somethingn.adj.adv.

1764 G. Williams in J. H. Jesse G. Selwyn & his Contemp. (1843) I. 295 Lady Something Grey is here.

1779 Countess of Upper Ossory Let. 17 Apr. in J. H. Jesse G. Selwyn & his Contemp. (1844) IV. 75 Another man has sworn to shoot a Miss Something, n'importe, if she did not run away with him from the Opera.

1819 W. Scott Bride of Lammermoor ii*, in Tales of my Landlord 3rd Ser. II. 54 ‘His name is Craig—Craig—something, is it not?’ ‘Craigengelt is the fellow's name,’ said the Master.

1862 G. Borrow Wild Wales xxxix I passed by a place called Llan something.

1897 R. S. S. Baden-Powell Matabele Campaign i. 4 I..just caught the five something train.

1918 Aeroplane 2 Jan. 36/1 There are holes to drill, some ‘nth’ of an inch, and another row ‘something’ millimetres.

1778 F. Burney Evelina III. xxi. 236 Lady Louisa..desired to take something before we began our rambles.

1779 Mirror No. 25 Come in and have a glass of something after your ride.

1857 T. Hughes Tom Brown's School Days i. iv. 84 I'll give you a drop of something to keep the cold out.

1823 W. Scott Quentin Durward II. viii. 193 An officer, who, having taken Deacon's orders, held something between a secular and ecclesiastical character.

a1854 Ld. Cockburn Memorials (1856) ii. 119 He walked with a slow stealthy step—something between a walk and a hirple.

?1863 T. Taylor Ticket-of-leave Man ii. 32 If Mr. Gibson would only give you employment. He's something in the City.

1874 F. C. Burnand My Time xv. 130 May I be prompter, or call-boy, or something?

1886 C. E. Pascoe London of To-day (ed. 3) ii. 37 The restless gentlemen who are ‘something in the city’, but no one knows what.

1907 E. Gosse Father & Son ii. 21 My uncles..earned a comfortable living, E. by teaching, A. as ‘something in the City’.

1951 N. C. Hunter Waters of Moon iii. i. 69 Some really classy young man with heaps of money. A Guards officer, for instance, or something rather slinky on the Stock Exchange.

1962 Daily Tel. 19 Mar. 15/4 The people who are ‘something in the City’ to-day mostly commute to Sussex and Surrey.

1978 P. Fitzgerald Bookshop ii. 20 He was known to drive up to London to work, and to be something in TV.

1979 R. Barnard Posthumous Papers iv. 37 He was something in insurance.

1814 J. Austen Mansfield Park I. xi. 223 There were generally delays, a bad passage or something . View more context for this quotation

1899 R. Fry Let. Oct. (1972) I. 174 The Galleries shut at the absurd hour of 3..in order that the officials may have some absurd meal, a mittagsessen or something.

1913 ‘S. Rohmer’ Myst. Dr. Fu-Manchu i. 4 What, are you moved to London or something?

1926 I. Mackay Blencarrow v. 49 Yet undoubtedly this man was drunk or ill, or something.

1938 Chatelaine Oct. 25/3 Our things must have tattle-tale gray or somethin' 'cause they never shine like this.

1951 M. Kennedy Lucy Carmichael ii. iii. 100 ‘Aren't they engaged or something?’ ‘I don't know what you mean by or something... It's a vulgar, slipshod phrase.’

1958 N.Z. Listener 4 July 7/1 Jarden was off the field—had hurt his foot or something—and it seemed that we might be hard up against it.

1969 N. Freeling Tsing-Boum viii. 54 She might have a police record or something.

1978 P. Marsh et al. Rules of Disorder iii. 69 You have to fight or else people..think you're a bit soft or something.

1869 P. T. Barnum Struggles & Triumphs viii. 132 When people expect to get ‘something for nothing’ they are sure to be cheated.

