Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - phrase

(phrases, phrasing, phrased) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. A phrase is a short group of words that people often use as a way of saying something. The meaning of a phrase is often not obvious from the meaning of the individual words in it. He used a phrase I hate: ‘You have to be cruel to be kind.’ N-COUNT 2. A phrase is a small group of words which forms a unit, either on its own or within a sentence. It is impossible to hypnotise someone simply by saying a particular word or phrase. N-COUNT 3. If you phrase something in a particular way, you express it in words in that way. I would have phrased it quite differently... They phrased it as a question. VERB: V n adv, V n as n 4. If someone has a particular turn of phrase, they have a particular way of expressing themselves in words. ...Schwarzkopf’s distinctive turn of phrase. to coin a phrase: see coin PHRASE: N inflects