on toprep.adj.

Brit.

/ˈɒntᵿ/,

/ˈɒntuː/, U.S.

/ˈɔnˌtə/,

/ˈɑnˌtə/,

/ˈɔnˌtu/,

/ˈɑnˌtu/

Forms:

α. 1500s– on to.

β. 1600s– onto.

Origin: Formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: on adv., to prep.

Etymology: < on adv. + to prep.On to is used to express the notion conveyed in Old English by the preposition on with the accusative, and often in Middle English and modern English simply by on (on prep. II.), so as to remove the ambiguity of on , upon , after certain verbs, e.g. ‘to jump on deck’. On to thus has the same relation to on that into has to in . But while in to , into , was in use already in Old English, the need for on to , onto appears not to have been felt before the 16th cent., while its written recognition as a single word is still quite recent and limited. Nonetheless, in the sense in which it corresponds to into , on to is pronounced as a fully integrated compound, with -nt- as in wanting , while in on to , as two words, the n has its full word-final duration. N.E.D. (1903) observes that ‘By most writers on to is avoided, or used only when ambiguity cannot be otherwise avoided’ (instancing, among others, quots. 1777, 1836, and 1870 at sense A. 1aα. ). However, in Britain on to was widely retained in printers' house style during the 20th cent., alongside onto in informal use, while onto is usual in the U.S. On to , onto , in this sense, must be carefully distinguished from modern instances in which on , as the adverbial extension of a verb, is followed by to as a separate word, e.g. to walk on to the next station, to flow on to the sea, to hang on to a person, to lead on to another point; a ship lies broadside on to the waves. Here the two words are no more connected than in up to , down to , out to , away to , back to , etc.; however, in modern use the form onto has become increasingly common, especially in U.S. English. Compare1868 L. M. Alcott Little Women I. vi. 94 ‘For me?’ gasped Beth, holding onto Jo, and feeling as if she should tumble down.1888 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. 1 383 Certain antecedent events that join onto the ones present.1915 R. Beaumont Woollen & Worsted 631 The piece..is evenly damped, raised, or raised across before being passed onto the teazle machine.1976 D. Heffron Crusty Crossed xxviii. 175 He was hanging onto Dot as though they both might collapse to the ground if he let go.1991 J. Hunt & D. Sturge in C. Bondi New Applic. Math. iv. 95 Simpler ‘piecewise’ functions that smoothly join onto each other. On to , onto should also be distinguished from Middle English and early modern English onto , a frequent variant of unto prep. and conj.

A. prep.

I. Indicating physical motion to a position on.

a. To a position or state on or upon (a floor, chair, stage, etc.); so as to be supported by (a part of the body); so as to be transported by (an animal or vehicle).

ΚΠ

α.

1581 B. Rich Farewell Militarie Profession Ep. Ded. sig. Bi^v I haue stept on to the stage..contented to plaie a part.

1599 E. Ford Parismenos iii. 21 Tyresus he was gotten on to a chest, wherewith a while hee applied himself fro drowning.

1607 E. Ford Ornatus & Artesia xii. 87 Ornatus..caught holde on her, and getting on to a planke..with much a doo gatte on to the firm lande.

c1681 E. Hickeringill Trimmer ii, in Wks. (1716) I. 367 Now that I have got you on to my own ground.

1777 C. A. Burney Jrnl. in F. Burney Early Diary (1889) II. 287 Mr. Suard tumbled on to the sopha directly, Mr. Thrale on to a chair.

1836 C. Dickens Pickwick Papers (1837) ii. 8 Assisting Mr. Pickwick on to the roof.

1870 H. Maudsley Body & Mind 13 If laid on its back, it struggles on to its legs again.

1890 L. C. D'Oyle Notches Rough Edge Life 92 He jumped hastily on to his pony (from the wrong side, after the Indian fashion).

1965 A. Lurie Nowhere City II. x. 96 Paul stopped..and dropped his towel on to the sand.

1984 M. Amis Money 300 I walk out on to the terrace with a glass of white wine.

2000 C. Tudge Variety of Life i. iv. 69 Animals and plants that expire in tropical forests fall on to warm moist soil.

β. 1715 Duxbury (Mass.) Rec. (1893) 105 [A] place gutted away by the rain down onto Mr. Wiswells land.1758 R. Putnam Jrnl. 3 June (1886) 62 Capt. Nixon's men..fell a tree onto some men as they were in another camp.1830 R. Forby & G. Turner Ess. III, in R. Forby Vocab. E. Anglia I. 155 For the preposition upon, when it signifies motion to, we use onto (why not as good as into?). Ex. ‘Throw some coals onto the fire’.1886 Outing 9 49/2 Tell ye what, jist climb onto my pony, an' we'll pike fer the spring.1938 L. Bemelmans Life Class ii. iii. 142 Everything..can be rushed at a moment's notice onto the tables.1954 C. S. Lewis Horse & his Boy vi. 76 He jumped down onto the rubbish.1985 Times 26 Aug. 8/3 Occasions when luggage is checked onto a flight and the passenger fails to turn up.2000 Ralph 7 July 86/3 His grip gave way and he dropped another 10 floors onto a cyclone fence.

b. To a state of membership of or inclusion within (a group, listing, category, market, etc.).

