some abrupt occurrence that interrupts an ongoing activity; "the telephone is an annoying interruption"; "there was a break in the action when a player was hurt"
the property of being an amount by which something is less than expected or required; "new blood vessels bud out from the already dilated vascular bed to make up the nutritional deficit"
an excess of liabilities over assets (usually over a certain period); "last year there was a serious budgetary deficit"
(sports) the score by which a team or individual is losing
a deficiency or failure in neurological or mental functioning; "the people concerned have a deficit in verbal memory"; "they have serious linguistic deficits"
(linguistics) a pitch or change in pitch of the voice that serves to distinguish words in tonal languages; "the Beijing dialect uses four tones"
the quality of something (an act or a piece of writing) that reveals the attitudes and presuppositions of the author; "the general tone of articles appearing in the newspapers is that the government should withdraw"; "from the tone of her behavior I gathered that I had outstayed my welcome"
a steady sound without overtones; "they tested his hearing with pure tones of different frequencies"
a musical interval of two semitones
the quality of a person's voice; "he began in a conversational tone"; "he spoke in a nervous tone of voice"
give a healthy elasticity to; "Let's tone our muscles"
change to a color image; "tone a photographic image"
change the color or tone of; "tone a negative"
vary the pitch of one's speech
utter monotonously and repetitively and rhythmically; "The students chanted the same slogan over and over again"
serving to permit or facilitate further work or activity; "discussed the working draft of a peace treaty"; "they need working agreements with their neighbor states on interstate projects"
adequate for practical use; especially sufficient in strength or numbers to accomplish something; "the party has a working majority in the House"; "a working knowledge of Spanish"
the activity or business of negotiating an agreement; coming to terms
a discussion intended to produce an agreement; "the buyout negotiation lasted several days"; "they disagreed but kept an open dialogue"; "talks between Israelis and Palestinians"
a sustained phenomenon or one marked by gradual changes through a series of states; "events now in process"; "the process of calcification begins later for boys than for girls"
a natural prolongation or projection from a part of an organism either animal or plant; "a bony process"
(psychology) the performance of some composite cognitive activity; an operation that affects mental contents; "the process of thinking"; "the cognitive operation of remembering"
a mental process that you are not directly aware of; "the process of denial"
subject to a process or treatment, with the aim of readying for some purpose, improving, or remedying a condition; "process cheese"; "process hair"; "treat the water so it can be drunk"; "treat the lawn with chemicals" ; "treat an oil spill"
perform mathematical and logical operations on (data) according to programmed instructions in order to obtain the required information; "The results of the elections were still being processed when he gave his acceptance speech"
deal with in a routine way; "I'll handle that one"; "process a loan"; "process the applicants"