gain
/ɡeɪn/ verb B1- To acquire possession of. · Looks like you’ve gained a new friend.
- To have or receive advantage or profit; to acquire gain; to grow rich; to advance in interest, health, or happiness; to make progress. · The sick man gains daily.
- To come off winner or victor in; to be successful in; to obtain by competition. · to gain a battle; to gain a case at law
- To increase.
- To grow more likely to catch or overtake someone. · to gain ground· I’m gaining (on you).
- To reach. · to gain the top of a mountain
- To draw into any interest or party; to win to one’s side; to conciliate.
- To put on weight. · I’ve been gaining.
Plural gain · He/she/it gains · Past gained · Past participle gained · -ing form gaining
Verb forms
- Base form
- gain
- He/she/it
- gains
- Past
- gained
- Past participle
- gained
- -ing form
- gaining
Phrasal verbs and expressions
From the library
On seeing this, his Dogs took counsel together, and said, “It is time for us to be off, for if the master spare not his oxen, who work for his gain, how can we expect him to spare us?”
Sometimes he weeps bitterly, sometimes laughs boisterously, at other time he passes hours on the seashore, flinging stones in the water and when the flint makes ‘duck-and-drake’ five or six times, he appears as delighted as if he had gained another Marengo or Austerlitz.
I shall soon become a large fish fit for the tables of the rich, and then you can catch me again, and make a handsome profit of me.” The Fisherman replied, “I should indeed be a very simple fellow if, for the chance of a greater uncertain profit, I were to forego my present certain gain.”
The foolish pair, thus hoping to become rich all at once, deprived themselves of the gain of which they were assured day by day.
Other matches
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