anything, pron., n., adv.
(ˈɛnɪθɪŋ)
1. pron. a. A combination of any and thing, in the widest sense of the latter, with all the varieties of sense belonging to any a. Orig. always separated; separation now usually denotes stress upon thing, as ‘any thing, but not any person.’
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. John i. 46 Mæᵹ æniᵹ þing godes beon of nazareth. [So in Hatton.] c 1230 Ancr. R. 64 Wheðer ei þing hermeð more. c 1370 Wyclif Wks. xxvi. (1880) 388 More sikirnes..may no man make of eny-þinge. c 1400 Destr. Troy xxi. 8895, I haue not errit in anythyng. 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. (1877) 32 Sweardes and kniues, beyng as sharpe as any thyng. 1611 Bible John xiv. 14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. 1677 A. Yarranton England's Impr. 136 These Spouts convey the Corn into the Barges without anything of labour. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 1 ¶8, I would gratify my Reader in any Thing that is reasonable. 1741 Richardson Pamela II. 57, I fear your girl will grow as proud as anything. 1793 Smeaton Edystone Lightho. §100 When there is any thing of a ground swell. a 1855 Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life (1870) I. v. 114 Anything in the remotest degree connected with Napoleon excites my curiosity. 1857 Buckle Civil. I. xii. 670 If the contest..had been conducted with anything approaching to moderation. 1873 Carroll Through Looking-Glass iv. 73 They wept like anything to see Such quantities of sand. |
b. In various phrases: anything but, by no means, not at all, the very reverse (of); (he didn't do) anything else, (U.S. colloq.) phr. denoting a strong affirmation; anything goes: see go v. 19 d; if anything: see if; like anything: see like adv. 1 b; too{ddd}for anything, extremely, excessively. colloq. (cf. too adv. 2 b.). See also happen v. 1 a.
| 1805–6 Wordsworth Prelude (1926) 376 Grief call it not, 'twas anything but that. a 1832 F. Trollope Notebks. in Dom. Manners Amer. (1960) 428 Too hot for anything. Too bad for anything. a 1859 in Bartlett Dict. Amer. 10 Loco Foco. Didn't Gen. Cass get mad at Hull's cowardice, and break his sword? Whig. He didn't do anything else. 1874 Hardy Far from Madding Crowd I. xxix. 320 His being higher in learning and birth than the ruck of soldiers is anything but a proof of his worth. 1897 Westm. Gaz. 1 Oct. 2/1 The anything-but-particular denominationalists. 1905 Dialect Notes III. 2 ‘He didn't do anything else’, meaning he did just that. 1925 Chesterton Tales of Long Bow viii. 281 ‘Really,’ she said, laughing, ‘you are too ridiculous for anything.’ 1933 Times Lit. Suppl. 16 Feb. 106/2 Richard Roe, the posthumous anything-but-hero. 1944 S. E. Hicks Beach A. & M. Verena i. 12 ‘It sounds as if you were not altogether a Christian young gentleman.’ ‘Anything but.’ 1960 News Chron. 27 July 4/2 The aspirin age needed its drugs largely because the fair sex tried so hard to look anything but. |
2. as n. Thing of any kind.
| 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iii. ii. 234 She is my house..My horse, my oxe, my asse, my anything. 1649 Milton Eikon. Wks. 1738 I. 383 This was that terrible Any-thing from which his Conscience and his Reason chose to run rather than not deny. 1736 Butler Anal. Diss. i. 303 No Man, no Being,..no Any-thing. |
3. adv. Any whit, in any measure, to any extent.
| a 700 Epinal Gl. 845 (Sweet) Quoquomodo, ængi þinga. c 1391 Chaucer Astrol. ii. §38. 47 Til that the schadwe..passe ony-thyng owt of the cercle. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. ccxv. 202 Yf my lady your wyf come ony thyng nyghe yowe. 1551 Robinson More's Utopia 16 Mine old good wil..is not..any thinge at all quayled. 1590 Plain Perc. 16 A Minister that hath any thing a fat benefice. 1656 H. Phillips Purchaser's Pattern (1676) 22 If he be anything young. 1861 Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. Part. III. clxx. 196 Not furious anything, either for good or evil, no enthusiasts. |