Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary полностью

8 PREP If you say something to someone, you want that person to listen and understand what you are saying. □  I'm going to have to explain to them that I can't pay them.

9 PREP You use to when indicating someone's reaction to something or their feelings about a situation or event. For example, if you say that something happens to someone's surprise you mean that they are surprised when it happens. □  He survived, to the amazement of surgeons.

10 PREP You use to when indicating the person whose opinion you are stating. □  It was clear to me that he respected his boss. □  Everyone seemed to her to be amazingly kind.

11 PREP You use to when indicating what something or someone is becoming, or the state or situation that they are progressing towards. □  The shouts changed to screams of terror. □  …an old ranch house that has been converted to a nature centre.

12 PREP To can be used as a way of introducing the person or organization you are employed by, when you perform some service for them. □  She worked as a dresser to the Duchess of York for nine years. □  He was an official interpreter to the government of Nepal.

13 PREP You use to to indicate that something happens until the time or amount mentioned is reached. □  The company aimed to double foreign exports from 2012 to 2020 □  The annual rate of inflation has risen to its highest level for eight years.

14 PREP You use to when indicating the last thing in a range of things, usually when you are giving two extreme examples of something. □  I read everything from fiction to history.

15 PREP If someone goes from place to place or from job to job, they go to several places, or work in several jobs, and spend only a short time in each one. □  Larry and Andy had drifted from place to place, worked at this and that.

16 PHRASE If someone moves to and fro , they move repeatedly from one place to another and back again, or from side to side. □  She stood up and began to pace to and fro.

17 PREP You use to when you are stating a time which is less than thirty minutes before an hour. For example, if it is 'five to eight', it is five minutes before eight o'clock. □  At twenty to six I was waiting by the entrance to the station. □  At exactly five minutes to nine, Ann left her car and entered the building.

18 PREP You use to when giving ratios and rates. □  …engines that can run at 60 miles to the gallon.

19 PREP You use to when indicating that two things happen at the same time. For example, if something is done to music, it is done at the same time as music is being played. □  Romeo left the stage, to enthusiastic applause. □  Amy woke up to the sound of her doorbell ringing.

20 CONVENTION If you say ' There's nothing to it ', ' There's not much to it ', or ' That's all there is to it ', you are emphasizing how simple you think something is. [EMPHASIS ] □  Once they have tried growing orchids, they will see there is really nothing to it.

21 ADV [ADV after v] If you push or shut a door to , you close it but may not shut it completely. □  He slipped out, pulling the door to.

22 → see also according to

➋ to ◆◆◆ Pronounced /tə/ before a consonant and /tu/ before a vowel. 1 [to inf] You use to before the base form of a verb to form the to-infinitive. You use the to-infinitive after certain verbs, nouns, and adjectives, and after words such as 'how', 'which', and 'where'. □  The management wanted to know what I was doing there. □  She told ministers of her decision to resign.