about
Language: English
Part of speech: prep
Pronunciation: ipa: /əˈbaʊ̯t/
ipa: /əˈbaʊ̯t/
note: Canadian raising
ipa: [əˈbʌʊ̯t]
note: Canadian raising
ipa: [əˈbɐʊ̯t]
note: Canadian raising
ipa: [əˈboʊ̯t]
note: Nova Scotia
ipa: [əˈbɵu̯t]
ipa: [əˈbɛʊ̯t]
ipa: /əˈbɛʊ̯t/
note: Local Dublin
ipa: /əˈbɛʊ̯/
note: Local Dublin
ipa: [əˈbɛʊ̯ʔ]
ipa: /əˈbuːt/
rhymes: -aʊt
Forms: form: aboot
form: abowt
form: a.
form: ab.
form: abt.
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Germanic *ana-
Proto-West Germanic *ana-
Old English on-?
Proto-West Germanic *biūtan
Old English būtan
Old English onbūtan
Middle English aboute
English about
Preposition and adverb from Middle English aboute, abouten, from Old English abūtan, onbūtan, from on (“in, on”) + būtan (“outside of”), itself from be (“by”) + ūtan (“outside”). Cognate with Old Frisian abûta (“outside; except”).
Adjective from Middle English about (adverb).
Senses: examples: text: The snake was coiled about his ankle.
text: So look about you; know you any here?
ref: c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
text: Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:
ref: 1769, King James Bible, Oxford Standard text, Proverbs, iii, 3
text: Pagondas […] sent two companies of horse secretly about the hill; whereby that wing of the Athenians which was victorious, apprehending upon their sudden appearing that they had been a fresh army, was put into affright:[…]
ref: 1843, Thomas Hobbes, The English Works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury: The history of the Grecian war written by Thucydides; tr. by T. Hobbes, page 480:
text: […] for they could not get about the cape, because the wind on this coast is commonly between the NW. and SW., which makes it very difficult getting to the westward; but they left four canoes with forty-six men at the cape,[…]
ref: 1874, David Laing Purves, The English Circumnavigators: The Most Remarkable Voyages Round the World by English Sailors, London : W.P. Nimmo, page 214:
text: The Roman soldier found Me lying dead, my crown about my brows, […]
ref: 1877, Alfred Tennyson, The Works of Alfred Tennyson, Poet Laureate ..., page 241:
text: She looked about her again, and at last there he was, descending the steep path toward the station. He was half a mile off, and before she could decide what to do, a train came up and stopped.
ref: 1879, The Living Age, page 727:
text: Nothing daunted, the fleet put to sea, and after sailing about the island for some time, a landing was effected in the west of Munster.
ref: 1886, Duncan Keith, A history of Scotland: civil and ecclesiastical from the earliest times to the death of David I, 1153, volume 1:
text: The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. […] Roaring, leaping, pouncing, the tempest raged about the wanderers, drowning and blotting out their forms with sandy spume.
ref: 1892, James Yoxall, chapter 5, in The Lonely Pyramid:
text: There is no controversy […] that the plaintiff […] fell into the ditch and was severely injured; [and] that the defendant or its agents left no railing about the excavation : And it quite clearly appears that a person coming from the house of the plaintiff, as she did, to cross the pavement in front of her lot, could not see any light or other signal to warn her of danger[…]
ref: 1900, William John Tossell, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Ohio Circuit Courts...: Ohio Circuit Decisions, page 581:
text: She looked about her. Desolation everywhere - on the dust-encrusted windows, on the discolored walls, the rotten planks of the floor, the fallen bricks of the fireplace - desolation utter and complete.
ref: 1905, The Delineator, page 258:
text: As soon as church was out a group of people gathered about her, all curious to hear how she was getting on with the boy.
ref: 2016 August 24 [????], Johanna Spyri, Moni the Goat Boy and Other Stories: Moni the Goahout a Friend; The Little Runaway, anboco, →ISBN:
glosses: In a circle around; all round; on every side of; on the outside of; around.
examples: text: Rubbish was strewn about the place.
text: The children were running about the room.
text: He was well known about town.
text: [I]n likeneſs of a Dove / The Spirit deſcended, while the Fathers voice / From Heav'n pronounc'd him his beloved Son. / That heard the Adverſary, who roving ſtill / About the world, at that aſſembly fam'd / Would not be laſt, […]
ref: 1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 3, lines 30–35:
text: He had been known, during several years, as a small poet; and some of the most savage lampoons which were handed about the coffeehouses were imputed to him.
ref: 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
text: where lies thy pain? And where my liege's? all about the breast.
ref: 1598, William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost:
text: Some Roman Catholics about the court had, indiscreetly or artfully, told all, and more than all, that they knew. The Tory Churchmen waited anxiously for fuller information.
ref: 1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay Baron Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, page 153:
text: She travelled about the country with a donkey and cart, selling silk and linen goods. Her great stature enabled her to be her own protector, and any liberties which were attempted to be taken with herself or her wares were sure to be answered by a beating.
ref: 1857, George Borrow?, The Quarterly Review, page 488:
text: […] to wander about the old place, climb the old walls, and explore the old passages, always dreaming of the days when the castle was noisy with men-at-arms, and gay with knights and ladies.
ref: 2022 November 13 [????], Edith Nesbit, The Collected Works of Edith Nesbit, DigiCat:
glosses: Over or upon different parts of; through or over in various directions; here and there in; to and fro in; throughout.
glosses: Indicates that something will happen very soon; indicates a plan or intention to do something.
