I. num·ber
1.
a.
< number of desks in the room >
< number of people in the hall >
< owing to the number of prior applications, he shortly withdrew — J.C.Archer >
b.
< the sands of the seashore are beyond number >
< times without number >
c.
< the whole number of Senators — U.S. Constitution >
d.
< an enormous number of languages — J.B.Carroll >
< there is a limited number of such laboratories — P.D.Close >
< the city is … continuing to draw increasing numbers of visitors — H.W.H.King >
< archery clubs have been established … and their number is growing rapidly — American Guide Series: Minnesota >
e.
< a number of solutions have been proposed — S.H.Hofstadter >
< the … concern occupies a number of brick buildings — American Guide Series: New Hampshire >
< collection which he has exhibited a number of times — Mary Zimmer >
especially
< a number of instances >
2.
a.
< I want to be in that number when the saints go marching in — When the Saints Go Marching In >
b. obsolete
(1)
< a mineral … of the number of bitumens — A.Cooper >
(2)
< this happy number that have endured shrewd days and nights with us — Shakespeare >
(3)
< the number may be hanged, but not be crowned — Alexander Pope >
3.
< a weak sense of time and number — G.T.Trewartha & Wilbur Zelinsky >
4.
a.
< seven is his lucky number >
< a number divisible by two >
b. numbers plural
< teach children their numbers >
< from simple numbers to the calculus — British Book News >
5.
a.
b.
(1) obsolete
< in full harmonic number joined — John Milton >
(2) numbers plural, archaic
< holy numbers which thou warblest — W.M.Praed >
c. numbers plural
(1)
< melodic numbers of the classic orators >
(2)
< most by numbers judge a poet's song — Alexander Pope >
(3)
< these numbers will I tear, and write in prose — Shakespeare >
6.
a.
< spell out numbers under three digits — Kate L. Turabian >
specifically
< the code employs letters as well as numbers >
b.
(1)
< house number >
< catalog number >
< stamped a number on each ball — Millen Brand >
specifically
< the victim remembered the number of the getaway car >
— symbol \\#
< apartment \\#32 >
(2)
< take number two position in column — Wirt Williams >
specifically
< for the grounding of his ship … he was reduced ten numbers — Allan Westcott >
(3)
< opened fire on number three — Oxford Book of English Talk >
< tackled on the line of scrimmage by number 22 >
< to the keeper I was just a new number, another dirty blanket to issue — Gilbert Millstein >
— compare opposite number
(4)
< number nine shoe >
< number one manila >
< a number two can of tomatoes >
— compare : count II 8a
(5)
< dialed a number on the interoffice telephone — Hamilton Basso >
(6)
< the iodine number of a fatty oil >
7.
< squaretails in number — Stewart Holbrook >
— usually used in plural
< numbers of this shark sometimes attack shoals of sardines — J.L.B.Smith >
< individuals of great wealth will certainly not exist in any numbers in another decade or so — Persuasion >
< numbers of beauties major and minor — F.R.Leavis >
8. numbers plural
a.
< numbers died on the way — Marjory S. Douglas >
b.
< there is safety in numbers >
c.
< their numbers outstrip their resources — Barbara Ward >
< the graduate school doubled its numbers — C.F.Smith >
9.
a.
< a year's subscription brings you 12 numbers >
< his article will appear in the February number >
b.
(1)
< two … stokers as ammunition numbers — The Crowsnest >
especially
< a cute number in a yellow dress — R.L.Strout >
< a blondined number … draped in silver fox — Margaret Long >
(2)
< a catchy little number in waltz time — A.E.Stevenson †1965 >
< contains perhaps half a dozen numbers that are among the best things he ever wrote — Robert Collet >
< novel … was going to turn out to be one of those amnesia numbers — E.J.Fitzgerald >
< supported this cheery little number for just fifteen performances — Deems Taylor >
< the tango number late in Act I — Theatre Arts >
(3)
< put that black velvet number with the sequins on the blonde dummy — Bennett Cerf >
< the new nylon number which he calls an armored vest — New Yorker >
< costs a lot of money to bring out any new toy number — Marketing Toys >
< a more modestly priced blanket is an all-wool number — Hamilton Basso >
10.
< the other side had his number and was riding him — Mary Deasy >
< she was incapable of subterfuge and it didn't take him long to get her number >
11. numbers plural but singular or plural in construction
a.
b.
Synonyms:
< the number forty-five >
< the number 45 >
or to a character with an affix
< the ordinal numbers 2d, 3d, and 4th >
numeral applies to the characters as numbers as distinguished from the words standing for the same numbers
< a license plate with both letters and the numerals 13249 >
< the Roman numerals V, VI, and XLII >
figure stresses the characters as characters, usually arabic
< write the numbers in figures wherever possible to save space >
< his salary went into five figures >
digit refers expressly to one of the characters in Arabic notation
< if you include 0, Arabic numerals consist of 10 digits, though some authorities exclude 0 as a digit >
integer, in this connection, is an arithmetical term for a whole number, one that is not or does not contain a fraction
< 11 1/2 is not an integer >
Synonym: see in addition sum.
•
- any number
- by the number
- have one's number on it
II. number
transitive verb
1.
a.
< numbers his friends by the hundreds >
b. archaic
< was desirous of accurately numbering the interval of time from one … festival to another — Thomas Taylor >
c. obsolete
< poets cannot think, speak, cast, write, sing, number … his love — Shakespeare >
2.
< it is only by accident that I am numbered among American philosophers — George Santayana >
< writers resident in Texas numbered none of note whose literary work was not incidental — American Guide Series: Texas >
< prudence … is numbered with the cardinal virtues — H.O.Taylor >
3.
< doctors told him his days were numbered — H.E.Starr >
4.
< number the pages of a book >
< stay on numbered highways >
< we use letters to number the rows of seats in an assembly room — D.E.Smith >
< five thousand dollars of the stolen money was in numbered bills — E.S.Gardner >
5. archaic
a.
< the quantities of … furnitures following so royal an army, what pen can number — Robert Johnson >
— often used with up
< you numbered up the acts of trust — R.H.Hutton >
b.
< let my brother number his beads devoutly — Philip Massinger >
c.
< days of this life's pilgrimage … to number wisely — J.W.Warter >
< my … fellows I numbered into two companies — William Morris >
6. archaic
< I since then have numbered o'er some thrice three years — Alfred Tennyson >
especially
< of as able body as when he numbered thirty — Shakespeare >
7.
< they were a miscellaneous lot … numbering in all some 20 or 30 — R.W.Southern >
< his extensive collection … numbering many thousand specimens — Witmer Stone >
intransitive verb
1.
< controls … literally number in the thousands — Harold Koontz & Cyril O'Donnell >
2.
< neng, song, sam, she numbered in Siamese — Kathryn Grondahl >
especially
< men fall in in single rank and number from the right in fours — Fire Service Drill Book >
— often used with off
< lined up and numbered off >
Synonyms: see count
III. numb·er
comparative of numb
IV. number
1.
a.
b.
c.
< tripped and did a number on her knee >
2. plural
a.
b.
(1)
(2)