1924 G. B. Shaw St. Joan iv. 41 The Jews generally give value. They make you pay; but they deliver the goods. In my experience the men who want something for nothing are invariably Christians.

1938 E. Ambler Cause for Alarm vii. 115 A something-for-nothing proposition always has a string to it.

1955 R. Macaulay Let. 20 Aug. in Last Lett. to Friend (1962) 206 I personally think it all to the good, as giving something for every one, however different their minds, backgrounds, and religious temperaments.

1960 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 17 Jan. 1 There's something for everybody.

1971 Engineering Apr. 129/2 Something-for-everyone entertainment.

1976 Glasgow Herald 26 Nov. 6/2 But human nature dictates that most people..are liable to take advantage of an opportunity to get something for nothing.

c1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 157 Dele hit swo, þat ech nedi..haue sum þing þer-of.

a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 9530 To quam ilkan he gaf sum-thing Of his might.

a1425 (c1395) Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Royal) (1850) Josh. vii. 1 Sum thing of the halewid thing.

1488 (c1478) Hary Actis & Deidis Schir William Wallace (Adv.) (1968–9) v. l. 482 Off Inglismen ȝeit sum thing spek I will.

1562 N. Winȝet Certain Tractates (1888) I. 4 Albeit the time be schort, sum~thing of ȝour prais man we speik.

1643 Sir T. Browne Religio Medici (authorized ed.) i. §12 A set of things that carry in their Front..something of Divinity. View more context for this quotation

1677 A. Yarranton England's Improvem. 55 I hope..I may see something of the Improvement..come to pass.

1710 Tatler No. 245. ⁋2 Her voice loud and shrill,..and something of a Welch accent.

1780 Mirror No. 81 There was something of bustle, as well as of sorrow, all over the house.

1815 W. Scott Guy Mannering III. iv. 72 Something of the tone, and manners, and feeling, of a gentleman.

1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. iii. 319 He has generally seen something of foreign countries.

1874 J. R. Green Short Hist. Eng. People viii. §5. 511 The two Fletchers,..in their unreadable allegories, still preserved something of their master's sweetness.

1654 D. Osborne Lett. (1888) 257 Love, which, sure, has something of divine in it.

1656 Earl of Monmouth tr. T. Boccalini Ragguagli di Parnasso 293 As if something of unseemly, or misbecoming had been asked her.

1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 106. ¶6 Sir Roger, amidst all his good Qualities, is something of an Humourist.

1780 Mirror No. 70 As he was something of a sportsman, my guardians often permitted me to accompany him to the field.

1801 M. Edgeworth Prussian Vase in Moral Tales III. 46 I am something of a judge of china myself.

1826 B. Disraeli Vivian Grey I. ii. xiv. 195 Dormer, who was..something of an epicure, looked rather annoyed.

1931 R. Campbell Georgiad iii. 55 Even the devil dwindles to a duiker, Who prides himself as something of a spiker.

1939 R. G. Collingwood Autobiogr. iv. 27 I had become something of a specialist in Aristotle.

1959 Listener 17 Dec. 1083/3 It had been, I admit, something of a party.

1978 Lancashire Life Sept. 51/1 During the last war he became something of a legend, working incredible hours and doing general and orthopaedic surgery, as well as obstetrics.

c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) Deeds xxiii. 20 Thei ben to sekinge sum thing certeynere [L. aliquid certius].

a1616 W. Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor (1623) iii. iii. 64 Ther's something extraordinary in thee. View more context for this quotation

a1616 W. Shakespeare Tempest (1623) iii. iii. 94 I'th name of something holy, Sir, why stand you In this strange stare? View more context for this quotation

1665 S. Patrick Parable of Pilgrim xii. 81 The desire..of speaking something extraordinary on this occasion.

1737 Gentleman's Mag. Mar. 182/2 The Epigram..seems to have something Serious and Noble in the Turn.

1779 Mirror No. 61 The most eccentric of them all have something venerable about them.

1819 W. Scott Legend of Montrose iv, in Tales of my Landlord 3rd Ser. IV. 66 Something there was cold in his address and sinister in his look.

