guides

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of guide.

   The mountain guides led each group safely back before nightfall.

   She keeps a row of field guides for identifying local birds.

   Note

   The plural covers every sense of the noun at once: hired mountain guides, shelves of field guides, roadside guideposts, the key printed on a map, even the blades that channel water onto a water wheel. A modifier in front usually settles which one is meant. The same spelling also serves as the present-tense verb, so the guides (people or books) and it guides (an action) are told apart by what comes before.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of guide.

   The handrail guides your hand along the dark stairwell.

   Each year the senior partner guides the new associates through their first cases.

   Note

   Agreement decides this form. A single subject, such as he, she, it, a handrail or a senior partner, takes guides, while I, you, we and they take bare guide. The verb usually names who or what is led (guides your hand, guides the associates). It can also stand alone in the sense of acting as a guide, and its range stretches from steering a ship to overseeing someone's training.

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