One of the first things we did was look at the words we had been given and think of all their possible associations and meanings. We didn't want to get stuck with the most obvious or concrete meanings. To do this we started to brainstorm what we already knew. To help us develop a really detailed understanding of the words we used some really handy tools on the internet:

Lexipedia - this website creates wonderful graphics that show all the possible meanings and associations of a word. I particularly like their fuzzynyms (not quite synonyms, but there is a link!).
Visual Thesaurus - much like Lexipedia, but you can click on the words and chase meaning around in virtual space.
Wordsmyth- A great online dictionary