4 PREP If you move through a group of things or a mass of something, it is on either side of you or all around you. □ We made our way through the crowd to the river. □ Sybil's fingers ran through the water. ● ADV [ADV after v] Through is also an adverb. □ He pushed his way through to the edge of the crowd where he waited.
5 PREP To get through a barrier or obstacle means to get from one side of it to the other. □ Allow twenty-five minutes to get through Passport Control and Customs. □ He was one of the last of the crowd to pass through the barrier. ● ADV [ADV after v] Through is also an adverb. □ …a maze of barriers, designed to prevent vehicles driving straight through.
6 PREP If a driver goes through a red light, they keep driving even though they should stop. □ He was killed at a road junction by a van driver who went through a red light.
7 PREP If something goes into an object and comes out of the other side, you can say that it passes through the object. □ The ends of the net pass through a wooden bar at each end. ● ADV [ADV after v] Through is also an adverb. □ I bored a hole so that the fixing bolt would pass through.
8 PREP To go through a system means to move around it or to pass from one end of it to the other. □ …electric currents travelling through copper wires. □ What a lot of cards you've got through the post! ● ADV [ADV after v] Through is also an adverb. □ …a resolution which would allow food aid to go through with fewer restrictions.
9 PREP If you see, hear, or feel something through a particular thing, that thing is between you and the thing you can see, hear, or feel. □ Alice gazed pensively through the wet glass.
10 PREP If something such as a feeling, attitude, or quality, happens through an area, organization, or a person's body, it happens everywhere in it or affects all of it. □ An atmosphere of anticipation vibrated through the crowd. □ What was going through his mind when he spoke those amazing words?
11 PREP If something happens or exists through a period of time, it happens or exists from the beginning until the end. □ She kept quiet all through breakfast. ● ADV [ADV after v] Through is also an adverb. □ We've got a tough programme, hard work right through to the summer.
12 PREP If something happens from a particular period of time through another, it starts at the first period and continues until the end of the second period. [AM ] □ …open Monday through Sunday from 7:00 am to 10:00 pm. in BRIT, use to 13 PREP If you go through a particular experience or event, you experience it, and if you behave in a particular way through it, you behave in that way while it is happening. □ Men go through a change of life emotionally just like women.
14 ADJ [v-link ADJ ] If you are through with something or if it is through , you have finished doing it and will never do it again. If you are through with someone, you do not want to have anything to do with them again. □ [+ with ] I'm through with the explaining.
15 PREP You use through in expressions such as half-way through and all the way through to indicate to what extent an action or task is completed. □ A competitor collapsed half-way through the marathon. ● ADV [n ADV ] Through is also an adverb. □ Stir the meat about until it turns white all the way through.
16 PREP If something happens because of something else, you can say that it happens through it. □ They are understood to have retired through age or ill health.
17 PREP You use through when stating the means by which a particular thing is achieved. □ Those who seek to grab power through violence deserve punishment.
18 PREP If you do something through someone else, they take the necessary action for you. □ Do I need to go through my doctor or can I make an appointment direct?
19 ADV [ADV after v] If something such as a proposal or idea goes through , it is accepted by people in authority and is made legal or official. □ It is possible that the present Governor General will be made interim President, if the proposals go through. ● PREP Through is also a preposition. □ They want to get the plan through Congress as quickly as possible.
20 PREP If someone gets through an examination or a round of a competition, they succeed or win. □ She was bright, learned languages quickly, and sailed through her exams. ● ADV [ADV after v] Through is also an adverb. □ Nigeria also go through from that group.
21 ADV [ADV after v] When you get through while making a phone call, the call is connected and you can speak to the person you are phoning. □ He may find the line cut on the phone so that he can't get through.
22 PREP If you look or go through a lot of things, you look at them or deal with them one after the other. □ Let's go through the numbers together and see if a workable deal is possible.
23 PREP If you read through something, you read it from beginning to end. □ She read through pages and pages of the music I had brought her. ● ADV [ADV after v] Through is also an adverb. □ He read the article straight through.
24 ADJ [ADJ n] A through train goes directly to a particular place, so that the people who want to go there do not have to change trains. □ …Britain's longest through train journey, 685 miles.
25 ADV [adj ADV ] If you say that someone or something is wet through , you are emphasizing how wet they are. [EMPHASIS ] □ I returned to the inn cold and wet, soaked through by the drizzling rain.