ΚΠ

1857 W. Napier Life & Opinions Sir C. J. Napier I. 377 It was in strict accordance with the customs of the service, namely, to place some captains on to the field officers' rolster.

1883 J. Brinsley-Richards Seven Years at Eton xii. 112 To try and pass on to the foundation as a King's scholar.

1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 673/2 The precipitated alizarin is then well washed and made into a paste with water, in which form it is put on to the market.

1921 H. Laski in Holmes–Laski Lett. (1953) I. 370 They are quite intolerable..—pushing their little quack remedies, interested in getting the wrong books on to lists of required reading.

1976 Educ. & Community Relations July 2/2 It may occur that a student is not accepted onto a sandwich course.

2002 Evening Times (Glasgow) (Nexis) 10 Oct. 38 The chat show queen invited her on to her show.

c. Indicating the recipient of an undesirable responsibility or burden.

ΚΠ

a1860 in J. R. Bartlett Dict. Americanisms (ed. 3) 458 We got stuck with a bad lot of paper, and were obliged to stick it on to our readers.

1898 E. N. Westcott David Harum xxiii. 213 I believe if the meetin'-house roof was to blow off you'd lay it onto me somehow.

1916 Anzac Bk. 102 His mates used to..shunt all the work, such as sweeping out the ‘possie’, or trenches, on to him.

1992 B. Keenan Evil Cradling xii. 170 Occasionally I..condemned these men for giving vent to their frustrations.., offloading them onto me when I could hardly deal with my own.

d. So as to be regularly consuming or taking (a diet, a drug, etc.).

ΚΠ

1957 D. P. Costello tr. S. Hedayat Blind Owl (2001) iv. 55 I was to go onto a diet of ass' [sic] milk and barley-water.

1959 T. Williams Let. 8 July in Five O'Clock Angel (1991) 161 She has gone off the bottle and onto the happy pills and the sleepy pills.

1985 D. Koonitz Door to December ii. xix. 166 Help smokers get off cigarettes—by getting them onto drugs? Hells' bells.

1997 Mirror (Electronic ed.) 24 Oct. At around five months a baby goes on to mixed feeding.

a. Into a position on the surface of; so as to be attached to or surrounding; into physical contact with.

ΚΠ

1632 Guillim's Display of Heraldrie (ed. 2) iv. xiv. 343 This vamplet..is taken off and put on to the staffe or speare at pleasure.

1692 Smith's Sea-mans Gram. (new ed.) i. xvi. 79 Lash the Fish on to the Mast.

1733 J. Tull Horse-hoing Husbandry xxiii. 179 The Hopper and Spindle are..kept in their Place..by two Wreaths screw'd on to the Spindle.

1741 H. Fielding Shamela 46 He answered..that he had found the three Hares tied on to the Saddle dead in a Ditch.

1760 J. Hawkins in Walton's & Cotton's Compl. Angler 139 (note) The winch must be screwed on to the butt of your rod.

1788 J. May Jrnl. 30 June (1873) (modernized text) 75 I put powder-horn and shot-bag onto him, and a gun in his hand.

1862 Macmillan's Mag. May 17 I have seen..an officer with his shoulder-knots sewed on to a common plain frock-coat.

1888 F. Rutley Rock-forming Minerals 22 A nut which screws on to the end of the spindle and is tightened up by means of a spanner.

1892 Labour Comm. Gloss. A wheel with vanes fixed on to a rotating shaft.

a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) I. xx. 603 The missel-thrush..cleans off the viscid seed from its bill by rubbing it on to a branch.

1994 M. Brinkley Housebuilder's Bible (ed. 5) viii. 124/3 Simple little gizmos fitted on to the bottom of the radiators.

b. Indicating the medium (as tape, video, etc.) to which data is sent for storage. Cf. on prep. 3b.

ΚΠ

1936 P. Rotha Documentary Film ii. 77 Nothing photographed, or recorded on to celluloid, has meaning until it comes to the cutting-bench.

1972 Computer Jrnl. 15 191/2 A simple application of this principle in the case of a disc-base filing sytem is to dump the entire disc on to magnetic tape at suitable intervals.

