Oxford Business English Dictionary for Learners of English

[c, usually sing.] an amount of sth that is provided or available to be used: Car manufacturers like to have a 64-day supply of vehicles, о There is a plentiful supply of skilled labour, о Up to 90% of the country's gas supplies will be imported by 2020.

О a dwindling/large/plentiful/small/steady supply (of sth) ♦ to get/have/produce/provide/receive a supply ♦ to boost/disrupt/increase/reduce a supply

[u] the amount of sth that is offered for sale: When demand for a product exceeds supply, it is usual for the price to go up. о to match supply with demand о The fall in steel prices is the result of a global supply glut (= a situation where there is too much steel available), о The rise in oil prices has been driven by fears of a supply crunch (= a situation where there is not enough oil available). demand noun (1), supply and demand

О to exceed/match/outstrip supply ♦ supply falls/ increases ♦ a supply crunch/glut/shortage/shortfall

supplies [pl.] basic things that are needed for a particular purpose: office supplies о the nation's leading provider of medical supplies

limited/plentiful/vital supplies * to lay in/provide supplies ♦ supplies run low/run out/run short idiom at short adj

• verb [+ obj] (supplies, supplying, supplied, supplied)

to provide raw materials, equipment, etc. to companies, especially in large quantities; to provide goods or services: The company supplies Daewoo with a range of equipment, о We supply Internet-based services to big businesses in Europe.

to provide sb/sth with sth that they need or want: Can you supply a list of recent customers? о Employees were supplied with home computers.

sup,ply and de'mand noun [u] (Economics) the relationship between the amount of goods or services that are available and the amount that people want to buy, especially when this controls prices: Improvements to our distribution network allow us to maintain a better balance between supply and demand, о the laws of supply and demand

О a balance/gap/an imbalance/a mismatch between supply and demand * to balance/match supply and demand

sup,ply chain e'vent .management (abbr

SCEM) (alsoe'vent .management)noun [u](,Production) a system for predicting, controlling and dealing with unexpected events in any part of the supply chain, for example when customers order more of a product than usual: They have developed anumber of solutions (= pieces of software) for supply chain event management.

sup'ply chain .management noun [u] (abbr

SCM)

(.Production) the control of all the materials, money

an amount that is extra or more than you need: a surplus of housing о The area has large job surpluses, requiring 10000 people to fill available posts, о Skilled workers are in surplus in some regions.

fsynl glut [oppl shortage

{Accounting; Economics) the amount by which money that a government or business receives is greater than the amount of money spent in a

an act of exchanging one thing or person for another: Let's do a swap. You work Friday night and I'll do Saturday.

(Finance) an exchange of different types of payments between two companies, for example payments in different currencies or with different interest rates

(Finance) an act of exchanging one investment or asset for another, instead of for money: The company is negotiating a swap deal with bondholders.

swatch /swDtJ; AmE swa:tj/ noun [C] a small piece of fabric used to show people what a larger piece would look or feel like

'sweat .equitynoun [u] (informal) the work, rather than money, that the owners of a new business invest in it and for which they receive shares in the business

sweatshop /'swetjop; AmE-Ja:p/ noun [C] a place where people work for low wages in poor conditions: sweatshop labour/conditions