Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

6 PREP If you do something against someone's wishes, advice, or orders, you do not do what they want you to do or tell you to do. □  He discharged himself from hospital against the advice of doctors.

7 PREP If you do something in order to protect yourself against something unpleasant or harmful, you do something which will make its effects on you less serious if it happens. □  A business needs insurance against risks such as fire and flood.

8 PHRASE If you have something against someone or something, you dislike them. □  Have you got something against women, Les?

9 PREP If something is against the law or against the rules, there is a law or a rule which says that you must not do it. □  It is against the law to detain you against your will for any length of time.

10 PREP If you are moving against a current, tide, or wind, you are moving in the opposite direction to it. □  …swimming upstream against the current.

11 PREP If something happens or is considered against a particular background of events, it is considered in relation to those events, because those events are relevant to it. □  The profits rise was achieved against a backdrop of falling metal prices.

12 PREP If something is measured or valued against something else, it is measured or valued by comparing it with the other thing. □  Our policy has to be judged against a clear test: will it improve the standard of education? □  The U.S. dollar is down against most foreign currencies today.

13 PHRASE If you discuss a particular set of facts or figures as against another set, you are comparing or contrasting the two sets of facts or figures. □  The study found that the average length of US TV breaks was 141 seconds as against 236 seconds in Britain.

14 PREP The odds against something happening are the chances or odds that it will not happen. □  The odds against him surviving are incredible. ● ADV [n ADV ] Against is also an adverb. □  What were the odds against?

15up against → see up ➋

16against the clock → see clock

agape /əge I p/ ADJ [v-link ADJ ] If you describe someone as having their mouth agape , their mouth is open very wide, often because they are very surprised by something. [WRITTEN ] □  She stood looking at Carmen with her mouth agape.

ag|ate /æ g I t/ (agates ) N‑VAR Agate is a very hard stone which is used to make jewellery.

age ◆◆◆ /e I dʒ/ (ages , ageing , aging , aged ) The spelling aging is also used, mainly in American English. 1 N‑VAR Your age is the number of years that you have lived. □  She has a nephew who is just ten years of age. □ [+ of ] At the age of sixteen he qualified for a place at the University of Hamburg. □  I admired him for being so confident at his age.

2 N‑VAR The age of a thing is the number of years since it was made. □ [+ of ] Everything in the room looks in keeping with the age of the building.

3 N‑UNCOUNT Age is the state of being old or the process of becoming older. □  Perhaps he has grown wiser with age. □  The fabric was showing signs of age.

4 VERB When someone ages , or when something ages them, they seem much older and less strong or less alert. □ [V ] He had always looked so young, but he seemed to have aged in the last few months. □ [V n] He was only in his mid-thirties, but already worry had aged him.

5 N‑COUNT An age is a period in history. □ [+ of ] …the age of steam and steel. □  …items of Bronze Age pottery.

6 N‑COUNT You can say an age or ages to mean a very long time. [INFORMAL ] □  He waited what seemed an age. □  The bus took absolutely ages to arrive.