lot

Universal Words pronoun, determiner, adverb, noun pronoun (a lot) (also informal lots) ~ (to do) a large number or amount: 'How many do you need?' 'A lot.' * Have some more cake. There's lots left. * She still has an awful lot (= a very large amount) to learn. * He has invited nearly a hundred people but a lot aren't able to come. -< MANY, MUCH determiner (a lot of) (also informal lots of) a large number or amount of sb/sth: What a lot of presents! * A lot of people are coming to the meeting. * black coffee with lots of sugar * I saw a lot of her (= I saw her often) last summer. -> MANY, MUCH adverb (informal) 1 (a lot) (also informal lots) used with adjectives and adverbs to mean 'much': I'm feeling a lot better today. * I eat lots less than I used to. 2 (a lot) used with verbs to mean 'a great amount': I care a lot about you. * Thanks a lot for your help. * I play tennis quite a lot (= often) in the summer. -< MUCH noun whole amount / number 1 (the lot, the whole lot) [sing.+sing./pl.v.] (informal) the whole number or amount of people or things: She's got a PC, colour printer, scanner-the lot. * Get out of my house, the lot of you! * That's the lot! (= that includes everything) * That's your lot! (= that's all you're getting) group / set 2 [C+sing./pl.v.] (especially BrE) a group or set of people or things: The first lot of visitors has / have arrived. * I have several lots of essays to mark this weekend. * (informal) What do you lot want? items sold 3 [C] an item or a number of items sold, especially at an AUCTION: Lot 46: six chairs area of land 4 [C] an area of land used for a particular purpose: a parking lot * a vacant lot (= one available to be built on or used for sth) luck / situation 5 [sing.] a person's luck or situation in life: She was feeling very dissatisfied with her lot. IDIOMS all over the lot (AmE) = ALLOVERTHEPLACE a bad lot (old-fashioned, BrE) a person who is dishonest by lot using a method of choosing sb to do sth in which each person takes a piece of paper, etc. from a container and the one whose paper has a special mark is chosen draw / cast lots (for sth / to do sth) to choose sb/sth by lot: They drew lots for the right to go first. fall to sb's lot (to do sth) (formal) to become sb's task or responsibility throw in your lot with sb to decide to join sb and share their successes and problems