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what |
3 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: What \What\, pron., a., & adv [AS. hw[ae]t, neuter of hw[=a] who akin to OS hwat what OFries hwet, D. & LG wat, G. was OHG. waz, hwaz Icel. hvat, Sw & Dan. hvad, Goth. hwa. [root]182. See {Who}.] 1. As an interrogative pronoun, used in asking questions regarding either persons or things as what is this? what did you say? what poem is this? what child is lost? What see'st thou in the ground? --Shak. What is man, that thou art mindful of him? --Ps. viii. 4. What manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him! --Matt. viii. 27. Note: Originally, what when where which who why, etc., were interrogatives only, and it is often difficult to determine whether they are used as interrogatives or relatives. What in this sense when it refers to things may be used either substantively or adjectively; when it refers to persons, it is used only adjectively with a noun expressed, who being the pronoun used substantively. 2. As an exclamatory word: a Used absolutely or independently; -- often with a question following. ``What welcome be thou.'' --Chaucer. What could ye not watch with me one hour? --Matt. xxvi. 40. b Used adjectively, meaning how remarkable, or how great; as what folly! what eloquence! what courage! What a piece of work is man! --Shak. O what a riddle of absurdity! --Young. Note: What in this use has a or an between itself and its noun if the qualitative or quantitative importance of the object is emphasized. c Sometimes prefixed to adjectives in an adverbial sense as nearly equivalent to how as what happy boys! What partial judges are our love and hate! --Dryden. 3. As a relative pronoun: a Used substantively with the antecedent suppressed, equivalent to that which or those [persons] who or those [things] which -- called a compound relative. With joy beyond what victory bestows. --Cowper. I'm thinking Captain Lawton will count the noses of what are left before they see their whaleboats. --Cooper. What followed was in perfect harmony with this beginning. --Macaulay. I know well . . . how little you will be disposed to criticise what comes to you from me --J. H. Newman. b Used adjectively, equivalent to the . . . which the sort or kind of . . . which rarely, the . . . on or at which See what natures accompany what colors. --Bacon. To restrain what power either the devil or any earthly enemy hath to work us woe. --Milton. We know what master laid thy keel, What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel. --Longfellow. c Used adverbially in a sense corresponding to the adjectival use as he picked what good fruit he saw. 4. Whatever; whatsoever; what thing soever; -- used indefinitely. ``What after so befall.'' --Chaucer. Whether it were the shortness of his foresight, the strength of his will . . . or what it was --Bacon. 5. Used adverbially, in part partly; somewhat; -- with a following preposition, especially, with and commonly with repetition. What for lust [pleasure] and what for lore. --Chaucer. Thus what with the war, what with the sweat, what with the gallows, and what with poverty, I am custom shrunk. --Shak. The year before he had so used the matter that what by force, what by policy, he had taken from the Christians above thirty small castles. --Knolles. Note: In such phrases as I tell you what what anticipates the following statement, being elliptical for what I think, what it is how it is etc ``I tell thee what corporal Bardolph, I could tear her.'' --Shak. Here what relates to the last clause, ``I could tear her;'' this is what I tell you What not is often used at the close of an enumeration of several particulars or articles, it being an abbreviated clause, the verb of which being either the same as that of the principal clause or a general word as be say mention, enumerate, etc., is omitted. ``Men hunt, hawk, and what not.'' --Becon. ``Some dead puppy, or log orwhat not.'' --C. Kingsley. ``Battles, tournaments, hunts, and what not.'' --De Quincey. Hence the words are often used in a general sense with the force of a substantive, equivalent to anything you please, a miscellany, a variety, etc From this arises the name whatnot, applied to an ['e]tag[`e]re, as being a piece of furniture intended for receiving miscellaneous articles of use or ornament. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: What \What\, n. Something thing stuff. [Obs.] And gave him for to feed, Such homely what as serves the simple ?lown. --Spenser. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: What \What\, interrog. adv Why? For what purpose? On what account? [Obs.] What should I tell the answer of the knight. --Chaucer. But what do I stand reckoning upon advantages and gains lost by the misrule and turbulency of the prelates? What do I pick up so thriftily their scatterings and diminishings of the meaner subject? --Milton.
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