signify

The Ayrton Light is switched on to signify that either the House of Lords or the House of Commons are sitting.

Boeing’s plight is just one aspect of a White House tariff policy that increasingly resembles, as Shakespeare might have put it, “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

It can signify poverty, but, as Oyelowo points out, it can also suggest resourcefulness, the ability to create and improvise something new and unexpected out of the available ingredients.

More than seven out of 10 registered voters took part in the poll, which the authorities and some observers hailed as signifying the election took place transparently and peacefully.

This short and gripping thriller nails its Oxford English definition — “the activity of fighting a war” — while stripping away the clichés that have come to signify a Hollywood war movie.