1A large public garden or area of land used for recreation.

1. 1.1 A large enclosed piece of ground attached to a country house.
   the house is set in its own park

   Synonyms

   parkland, grassland, woodland, garden(s), lawns, grounds, estate

   literary greensward
2. 1.2 A large enclosed area of land used to accommodate wild animals in captivity.
   penguin chicks are reared regularly at the park

   a panda cub is drawing the crowds at a wildlife park

   Example sentencesExamples

   • And the wildlife park with over 900 native animals gives one the feel of communicating with nature and a free environment.
   • The old prison is now a museum, and the nearby wildlife park has rare Scottish wildcats as well as silver foxes, badgers, deer and wallabies.
   • It turned out that this was no ordinary deer, but a young orphan - appropriately enough, called Rain - who had been reared from birth by the good folks at Porfell Animal Land wildlife park, near Looe.
   • Thrigby began a new era in 1979 as a wildlife park, and today has a key role in the worldwide network of zoos which are becoming a last refuge for threatened species.
   • Now the North Yorkshire woman has won a court battle for compensation - four years after being mauled by the beast in a wildlife park in South Africa.
   • The judges say the Town Park and the wildlife park in Glendowns are both providing opportunities for wildlife appreciation.
   • His favourite day trip would be a visit to a wildlife park or to the zoo.
   • Paths wind through the dense foliage built through the vastness of a national wildlife park and the darkness magnifies all six senses resulting in a nature walk that will be long remembered.
   • Dr Gaille Parry from the Australian Veterinary Association, and Jo-Anne Youngleson seemed to have recorded that story in between a kennel and a wildlife park.
   • The park that is the home for the Big Five Animals i.e. lions, elephants, leopards, black rhinos and Cape buffalo, is supposed to be the largest wildlife park in the world today.
   • Rural Ireland is a place where people work and make a living, and is not a private wildlife park.
   • Another part of the ‘real’ Cyprus is the Akamas peninsula, a protected wildlife park in the west of the island.
   • Tame and refusing to eat anything other than cat food, the puma, later named Felicity, lived out her days at a wildlife park.
   • The residents will now make submissions on the upcoming review of the Naas Development Plan looking to have the wetlands area formalised as a wildlife park.
   • It is in the east of the diocese and borders Kruger National Park, which is the biggest wildlife park in the world (about the size of Wales).
   • I found a site next to an existing graveyard where we made a wildlife park and they were happy about this.
   • Three are from a wildlife park on the Isle of Wight, and three from an attraction on the South Coast.
   • ‘I also got chased by an emu, which is like a giant bird that doesn't fly, at a wildlife park in Australia once’.
   • In an effort to perk them up and persuade The Smugglers that Australia wasn't the criminal-infested place its historically known as, their tour manager took them to a wildlife park.
   • Now if the Greens were in charge of the wildlife park, what's the bet they would punish the rangers?

   Synonyms

   meadow, pasture, paddock, green, pen, grassland, pastureland, sward
3. 1.3British A children's playground.
   Marcus had the park's swings and slides to himself

   Example sentencesExamples

   • We don't let them go up to the park nearby because older kids sit on the swings drinking up there.
   • Um, one thing, not a good idea to take kids to the park and spin on things straight after ice creams.
   • Christine set up the Action Group after Lancaster City Council took down swings and slides in a local park.
   • It was a beautiful day and I decided to take the kids to the park.
   • A group of children were close to tears after walking to a park only to find dog dirt smeared over the slide and bottles smashed on the floor.
   • As I child I would go to my neighborhood park and swing for hours when I was mad or upset.
   • Danielle chats idly to Tim as they twist and turn on the kiddie's swings at a local park.
   • He saw her alone at the park, sitting on the swings.
   • In the area of Bromley, there are parks with swings and slides, but that can be a bit boring for older kids.
4. 1.4the parkBritish informal (in soccer) the pitch.
   he was the liveliest player on the park

   Example sentencesExamples

   • His presence was enough to send opposing fans into a frenzy - one of the true bad boys of soccer on the park.
   • Once the accountants have trimmed the playing squad to a leaner, more financially efficient unit, they can turn their attention to the number of players on the park on match days.
   • ‘True, home advantage should help but it will come down to the players on the park producing the goods,’ Brewster says.
   • Solidity in the centre of the park is supplied through Smith's conversion into a midfielder, a role where he did not expect to perform.
   • After the break, however, England came more to the fore in the centre of the park and the Rovers midfielder spent most of the half on the back foot as his team came under siege.