1991 Photo Answers June 95/4 (advt.) Transfer your cine, photographs, slides onto video cassette.

a. So as to give access to or lead into. Chiefly in to open on to: see open v. 8.

ΚΠ

1801 Lusignan III. 155 A library, opening through a greenhouse on to a lawn.

1850 J. M. Neale Hist. Holy Eastern Church: Pt. 1 I. 245 The esonarthex opens on to the church by nine doors.

1885 Law Times 80 5/1 The rooms have an outer door opening on to a common staircase.

1912 J. Conrad 'Twixt Land & Sea iv. 47 [The dining-room] was lighted by three glass doors which stood wide open on to a verandah.

1977 P. Kavanagh By Night Unstarred ii. 30 Peter went on his way towards the gate that let onto the lane on the..side of the crossroads.

1994 R. Hellenga Sixteen Pleasures xii. 202 It was a comfortable room given some character by beautiful French doors that opened onto a balcony.

b. In the direction of; so as to reach.

ΚΠ

1838 G. P. R. James Robber I. i. 8 The stranger's eye roved on to the landscape.

1850 J. Greenwood Sailor's Sea-bk. 113 Dagger, a piece of timber that faces on to the poppets of the bilgeways.

1870 Daily News 1 Feb. Where the fault lies is in bad training of the gun on to the object intended to be aimed at.

1893 Strand Mag. 6 268/2 The dining-room looks on to the Melbury Road.

1901 J. Black Illustr. Carpenter & Builder Ser.: Home Handicrafts 37 This may be noticed in any house which points on to a busy thoroughfare.

1966 J. Cheever Jrnls. (1991) 216 He turns the beam of his brown eye onto me.

1993 Your Garden May 110/2 There are two large picture windows..one..looks on to Jean's raised vegetable garden.

c. Into (detrimental) contact or collision with.

ΚΠ

1846 G. Flagg Let. in B. Lawrence & N. Branz Flagg Corr. (1986) 72 In danger every hour of running against a snag or onto a sand bar.

1881 B. Waugh Sunday Evening with Children xxxix. 332 A steamer..was reported to be driven onto the rocks.

1895 Law Times Rep. 73 156/2 Two vessels..drifted through the violence of a storm on to the toe of a breakwater.

1973 Maclean's Jan. 16/1 At dusk, the Nordfjeld slammed onto a ‘sunker’, a rock that's awash at high tide, one mile off Flowers Cove.

1992 B. Morgan Random Passage ii. 39 Arctic ice..drifts onto the Cape in loose pans that grind together, rafting up on shore, sometimes tipping on edge like giant dinner plates.

d. Indicating the quarry or object of attack.

ΚΠ

1876 in C. Mordaunt & W. R. Verney Ann. Warwickshire Hunt (1896) II. 7 Were halloaed on to a fox from Frog Hall Osiers, and ran him very pretty by Kineton Village.

1888 C. E. L. Riddell Nun's Curse I. vi. 106 He broke into a great laugh, and shouted the dogs on to her.

1941 D. Masters So Few xxx. 333 I've got to get a Hun tonight. I'll give you a bottle of champagne if you put me on to one.

1995 E. Dench From Barbarians to New Men 159 The outrageous emperor had Marsic priests collect the snakes, which he then unleashed onto crowds gathered before the games.

4. U.S. regional (chiefly southern and Midland) and Canadian regional. On, upon.

ΚΠ

1843 Knickerbocker 22 426 No pastur to feed your cows onto.

1907 S. E. White Arizona Nights (U.K. ed.) 84 We run on a four-months' calf all by himself with the T O iron onto him.

1977 C. Hall Bayo (1986) i. 18 ‘Bayo's all right. You don't know the type like him.’ ‘He's got no head onto him.’

1986 in Dict. Amer. Regional Eng. (1996) III. 885 You don't see those onto houses now.

5. Mathematics. In form onto. Expressing the relationship of a set to its image under a mapping when every element of the image set has an inverse image in the first set.

ΚΠ

1928 Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 30 317 The transformation will be one-to-one and conformal for the mapping of the closed interior of C_i+ε..onto the closed interior of the circle |x| = 1 + ε, ε > 0.

1940 C. C. MacDuffee Introd. Abstr. Algebra ii. 54 If a homomorphism of A onto B exists, we write A ∼ B.

1962 B. H. Arnold Intuitive Concepts Elem. Topol. vii. 113 Each of the sets X and Y is the set of all real numbers; f(x) = 2x. The transformation f: X → Y is onto Y.

1971 E. C. Dade in M. B. Powell & G. Higman Finite Simple Groups viii. 307 λ is an epimorphism of A onto a field F.

1990 Proc. London Math. Soc. 60 69 The projection of W onto S_m (corresponding to this semidirect decomposition) will be denoted by π.

