Verbal Illustrations

Every synonym in this thesaurus is illustrated with an example of its typical use. The verbal illustration, as it is called, follows the shared meaning, is enclosed in angle brackets, and italicizes the synonym:

Entry Word: fight
Function: verb
Text: 1 to oppose (someone) in physical conflict <a proud people who have fiercely fought all invaders of their homeland>

Entry Word: hold back
Function: verb
Text: to create difficulty for the work or activity of <the only thing holding Joe back from joining the swim team is lack of transportation>

Entry Word: rich
Function: adjective
Text: 1 having goods, property, or money in abundance <Tanya's dad works as a chauffeur for the richest man in town, a big oil baron>

Words in parentheses after an entry word are italicized in the verbal illustration:

Entry Word: stick to or with
Function: verb
Text: to give steadfast support to <thanks for sticking with me when all my other so-called friends have turned their backs>

Some verbal illustrations in the Thesaurus are complete sentences and others are only sentence fragments. Though it may look a little odd, for the sake of consistency, all verbal illustrations in this thesaurus begin with a lowercase letter unless the initial word is normally capitalized. Question marks and exclamation points are used when appropriate at the end of a verbal illustration, but otherwise no ending punctuation is used.

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