project
noun /ˈprɒdʒɛkt 
/
/1An individual or collaborative enterprise that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim: a research project a project to build a new power station...
- While seeking to collaborate together in individual projects where appropriate, there are no plans for other church departments to combine.
- In the meantime, it is not possible to say when individual projects will proceed to tender and construction.
- Japan supports a broad range of carefully planned projects, including mine-clearing, both for security and to provide jobs.
1.1A piece of research work undertaken by a school or college student: a history project...
- A couple of weeks ago your diarist was interviewed by pupils at a Lincolnshire school undertaking a history project.
- Glenn Williams suggested using multi-media projects made by college students and other artists to tell the story, as well.
- He is an adviser for the Dairy Science Club and has been a mentor for many undergraduate and high school students working on research projects.
Synonyms
assignment, piece of work, homework, piece of research, task
1.2A proposed or planned undertaking: the novel undermines its own stated project of telling a story...
- We do work with outstanding, prize-winning authors, and we do propose projects to them.
- Many of the projects remain exactly that: projects, plans, proposals.
- Of course, he also needed funding to get the project off the ground.
Synonyms
scheme, plan, plan of action, programme, enterprise, undertaking, venture, activity, operation, campaign;
proposal, proposition, idea, conception
2 (also housing project) North American A government-subsidized housing development with relatively low rents: her family still lives in the projects...
- The DISIP no longer visit his house, nor do they break up public meetings at the housing project as they did in the past.
- We lived in the government housing project, and the whole first year we were home we made less than $300 altogether.
- I grew up in a public housing project in Hartford, Connecticut.
verb /prəˈdʒɛkt / [with object]
/ [with object]1Estimate or forecast (something) on the basis of present trends: spending was projected at £72,900 million...
- Overall investment return over five years is projected at five times the capital invested.
- On the basis of such verification we selected a trend model and projected the forecast results at the World Championships to be held in Birmingham in the October 1999.
- The current budget's deficit is projected at 54.32 trillion rupiah.
Synonyms
forecast, predict, estimate, calculate, gauge, reckon, expect, extrapolate
1.1 (often as adjective projected) Plan (a scheme or undertaking): a projected exhibition of contemporary art...
- Thus, it is not surprising that McDyer's strategies began to bring results, and, after Lemass was elected in the late 1950s, McDyer projected many more schemes.
- While it did take longer than initially projected, the whole undertaking was completed well under budget.
- For many area organizations, this downturn in funding has meant they have had to reline and retool plans and projects they had projected for themselves.
Synonyms
intend, plan, propose, map out, devise, design, outline
2 [no object] Extend outwards beyond something else; protrude: I noticed a slip of paper projecting from the book (as adjective projecting) a projecting bay window...
- The dramatic hollow cone projecting from the front of the headdress is understood as a beehive.
- It is understood that the vehicle skidded after avoiding a car involved in another accident, mounted the verge and became impaled on a pole projecting from a crash barrier.
- Ladies are reminded that the regulation prohibiting unprotected hat pins projecting from hats will be rigidly enforced.
Synonyms
stick out, jut out, jut, protrude, extend, stand out, hang over, overhang, bulge out, poke out, lap over, ride over, thrust out, obtrude, cantilever
archaic be imminent, protuberate
sticking out, protuberant, protruding, prominent, jutting, jutting out, overhanging, standing out, proud, bulging, bulbous
technical obtrusive, extrusive
rare protrusive, protrudent, excrescent, exsertile
3 [with object and adverbial of direction] Throw or cause to move forward or outward: seeds are projected from the tree...
- Now he had been projected forward into the almost daylight of the actual shop.
- Entrance to the station is by way of a single open arch, which is projected forward through the booking hall into a subway and four staircases leading to two island platforms.
- Its head is broad and blunt and it has a largish mouth which, because of a series of joints, can be projected forward instantly like a telescopic tube.
Synonyms
throw, cast, fling, hurl, toss, lob, launch, discharge, propel, shoot
informal chuck, sling, bung, heave
3.1Cause (light, shadow, or an image) to fall on a surface: the one light projected shadows on the wall...
