nobbut, adv. Now dial.
(ˈnɒbət)
Forms: 4 no bot, 4–5 (9) no but, 6 na but, 8–9 nobbut, 9 -at, -et, -it, etc.
[f. no adv.1 + but conj. 4.]
1. Only, merely, just.
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 1127 No-bot wasch hir..in wyn as ho askes, Ho by kynde schal becom clerer þen are. 1388 Wyclif 2 Kings xviii. 4 marg., As if he seide, no thing of Godhed was in it,..no but copir was there. c 1425 St. Mary of Oignies ii. x. in Anglia VIII. 177/45 No but elleuene tymes and in a litil quantite she toke bodily mete. 1567 Drant Horace, Ep. ii. ii. H j, This boy ran once for feare of whip, And na but once from me. 1787 Borrowdale Letter, This is nobbut like t'clock when it gis warnin to strike twelve. 1804 R. Anderson Cumbld. Ball. (c 1850) 19 Nobbet sit your ways still, the truth I's tell. 1855 Mrs. Gaskell North & S. xlv, I nobbut wanted to know if they'd getten him cleared? 1890 W. A. Wallace Only a Sister? 87 He's but half a man that Missie, nobbut one of oursens dressed up like. 1929 J. B. Priestley Good Companions i. v. 196 It's nobbut Thursday, isn't it? Well, it seems like months. 1957 ‘B. Buckingham’ Boiled Alive xi. 61 There was nobbut a bunch of dirty foreigners here. 1963 Times 25 May 9/7 Mr. Vernon Horsfall still makes clogs. ‘But it's a mak a finished is t'trade, you know. It's nobbut farmers and folk in weaving sheds.’ |
2. Except, unless; except that.
| 1382 Wyclif Mark v. 37 He resceyuede not ony man to sue him, no but Petre, and James. 1388 ― Gen. xxviii. 17 Here is noon other thing no but the hows of God. 1395 Purvey Remonstr. (1851) 37 [To] be deposid or degratid if he is a clerk no but he amende himsilf. |
| 1870 E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. I. 36 This Billy hed a gran⁓father just such another man for all the warld as he is, no⁓but he wasn't lame. |