II. Indicating the goal of attention, enquiry, etc.

6. In touch with, esp. for the purpose of soliciting or supplying information or assistance. Cf. to get on to —— 3 at get v. Phrasal verbs 2.

ΚΠ

1863 E. C. Gaskell Sylvia's Lovers II. xii. 227 ‘If she asks me, Philip, what mun I say?’.. ‘If she does, put her on to me.’

1949 P. G. Wodehouse Uncle Dynamite ii. 27 Old Bostock wanted a bust of himself..and I got her to put him on to Sally.

1991 S. Fry Liar (1992) xi. 322 Get on to Dunwoody at Vienna.

2001 M. Blake 24 Karat Schmooze xxviii. 318 ‘Who's your contact?’ ‘Bill Peterson put me onto you.’

a. colloquial (originally U.S.). Aware of or knowledgeable about (a person, state of affairs, etc.); having well-founded suspicions about. Frequently in to be on to something. Cf. on adv. 13d; wise adj. 3b.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > knowledge, what is known > aware of [preposition]

that one knows of1610

on to1877

1877 Chicago Street Gaz. 20 Oct. 1/2 May Willard, why don't you take a tumble to yourself and not be trying to put on so much style around the St. Mark's Hotel, for very near all of the boys are on to you.

1880 Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago) 2 June 6/3 The visitors taking kindly to Ward's curves, Dunlap and McCormick especially getting on to him in fine style.

1895 Voice (N.Y.) 28 Mar. 4/2 It is a very pretty game, governor, but the people are onto it.

1923 P. G. Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves ix. 97 I knew there wasn't a chance of my being able to work this stage wheeze in London without somebody getting on to it and tipping off the guv'nor.

1959 J. Osborne World Paul Slickey i. v. 50 I can't help feeling that he's on to us... That he knows about us.

1973 G. Mitchell Murder of Busy Lizzie xiii. 151 ‘Won't you even tell Gavin that we may be on to something?’..‘You may say that I have certain suspicions, if you like.’

1997 K. O'Riordan Boy in Moon viii. 150 The thought had only just occurred to her but somehow, from the extent of his agitation, she felt that she was on to something.

b. Into or in a state of attending to or dealing with (a job, or task, esp. an investigation).

ΚΠ

1914 A. Conan Doyle Valley of Fear i. iii, in Strand Mag. Oct. 367/2 The worthy country policeman shook his head. ‘Seems to me the sooner we get London on to this case the better.’

1965 D. Francis Odds Against vi. 86 I'll put one of the boys on to it and let you have a prelim. Is it urgent?

2000 J. K. Rowling Harry Potter & Goblet of Fire xxviii. 487 ‘I don't know where Barty Crouch is,’ Dumbledore told Moody, ‘but it is essential that we find him.’ ‘I'm onto it,’ growled Moody.

8. Indicating an activity or resource which is likely to be beneficial (also (occasionally) detrimental) to one.

ΚΠ

a1889 J. Albery Dramat. Wks. (1939) I. 191 I'll put her on to a good thing.

1895 N.Y. Dramatic News 12 Oct. 5/3 Mr. Jack is always a newspaper man's friend, and only too pleased to put one on ‘to a good thing’ in the shape of news.

1898 J. D. Brayshaw Slum Silhouettes 100 As luck would have it, I managed to put the old man on to a good thing.

1925 S. Lewis Arrowsmith vi. 65 She puts me onto a lot of good stunts.

1970 Daily Tel. 31 Mar. 15/3 The Queen realised she was on to a winner with her New Zealand ‘walkabouts’.

1990 Reader's Digest June 71/1 You're on to a loser if you try and tell them what to do.

2003 Heat 4 Jan. 38 Britney is also on to a winner with a dashing dirty denim number.

B. adj.

Mathematics. In form onto. Designating a mapping of one set on to another. Cf. into adj.

ΘΚΠ

the world > relative properties > number > arithmetic or algebraic operations > transformation > [adjective] > having specific correspondence > of mapping into or onto

to be on about1907

on to1942

into1949

1942 S. Lefschetz Algebraic Topol. i. 7 If a transformation is ‘onto’, the inverse image of the complement of a set is the complement of the inverse image of that set.

1951 N. Jacobson Lect. Abstr. Algebra I. 4 If α is a mapping of S into T, and β is a mapping of T into S such that αβ = 1_S and βα = 1_T, then α and β are 1−1, onto mappings and β = α⁻¹.