   Synonyms

   playing field, football field, field, pitch
5. 1.5North American An enclosed sports ground.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • Not to mention he accomplished this playing his home games in Yankee Stadium, a difficult park for righthanded hitters.
   • The ball had plenty of depth to reach the park's famed left field fence.
   • It appears that in most big league parks, the inside vertical line (closest to home plate) of the batter's box is not outlined.
   • In 1998, Gonzalez played in the old Detroit ballpark, a park where home runs were plentiful.
   • That happened even though RFK Stadium was a big park, and the humid air in Washington didn't help the ball carry.
   • He's moving from a hitters park inhabited by a wretched Royals squad to a neutral park with a good defensive team and pitching coach Leo Mazzone.
   • Spink never left his office in St. Louis, but if you read his ghostwritten column, you'd think he was visiting all the major league parks.
   • Right field at the park faces east, toward Baltimore's Inner Harbor.
   • Among those 163 players, Tony Womack is one of 94 who also hit a grand slam out of the park during their big league careers.
   • He has not been that productive at Dolphins Stadium, a park considered unfriendly to lefthanded power hitters.
   • The old parks had short fences, so it was easy to hit home runs.
   • The Southern League has favored pitching dramatically of late, though the Georgia outfielders will be playing in historically neutral parks.
   • At most major league parks, there's enough padding out there so you don't have to worry about killing yourself.
   • Thus far this season, the number of homers in RFK is 36 percent lower than in other major-league parks.
   • When we first sat in the seats, I noted to my Dad just how similar the park was to Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.
   • First, he was a child following his father around big league parks.
   • There's still a long way to go, it's my dream to see a skateboard park next to every basketball court.
   • The shape of the park challenged left and right fielders in playing caroms off the walls on long drives by opposing hitters.
   • Bleachers surround the court, and the park is packed for every game.
   • This should not happen in a park where the right field wall is 307 feet down the line.

   Synonyms

   stadium, amphitheatre, theatre, coliseum

2with adjective or noun modifier An area devoted to a specified purpose.

1. 2.1British with modifier An area for motor vehicles to be left in.
   a coach park

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Visiting coaches are allowed to drop off and collect passengers at one specific spot, within walking distance of the town centre, and then go to a coach park on the perimeter of the town.
   • Householders and traders fear that a move to relocate a city centre coach park in York will trigger a spiral of decline in a street which has been revived after years of planning blight.
   • But there were reports of further violence in a coach park and in traffic jams where United supporters again came under attack.
   • There is a tea room with a coach park, where you can sit on a plastic chair and look out over the water while your child plays an involved game of throwing a tiny bouncing ball into the troughs of geraniums.
   • It means the car and coach park would need to be sold in a package with the actual building, suggesting a huge development venture in the centre of York.
   • Five children have been arrested in connection with a £30,000 wrecking spree at a Rochford coach park.
   • Sadly, this will lead three-quarters of the audience to go on a murder spree as they head back to the coach park, but that's a price worth paying.
   • He describes his most notable achievements as getting the tourists' car park and coach park built.
   • The sports hall, bowling green and coach park is likely to be lost, and council officers are already looking at the possibility of moving them elsewhere in the city.
   • Even ‘one-horse, whistle-stop’ towns such as Tadcaster have a proper off-the-road coach park.
   • Union Terrace car park will lose more than half its existing spaces so a new coach park and toilet facilities can be built.
   • Charges for the coach park will be £3 for up to four hours and £6 for longer.
   • One cannot help but observe that instead of it being used as a travel point, quite often the bus station is being used by the coach company as a glorified coach park.
   • He said Kent Street coach park was an essential and well-used feature of the city.
   • The current coach park at the racecourse could be a possible site.
   • A coach park was removed in a multi-million-pound revamp of parking facilities outside terminal one last year.
   • It has been suggested that the Clarence Street coach park could be banished out to a Park and Ride site which would fit in with the council's advocacy of Park and Ride.
   • Officers are now looking at considering the design of any coach park, with the aim of reducing the risk of flooding.
   • However, £26,000 is already committed to fund temporary works at Ripon Auction Mart for a long-stay car park and coach park.
   • The first scheme is to extend the Lord Mayor's Walk campus of the College of Ripon and York St John on to the Clarence Street coach park.

3mass noun (in a car with automatic transmission) the position of the gear selector in which the gears are locked, preventing the vehicle's movement.

1Bring (a vehicle that one is driving) to a halt and leave it temporarily, typically in a car park or by the side of the road.

1. 1.1informal with object and adverbial of place Leave (something) in a convenient place until required.
   come on in, and park your bag by the door

   Example sentencesExamples

   • He wanted to park the euro, pretend it didn't exist as a troublesome issue, and try to win the Conservative top job without showing the card he knows could cost him not just a hand but the entire game.
   • I suggest you park the money in an instant-access or short-notice bank or building society deposit account for the time being.
   • Financial transactions and accounts are being tracked and scrutinised very closely, making it difficult to park funds abroad.
   • The separatist Party in Quebec won a lot of seats not because people are voting vote separation but as a place to park their votes and not vote for the Liberals.
   • Its 10 cm of extra length allows for a roomier interior and it also provides somewhere to park the wet umbrella and a rear passenger footrest.
   • I need to do a nifty leftward swerve right where you've parked your eight year old child!
   • At the moment we have just parked the domain and will sort out hosting services later.
   • But there would have to be ‘safe harbour’ products where those who job hop continually could park their benefits.
   • Equally, if Stringer was lost for any period of time then you could park any notions of grandeur until he returned.
   • Which is sweet of them, except that these crèches are not to park your baby in - they're for men.
   • While my proboscis was never truly petite to begin with, neither did it require me to have a face the size of Montana on which to park it.
   • The aim is to allow customers to park money there, content they will receive a decent rate of interest, while they are making investment decisions as well as actively trading.

