but : Idioms & Phrases

Index

All but

  • . (a) Scarcely; not even. Obs. Shak. (b) Almost; nearly. "The fine arts were all but proscribed." Macaulay.
Webster 1913

Anything but

  • not at all or in any respect. "The battle was a rare one, and the victory anything but secure." Hawthorne.
Webster 1913

But and if

  • but if; an attempt on the part of King James's translators of the Bible to express the conjunctive and adversative force of the Greek .
Webster 1913

But end

  • the larger or thicker end; as, the but end of a log; the but end of a musket. See Butt, n.
Webster 1913

But if

  • unless. Obs. Chaucer.
    But this I read, that but if remedy Thou her afford, full shortly I her dead shall see. Spenser.
Webster 1913

but then

  • adverb (contrastive) from another point of view
    on the other hand; then again.
    • on the other hand, she is too ambitious for her own good
    • then again, she might not go
WordNet

but-thorn

But"-thorn` noun
Definitions
  1. (Zoöl.) The common European starfish (Asterias rubens).
Webster 1913

Can not choose but

  • must necessarily.
Webster 1913

last but not least

  • adverb in addition to all the foregoing
    last not least.
    • last not least he plays the saxophone
WordNet

Not . . . but, ∨ Not but

  • only. Obs. or Colloq.
Webster 1913

Nothing but

  • only; no more than. Chaucer.
Webster 1913

To doubt not but

  • .
    I do not doubt but I have been to blame. Dryden.
    We doubt not now But every rub is smoothed on our way. Shak.
    That is, we have no doubt to prevent us from believing, etc. (or notwithstanding all that may be said to the contrary) but having a preventive sense, after verbs of "doubting" and "denying" that convey a notion of hindrance. E. A. Abbott.
Webster 1913

Top and but

  • (Shipbuilding), a phrase used to denote a method of working long tapering planks by bringing the but of one plank to the top of the other to make up a constant breadth in two layers.
Webster 1913