Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Being or representing the entire or total number, amount, or quantity: synonym: whole.
- adjective Constituting, being, or representing the total extent or the whole.
- adjective Being the utmost possible of.
- adjective Every.
- adjective Any whatsoever.
- adjective Pennsylvania Consumed; used up; gone.
- adjective Informal Being more than one.
- noun The whole of one's fortune, resources, or energy; everything one has.
- pronoun The entire or total number, amount, or quantity; totality.
- pronoun Everyone; everything.
- adverb Wholly; completely.
- adverb So much.
- adverb Used as an intensive.
- adverb Each; apiece.
- idiom (all along) From the beginning; throughout.
- idiom (all but) Nearly; almost.
- idiom (all in) Tired; exhausted.
- idiom (all in) Used in poker as a declaration that one is staking all of one's chips.
- idiom (all in all) Everything being taken into account.
- idiom (all of) Not more than.
- idiom (all one) Of no difference; immaterial.
- idiom (all over) Completely ended or finished.
- idiom (all over) In every part; everywhere.
- idiom (all over) Typical of the person or thing just mentioned.
- idiom (all over) Showing much romantic interest or being in close contact.
- idiom (all over) Persistently or harshly critical or scolding.
- idiom (all out) With all one's strength, ability, or resources.
- idiom (all that) To the degree expected.
- idiom (all there) Mentally unimpaired or competent.
- idiom (all told) With everything considered; in all.
- idiom (and all) And other things of the same type.
- idiom (at all) In any way.
- idiom (at all) To any extent; whatever.
- idiom (be all) To say or utter. Used chiefly in verbal narration.
- idiom (in all) Considering everything; all together.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Wholly; entirely; completely; altogether; quite. In this use common with adverbs of degree, especially too: as, he arrived all too late.
- [From the frequent Middle English use of all in this sense before verbs with the prefix to- (see
to- , to-break, to-cut, to-tear, etc.), that prefix, when no longer felt as such, came to be attached to the adverb, all to or alto being regarded as an adverbial phrase or word, and sometimes improperly used, in later English, with verbs having originally no claim to the prefix. - Even; just: at first emphatic or intensive.
- With conjunctions if and though, in conditional and concessive clauses: If all, though all, or reversely, all if, all though, even if, even though. These forms are obsolete, except the last, which is now written as one word, although (which see).
- [When the verb in such clauses, according to a common subjunctive construction, was placed before the subject, the conjunction if or though might be omitted, leaving all as an apparent conjunction, in the sense of even if, although; especially in the formula al be, as al be it, al be it that, al be that (now albe, albeit, which see).
- With conjunction as: All as. Just when; when; as.
- As if.
- Only; exclusively.
- From end to end; in bookbinding, (sewed) in such a manner that the thread passes from end to end of each section, At full length.
- too close to the wind: said of a vessel so brought up into the wind that the sails shake.
- entirely; completely; quite.
- Used especially with drink (see
carouse ). - Thoroughly; entirely: as, “Dombey and Son” is Dickens all over.
- Indisposed; generally ill; having an all-overish feeling.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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We all know that when we say "Men are animals," a form wholly unquantified in phrase, we speak of _all_ men, but not of all animals: it is _some or all_, some may be all for aught the proposition says.
A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume I (of II) Augustus De Morgan 1838
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Also, the universities should be allowed to offer as many scholarships as they want — but the caveat is that the entering players *all* are in the upper 50% of the class with SAT and GPA, and not simply the average of all the sports, etc.
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Cue to last fall, when all the apartment owners in the low rise buildings on the North Road side found out that the big concrete beams of the guideway would cut 50% of their view on the 2nd floor and all of it on the 3rd floor…not to mention that the resale value will go down a lot..all of a sudden a tram looked good..
Bond shies away from major TransLink reforms « Stephen Rees's blog 2010
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Freddy: No, it's the ironing..all the men I have every enjoyed being with all enjoy ironing.
2009: Why it was a brilliant year Ms Robinson 2009
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Not to mention all the humor potential *another* gay Arabic translator - are they *all* gay?
What, Exactly, Is The Gay Agenda? And What Part Should Repeal Of The Defense of Marriage Act Play In It? Tenured Radical 2009
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Yes, we all have to put in work, but we * all* put in work, and as much as possible in equal measures.
Screw Community 2009
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The answer to all this is Clinton will need to get approximately 235 of the remaining 268 superdelegates, or 90% of * all* the remaining superdelegates for her to get nominated on the first ballot.
In Private Pep-Talk To Top Donors, Hillary Predicts: "We're Gonna Win This" 2009
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I will reiterate Muslims love killing Muslims more than anyone, and philosophies of radicalism, puritanism, created the monsters of Terrorism in Islam..thereby destroying all that we stand for..all that we hold upright as Brotherhood and Peace..
Archive 2009-07-01 photographerno1 2009
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Problem is, short of erecting a magic barrier that vaporizes all guns upon entering the city limits, how do you propose to enforce such a ban, in such a way that denies *all* people access to guns, not just the law-abiding?
A New Concept for Gun Control 1 Dinosaur 2009
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October 19, 2009 at 4:48 am good god, man, you of all people deserve a spell…..all work and no play maketh jeff a dull boy…..
skipvia commented on the word all
See oil.
November 1, 2007
oroboros commented on the word all
ALL - (noun) - A petroleum-based lubricant.
Usage: "I sure hope my brother from Jawjuh puts all in my pickup truck."
April 8, 2008
ruzuzu commented on the word all
"USAGE NOTE: The construction all that is used informally in questions and negative sentences to mean 'to the degree expected,' as in I know it won an Oscar, but the film is not all that exciting. In an earlier survey, the Usage Panel rejected the use of this construction in formal writing. · Sentences of the form All X's are not Y may be ambiguous. All of the departments did not file a report may mean that some departments did not file, or that none did. If the first meaning is intended, it can be unambiguously expressed by the sentence Not all of the departments filed a report. If the second meaning is intended, a paraphrase such as None of the departments filed a report or All of the departments failed to file a report can be used. Note that the same problem can arise with other universal terms like every in negated sentences, as in the ambiguous Every department did not file a report. See Usage Note at every."
--The American Heritage Dictionary
September 17, 2010