1971 E. C. Dade in M. B. Powell & G. Higman Finite Simple Groups viii. 285 By Lemma 9.5 the map is onto.

1990 Glasgow Math. Jrnl. 32 374 The fact that every nonzero ideal of R((x)) intersects R[[x]] nontrivially implies this mapping is onto.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2004; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

单词	on to
释义	on toprep.adj. Brit. /ˈɒntᵿ/, /ˈɒntuː/, U.S. /ˈɔnˌtə/, /ˈɑnˌtə/, /ˈɔnˌtu/, /ˈɑnˌtu/ Forms: α. 1500s– on to. β. 1600s– onto. Origin: Formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: on adv., to prep. Etymology: < on adv. + to prep.On to is used to express the notion conveyed in Old English by the preposition on with the accusative, and often in Middle English and modern English simply by on (on prep. II.), so as to remove the ambiguity of on , upon , after certain verbs, e.g. ‘to jump on deck’. On to thus has the same relation to on that into has to in . But while in to , into , was in use already in Old English, the need for on to , onto appears not to have been felt before the 16th cent., while its written recognition as a single word is still quite recent and limited. Nonetheless, in the sense in which it corresponds to into , on to is pronounced as a fully integrated compound, with -nt- as in wanting , while in on to , as two words, the n has its full word-final duration. N.E.D. (1903) observes that ‘By most writers on to is avoided, or used only when ambiguity cannot be otherwise avoided’ (instancing, among others, quots. 1777, 1836, and 1870 at sense A. 1aα. ). However, in Britain on to was widely retained in printers' house style during the 20th cent., alongside onto in informal use, while onto is usual in the U.S. On to , onto , in this sense, must be carefully distinguished from modern instances in which on , as the adverbial extension of a verb, is followed by to as a separate word, e.g. to walk on to the next station, to flow on to the sea, to hang on to a person, to lead on to another point; a ship lies broadside on to the waves. Here the two words are no more connected than in up to , down to , out to , away to , back to , etc.; however, in modern use the form onto has become increasingly common, especially in U.S. English. Compare1868 L. M. Alcott Little Women I. vi. 94 ‘For me?’ gasped Beth, holding onto Jo, and feeling as if she should tumble down.1888 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. 1 383 Certain antecedent events that join onto the ones present.1915 R. Beaumont Woollen & Worsted 631 The piece..is evenly damped, raised, or raised across before being passed onto the teazle machine.1976 D. Heffron Crusty Crossed xxviii. 175 He was hanging onto Dot as though they both might collapse to the ground if he let go.1991 J. Hunt & D. Sturge in C. Bondi New Applic. Math. iv. 95 Simpler ‘piecewise’ functions that smoothly join onto each other. On to , onto should also be distinguished from Middle English and early modern English onto , a frequent variant of unto prep. and conj. A. prep. I. Indicating physical motion to a position on. 1. a. To a position or state on or upon (a floor, chair, stage, etc.); so as to be supported by (a part of the body); so as to be transported by (an animal or vehicle). ΚΠ α. 1581 B. Rich Farewell Militarie Profession Ep. Ded. sig. Bi^v I haue stept on to the stage..contented to plaie a part. 1599 E. Ford Parismenos iii. 21 Tyresus he was gotten on to a chest, wherewith a while hee applied himself fro drowning. 1607 E. Ford Ornatus & Artesia xii. 87 Ornatus..caught holde on her, and getting on to a planke..with much a doo gatte on to the firm lande. c1681 E. Hickeringill Trimmer ii, in Wks. (1716) I. 367 Now that I have got you on to my own ground. 1777 C. A. Burney Jrnl. in F. Burney Early Diary (1889) II. 287 Mr. Suard tumbled on to the sopha directly, Mr. Thrale on to a chair. 1836 C. Dickens Pickwick Papers (1837) ii. 8 Assisting Mr. Pickwick on to the roof. 1870 H. Maudsley Body & Mind 13 If laid on its back, it struggles on to its legs again. 1890 L. C. D'Oyle Notches Rough Edge Life 92 He jumped hastily on to his pony (from the wrong side, after the Indian fashion). 