1888 Academy 14 Apr. 253/3 Within an ace or so of being something very good indeed.

c1831 Hood in W. Jerdan Autobiogr. (1853) IV. 202 I shall never take ‘something short’ without dedicating it to the same toast.

1864 J. C. Hotten Slang Dict. (new ed.) Something damp, a dram, a drink.

1904 Eng. Dial. Dict. V. 615/1 She always had a drop of something short in her tea (Oxf.).

1907 Racing Expert 9 July 3 For the benefit of those who care to wait and act upon the best information. ‘The Expert’ will occasionally wire when he knows Something Special.

1908 Racing Judge 6 June 4 Owing to Bank Holiday this Letter will be sent out on Tuesday Evening... Something good at Manchester will be given.

1937 E. Partridge Dict. Slang 800/2 Something good, a good racing tip.

1582 Bible (Rheims) Gal. vi. 3 If any man esteeme him self to be something, whereas he is nothing.

1619 F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher King & No King iii. sig. F4 To set him..in my rowle the two hundred and thirteenth man, which is something.

1621 T. W. tr. S. Goulart Wise Vieillard 103 I have so spent my dayes, that I account of my selfe, as one that hath serued for some vse, and for something in the world.

1705 G. Stanhope Paraphr. Epist. & Gospels II. 274 So we may not..falsely imagine we are Something, when in Truth we are Nothing.

1740 P. Doddridge Family Expositor II. 435 Now you say something, signifies among us, You speak right.

1801 M. Edgeworth Forester in Moral Tales I. 123 If he could even recover five guineas of it, it would be something.

1865 W. Whewell in J. M. Douglas Life & Corr. W. Whewell (1881) 540 I shall have Kate's sweet dear face there; and that will be something.

1887 J. R. Lowell Democracy & Other Addr. 46 It is something that two great nations have looked at each other kindly through their tears.

1681 in Roxburghe Ballads (1884) V. 255 Their being in Print signifies something in't.

1713 G. Berkeley Three Dialogues Hylas & Philonous ii. 82 There is indeed something in what you say.

1719 D. Defoe Farther Adventures Robinson Crusoe 62 There is, something, in it, I am persuaded from my own Experience.

1818 T. L. Peacock Nightmare Abbey xiv. 206 True, Raven, there is something in that. I will take your advice.

1847 Ld. Tennyson Princess v. 104 She can talk; And there is something in it as you say.

a1902 S. Butler Way of All Flesh (1903) liv. 249 When Christina pointed out to him that it would be cheap he replied that there was something in that.

1977 B. Pym Quartet in Autumn i. 7 ‘Cheerful, aren't you,’ said Edwin, ‘but perhaps there's something in it. Four people on the verge of retirement, each one of us living alone.’

1778 F. Burney Evelina I. xxvi. 214 She told them, that she had it in her head to make something of me.

1814 J. Austen Mansfield Park I. xiv. 281 If the part is trifling she will have more credit in making something of it. View more context for this quotation

1836 M. M. Sherwood Henry Milner iii. xvi. 310 His hopes of making something of the young man.

1870 J. E. T. Rogers Hist. Gleanings 2nd Ser. 246 Calumny made something of his relations with William Tooke.

1808 J. Mackintosh in Mem. Life Sir J. Mackintosh (1835) I. ix. 501 It was something to see children clinging round the necks of their fathers, and sons carrying their infirm parents in pursuit of health.

1942 T. Bailey Pink Camellia i. 2 In khaki breeches, sitting her horse like a boy, her white shirt open at the throat, she was something to look at.

1957 E. B. White Let. June (1976) 440 Martha is really something to see now.

1938 ‘E. Queen’ Four of Hearts iv. 57 Say..the screwball's got something. Only I got a better idea.

