gain — OET · Shobdo

gain

verb

1 he gained an entrance scholarship to the college:

obtain, get, acquire, come by, procure, secure, attain, achieve, earn, win, capture, clinch, pick up, carry off, reap, gather;

receive, be given, be awarded, come away with;

informal land, net, bag, pot, scoop, wangle, swing, score, nab, collar, cop, hook, get one's hands on, get one's mitts on, get hold of, walk away with, walk off with.

▷antonyms lose.

2 the workers gain high salaries:

earn, bring in, make, get, get paid, pocket, clear, gross, net, realize;

informal rake in, haul in, bag.

3 they stood to gain from the deal:

profit, make money, reap financial reward, reap benefits, benefit;

do well out of, make capital out of;

informal make a killing, milk, cash in on.

▷antonyms lose.

4 all four patients recovered and gained weight:

increase in, put on, add on, build up;

acquire more of something.

▷antonyms lose.

5 we were in the lead but the others were gaining on us:

catch up with, catch up on, catch someone up, catch, narrow the gap between, get nearer to, draw nearer to, close in on, creep up on, come up to, approach, near.

6 it took a while to gain the high ridge:

reach, arrive at, get to, come to, get as far as, make, make it to, attain, set foot on;

end up at, land up at, fetch up at;

informal hit, wind up at.

□ gain ground

the trend is gaining ground rapidly:

make headway, make progress, make strides, progress, advance, proceed, move, get on, get ahead, come on, come along;

informal be getting there.

▷antonyms retrogress; stagnate.

□ gain time

the government was using the negotiations to gain time:

play for time, stall, procrastinate, delay, use delaying tactics, temporize, hold back, hang back, hang fire, dally, drag one's feet, use dilatory tactics;

informal put something on the back burner.

noun

1 his gain from the deal was negligible:

profit, earnings, income, advantage, benefit, reward, emolument, yield, return, winnings, receipts, proceeds, dividend, interest, percentage, takings;

informal pickings, cut, take, rake-off, divvy, whack, slice of the cake;

British, informal bunce.

▷antonyms loss.

2 the effect of overeating is weight gain:

increase, augmentation, addition, rise, increment, accretion, accumulation.

▷antonyms decrease.

3 he made the biggest gain in the last leg of the race:

advance, advancement, progress, forward movement, headway, improvement, step forward.

gain Oxford Dictionary of English