1 [usuallybeforenoun] very great in degree:
We are working under extreme pressure at the moment. * thousands of people living in extreme poverty * I'm having extreme difficulty in not losing my temper with her. * The heat in the desert was extreme.
2 not ordinary or usual; serious or severe:
Children will be removed from their parents only in extreme circumstances. * Don't go doing anything extreme like leaving the country. * It was the most extreme example of cruelty to animals I had ever seen. * extreme weather conditions * extreme sports (= dangerous sports, for example SNOWBOARDING and BUNGEEJUMPING)
3 (of people, political organizations, opinions, etc.) far from what most people consider to be normal, reasonable or acceptable:
extreme left-wing / right-wing views * an extreme nationalist organization * Their ideas are too extreme for me.
4 [onlybeforenoun] as far as possible from the centre, the beginning or in the direction mentioned:
Kerry is in the extreme west of Ireland. * She sat on the extreme edge of her seat. * politicians on the extreme left of the party
词性: noun
1 a feeling, situation, way of behaving, etc. that is as different as possible from another or is opposite to it:
extremes of love and hate * He used to be very shy, but now he's gone to the opposite extreme (= changed from one extreme kind of behaviour to another).
2 the greatest or highest degree of sth:
extremes of cold, wind or rain * the climatic extremes of the mountains
IDIOMS
go, etc. to extremes
