2
general::
expensive
costing a lot of money:
• an expensive car • Apartments in the city are very expensive. • An underground train system is expensive to build.
high
costing a lot of money.You use high about rents/fees/prices/costs. Don’t use expensive with these words:
• Rents are very high in this area. • Lawyers charge high fees. • the high cost of living in Japan
dear
[ not before noun ] British English spoken expensive compared to the usual price:
• £3.50 seems rather dear for a cup of coffee.
pricey
informal expensive:
• The clothes are beautiful but pricey.
costly
expensive in a way that wastes money:
• Upgrading the system would be very costly. • They were anxious to avoid a costly legal battle.
cost a fortune
informal to be very expensive:
• The necklace must have cost a fortune!
exorbitant
much too expensive:
• Some accountants charge exorbitant fees.
astronomical
astronomical prices, costs, and fees are extremely high:
• the astronomical cost of developing a new spacecraft • the astronomical prices which some people had paid for their seats • The cost of living is astronomical.
overpriced
too expensive and not worth the price:
• The DVDs were vastly overpriced.
somebody can’t afford something
someone does not have enough money to buy or do something:
• Most people can’t afford to send their children to private schools.
Longman-Thesaurus
3
general::
expensive
adverbs
quite/fairly expensive
• The food’s quite expensive, but it’s really nice.
rather/pretty expensive
(= more expensive than you expect )
• I think £1000 for a bed is rather expensive.
very/extremely expensive
• We ate at a very expensive restaurant.
astronomically/phenomenally expensive
(= used to emphasize how expensive something is )
• Some new medical treatments are phenomenally expensive.
hugely expensive
(= extremely expensive, especially when you think something is too expensive )
• The building is hugely expensive to maintain.
ridiculously/outrageously/horrendously expensive
(= extremely expensive, in a way that seems shocking )
• Room service in the hotel was ridiculously expensive.
extortionately expensive
(= extremely expensive, in a way that is not fair or reasonable )
• Houses in some parts of London are extortionately expensive.
prohibitively expensive
formal (= too expensive, with the result that most people cannot afford to buy something )
• HIV medicines are still prohibitively expensive for sufferers in Africa.
verbs
look expensive
• All of her clothes look very expensive.
prove expensive
• Their decision could prove expensive.
nouns
expensive tastes
(= a desire to have things that are very expensive )
• His wife has very expensive tastes and his kids always want the latest things.
an expensive mistake
(= a mistake which results in someone having to spend a lot of money )
• Choosing the wrong builder turned out to be an expensive mistake.
transnet.ir
4
general::
adj. VERBS be, look, prove, seem, sound Her suit looked extremely expensive. | become, get Holidays in this country are getting very expensive. | make sth Adding these safety features would make the cars too expensive. | find sth I found the food very expensive. ADV. amazingly, astronomically, enormously, exceedingly, extortionately, extremely, frighteningly, hideously, highly, horrendously, horribly, hugely, immensely, incredibly, inordinately, ludicrously, massively, outrageously, ridiculously, ruinously, terribly, vastly, very Some of these legal cases are enormously expensive. | impossibly, prohibitively Giving every patient an annual anti-flu injection would be prohibitively expensive. | increasingly | a bit, comparatively, fairly, moderately, pretty, quite, rather, relatively | correspondingly Walls are generally the greatest source of heat loss and correspondingly expensive to tackle. | needlessly, unduly, unnecessarily | notoriously | obviously | discreetly discreetly expensive perfume
Oxford Collocations Dictionary