1940 G. Greene Power & Glory i. ii. 25 ‘I would take..a hostage.’.. ‘You know,’ the chief said, ‘you've got something there.’

1948 Powys & Bolton Don't listen, Ladies! in Plays of Year (1949) 586 The Crusaders, gentlemen, they had something. The husband ordered his clothes from the blacksmith, and his wife's from the locksmith.

1960 Times 14 Sept. 12/6 Yet that girl ‘had something’, as any visitor to the United States will find out.

1973 L. Cooper Tea on Sunday i. 20 ‘I'm not at all the nice little wife she wanted for you.’ ‘She may have something there.’

1958 B. Nichols Sweet & Twenties ii. 42 The Ritz Bar, in those days, really was something.

1967 M. Kenyon Whole Hog vii. 81 Isn't that something? So if they [sc. pigs] don't know you they're like interested?

1969 J. D. A. Widdowson & H. Halpert in H. Halpert & G. M. Story Christmas Mumming in Newfoundland 161 Mummers were really something when I was a boy. If you wasn't afraid of them, you wasn't afraid of nothing when you was four or five.

1973 A. Christie Postern of Fate iii. x. 213 Perhaps it's something important... And so if they..tried to get whatever it was—that really would be something!

1977 ‘A. York’ Tallant for Trouble xi. 163 P. C. Abrahams presented arms..decked..out in full-dress white... ‘Oh, isn't he something,’ Jennie Kamm exclaimed.

1971 V. Canning Firecrest iii. 32 It didn't need any semaphore signals to tell her that there was something going between Mrs. Pilch and Major Cranston.

1973 Philadelphia Inquirer 7 Oct. (Today Suppl.) 7/2 Is it true that Sammy Davis Jr. has something going with Linda Lovelace.

1977 E. Leonard Unknown Man No. 89 xx. 200 She smiled..like they had something going.

1827 W. Scott Chron. Canongate vi He..had enjoyed legacies, and laid by a something of his own, upon which he now enjoys ease with dignity.

1844 C. Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit xliii. 504 More farewells, more something else's; a parting word from Martin.

1909 R. E. Knowles Attic Guest 87 But when a lover comes across a couple of states, leaving behind him a big city—and all the girls are sorry to see him go, that's the best of it—that is something else, as we used to say in the South.

1940 W. Faulkner Hamlet i. ii. 33 But when cash money starts changing hands, that's something else.

1949 R. Harvey Curtain Time 67 Getting the small performer dressed for a public appearance was something else again.

1957 E. Horne in N.Y. Times Mag. 18 Aug. 26/3 Something else—A phenomenon so special it defies description. Thus, when asked if the music is great..a cat may reply, ‘No, man, not that; it was something else.’

1960 Melody Maker 31 Dec. 5/5 Philly Joe Jones: Aside from being a fabulous drummer, he could be a great comedian. He has people lying on the floor, he's so funny. Philly's something else.

1968 Crescendo Jan. 27/1 The one I rave about more than any other is the band of 1947... That was something else. It was a dream.

1973 R. L. Simon Big Fix (1974) vii. 50 Dillworthy was something else again.

1977 O.D. No. 3. 12/1 (caption) Oh, wow, these guides are..something else man!

c1275 Wom. Samaria 7 in Old Eng. Misc. Al so he þiderward sumþing neyhleyhte, He sende his apostles by-voren.

1530 A. Baynton in J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement sig. A.v^v Our Englyshe tong hath some thyng altred theyr..terminations.

1585 T. Washington tr. N. de Nicolay Nauigations Turkie i. xxii. 28 We something doubted the gallies of Genua.

1634 T. Herbert Relation Some Yeares Trauaile 12 Conies..greater then any in England, and something resemble a wilde Cat.

1655 T. Fuller Church-hist. Brit. i. 40 Many are unsetled about him,..though such may be something satisfied, if [etc.].

1785 T. Holcroft tr. Comtesse de Genlis Tales Castle I. 128 I shall be something relieved of a load of sorrow which oppressed me.

