New Words 222

carrot, noun, /'kærət/

1 a long pointed orange vegetable that grows under the ground.

grated carrots.

carrot juice.

2 something that is offered to someone in order to try and persuade them to do something.

They have refused to sign the agreement despite a carrot of £140 million.

3 carrot and stick a way of trying to persuade someone to do something by offering them something good if they do it, and a punishment if they do not.

the government’s carrot and stick approach in getting young people to find jobs.

dice, noun, /daɪs/

1 (also die) a small block of wood, plastic etc that has six sides with a different number of spots on each side, used in games.

throw/roll the dice

It’s your turn to roll the dice.

2 any game of chance that is played with dice.

3 the dice are loaded the situation is arranged so that a particular person will win or gain an advantage.

4 no dice (especially American English) (old-fashioned spoken) used to refuse to do something or to say that something is not possible.

‘Can I borrow some cash?’ ‘Sorry, no dice.’

5 a throw of the dice something you do that you hope will have an effect on a situation, but is not certain to do so.

a last desperate throw of the dice to try and win his wife back.

dice, verb, /daɪs/

1 (also dice something  up) to cut food into small square pieces.  cut.

diced carrots

2 dice with death to put yourself in a very dangerous situation.

silly, adjective, /'sɪli/

1 not sensible, or showing bad judgment.  stupid.

Stop asking silly questions.

You made a lot of silly mistakes.

I left my keys at home, which was a pretty silly thing to do.

‘Shall we go for a walk?’ ‘Don’t be silly, it’s dark.’

2 stupid in a childish or embarrassing way.

I feel so silly in this outfit.

a silly hat.

I hate their parties – we always end up playing silly games.

3 (spoken) not serious or practical.

They served us coffee in these silly little cups.

4 bore somebody silly to make someone extremely bored.

5 drink/laugh/scare etc yourself silly to drink or laugh etc so much that you stop behaving sensibly.

— silliness, noun, /'silinis/

silly, adjective, /'sɪli/

used to tell someone that you think they are not behaving sensibly.

No, silly, I didn’t mean that.