2.294 'of'

Many nouns referring to things and actions can be expanded by using prepositional phrases beginning with 'of' as qualifiers after them. This allows the noun to be expanded with a wide range of meanings. You can use 'of' with nouns referring to feelings such as 'love' and 'fear' to indicate what the feeling relates to; for example, 'fear of flying' and 'love of animals'. Further meanings are described in the following paragraphs.