size noun

1 how big or small sth is

ADJ. considerable, enormous, fair, good, great, impressive, large, massive, substantial, vast The kitchen is (of) a fair size. The vast size of the country made it difficult to govern. | diminutive, limited, modest, small Despite its diminutive size, the car is quite comfortable. | average, medium, middle, moderate, reasonable, sufficient | overall, total | sheer, very The sheer size of these dinosaurs was their main defence. | appropriate, convenient, correct, desirable, handy, manageable, optimum, right The ladder is a handy size for using in the house. classes of manageable size | wrong | comparable, equivalent, similar | standard, uniform The standard size for the tiles is 300mm square. | non-standard | maximum, minimum The fish grow to a maximum size of 50cm. | actual, full, life The ring is shown actual size in the illustration. a life-size model of a Roman soldier | class, family, group, household, market, population, sample

VERB + SIZE increase | decrease, limit, reduce The company is reducing the size of its workforce. | double in, grow in, increase in Houses increase in size further away from the city centre. | be reduced in, decline in, decrease in, diminish in | differ in, range in, vary in These insects range in size from 2 to 5cm. | grow to, reach | estimate, guess (at) I had to guess at the size of the batteries. | overestimate, underestimate

SIZE + VERB increase | decline, decrease, fall | range from, vary The size of her audience varied.

PREP. from the ~ of From the size of the queues outside the cinema, it was a very good film. | in ~ How do the samples compare in size? | in the ~ of the increase in the size of the population

PHRASES half, two, three, etc. times the size of sth Their house is twice the size of ours. | shapes and sizes There are people of all shapes and size in the judo class.

2 one of a number of fixed measurements

ADJ. large, medium, small The company is now going to make these products in larger sizes. | 2-litre, 4-pound, etc. The 5-litre size comes in a metal tin. | imperial, metric New radiators come in metric sizes. | children's, men's, women's | chest, collar, foot ‘Extra large’ fits chest sizes 44 to 50. | bra, shoe

QUANT. range, variety

VERB + SIZE be, take What size are you (= for shoes or clothes)? What size do you take? | find sth in, get sth in I couldn't find the blouse in my size. | be available in, come in The bricks come in four sizes.

SIZE + VERB fit sb I have to wear children's shoes because the women's sizes don't fit me.

PREP. in a/your ~ Have you got this dress in a Size 12?

PHRASES be a size too big, small, etc. The jacket is several sizes too large for him. | Size 2, 10, etc.

You can also check other dicts: size (English, 中文解释 ), wordnet sense, Collins Definition

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