Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - course

(courses, coursing, coursed) Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English. 1. Course is often used in the expression ‘of course’, or instead of ‘of course’ in informal spoken English. See of course. 2. The course of a vehicle, especially a ship or aircraft, is the route along which it is travelling. Aircraft can avoid each other by going up and down, as well as by altering course to left or right... The tug was seaward of the Hakai Passage on a course that diverged from the Calvert Island coastline. N-UNCOUNT: also a N 3. A course of action is an action or a series of actions that you can do in a particular situation. My best course of action was to help Gill by being loyal, loving and endlessly sympathetic... Vietnam is trying to decide on its course for the future. N-COUNT: usu sing 4. You can refer to the way that events develop as, for example, the course of history or the course of events. ...a series of decisive naval battles which altered the course of history... N-SING: the N of n 5. A course is a series of lessons or lectures on a particular subject. ...a course in business administration... I’m shortly to begin a course on the modern novel. N-COUNT: oft N in/on n see also access course, correspondence course, refresher course, sandwich course 6. A course of medical treatment is a series of treatments that a doctor gives someone. Treatment is supplemented with a course of antibiotics to kill the bacterium... N-COUNT: N of n 7. A course is one part of a meal. The lunch was excellent, especially the first course. ...a three-course dinner. N-COUNT: usu supp N 8. In sport, a course is an area of land where races are held or golf is played, or the land over which a race takes place. Only 12 seconds separated the first three riders on the Bickerstaffe course... N-COUNT: usu with supp 9. The course of a river is the channel along which it flows. Romantic chateaux and castles overlook the river’s twisting course. N-COUNT 10. If something happens in the course of a particular period of time, it happens during that period of time. In the course of the 1930s steel production in Britain approximately doubled... We struck up a conversation, in the course of which it emerged that he was a sailing man. = during PREP-PHRASE 11. If you do something as a matter of course, you do it as part of your normal work or way of life. If police are carrying arms as a matter of course then doesn’t it encourage criminals to carry them? PHRASE: PHR after v 12. If a ship or aircraft is on course, it is travelling along the correct route. If it is off course, it is no longer travelling along the correct route. The ill fated ship was sent off course into shallow waters and rammed by another vessel. PHRASE: PHR after v, v-link PHR 13. If you are on course for something, you are likely to achieve it. The company is on course for profits of ?20m in the next financial year. PREP-PHRASE: usu v-link PREP 14. If something runs its course or takes its course, it develops naturally and comes to a natural end. They estimated that between 17,000 and 20,000 cows would die before the epidemic had run its course... PHRASE: V inflects 15. If you stay the course, you finish something that you have started, even though it has become very difficult. The oldest president in American history had stayed the course for two terms. PHRASE: V inflects 16. If something changes or becomes true in the course of time, it changes or becomes true over a long period of time. In the course of time, many of their myths become entangled. PHRASE: PHR with cl 17. in due course: see due