1 a stage in a process of change or development:
during the first / next / last phase * the initial / final phase of the project * a critical / decisive phase * the design phase * His anxiety about the work was just a passing phase. * She's going through a difficult phase. * The wedding marked the beginning of a new phase in Emma's life.
2 each of the shapes of the moon as we see it from the earth at different times of the month:
the phases of the moon
IDIOMS
in phase / out of phase (with sth) (BrE) working/not working together in the right way:
The traffic lights were out of phase.
verb [VN] [usuallypassive] to arrange to do sth gradually in stages over a period of time:
the phased withdrawal of troops from the area * Closure of the hospitals was phased over a three-year period.
PHRASALVERBS
phase sth<->in to introduce or start using sth gradually in stages over a period of time:
The new tax will be phased in over two years.
phase sth<->out to stop using sth gradually in stages over a period of time:
Subsidies to farmers will be phased out by the year 2000.
Rate this entry
About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for phase is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is phase a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, phase is tagged as noun.
Does phase appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — phase appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
