anything

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“
They hastened past; but Lydia asked a guard whether anything was the matter.

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Definitions (11)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. pronoun Any object, occurrence, or matter whatever.
  2. adverb To any degree or extent; at all: They aren't anything like last year's team.
  3. noun Something or someone of importance: "You had to be something to start with, and Jeremy never was anything” (Anne Tyler).
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Examples (50)

  • He said he would do anything--anything. —  Zuleika Dobson, or, an Oxford love story
  • Like what lady then, who could ever possibly have been taken for one, was Kate Cookham, and therefore how could one have anything--anything of the intimate and private order--out with her fairly and on the plane, the only possible one, of common equality? —  The Finer Grain
  • I will do anything--anything; but let me go I want you," continued Séverac Bablon, "since you deny the ring, to draw aside yonder curtain and look upon what it conceals But Hague drew back yet further Ach, no!" —  The Sins of Séverac Bablon
  • I will do anything--anything--but I must get better in the end! —  The Heart of Una Sackville
  • That wish is always there, at the very bottom of my heart, and at any moment, if I were called upon to choose, I would give up anything--anything! —  More About Peggy
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This word has been looked up 78 times.

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English anything, enything, onything, usually written apart, any thing, eny thing, from Anglo-Saxon œnig thing: see any and thing. In modern use still written apart when the stress is on thing.
  2. from Middle English anything, enything, onything, onythynge, from Anglo-Saxon œnige thinga, earliest form œ¯ngi thinga, literally by any of things: œ¯nige, instrumental of œ¯nig, any; thinga, genitive plural of thing, thing, the noun being taken later as instrumental or accusative, with agreeing adjective
 

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/ˈɛnɪθɪŋ/
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