1965 A. Lurie Nowhere City II. x. 96 Paul stopped..and dropped his towel on to the sand. 1984 M. Amis Money 300 I walk out on to the terrace with a glass of white wine. 2000 C. Tudge Variety of Life i. iv. 69 Animals and plants that expire in tropical forests fall on to warm moist soil. β. 1715 Duxbury (Mass.) Rec. (1893) 105 [A] place gutted away by the rain down onto Mr. Wiswells land.1758 R. Putnam Jrnl. 3 June (1886) 62 Capt. Nixon's men..fell a tree onto some men as they were in another camp.1830 R. Forby & G. Turner Ess. III, in R. Forby Vocab. E. Anglia I. 155 For the preposition upon, when it signifies motion to, we use onto (why not as good as into?). Ex. ‘Throw some coals onto the fire’.1886 Outing 9 49/2 Tell ye what, jist climb onto my pony, an' we'll pike fer the spring.1938 L. Bemelmans Life Class ii. iii. 142 Everything..can be rushed at a moment's notice onto the tables.1954 C. S. Lewis Horse & his Boy vi. 76 He jumped down onto the rubbish.1985 Times 26 Aug. 8/3 Occasions when luggage is checked onto a flight and the passenger fails to turn up.2000 Ralph 7 July 86/3 His grip gave way and he dropped another 10 floors onto a cyclone fence. b. To a state of membership of or inclusion within (a group, listing, category, market, etc.). ΚΠ 1857 W. Napier Life & Opinions Sir C. J. Napier I. 377 It was in strict accordance with the customs of the service, namely, to place some captains on to the field officers' rolster. 1883 J. Brinsley-Richards Seven Years at Eton xii. 112 To try and pass on to the foundation as a King's scholar. 1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 673/2 The precipitated alizarin is then well washed and made into a paste with water, in which form it is put on to the market. 1921 H. Laski in Holmes–Laski Lett. (1953) I. 370 They are quite intolerable..—pushing their little quack remedies, interested in getting the wrong books on to lists of required reading. 1976 Educ. & Community Relations July 2/2 It may occur that a student is not accepted onto a sandwich course. 2002 Evening Times (Glasgow) (Nexis) 10 Oct. 38 The chat show queen invited her on to her show. c. Indicating the recipient of an undesirable responsibility or burden. ΚΠ a1860 in J. R. Bartlett Dict. Americanisms (ed. 3) 458 We got stuck with a bad lot of paper, and were obliged to stick it on to our readers. 1898 E. N. Westcott David Harum xxiii. 213 I believe if the meetin'-house roof was to blow off you'd lay it onto me somehow. 1916 Anzac Bk. 102 His mates used to..shunt all the work, such as sweeping out the ‘possie’, or trenches, on to him. 1992 B. Keenan Evil Cradling xii. 170 Occasionally I..condemned these men for giving vent to their frustrations.., offloading them onto me when I could hardly deal with my own. d. So as to be regularly consuming or taking (a diet, a drug, etc.). ΚΠ 1957 D. P. Costello tr. S. Hedayat Blind Owl (2001) iv. 55 I was to go onto a diet of ass' [sic] milk and barley-water. 1959 T. Williams Let. 8 July in Five O'Clock Angel (1991) 161 She has gone off the bottle and onto the happy pills and the sleepy pills. 1985 D. Koonitz Door to December ii. xix. 166 Help smokers get off cigarettes—by getting them onto drugs? Hells' bells. 1997 Mirror (Electronic ed.) 24 Oct. At around five months a baby goes on to mixed feeding. 2. a. Into a position on the surface of; so as to be attached to or surrounding; into physical contact with. ΚΠ 1632 Guillim's Display of Heraldrie (ed. 2) iv. xiv. 343 This vamplet..is taken off and put on to the staffe or speare at pleasure. 1692 Smith's Sea-mans Gram. (new ed.) i. xvi. 79 Lash the Fish on to the Mast. 1733 J. Tull Horse-hoing Husbandry xxiii. 179 The Hopper and Spindle are..kept in their Place..by two Wreaths screw'd on to the Spindle. 1741 H. Fielding Shamela 46 He answered..that he had found the three Hares tied on to the Saddle dead in a Ditch. 1760 J. Hawkins in Walton's & Cotton's Compl. Angler 139 (note) The winch must be screwed on to the butt of your rod. 1788 J. May Jrnl. 30 June (1873) (modernized text) 75 I put powder-horn and shot-bag onto him, and a gun in his hand. 1862 Macmillan's Mag. May 17 I have seen..an officer with his shoulder-knots sewed on to a common plain frock-coat. 1888 F. Rutley Rock-forming Minerals 22 A nut which screws on to the end of the spindle and is tightened up by means of a spanner. 1892 Labour Comm. Gloss. A wheel with vanes fixed on to a rotating shaft. a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) I. xx. 603 The missel-thrush..cleans off the viscid seed from its bill by rubbing it on to a branch. 1994 M. Brinkley Housebuilder's Bible (ed. 5) viii. 124/3 Simple little gizmos fitted on to the bottom of the radiators. b. Indicating the medium (as tape, video, etc.) to which data is sent for storage. Cf. on prep. 3b. ΚΠ 1936 P. Rotha Documentary Film ii. 77 Nothing photographed, or recorded on to celluloid, has meaning until it comes to the cutting-bench. 