Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

27 PHRASE If someone says that you can't have it both ways , they are telling you that you have to choose between two things and cannot do or have them both. □  Countries cannot have it both ways: the cost of a cleaner environment may be fewer jobs.

28 PHRASE You say by the way when you add something to what you are saying, especially something that you have just thought of. [SPOKEN ] □  The name Latifah, by the way, means 'delicate'. □  By the way, how did your seminar go?

29 PHRASE You use by way of when you are explaining the purpose of something that you have said or are about to say. For example, if you say something by way of an introduction , you say it as an introduction. □  'I get very superstitious about things like that,' she said by way of explanation.

30 PHRASE If someone changes their ways or mends their ways , they permanently improve their behaviour or their way of doing something. □  What can be done to encourage convicted offenders to change their ways?

31 PHRASE If you clear the way , open the way , or prepare the way for something, you create an opportunity for it to happen. □  The talks are meant to clear the way for formal negotiations on a new constitution. □  The decision could open the way for other children to sue their parents.

32 PHRASE If you say that someone takes the easy way out , you disapprove of them because they do what is easiest for them in a difficult situation, rather than dealing with it properly. [DISAPPROVAL ] □  It is the easy way out to blame others for our failure.

33 PHRASE You use either way in order to introduce a statement which is true in each of the two possible or alternative cases that you have just mentioned. □  The sea may rise or the land may fall; either way the sand dunes will be gone in a short time.

34 PHRASE If you say that a particular type of action or development is the way forward , you approve of it because it is likely to lead to success. [APPROVAL ] □  …people who genuinely believe that anarchy is the way forward.

35 PHRASE If someone gets their way or has their way , nobody stops them doing what they want to do. You can also say that someone gets their own way or has their own way . □  She is very good at using her charm to get her way.

36 PHRASE If one thing gives way to another, the first thing is replaced by the second. □  First he had been numb. Then the numbness gave way to anger.

37 PHRASE If an object that is supporting something gives way , it breaks or collapses, so that it can no longer support that thing. □  The hook in the ceiling had given way and the lamp had fallen blazing on to the table.

38 PHRASE If you give way to someone or something that you have been resisting, you stop resisting and allow yourself to be persuaded or controlled by them. [WRITTEN ] □  It seems the President has given way to pressure from the hardliners.

39 PHRASE If a moving person, a vehicle, or its driver gives way , they slow down or stop in order to allow other people or vehicles to pass in front of them. [BRIT ] □  Give way to traffic coming from the left. in AM, use yield

40 PHRASE If you say that someone or something has a way of doing a particular thing, you mean that they often do it. □  Bosses have a way of always finding out about such things.

41 PHRASE If you say that a person has a way with something or someone, you mean that that person seems to have a natural skill or instinct for dealing with them. [mainly SPOKEN , APPROVAL ] □  Constance doesn't have a way with words like you do.