Home British & World English member

Definition of member in English:

member

noun

1A person, animal, or plant belonging to a particular group.
‘interest from members of the public’
‘a member of the lily family’
‘the bird is the sole member of its species left in the wild’
- ‘It obviously pains him to let an ordinary member of the public contribute and he does so as little as possible.’
- ‘To this day, Janet says, the museum still has a wonderful collection of dried plants, seldom seen by members of the public.’
- ‘All members of the public are welcome to the meeting to participate in the discussion.’
- ‘Cricket bosses, players and members of the public will get together to further plans to recruit budding players and form a team.’
- ‘I doubt if a single member of the British public believes him.’
- ‘To throw items at buses carrying members of the public is just mindless.’
- ‘This service will be of particular interest to members of the community who may not be able to attend mass due to illness.’
- ‘Anyone who would say such a thing has never interacted with a member of another species.’
- ‘He suggested holding meetings at another venue if members of the public were expected to attend.’
- ‘The consequences for these most vulnerable members of society have been inevitable and tragic.’
- ‘We have six horses, one for each member of my family and the remaining four belong to the ranchhands.’
- ‘A spokesman added that a member of the public had reported herding the animal into a field at 10.45 pm.’
- ‘Employees, family members and friends competed with one another in contests of brain and brawn.’
- ‘Lily was a gentle and good natured member of the local rural community, a fine neighbour and kind friend.’
- ‘At the end of each talk, of course, some member of the audience will still ask a question that is really more of a comment.’
- ‘This is where the most desperate, the most wretched members of society end up.’
- ‘She was the sole member of her immediate family to survive, although she suffered serious head, leg and throat injuries.’
- ‘The social gap is evidently widening yet the better off members of society still claim they pay too much.’
- ‘People need help to regain their memory and speech in order to become active members of society.’
- ‘In fact, just the other day I was talking with one member of this generation.’
constituent, element, component, part, portion, piece, unit, factor, feature, attribute
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1. 1.1 A person, country, or organization that has joined a group, society, or team.
  ‘she's an active member of Greenpeace’
  as modifier ‘the EU's member countries’
  ‘He moved to London in 1876, where he became a founder member of the Fabian Society.’
  ‘She also served as an active member of numerous nursing organizations and as a consultant.’
  ‘He possesses impressive legal credentials and is a fellow member of the Federalist Society.’
  ‘As part of our expanding section, the business team is currently looking for two new members to join our team.’
  ‘She belittled me in front of other team members, was extremely sarcastic and passive aggressive towards me.’
  ‘The members of each organization follow a defined general pattern in their business activities.’
  ‘The civil servants on these committees are, in principle, members of a team and not departmental spokesmen.’
  ‘After retirement she was town councillor and deputy mayor and was a member of many local societies.’
  ‘His excellent skills with both bat and ball were at all times a leading example to both his fellow team members and the opposition.’
  ‘Education is a key to developing activists and active members of organisations.’
  ‘Our host will be local historian, Jim Hegarty, who is also an active member of the Society.’
  ‘Kim was a college student from South Korea and an active member of the Film society in his university.’
  ‘At university, I was an active member of a society for magicians.’
  ‘Richard and his fellow team members each received a certificate and commemorative plaque.’
  ‘I was an active member of the Tolkien Society at the time of the first film.’
  ‘He's been an active member in the Society of Travel Writers for over 40 years.’
  ‘Many Labour Party members who attended the conference were disappointed with the event.’
  ‘He was then joined by other members of the team and assisted them in fighting a fire in the airing cupboard.’
  ‘He was an active member of the Philharmonic Society, for which he conducted concerts.’
  ‘As befitting his academic stature, Edward Said was a member of countless organizations and societies.’
  subscriber, associate, representative, attender, insider, fellow, comrade, adherent, life member, founder member, card-carrying member
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2. 1.2 A person formally elected to certain legislative bodies.
  ‘Member of Parliament for Stretford’
  ‘You can urge your Member of Congress to support this bill by taking action here.’
