relative
noun [ C ] uk/ˈrel.ə.tɪv/ us/ˈrel.ə.t̬ɪv/
B1 亲戚，亲属
a member of your family
I don't have many blood relatives (= people related to me by birth rather than by marriage). 我没有几个有血缘关系的亲戚。
All her close/distant relatives came to the wedding. 她所有的近亲／远亲都来参加她的婚礼了。
- More examples
- The children are being cared for by a relative.
- There weren't many people at the funeral - just close family relatives.
- I live in Cambridge, but my relatives live up north in Manchester.
- It is women who mainly shoulder responsibility for the care of elderly and disabled relatives.
- Sundry distant relatives, most of whom I hardly recognized, turned up for my brother's wedding.
relative
adjective formal uk/ˈrel.ə.tɪv/ us/ˈrel.ə.t̬ɪv/
(COMPARING)
C1 相比较而言的；比较的
being judged or measured in comparison with something else
We weighed up the relative advantages of driving there or going by train. 我们权衡了一下，看看开车去那儿和乘火车去哪种方式更有利。
相对的；相比之下有的
true to a particular degree when compared with other things
Since I got a job, I've been living in relative comfort (= more comfort than before). 自从我有了工作，日子过得就相对舒适一些了。
- More examples
- The relative cheapness of foreign travel means that more people are going abroad than ever before.
- We've lived here for 15 years, but we're relative newcomers to the village.
- Now that the civil war is over, relative normality has returned to the south of the country.
- He rose from relative obscurity to worldwide recognition.
- There is a chart on the classroom wall showing the relative heights of all the children.
(CONNECTED)
relative toC2 按…的比例；与…相应
If something is relative to something else, it changes according to the speed or level of the other thing.
The amount of petrol a car uses is relative to its speed. 汽车耗油量和其行驶速度是成比例的。