1802 W. Fowler Corr. (1907) 45 I think they may shrink something before they be put in use.

1856 J. A. Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. 463 The scarcely ambiguous answer was something softened the following day.

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 7 Than shall the o be sounded almost lyke this diphthonge ou, and some thyng in the noose.

1576 in Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. (1886) 753/2 Ane merche stane set and put sumthing bewest the end of the said dyke.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Macbeth (1623) iii. i. 133 For't must be done to Night, And something from the Pallace. View more context for this quotation

a1616 W. Shakespeare Winter's Tale (1623) ii. ii. 58 Please you come something neerer. View more context for this quotation

1677 A. Yarranton England's Improvem. 55 I have been something long upon this Theme.

1697 London Gaz. No. 3310/4 A brown Gelding something above 14 hands high,..and something thin footed before.

1719 D. Defoe Life Robinson Crusoe 346 Our Guide being something before us.

1760 L. Sterne Life Tristram Shandy II. xvii. 100 His left hand, raised something above his stomach.

1844 B. Disraeli Coningsby I. iii. iii. 275 He is a man something under thirty.

1849 J. Ruskin Seven Lamps Archit. v. 158 The whole reaching to something above a man's height.

1896 G. N. Boothby Dr. Nikola iv. 79 In something under a quarter of an hour we had reached the wharf.

1588 J. Read tr. F. Arcaeus Compend. Method f. 77^v Incorporate it so that it may become something an hard Emplaister.

1600 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 2 i. ii. 188 I was borne..with a white head, and something a round bellie. View more context for this quotation

1615 G. Sandys Relation of Journey 12 Having a secure hauen, yet with something a dangerous entrance.

1664 H. More Modest Enq. Myst. Iniquity xiv. 163 These seem to have something an over-near affinity with..Heresie.

1770 Bp. W. Warburton Lett. (1809) 455 I have now had something a longer intermission from my pain.

1784 R. Bage Barham Downs I. 26 Will you..increase your sister's fortune to make her something a more suitable match?

1588 R. Greene Pandosto sig. D She began to simper something sweetely.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Winter's Tale (1623) iv. iv. 795 Being something gently consider'd, Ile bring you where he is aboord. View more context for this quotation

1707 tr. P. Le Lorrain de Vallemont Curiosities in Husbandry & Gardening 21 What he calls a Courtier he uses something roughly.

1713 G. Berkeley Three Dialogues Hylas & Philonous i. 22 The Inferences you draw me unto, sound something odly.

1822 W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel II. vi. 132 ‘I said Grahame, sir, not Grime,’ said Nigel, something shortly.

1859 C. Dickens Haunted House: Mortals in House in All Year Round Extra Christmas No.,13 Dec. 2/1 ‘Oh!’ said I, something snappishly.

1898 G. B. Shaw You never can Tell in Plays Pleasant 211 Gentleman: Did you howl? The Young Lady: Oh, something awful.

1909 A. Woollcott Let. 24 Sept. (1944) 20 She gads around something fierce, as your friend Bert would say.

1915 J. Webster Dear Enemy 300 When he was drunk..he smashed the furniture something awful.

1932 R. Lehmann Invit. Waltz i. iii. 58 Her husband drinks something shocking.

1963 W. H. Missildine Your Inner Child of Past xv. 221 I was taken into the assembly hall. And beat up something terrible.

1978 D. Clark Liberties ii. 41 ‘I'll put a plaster on that cut for you.’.. ‘Thanks, doctor... It does sting something chronic.’

?1592 Trag. Solyman & Perseda v. iv. 130 Yet some thing more contentedly I die For that [etc.].