1972 Computer Jrnl. 15 191/2 A simple application of this principle in the case of a disc-base filing sytem is to dump the entire disc on to magnetic tape at suitable intervals. 1991 Photo Answers June 95/4 (advt.) Transfer your cine, photographs, slides onto video cassette. 3. a. So as to give access to or lead into. Chiefly in to open on to: see open v. 8. ΚΠ 1801 Lusignan III. 155 A library, opening through a greenhouse on to a lawn. 1850 J. M. Neale Hist. Holy Eastern Church: Pt. 1 I. 245 The esonarthex opens on to the church by nine doors. 1885 Law Times 80 5/1 The rooms have an outer door opening on to a common staircase. 1912 J. Conrad 'Twixt Land & Sea iv. 47 [The dining-room] was lighted by three glass doors which stood wide open on to a verandah. 1977 P. Kavanagh By Night Unstarred ii. 30 Peter went on his way towards the gate that let onto the lane on the..side of the crossroads. 1994 R. Hellenga Sixteen Pleasures xii. 202 It was a comfortable room given some character by beautiful French doors that opened onto a balcony. b. In the direction of; so as to reach. ΚΠ 1838 G. P. R. James Robber I. i. 8 The stranger's eye roved on to the landscape. 1850 J. Greenwood Sailor's Sea-bk. 113 Dagger, a piece of timber that faces on to the poppets of the bilgeways. 1870 Daily News 1 Feb. Where the fault lies is in bad training of the gun on to the object intended to be aimed at. 1893 Strand Mag. 6 268/2 The dining-room looks on to the Melbury Road. 1901 J. Black Illustr. Carpenter & Builder Ser.: Home Handicrafts 37 This may be noticed in any house which points on to a busy thoroughfare. 1966 J. Cheever Jrnls. (1991) 216 He turns the beam of his brown eye onto me. 1993 Your Garden May 110/2 There are two large picture windows..one..looks on to Jean's raised vegetable garden. c. Into (detrimental) contact or collision with. ΚΠ 1846 G. Flagg Let. in B. Lawrence & N. Branz Flagg Corr. (1986) 72 In danger every hour of running against a snag or onto a sand bar. 1881 B. Waugh Sunday Evening with Children xxxix. 332 A steamer..was reported to be driven onto the rocks. 1895 Law Times Rep. 73 156/2 Two vessels..drifted through the violence of a storm on to the toe of a breakwater. 1973 Maclean's Jan. 16/1 At dusk, the Nordfjeld slammed onto a ‘sunker’, a rock that's awash at high tide, one mile off Flowers Cove. 1992 B. Morgan Random Passage ii. 39 Arctic ice..drifts onto the Cape in loose pans that grind together, rafting up on shore, sometimes tipping on edge like giant dinner plates. d. Indicating the quarry or object of attack. ΚΠ 1876 in C. Mordaunt & W. R. Verney Ann. Warwickshire Hunt (1896) II. 7 Were halloaed on to a fox from Frog Hall Osiers, and ran him very pretty by Kineton Village. 1888 C. E. L. Riddell Nun's Curse I. vi. 106 He broke into a great laugh, and shouted the dogs on to her. 1941 D. Masters So Few xxx. 333 I've got to get a Hun tonight. I'll give you a bottle of champagne if you put me on to one. 1995 E. Dench From Barbarians to New Men 159 The outrageous emperor had Marsic priests collect the snakes, which he then unleashed onto crowds gathered before the games. 4. U.S. regional (chiefly southern and Midland) and Canadian regional. On, upon. ΚΠ 1843 Knickerbocker 22 426 No pastur to feed your cows onto. 1907 S. E. White Arizona Nights (U.K. ed.) 84 We run on a four-months' calf all by himself with the T O iron onto him. 1977 C. Hall Bayo (1986) i. 18 ‘Bayo's all right. You don't know the type like him.’ ‘He's got no head onto him.’ 1986 in Dict. Amer. Regional Eng. (1996) III. 885 You don't see those onto houses now. 5. Mathematics. In form onto. Expressing the relationship of a set to its image under a mapping when every element of the image set has an inverse image in the first set. ΚΠ 1928 Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 30 317 The transformation will be one-to-one and conformal for the mapping of the closed interior of C_i+ε..onto the closed interior of the circle \|x\| = 1 + ε, ε > 0. 1940 C. C. MacDuffee Introd. Abstr. Algebra ii. 54 If a homomorphism of A onto B exists, we write A ∼ B. 1962 B. H. Arnold Intuitive Concepts Elem. Topol. vii. 113 Each of the sets X and Y is the set of all real numbers; f(x) = 2x. The transformation f: X → Y is onto Y. 1971 E. C. Dade in M. B. Powell & G. Higman Finite Simple Groups viii. 307 λ is an epimorphism of A onto a field F. 1990 Proc. London Math. Soc. 60 69 The projection of W onto S_m (corresponding to this semidirect decomposition) will be denoted by π. II. Indicating the goal of attention, enquiry, etc. 6. In touch with, esp. for the purpose of soliciting or supplying information or assistance. Cf. to get on to —— 3 at get v. Phrasal verbs 2. ΚΠ 1863 E. C. Gaskell Sylvia's Lovers II. xii. 227 ‘If she asks me, Philip, what mun I say?’