experience

ex|pe|ri|ence1 [ ık`spıriəns ] noun ***

1. ) uncount knowledge and skill gained through time spent doing a job or activity:

You don't need any experience to work here.

We would like to find someone with more experience.

business/teaching experience

limited/considerable/extensive experience

have experience (in something): She has years of experience in the computer industry.

experience with: Do you have any previous experience with children?

experience as: We're looking for someone with experience as a teacher.

get/gain experience: You need to get more management experience.

2. ) uncount the knowledge you get from life and from being in a lot of different situations:

Experience told me not to believe him.

from personal/bitter experience: I can say from personal experience that it's hard not having a job.

from past/previous experience: Helen knew from past experience that there was no point in arguing with him.

in someone's experience: In my experience, very intelligent people can still make terrible mistakes.

3. ) count something that happens to you, or a situation that you are involved in:

our childhood experiences

have an experience: A lot of the people we talked to had had the same experience.

experience of/with: It was her first experience of dealing with people from another culture.

experience for: The whole thing must have been an interesting experience for you.

a bad/strange/traumatic etc. experience: I had a bad experience in the last place I worked.

share your experiences of something (=tell people about them): an opportunity for people to share their experiences of living with the disease

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experience

ex|pe|ri|ence 2 [ ık`spıriəns ] verb transitive ***

1. ) if you experience a problem or a situation, you have that problem or are in that situation:

the discrimination experienced by older people

experience difficulty/problems: Book industries are experiencing the same problems at the moment.

experience something first hand (=experience something directly, instead of hearing about it): At the Chans' house I experienced Chinese hospitality first hand.

2. ) to feel an emotion or a physical feeling:

Are you experiencing any pain?

It was the most wonderful feeling she had ever experienced.