   Synonyms

   put, put down, place, deposit, set, set down, leave, stick, shove, dump, plump

   informal plonk, plunk

   British informal bung
2. 1.2park oneselfinformal Sit down.
   after dinner, we parked ourselves on a pair of couches

   Example sentencesExamples

   • On Thursday, September 30, 2004, at 9 P.M. EST, millions of people stopped what they were doing and parked themselves in front of the television for the next 90 minutes.
   • I was so bad about parking myself there all afternoon ingesting caffeine and ‘B’ movies that R. actually bribed my baristas with Krispy Kreme doughnuts to cut me off at two ‘real’ shots a day.
   • Which I suppose is fine, except for the fact that they set their little picnic table up in the shade and did not move the entire time. They parked themselves behind this table, drank tea from a thermos and ate fruitcake.
   • Past the Roll of Honor and beyond the stand holding new copies of The Upper Room, our ministers always parked themselves at the front door.
   • Much to Alec Robertson's amusement, he parked himself on a back seat occupying himself munching a crumpet with his morning tea!
   • My Dad drops me over to Ruth's and I park myself down in the comfy seat and wait for the gang to arrive. Katie, Ryan and their gorgeous daughter, Lydia, arrive first, and I enjoy having cuddles while Abbi and Ruth slave away in the kitchen.
   • Regardless of the hot afternoon sun, over 100 tree-lovers parked themselves on the remains of an axed tree, raising slogans against the felling order issued by the BMP of over 700 trees for the purpose of road widening.
   • The woman who had been standing directly in front of the empty seat for the last seven stops moves a metre further up the carriage and parks herself in another empty spot.
   • Pulling up a chair for me (white, naturally), she parks herself on the edge of a table and starts to fill me in on the inspiration behind her latest paintings.
   • So, I've started watching and sure enough, about that time every afternoon she parks herself in that harvest gold easy chair and stares fixedly at the intersection for an hour or so, then goes back in the house.
   • At the start of a routine home fixture he parks himself in a seat high in Ibrox's Main Stand.
   • At the command every student in the room hurriedly parked themselves in their specific seats and waited for instructions from the teacher, Madame Besson.
   • Even after I got up, covered up the light, and eliminated the blinking, the boys parked themselves on guard duty at the foot of the bed and were still sitting there when I fell asleep.
   • They just parked themselves on the edge of their box and played off scraps.
   • But I would feel like a hypocrite parking myself in the evangelical church over the road every Sunday just to get her into the school, when it isn't something that I believe in myself.
   • I had nine minutes to park myself on a seat in my homeroom class before I ran out of time, and it was still a good twelve minutes until I arrived at school.
   • After dinner Jesse and Danny parked themselves on the couch in the family living room.
   • I promptly told my mind to shut up and strolled across the floor to the bar, parking myself in a seat.
   • It was battlestations after that as we dashed back into town and tried to get a decent view of the Mardi Gras parade itself, parking ourselves south a bit from Taylor Square.
   • Children parked themselves on their fathers' shoulders.

   Synonyms

   sit down, seat oneself, settle (oneself), install oneself, plant oneself, ensconce oneself, plump oneself, plop oneself, flump, perch

   informal plonk oneself
3. 1.3informal Postpone consideration of (an idea or plan) until a later date.
   could I suggest we park that suggestion for the moment?

   Example sentencesExamples

   • He tentatively floated the idea with one of the senior fitters a few months ago but met with fierce resistance and parked the idea.
   • The government parked the idea by referring it to an all-party committee looking at the reform of the structures of the Oireachtas.
   • Plans for the development have been parked until after the general election, following a highly critical consultants' report.
   • Mr. McCann goes on to say that the Sligo element of the proposal should be parked for another three years when it could be reviewed again.
   • Fearful of another damaging "Tax Bombshell" campaign by the Tories, Brown parked the idea until after the next election.
   • The banks are celebrating rumours that plans to reform the banking sector have been parked until after the next general election.
   • The issues were parked for reference to the Law Commission.
   • I did have ideas for an 'Engage' page up front which links users to blogs, discussions, and questions but I've decided to park that for now and focus on other requirements.
   • In all likelihood, that idea has also been parked.
   • Mr Haughey suggested all these issues should be parked until the tribunal completed its work.
   • Unless a compromise can be crafted to include thorough safety and security inspections of all tractor-trailers crossing the border, the plan should be parked indefinitely.