Online OXFORD Collocation Dictionary

end noun

¹ furthest part of sth

ADJ. bottom, lower | top, upper | back, rear, tail (figurative) I just caught the tail end of the movie. | front | extreme, very | far, opposite, other That's his wife sitting at the far end of the table. | round, square, etc. | pointed, sharp | cheap housebuyers at the cheap end of the market | dear, expensive | dead We tried cutting through a back road but it was a dead end.

(figurative) a dead-end job | deep, shallow (of a swimming pool) (figurative) The company believes in throwing new employees in at the deep end with at the end of the movie. | by the ~ He wants the reports by the end of the month. | in the ~ In the end, they decided to spend the holiday at home. | to the ~ He won't win, but he'll keep fighting to the end. | towards the ~ I was getting bored towards the end of the talk. | till/until the ~ I'm staying until the end of this week. | up to the ~ It stayed hot right up to the end of September. | ~ to What the business community wants is an end to the recession.

PHRASES the end of an era Her death marks the end of an era. | the end of the line/road (figurative) The loss of this no training. | free, knotted, loose Take the free end of the rope and pass it through the hole.contract could signal the end of

(figurative) The author tied up all the loose ends of the story in the final chapter. | west, western, etc. the southern end of the lake

VERB + END come to, get to, reach Continue until you reach the end of the road. | change The teams changed ends at half time.

PREP. at the ~ Turn into Hope Street and our house is right at the end. | on ~ Stand it on end (= upright).

PHRASES end of the spectrum The two parties represent opposite ends of the political spectrum. | (from) end to end We walked along the whole promenade, from end to end. They arranged the tables end to end.

² last part of sth

ADJ. abrupt, sudden | dramatic | early The injury brought her career to an early end. | fitting The award was a fitting end to a distinguished career.

VERB + END come to, get to, reach The meeting finally came to an end at six. I'll never get to the end of this book! | approach, draw to, near As the evening was drawing to an end, the firework display took place. | bring (sth to), put Talks were in progress to bring an end to the fighting. | call for call for an end to the violence

END + VERB be in sight There's no end in sight to the present crisis.

END + NOUN product, result The film's backers were delighted with the end product.

PREP. at an ~ The proceedings are expected to be at an end by 6 p.m. | at the ~ They get married the line for the shipyard. | from beginning to end His story was one big lie from beginning to end. | to/until the bitter end We will fight this court case to the bitter end.

³ aim/purpose

ADJ. beneficial, desirable, worthwhile, worthy | destructive | practical, pragmatic | common Despite our differences, we were working to a common end. | selfish | commercial, economic, educational, ideological, political, social, utilitarian

VERB + END achieve, further, pursue She was prepared to lie in order to achieve her ends. | work to

PREP. to … ends The money might have been used to more beneficial ends. | to this ~ She wished to have a house built, and to this end she engaged a local architect.

PHRASES an end in itself For her, travelling had become an end in itself rather than a means of seeing new places. | a means to an end I don't enjoy studying computing?it's just a means to an end. | the end justifies the means He defended a morality in which the end justifies the means. | to/for your own ends She is exploiting the current situation for her own ends. | with this end in view (= in order to achieve this)

⁴ death

ADJ. sad, tragic | bad, sticky to come to a sticky (= unpleasant, but deserved) end | untimely

VERB + END come to, meet (literary) He met his end at the Battle of Waterloo.

END + VERB come The end came when he collapsed after playing golf.

end verb

ADV. abruptly, suddenly The meeting ended abruptly when the chairman was called away. | prematurely | at last, eventually, finally At last the war ended. | all but, effectively, virtually A back injury effectively ended her career. | inconclusively The peace talks have ended inconclusively, with neither side prepared to give way on key points. | peacefully | disastrously, tragically | disappointingly, unhappily

PREP. in The attempt finally ended in failure. | with The show ended with a song.

PHRASES end in disaster The military action could end in disaster. | end in tears (figurative) After all that excitement the day was bound to end in tears (= unhappily).