> as lemmas

c1480 (a1400) St. Nicholas 579 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) I. 497 Oyl rycht clere..for seknes sere gaf hop and but.

1535 Bible (Coverdale) Prov. xxvi. B There is more hope in a foole then in him.

1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage 850 He which at one blow can kill a Captive, is of the greatest hopes.

1633 J. Ford Broken Heart iv. ii. sig. K Neuer liu'd Gentleman of greater merit, Hope, or abiliment to steere a kingdome.

1676 tr. G. Guillet de Saint-Georges Acct. Voy. Athens 349 A Child of great hopes.

1851 Ld. Tennyson Princess (ed. 4) i. 23 Hills, that look'd across a land of hope.

1899 R. Whiteing No. 5 John St. xxix. 297 What a hope for a night like this!

1904 P. A. Vaile Mod. Lawn Tennis (1907) 234 It is quite useless to run in on a high bounding, poor length, diagonal service. You have some ‘hope’ if it is down the centre.

1915 F. Palmer My Year of War 231 ‘What hopes!’ was the current phrase I heard among the men in these trenches.

1923 O. Onions Peace in our Time iii. 37 ‘I rather fancied Lovelightly.’ ‘Lovelightly? Not a hope in Hell!’

1929 J. B. Priestley Good Compan. i. iv. 115 ‘Well, lads, wot's it yer want?’ demanded their hostess. ‘'Cos if it's steaks and chips and feather beds, you've got a bloody hope.’

1929 J. B. Priestley Good Compan. ii. i. 249 If there was enough money behind to rent His Majesty's Theatre, it could go on better still. It amounted to that. ‘What a hope!’ she concluded bitterly.

1933 A. G. Macdonell England, their England xvi. 280 Not a hope!.. The dailies have gone to press ages ago.

1936 ‘J. Curtis’ Gilt Kid xxix. 279 ‘Going to get away with it?’ ‘Not a hope, mate. Not a bleeding earthly.’

1940 ‘G. Orwell’ Diary 20 June in Coll. Ess. (1968) II. lvii. 352 There is a move on foot to get our police records..at Scotland Yard destroyed. Some hope! The police are the very people who would go over to Hitler.

1948 C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident v. 53 ‘Well, you'd better start giving back the money..,’ jeered Tuppy. ‘What a hope!’

1959 S. Gibbons Pink Front Door xvii. 206 Not a hope..not a single bloody ghost of a hope in hell.

1966 ‘K. Nicholson’ Hook, Line & Sinker v. 63 He..wants to put on a good show for her. What a hope.

1966 F. Hoyle Oct. First vi. 60 I've given them the idea I might come up with some explanation... Some hopes.

1967 P. Moyes Murder Fantastical xv. 229 ‘His book is probably in the Lucky Dip.’..Maud made a face. ‘Some hope of finding it in that case,’ she said.

1969 ‘J. Ashford’ Prisoner at Bar iv. 33 I told Mrs. Green we hadn't a hope in hell, but she said it wasn't the money, it was the principle.

1971 C. Egleton Last Post for Partisan xvii. 176 ‘Make sure you get the right mix of weapons and explosives.’ ‘You've got a hope.’

1808 J. Mackintosh in Mem. Life Sir J. Mackintosh (1835) I. viii. 448 You know that Bossuet and Arnauld believed their innocence—some authority.

1855 ‘Q. K. P. Doesticks’ Doesticks, what he Says iv. 28 It was ‘some’ bridge, in fact, a considerable curiosity, and a ‘considerable’ bridge.

1914 G. Atherton Perch of Devil i. 80 They're some geologists, he added with unwilling admiration.

1914 G. Atherton Perch of Devil i. 108 Butte is some education, believe me.

1915 H. Rosher In Royal Naval Air Service (1916) 87 I have written up her raids inside the fuselage—(1) Friedrichshafen, (2) Zeebrugge, (3) Ostend, (4) Ostend again, and (5) Hoboken—some record!

1915 H. Rosher In Royal Naval Air Service (1916) 90 Windows were broken in the streets all round—‘some’ mess, I can tell you.

1915 Evening News 25 Jan. 3/3 A man whose cheery optimism will make him crack a joke in the small hours when things are bad and his best pals have gone..is ‘some’ soldier.

1922 A. A. Milne Red House Myst. vii. 60 She's an actress, some actress too.

1923 S. Donoghue Just my Story 270 Forty miles in fifty-five minutes! ‘Some’ driver, Lucien.

1925 F. S. Fitzgerald Great Gatsby iii. 60 He smiled with jovial condescension, and added ‘some sensation!’ Whereupon everybody laughed.

1931 J. Brophy & E. Partridge Songs & Slang Brit. Soldier: 1914–1918 (ed. 3) 359 Some hopes!, it is most unlikely!

1941 W. S. Churchill Unrelenting Struggle (1942) 345 When I warned them [sc. the French Government] that Britain would fight on alone whatever they did, their Generals told their Prime Minister and his divided Cabinet: ‘In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken.’ Some chicken! Some neck!

1958 ‘J. Byrom’ Or be he Dead v. 69 ‘I gather you have Miss Canning as your assistant sleuth!’ .. ‘Some hope’..a good secretary always has to be in love with her boss!’

1976 A. Price War Game i. 66 ‘David has us to console him.’.. ‘Some consolation!’ murmured Frances.

1977 J. Wainwright Do Nothin' x. 176 ‘Some band,’ murmurs Ted—and there is suppressed excitement in his voice. I say, ‘Ted—believe me—this is going to be some band.’