whereabout, interrog. and rel. adv., n.
(ˈhwɛərəˈbaʊt: stress var.)
[f. where 15 + about.]
1. a. interrog. About where? in or near what place, part, situation, or position? Now rare: replaced by whereabouts 1.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 15429 Quar abute abide yee nu? 1484 Caxton Fables of æsop iv. xiii, My broder and my frend where aboute is thy sore? c 1566 J. Alday tr. Boaystuau's Theat. World (1581) K iij, My shooe is new,..wel made, but you know not where about it doeth hurt & grieue me. 1665 Phil. Trans. I. 39 His Ephemerides directing where⁓about it is to be. 1720 S. Sewall Diary 4 Nov. (1882) III. 274, I ask'd her Whereabout we left off last time. 1736 Butler Anal. i. iv, One irregularity after another embarrasses things to such a degree that they know not whereabout they are. c 1850 Arab. Nts. (Rtldg.) 175, I desired the owner of the ass to enquire whereabout the house..was. 1861 H. Kingsley Ravenshoe xviii, She..used to look over to where the ship lay beneath the sea, and wonder whereabout it was. 1908 Kipling Lett. of Travel (1920) 188 ‘And where⁓about do they go?’ I asked. ‘Oh, all about anywheres.’ |
(b) Contextually, with love: cf. where 10 b (b).
| 15.. in Dunbar's Poems (S.T.S.) 308 Fane wald I luve, bot quhair abowt? Thair is so mony luvaris thairowt, That thair is left no place to me. |
† b. rel. About or near which place; in the neighbourhood of which. Obs. rare.
| 1722 Whiston The. Earth ii. 218 At..Pekin..whereabout probably Noah liv'd immediately before the Deluge. |
2. † a. interrog. About or concerning what? on what business or occupation? Obs.
| 13.. Northern Passion (1913) I. 85/2 We wist noght whare obout þou went. c 1425 Cast. Persev. 2367 in Macro Plays 148 Where-a-bowte stonde ȝe al day? 1560 Bible (Geneva) 1 Sam. xxi. 2 Let no man knowe whereabout I send thee. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iii. 107, I must not haue you henceforth, question me, Whether I go: nor reason where⁓about. 1598 R. Bernard tr. Terence, Andria iv. iii, Where⁓about goest thou? |
b. rel. About, concerning, or in regard to which. ? Obs.
| 1538 Elyot Dict., Operatio, the wark, or that wheraboute a man laboureth. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxvii. §12 Those things whereabout they differ. a 1653 Binning Serm., Rom. viii. 2 Wks. (1735) 200 That whereabout the Thoughts and Discourses of Men now run. |
3. rel. About or around which. ? Obs.
| 1585 Higins Junius' Nomencl. 267/2 Axis,..the axeltree or the axetree where about the wheeles turne. |
4. as n. (ˈhwɛərəbaʊt). [from 1.] With possessive or of: The place in or near which a person or thing is; (approximate) position or situation. Now replaced by whereabouts 3.
| 1605 Shakes. Macb. ii. i. 58 For feare Thy very stones prate of my where-about. 1786 Cowper Let. to Bagot 17 Nov., Wks. 1836 II. 263 That..I shall derive considerable advantage..from the alteration made in my where⁓about. 1814 Cary Dante, Parad. xii. 27 A voice That made me seem like needle to the star, In turning to its whereabout. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. iii. ix, By degrees, the eye grows accustomed to its new Whereabout. 1861 Musgrave By-Roads & Battle-F. 170 Both armies..were then within a few days of each other's whereabout. |