Online OXFORD Collocation Dictionary

year noun

ADJ. last, past The chart shows our performance over the past year. | past, preceding, previous, recent The event has not proved popular in past years. They had met once the previous year. | current | coming, following, future, next We have high hopes for the coming year. She died the following year. We aim to do even better in future years. | consecutive, successive She won the race for the third successive year. | alternate | intervening He soon realized that a lot had changed in the intervening years. | early, later the early years of the twenty-first century In his later years, he drifted away from politics. | new We're going skiing early in the new year. | final final-year university students | golden, good, happy, memorable, momentous the golden years of motoring | profitable | bad, hard, lean, poor | peak, record a peak year for exports | calendar | leap | academic, school | financial, fiscal, tax | light (often figurative) The new range puts us light years ahead of the competition. | election | sabbatical He spent his sabbatical year doing research in Moscow. | inter-war, post-war, pre-war, war ~s The children spent the war years abroad. | formative, tender ~s She was born in Spain but spent her formative years in Italy. children of tender years

VERB + YEAR spend He spent last year trying to get a new job. | take It took him ten years to qualify as a vet. | celebrate Next year they celebrate fifty years of marriage. | put on His wife's death has put years on him (= made him look/feel much older). | take off Careful make-up and styling can take years off you (= make you look much younger).

YEAR + VERB begin, start | end, finish | elapse, go by, pass A year elapsed before I heard from him again. The last year went by in flash. | run from/to sth The academic year runs from October to June. | see sth That year saw the explosion of the Internet.

PREP. by the ~ … The reforms will be fully implemented by the year 2007. | during the ~ during the next academic year | for a/the ~ profit for the current year to 31 December We lived there for ten years. | in a ~ I hope to retire in a year/in a year's time. | in a/the ~ in the next tax year Britain was invaded in the year 1066. | in ~s It's the first time we've met in years (= for many years). | over/under a ~ We've been friends for over twenty years. | per ~ Over 10,000 people per year are injured in this type of accident. | throughout the ~ The global economy means that all types of fruit and vegetables are available throughout the year. | ~s between … and … /from … to … the boom years from 1993 to 2000 | ~ of The book represents three years of hard work. That was in the year of the great flood.

PHRASES all year long I've been waiting for this moment all year long. | all (the) year round The city tour runs all the year round. | the beginning/end/middle/start of the year, be six, etc. years old She's only ten years old. | early/late in the year, a time of year It's usually much colder at this time of year. | the turn of the year The team has suffered a loss of form since the turn of the year.