- Thousands of believers have visited the site, which many say at certain times and in certain lights projects the image of the Virgin Mary.
- He hit a small button on the wall and a light turned on, projecting an image in the center of the room.
- They are fettered, and can only see shadows of objects carried behind them, projected by the light of a fire onto the back wall of the cave.
Synonyms
cast, throw, send, shed, let fall, reflect, shine
3.2Cause (a sound) to be heard at a distance: being audible depends on your ability to project your voice...
- As with most period pieces set in foreign lands, everyone speaks like they are projecting from the stage front at the Old Vic.
- They pressed forward in hopes of projecting their cheers a little louder.
- The name comes from the use of a horn bell to project the sound and often a horn reed cap as well.
3.3Imagine (oneself, a situation, etc.) as having moved to a different place or time: people may be projecting the present into the past...
- The images also revealed how time past can be fossilised and projected to the present.
4Present or promote (a particular view or image): he strives to project an image of youth...
- ‘I knew straight away that the view that was projected by the media, of the horror, was not necessarily going to be shared by the whole community,’ he says.
- Instead of projecting a coherent alternative view, it did little more than reflect the petty fears haunting today's Quebecers.
- He has wonderful stage presence, projecting a friendly, enthusiastic and spontaneous persona.
Synonyms
convey, put across, put over, communicate, present, promote;
present oneself as
4.1Present (someone or something) in a particular way: she liked to project herself more as a friend than a doctor...
- To me, one of the best faces America has ever projected is the face of a Peace Corps volunteer.
4.2Display (an emotion or quality) in one’s behaviour: everyone would be amazed that a young girl could project such depths of emotion...
- She unconsciously projected what she was thinking, and part of him wanted to know what she was feeling.
- One of the subliminal messages projected becomes ‘If I can endure the pain, can you?’
4.3 (project something on to) Attribute or transfer an emotion or desire to (another person), especially unconsciously: men may sometimes project their own fears on to women...
- Unfortunately stars will always attract people who need someone to project their obsessions on to.
- The inkblot is known as a ‘projective’ test in that it assumes the patient will project certain ideas on to the picture that would normally be lost in defense mechanisms.
- All kinds of broader fears and sympathies have been projected on to the figure of ‘the asylum seeker’.
Synonyms
attribute, ascribe, impute, assign;
externalize
5 Geometry Draw straight lines through (a given figure) to produce a corresponding figure on a surface or a line.
6Make a projection of (the earth, sky, etc.) on a plane surface.The first was based on the fact that the Earth is a sphere, and its surface cannot be projected or transferred to the flat surface of a map without some element of distortion.
Origin
Late Middle English (in the sense 'preliminary design, tabulated statement'): from Latin projectum 'something prominent', neuter past participle of proicere 'throw forth', from pro- 'forth' + jacere 'to throw'. Early senses of the verb were 'plan' and 'cause to move forward'.
jet from late 16th century:
The name jet for a hard black semi-precious mineral comes ultimately from the Greek word gagatēs ‘from Gagai’, a town in Asia Minor. When we refer to a jet of water or gas, or a jet aircraft, we are using a quite different word. It comes from a late 16th-century verb meaning ‘to jut out’, from French jeter ‘to throw’, which goes back to the Latin jacere ‘to throw’. Jut (mid 16th century) is a variant of jet in this sense. Jacere is found in a large number of English words including abject (Late Middle English) literally ‘thrown away’; conjecture (Late Middle English) ‘throw together’; deject (Late Middle English) ‘thrown down’; ejaculate (late 16th century) from jaculum ‘dart, something thrown’; eject (Late Middle English) ‘throw out’; inject (late 16th century) ‘throw in’; jetty (Late Middle English) something thrown out into the water; project (Late Middle English) ‘throw forth’; subject (Middle English) ‘thrown under’; trajectory (late 17th century) ‘something thrown across’. Especially if you use budget airlines, air travel today is far from glamorous, but in the 1950s the idea of flying abroad by jet aircraft was new and sophisticated. At the start of that decade people who flew for pleasure came to be known as the jet set.