  ‘Dr Vincent Cable is a Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament and Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.’
  ‘All interested parties would then be able to make representations to their Members of Parliament.’
  ‘She thanked the Mayor and Members of the Council, as well as the parents and staff of Carriglea for all they had done.’
  ‘In 1689, he was elected a Member of Parliament for the University, and he moved to London.’
  ‘It is also collecting a petition to be served on the local Member of Parliament, demanding action to protect jobs.’
  ‘She was elected as an Associate Member of the Royal Hibernian Academy and is a Rubicon Artist.’
  ‘Few Members of Congress have taken the plunge and created blogs to communicate with constituents.’
  ‘We need to persuade Members of Congress who voted no last year to vote yes this year.’
  ‘Frank is also a Board Member of the World Body of International Life Saving.’
  ‘In his address the President raised concerns that Members of Parliament were not turning up for work.’
  ‘Tens of thousands of voters have called or faxed their Members of Congress in opposition to the bill.’
  ‘There are restraints on Opposition Members to propose legislation that would impose a direct cost on the State.’
  ‘We need to support those Members of Parliament opposed to these new foundation hospitals.’
  ‘These were tasks to be left to Members of Parliament, people elected to reform the law.’
  ‘Why have they misled opinion formers and policy makers like the Council and Members of Parliament?’
  ‘She was elected as a Member of Parliament for her constituency in 1987.’
  ‘People have a right to be represented by their Member of Parliament.’
  ‘Please contact your Members of Congress to urge them to sponsor and support this bill.’
  ‘He was a past president of the Association of Former Members of the Parliament of New Zealand.’
  member of parliament, mp, member
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3. 1.3 Used in the title awarded to a person admitted to certain honours.
  ‘Member of the Order of the British Empire’
  ‘Ronald Gillespie, professor emeritus in the Department of Chemistry, will be invested as a Member of the Order of Canada in Ottawa this morning.’
  ‘Murray was made a Member of the Order of Australia for his services to Association football on June 12, 2006 as part of the Queen's Birthday honours list.’
  constituent, element, component, part, portion, piece, unit, factor, feature, attribute
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2A constituent piece of a complex structure, especially a component of a load-bearing structure.
‘the main member that joins the front and rear axles’
- ‘Obtain written permission of the engineer prior to field cutting or altering of structural members.’
- ‘Hardwire can even be used on structural steel members to increase their capacity.’
- ‘This will entail the wooden deck over which vehicles travel and some of the main supporting members being replaced.’
- ‘Furthermore the use of bracing using diagonal members to make a structure stiff was well known.’
- ‘If main structural members are to be cut the load must be carried by temporary braces.’
1. 2.1 A part of a sentence, equation, mathematical set, etc.
  ‘We can use any one of the three letters in CAT as the first member of a permutation.’
  ‘No matter which two matrices are chosen, their matrix product will be a member of I.’
  ‘The set C has three members, each of which is a set of sets of shoes.’
  ‘A finite sporadic simple group is a finite simple group which is not a member of one of the standard infinite families.’
  ‘He compared two infinitely large sets and stated that they have an equal number of members.’
3archaic A part of the body, especially a limb.
- ‘The skeleton, which is formed by the union of about 200 bones, is divided like the body into head, trunk, and members.’
- ‘It is very clearly apparent from the admonitions of Galen how great is the usefulness of a knowledge of the bones, since the bones are the foundation of the rest of the parts of the body and all the members rest upon them and are supported, as proceeding from a primary base.’
limb, part of the body, organ
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1. 3.1 Used euphemistically to refer to the penis.
  Compare with membrum virile
  ‘One of the most common misconceptions about our penis is the average size of the male member.’
  ‘Despite the film's mild obsession with the male member, it contains enough entertaining moments and individual performances to justify its existence.’
  ‘Men keep exposing themselves to her, but she remains sternly unimpressed: the male member is easily available anywhere.’
  ‘When the honeymooners retire to the bedroom, his wife runs out screaming about the hugeness of his member.’
  ‘He could feel his voice becoming huskier and his member was becoming uncomfortably hard in his wet jeans.’
  phallus, male member, organ, male organ, sex, erection
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