Local people are left waiting while less urgent cases from outside the district are treated because they bring money in with them.
▪ That morning seemed endless as we waited for an ambulance to transport the most urgent cases to the hospital.
▪ Had he decided not to come after all or was he out on an urgent case?
▪ And health watchdogs think the money could be better spent on more urgent cases.
consideration
▪ I know that my right hon. and learned Friend the Solicitor-General is giving urgent consideration to the matter.
demand
▪ Are these sums too little or too much, in the face of other urgent demands for the money?
desire
▪ I have an increasingly urgent desire to move altogether elsewhere.
▪ Years of repression now fuel an urgent desire for independence.
matter
▪ The committee made no comment but as far as can be ascertained, no action was taken; more urgent matters required attention.
▪ For the moment, there are more urgent matters to be put in hand.
▪ The minister gets waylaid by members of the congregation who want to discuss urgent matters or exchange pleasantries.
▪ Everyone looked at everyone else and thought of urgent matters to attend to elsewhere.
▪ The Leader of the House should make time next week for this urgent matter to be discussed.
measure
▪ But he has been right in saying that urgent measures have been put off for too long.
▪ One of the most urgent measures is a blanket ban on all animal and bone meal in animal feed.
meeting
▪ He had asked for an urgent meeting with Rakovsky to discuss the report and get instructions.
▪ In the wake of the Daily Post revelations, health chiefs have called an urgent meeting to discuss the matter.
▪ Buckinghamshire's Education Chairman now wants an urgent meeting with the Government Minister responsible.
▪ He asked for an urgent meeting with Colonel Easterhouse.
▪ Jan's needed for an urgent meeting tomorrow.
message
▪ He wasn't all that sorry to find an urgent message from Headquarters that meant leaving the glutinous pasta.
▪ This is an urgent message for Celestine Price.
▪ There is no pattern to the way they bring their urgent message.
▪ The amazonian flow of colors, signals, urgent messages that had been besieging their brains since birth evaporated.
▪ He - er - received an urgent message to return to his yacht.
▪ I've a very urgent message for you from Mr Norris.
▪ Example 3 An urgent message is received for a guest, Mrs Jones.
▪ I was present when he left the hotel last evening after an urgent message recalling him to Osborne House.
necessity
▪ Policies which address such issues are an urgent necessity.
▪ Plans, in fact, had become an urgent necessity.
▪ The future demands for knowledge on this subject means more research is a real and urgent necessity.
need
▪ Roughly half the children who are adopted feel an urgent need to discover their origins.
▪ Yet at the same time he offers the black underclass, and its more urgent needs, little more than benign neglect.
▪ There is, therefore, a real and urgent need to improve the housing conditions of the elderly.
▪ There is an urgent need for publishing to reflect that change of perspective.
▪ The Maud Report considered there was urgent need for reform and change within local government.
▪ Severe urgency was defined as an urgent need to defecate which has to be relieved in less than one minute to avoid incontinence.
▪ Right and proper, I decide, for spiritual insurance is an urgent need here.
priority
▪ They argue that, given the pressure on defence budgets everywhere, there are more urgent priorities.
▪ Given the concentration of the workforce in the middle age groups, policies aimed at retaining these workers are an urgent priority.
▪ The most urgent priority, he insists, is to bring Mr Milosevic before a court in Belgrade.
problem
▪ But there are even more urgent problems.
▪ He said that often important maintenance problems are put off until they create urgent problems.
▪ But she recognized that the most urgent problem in the countryside was the lack of trained district nurses.
▪ They needed an immediate solution for an urgent problem.
▪ We are anxious to see the urgent problem tackled at once.
▪ The outbreak of a new war made defence against chemical warfare agents once again an urgent problem.
question
▪ As hard times turn to iron times this is an urgent question.
▪ For most people though, the disappearance of the Wall has raised rather more urgent questions questions.
▪ Maybe a more urgent question is how households are reorganising their economic activities as old industrial structures are modified by long-term change.
▪ The war intervened with the result that this urgent question was postponed for the time being.
repair
▪ More than £40,000 is needed to carry out urgent repairs to the tower.
▪ Airstrips, roads and bridges need urgent repair for the agencies to be able to reach people.
▪ Not until 1926 did servicing catch up with urgent repair needs.
request
▪ The floor around the wastepaper basket was littered with paper aeroplanes made out of urgent requests from various City officials.
▪ I hurried to the Adjutant and he opened it to find an urgent request for a volunteer to serve in Southern Arabia.
review
▪ During 1978 it became apparent that the existing methods of storing and handling personnel information were inadequate and in need of urgent review.
▪ In the report, Amnesty called for an urgent review of the guidelines under which troops were permitted to open fire.
▪ Scientists have called for an urgent review of recently set government safety limits which are now thought to be inadequate.
task
▪ For the moment, he obviously has more urgent tasks than writing plays.
▪ Finding new structures to manage the recurrences is an urgent task.
▪ The effect has been so many priorities and urgent tasks to change the meaning and the effect of the concept.
▪ That's the biggest and most urgent task facing the restorers, a company from Hay on Wye.
▪ The urgent task is to stop it crashing altogether.
▪ This is an urgent task, because people know once the cholera comes, the poor communities will suffer.
▪ Her most urgent task was to arrange interviews with all the students to whom she was tutor.
▪ The most urgent task is replacing ledgers and pencils with a management-information system that allows the head office to monitor risk.
voice
▪ Roberta's low urgent voice, Faye's tittering, high laugh.
▪ He sped away back to the car and we could hear his urgent voice, though not the words.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ urgent news
▪ An international effort is required to cope with the urgent needs of the earthquake victims.
▪ I've got one or two urgent letters to write.
▪ Your sister's been calling -- I think it's urgent.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A drastic overhaul of land-ownership and farming is urgent.
▪ Earlier this year Aberconwy Community Health Council called for urgent action to tackle the situation.
▪ If anything appears urgent from an operations standpoint, put it through to him.
▪ Of more urgent concern is the international dimension.
▪ She supposed she could fit it in, if it really was urgent.
▪ The thousands of visitors to the excavations have shown there is an urgent need to make the site into an archaeological park.