Library / English Dictionary

COLLIDE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Crash together with violent impact

Example:

Two meteors clashed

Synonyms:

clash; collide

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "collide" is one way to...):

collide with; hit; impinge on; run into; strike (hit against; come into sudden contact with)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "collide"):

smash (collide or strike violently and suddenly)

shock (collide violently)

crash; ram (undergo damage or destruction on impact)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

These cars won't collide

Derivation:

collision (an accident resulting from violent impact of a moving object)

collision ((physics) a brief event in which two or more bodies come together)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cause to collide

Example:

The physicists collided the particles

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "collide"):

crash (cause to crash)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

collider (an accelerator in which two beams of particles are forced to collide head on)

collision ((physics) a brief event in which two or more bodies come together)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Be incompatible; be or come into conflict

Example:

These colors clash

Synonyms:

clash; collide; jar

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "collide" is one way to...):

conflict (be in conflict)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

collision (a conflict of opposed ideas or attitudes or goals)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The presence of warm dust implies that it formed very recently, perhaps in spurts, as chemically enriched material from the two stellar winds collides at different points, mixes, flows away, and cools.

(Hubble Observes One-of-a-Kind Star Nicknamed 'Nasty', NASA)

“Depending on that, we think this pair will collide and merge into one black hole in as little as 350 years or as much as 360,000 years.”

(Giant Black Hole Pair Photobombs Andromeda Galaxy, NASA)

Scientists think this emission arises when accelerated electrons and positrons collide with nearby starlight.

(NASA’s Fermi Mission Links Nearby Pulsar’s Gamma-ray ‘Halo’ to Antimatter Puzzle, NASA)

His rifle was between his knees, but if he let go the steering-oar in order to shoot, the boat would sweep around and collide with the schooner.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Scientists predict that the water in Earth's oceans came from water-carrying bodies in the early solar system that collided with our planet, similar to today's ice-rich asteroids or comets.

(Comet Provides New Clues to Origins of Earth's Oceans, NASA)

Does it heat up dramatically as it collides with the surrounding hot gas?

(Spiraling filaments feed young galaxies, National Science Foundation’s Division of Astronomical Sciences.)

As the sand moves, it begins to hop and collide, becoming charged.

('Electric Sands' Cover Titan, VOA News)

There, they collide with atoms of gas in the atmosphere, resulting in a brilliant display of colors in the sky.

(Powerful Auroras Found at Brown Dwarf, NASA)

Molony claims This isn't a simple story of colliding with an iceberg and sinking.

(UK documentary claims fire weakened RMS Titanic, Wikinews)

Clumps of dust and ice aggregated into comets and asteroids, some of which collided together to form moon-sized objects or planetesimals, and some of those eventually merged to become planets.

(Vitamin B3 might have been made in space, delivered to Earth by meteorites, NASA)