.. ‘If she does, put her on to me.’ 1949 P. G. Wodehouse Uncle Dynamite ii. 27 Old Bostock wanted a bust of himself..and I got her to put him on to Sally. 1991 S. Fry Liar (1992) xi. 322 Get on to Dunwoody at Vienna. 2001 M. Blake 24 Karat Schmooze xxviii. 318 ‘Who's your contact?’ ‘Bill Peterson put me onto you.’ 7. a. colloquial (originally U.S.). Aware of or knowledgeable about (a person, state of affairs, etc.); having well-founded suspicions about. Frequently in to be on to something. Cf. on adv. 13d; wise adj. 3b. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > knowledge, what is known > aware of [preposition] that one knows of1610 on to1877 1877 Chicago Street Gaz. 20 Oct. 1/2 May Willard, why don't you take a tumble to yourself and not be trying to put on so much style around the St. Mark's Hotel, for very near all of the boys are on to you. 1880 Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago) 2 June 6/3 The visitors taking kindly to Ward's curves, Dunlap and McCormick especially getting on to him in fine style. 1895 Voice (N.Y.) 28 Mar. 4/2 It is a very pretty game, governor, but the people are onto it. 1923 P. G. Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves ix. 97 I knew there wasn't a chance of my being able to work this stage wheeze in London without somebody getting on to it and tipping off the guv'nor. 1959 J. Osborne World Paul Slickey i. v. 50 I can't help feeling that he's on to us... That he knows about us. 1973 G. Mitchell Murder of Busy Lizzie xiii. 151 ‘Won't you even tell Gavin that we may be on to something?’..‘You may say that I have certain suspicions, if you like.’ 1997 K. O'Riordan Boy in Moon viii. 150 The thought had only just occurred to her but somehow, from the extent of his agitation, she felt that she was on to something. b. Into or in a state of attending to or dealing with (a job, or task, esp. an investigation). ΚΠ 1914 A. Conan Doyle Valley of Fear i. iii, in Strand Mag. Oct. 367/2 The worthy country policeman shook his head. ‘Seems to me the sooner we get London on to this case the better.’ 1965 D. Francis Odds Against vi. 86 I'll put one of the boys on to it and let you have a prelim. Is it urgent? 2000 J. K. Rowling Harry Potter & Goblet of Fire xxviii. 487 ‘I don't know where Barty Crouch is,’ Dumbledore told Moody, ‘but it is essential that we find him.’ ‘I'm onto it,’ growled Moody. 8. Indicating an activity or resource which is likely to be beneficial (also (occasionally) detrimental) to one. ΚΠ a1889 J. Albery Dramat. Wks. (1939) I. 191 I'll put her on to a good thing. 1895 N.Y. Dramatic News 12 Oct. 5/3 Mr. Jack is always a newspaper man's friend, and only too pleased to put one on ‘to a good thing’ in the shape of news. 1898 J. D. Brayshaw Slum Silhouettes 100 As luck would have it, I managed to put the old man on to a good thing. 1925 S. Lewis Arrowsmith vi. 65 She puts me onto a lot of good stunts. 1970 Daily Tel. 31 Mar. 15/3 The Queen realised she was on to a winner with her New Zealand ‘walkabouts’. 1990 Reader's Digest June 71/1 You're on to a loser if you try and tell them what to do. 2003 Heat 4 Jan. 38 Britney is also on to a winner with a dashing dirty denim number. B. adj. Mathematics. In form onto. Designating a mapping of one set on to another. Cf. into adj. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > number > arithmetic or algebraic operations > transformation > [adjective] > having specific correspondence > of mapping into or onto to be on about1907 on to1942 into1949 1942 S. Lefschetz Algebraic Topol. i. 7 If a transformation is ‘onto’, the inverse image of the complement of a set is the complement of the inverse image of that set. 1951 N. Jacobson Lect. Abstr. Algebra I. 4 If α is a mapping of S into T, and β is a mapping of T into S such that αβ = 1_S and βα = 1_T, then α and β are 1−1, onto mappings and β = α⁻¹. 1971 E. C. Dade in M. B. Powell & G. Higman Finite Simple Groups viii. 285 By Lemma 9.5 the map is onto. 1990 Glasgow Math. Jrnl. 32 374 The fact that every nonzero ideal of R((x)) intersects R[[x]] nontrivially implies this mapping is onto. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2004; most recently modified version published online June 2022). < prep.adj.1581
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