1615 G. Sandys Relation of Journey 140 This place is something better then desert.

1669 S. Sturmy Mariners Mag. v. xii. 57 The Stick being something more than the diam. at the Base Ring.

1713 S. Sewall Diary 2 Nov. (1973) II. 732 Sam. is something better, yet full of pain.

1735 S. Johnson tr. J. Lobo Voy. Abyssinia 11 I found him in a Straw-Hut something larger than those of his Subjects.

1829 W. Scott Anne of Geierstein xv Because my thoughts came slower, may be, and something duller, than those of other folk.

1886 R. L. Stevenson Kidnapped x. 91 Now this song..is something less than just to me.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Tempest (1623) iii. i. 58 I prattle Something too wildely. View more context for this quotation

1668 H. More Divine Dialogues: Two Last Dial. 38 Something too copious a digression.

1671 T. Shadwell Humorists v It is something too sudden and temerarious.

1710 D. Manley Mem. Europe I. i. 44 Something too large a Head.

1720 D. Defoe Life Capt. Singleton 3 This fell out something too soon.

1821 W. Scott Kenilworth I. xii. 311 I got something too deep into his secrets.

1831 W. Scott Castle Dangerous vi, in Tales of my Landlord 4th Ser. III. 337 We have had something too much of this.

1632 P. Massinger Emperour of East ii. i. sig. E^v Shall I become a votarie to Hymen, Before my youth hath sacrific'd to Venus? 'Tis something with the soonest.

1698 R. South 12 Serm. III. 282 Even that perhaps may be something with the oftenest.

?1556 J. Cancellar Pathe of Obed. sig. B.iiii Yet Loth his wyfe being sumthynge lyke vnto Eue.

1560 T. Gresham in J. W. Burgon Life & Times Sir T. Gresham (1839) I. 310 Wherebye a maye meynteyne hymselfe somethinge like your eldest son.

1598 R. P. tr. M. Martínez Sixth Bk. Myrrour of Knighthood xx. sig. Mm3^v Thou speakest something like a Knight said the Prisoner, but I hope to punish thee, for maintaining such false cowards as these are.

1666 J. Bunyan Grace Abounding §32 My great Conversion from prodigious Profaneness to something like a Moral Life.

1765 Treat. Domest. Pigeons 126 The feathers on the breast open, and reflect both ways, expanding itself something like a rose.

1798 T. Twining Let. 11 Dec. in Recreations & Stud. (1882) 231 Often have I heard you something like blamed for these voluntary labours.

1811 H. M. Brackenridge Jrnl. 17 June in Views Louisiana (1814) 251 The women..amuse themselves with a game something like jack-stones.

1883 Manch. Examiner 22 Nov. 5/4 The Parcel Post is being conducted at a loss of something like £10,000 a week.

1963 J. E. Keating Wreck of Deutschland 10 I noted something like fifty words or phrasings..which echo the Bible.

2005 Independent 27 Oct. 47/3 The sessions go something like this: first, apply mousse to damp hair. Then choose your rollers.

1580 T. Lupton Siuqila 137 Yea marry this law is something like, if it be wel executed.

1594 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 2 sig. B2^v I marry this is something like.

a1652 R. Brome Weeding of Covent-Garden i. i. 1, in Five New Playes (1659) I Marry Sir! This is something like! These appear like Buildings! Here's Architecture exprest indeed! It is a most sightly scituation.

1702 S. Parker tr. Cicero Five Bks. De Finibus iv. 247 This is something-like!

1798 Geraldina I. 176 ‘This looks something like, Sir,’ said she.

1841 S. Warren Ten Thousand a-Year III. ii. 43 ‘That's something like’—said the man, rather more good-humouredly.

1869 C. Barnard Gardening for Money i. 17 Going to the tool-room I found one [sc.a hoe], and returned to my work. Now, this is something like. I can get on twice as fast.

1930 Oxf. Ann. Girls 103/2 Wouldn't it be a gorgeous way of welcoming a new pupil! Something like!

1954 Georgia Hist. Q. 38 325 He exclaimed ‘Ah, that's something like, Handy... That's what I call a good glass of Madeira.’