Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- conj. In the same way that it would be if: looked as if she were made of ice.
- conj. That: It seemed as if the meeting would never end.
Wiktionary
- conj. As though; in a manner suggesting.
- conj. In mimicry of.
- interj. idiomatic Refers to something that the speaker deems highly unlikely.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adv. of the same kind, or in the same condition or manner, that it would be if.
- conj. See under As, But.
Examples
“But I couldn't refuse the job either, I thought, because I, too, felt a nagging sense of guilt over Grace Peltier, as if I somehow owed her at least the time it would take to talk to her father.”
“Arthur Franklin sounded kind of nervous, as if there was somebody standing in the shadows behind him brandishing a length of rubber hose.”
“Dark brown eyes that were far too small for his face peered out from beneath strange hoods of flesh, as if the skin had been pulled down from his forehead and up from his cheeks, then stitched in place by the corners of his eyes.”
“It was as if I were the unreal one, the phantasm, and James Jessop who was flesh and blood, skin and bone.”
“John Strzemp blinked at the board as if not, for a moment, wanting to accept what his own eyes were telling him.”
“While the dollar tippers drinking longnecks sat around the empty stage in front, scratching their heads in annoyance, the little stage in the VIP lounge had women jockeying for a piece of the action as if they were at a 90 percent-off sale of Gucci handbags.”
“Mr. Pudd's nostrils flared, as if he could smell her fear and disgust.”
“Instead, they maintained a watchful, vaguely malevolent quality, as if some entity had taken over the body of this odd, dated-looking man, hollowing out his form and controlling his progress by looking through the empty sockets in his head.”
“While other players were quietly contemplating big-money decisions, Robison would gab away nonstop, acting for all the world as if he were in a penny-ante coffee-klatch game.”
“Ragle's façade finally shattered completely, as if the mention of Pudd's name had finally brought home the reality of the threat he was facing.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘as if’.
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This intriguing novel .... is a taut,...
Crimes committed by book reviewers. Terms here are culled shamelessly from a recent New York Times blog post, and the comments that it generated.
Seven Deadly Sins
See a...poignant, compelling, taut, lyrical, spare, eschew, limn, craft, nuanced, contrived, majestic, subtle and 52 more...
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Expressions of disbelief or disagreement
bollocks, come off it, rubbish, as if, bullshit, guff, i don't believe it, are you mad, tosh, nonsense, garbage, bunkum and 58 more...
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in facebook
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Most Frequently Used English Idioms
about to, according to, account for, all of a sudden, after all, as far as, as for, as if, as long as, as soon as, as to, as well as and 70 more...
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(((^)))
Enchancey.
naturally, easily, unlimited, aware, realizing, experiencing, before, during, after, among, expand, beyond and 31 more...
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TT1 Lesson 1
Busch Gardens, parrot, coast, heart, nest, nestled, spectacular, Africa, fashioned, century, excitement, excited and 31 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for as if.
yarb An exclamation of disbelief. Short for "as if that were true", i.e. "you speak as if you were in earnest", the implication being that what the subject is saying cannot possibly be correct.
Grammatically though, how does as if compare to as though? What is the comparative lineage of these two constructions, I wonder? Feb 19, 2010
Telofy Thanks a lot. I must definitely peruse that wikipedia article about the subjunctive mood again. :-)
Not only this section. Jan 18, 2009
rolig Telofy, in colloquial American speech the subjunctive mood is slowly dying out in such constructions. In the sentence, "Every night I start talking as if I knew things", knew is the subjunctive form of the verb. It may look like the past tense, but there is nothing past about it here; it's clearly referring to the ongoing, recurring present. One could even use it in the future: "In three years, Colbert will still be talking as if he knew things." For the verb "to be", the subjunctive form is "were", for all persons: "Every night I start talking as if I were knowledgeable"; "Every night Colbert starts talking as if he were knowledgeable." For earlier generations, these were the only permissible forms in such constructions. But in America, at least since the 1960s (and some more knowledgeable Wordie linguist like qroqqa or sarra could probably give you more exact information), the subjunctive has been deteriorating in colloquial speech (and more and more in formal writing too), so that today you are probaly more likely to hear and read "as if I know things; as if I am knowledgeable". But the meaning is the same. Jan 18, 2009
garyth123 An exclamation intended to convey something like if only that were the case. Jan 18, 2009
Telofy "I come out here every night and start talking as if I know things." -- Stephen Colbert
Can someone tell me when/why it is/isn't know respectively knew in this kind of construction? I'm just watching a few procrastinated Colbert Report episodes and this sentence puzzles me... Thanks. Jan 18, 2009
sionnach �?As if Saul Bellow and Italo Calvino were to have written the ‘Canterbury Tales’ while Robert Heinlein looked over their shoulders.�? Apr 1, 2008