somehow, adv.
(ˈsʌmhaʊ)
Also 8 some how, some-how.
[f. some a.1 2 + how adv.]
1. In some manner or by some means not understood or defined; one way or another; someway.
| 1740–2 Richardson Pamela III. 237 A Hint that might some-how be improved. 1794 Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho xxvi, I trembled when I saw him, for I always was afraid of him, somehow. 1822 Byron Juan vii. xxxv, Somewhere, somehow, there was a fault. 1861 Thackeray Four Georges iii. (1862) 131 The Royal New York Gazette somehow ceased to be published. 1866 G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. xxvi. (1878) 448 You're very different somehow from what you used to be. |
2. In the
phr. somehow or other,
somehow or another.
| (a) 1664 P. Henry Diaries & Lett. (1882) 158 An Act..was made ready, but somehow or other was missing. 1719 [see how adv. 16]. 1780 Mirror No. 78, But, somehow or other, our expectations have been always disappointed. 1809 Malkin Gil Blas ii. i. ¶5 His hand shook, to be sure; but somehow or other it contrived to do its duty. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 203 We contrived at last, somehow or other, to agree in a general conclusion. |
| (b) 1775 S. J. Pratt Liberal Opin. cxvi. (1783) IV. 91 Some how or another, Green chatted me into tolerable spirits. 1809 Syd. Smith Serm. I. 75 It somehow or another happens, that the time..is that which would otherwise be appropriated to the duties of religion. 1863 Reade Hard Cash III. 9 You have made a little palace of it, somehow or another. 1880 F. G. Lee Ch. under Q. Eliz. II. 143. |