Sometimes, verbs can be used with different particles, but the phrasal verb combinations may mean exactly the same as each other. For example, you can often substitute about or around for round without changing the meaning at all, although there is a difference between British and American usage in this case. In such cases, we treat the identical meanings together at the one form, and put a cross-reference at the other ones.
Collocations boxes
call off + noun call off a search call off a strike call off a protest call off a visit call off a meeting call off a wedding Union leaders have agreed to call off the strike. He has called off his visit to Texas.
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Often, phrasal verbs collocate strongly with a particular group of words. To make this information explicit, we have included feature boxes at many entries which list the most common collocations of the phrasal verb. These will help the learner to use the phrasal verbs in a fluent and natural-sounding way.
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PL New phrasal verbs
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We see new phrasal verbs in all sorts of areas, but especially in the worlds of technology, business, media and social media. They are formed in various ways: for example, people might use a new particle with an existing verb, or they might combine a noun with a particle to create a new phrasal verb. This section categorizes by topic some of the new phrasal verbs we have included in the Collins COBUILD Phrasal Verbs Dictionary and tells you about the trends and patterns we have found by analysing the Collins Corpus.
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The particles index
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At the end of the Collins COBUILD Phrasal Verbs Dictionary is an index of the most useful particles which occur in phrasal verbs. This index explains the common meanings that particles contribute to phrasal verb combinations, and lists the phrasal verbs in which those meanings appear. New phrasal verbs are continually being created, and you may hear or read a combination which is not in the dictionary. By using the index, you should be able to understand the meaning of many such new combinations.
Single-word equivalents
Also at the end of this dictionary is a section called Single-word equivalents, which is an index of 200 single-word verbs and their phrasal-verb equivalents. If you want to find a phrasal-verb equivalent to a single-word verb, then this index will help you. Each single-word verb and phrasal verb is illustrated with an example that shows it in a typical context, making the distinctions between the two forms even more clear.
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