See about to.
raw_tags: with 'to' and verb infinitive
examples: text: [It] was held, that the latter requirement was fulfilled by an affidavit declaring that "the defendant was about leaving the State permanently."
ref: 1866, Charles Daniel Drake, A treatise on the law of suits by attachment in the United States, page 80:
glosses: Indicates that something will happen very soon; indicates a plan or intention to do something.
On the point or verge of.
raw_tags: with present participle
examples: text: He talked a lot about his childhood.
text: We must do something about this problem.
text: He is very mad about all the pranks.
text: Doe you meane to stoppe any of Williams wages, about the Sacke he lost the other day?
ref: c. 1597-1602, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor
text: I already have made way / To some Philistian lords, with whom to treat / About thy ransom.
ref: 1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes:
text: There have been violent quarrels about whether the whole is greater than a part.
ref: 1856, Voltaire, Philosophical dictionary:
text: [It was doubtful that] twenty governments, divided by quarrels about precedence, quarrels about territory, quarrels about trade, quarrels about religion, could long act together in perfect harmony.
ref: 1858, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, page 13:
text: "I'll tell you what, Fanny: she must have her way about Sarah Thompson. You can see her to-morrow and tell her so."
ref: 1860, Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage:
text: I told him about everything I could think of; and what I couldn't think of he did. He asked about six questions during my yarn, but every question had a point to it. At the end he bowed and thanked me once more. As a thanker he was main-truck high; I never see anybody so polite.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
text: Lucy Thompson, a Yurok woman who wrote a book about her experiences in the early twentieth century, reported that bilingualism was especially common at the religious dances, where neighboring groups often poured in from distant villages speaking utterly different languages.
ref: 2008, Sean O'Neill, Cultural Contact and Linguistic Relativity Among the Indians of Northwestern California, University of Oklahoma Press, →ISBN, page 31:
text: Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.
ref: 2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70:
text: ... look at it properly, her hands are the worst thing about her, visibly, anyway - they're filthy, as are the fingernails, broken and jagged and dark yellow from nicotine, the nicotine stain seems to go right into the palm[…]
ref: 2013 September 5, Simon Gray, The Complete Smoking Diaries, Granta Books, →ISBN:
text: Well, let’s not talk about yesterday.
ref: 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
text: [F]ootball is about more than making plays on the field. It is about making them off the field as well. Our commitment to fans and the communities that support us does not end when the final seconds tick off the game clock […]
ref: 2016 October 14, David J. Leonard, Kimberly B. George, Wade Davis, Football, Culture and Power, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 187:
text: ... something particularly imaginative about comparative work, however one construes the term “comparison.”[…]
ref: 2021 October 7, Erica S. Simmons, Nicholas Rush Smith, Rethinking Comparison: Innovative Methods for Qualitative Political Inquiry, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 272:
synonyms: apropos
as for
glosses: Concerning; with regard to; on account of; on the subject of.
examples: text: just going about their business
raw_tags: Chester
text: Have you much hay about?
translation: Have you much in the process of making?
english: Have you much in the process of making?
raw_tags: Chester
text: “What’s Mary doin'?” “Oh! oo’s about th’ butter.”
translation: “What’s Mary doing?” “Oh, she’s making the butter.”
english: “What’s Mary doing?” “Oh, she’s making the butter.”
text: ... these Machines ... must be the Work of one, who knew what he was about. And what is it, to work, and know what one is about? Tis to have an Idea of what one is doing; to possess A FORM INTERNAL, correspondent to the EXTERNAL,[…]
ref: 1765, James HARRIS (Author of “Hermes.”.), Hermes, Or a Philosophical Inquiry Concerning Universal Grammar ... Second Edition, Etc, page 376:
text: And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?
ref: 1769, King James Bible, Oxford Standard text, Luke, ii, 49
text: RON: And I’ll have the number 8.
WAITER: That’s a party platter, it serves 12 people.
RON: I know what I’m about, son.
ref: 2013 March 14, Parks and Recreation, season 5, episode 16, Bailout
text: I really want to know what he's about, so I've arranged a date with him to hear him out.
ref: 2018 February 7, Ana Vega, Noonity, Ana Vega, page 62:
glosses: Concerned or occupied with; engaged in; intent on.
examples: text: I can’t find my reading glasses, but they must be somewhere about the house.
text: John’s in the garden, probably somewhere about the woodshed.
text: Carausius was born of mean parentage about Cleves in Germany, he rose in the Army by his bravery, and was appointed [...] Governor of Bononia or Bolougne in France, and Admiral […]
ref: 1777, Edward Ledwich, Antiquitates Sarisburienses: Or, The History and Antiquities of Old and New Sarum, page 7:
text: The Saffron Crocus (C. sativus) grows in meadows about Essex, where it is cultivated for its fragrant stigmas, which constitute saffron.
ref: 1851, J. H. Clark, The Songs of the Seasons, and Wild Flowers of the Months: Or, the British Wild Flowers Familiarly Described Under the Months in which They Bloom and the Localities in which They Grow, page 53:
text: ... small dipterous insects, which are abundant about the heaps of sea-weed.
ref: 1864, Zoologist: A Monthly Journal of Natural History, page 9108:
text: […] if there be any number of equiangular triangles, the sides about the equal angles are proportionals.
ref: 1868, William Rossiter, The Elements of Plane and Spherical Trigonometry, page 14:
glosses: Within or in the immediate neighborhood of; in contiguity or proximity to; near, as to place.
examples: text: I had no weapon about me but a stick.
text: The policy covers all belongings and other personal things that somebody can carry about them.
text: At this assurance the traveller rose, and approached Alice softly. He drew away her hands from her face, when she said gently, "Have you much money about you?" / "Oh the mercenary baggage!" said the traveller to himself; and then replied aloud, "Why, pretty one?—Do you sell your kisses so high, then?"
ref: 1837, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], Ernest Maltravers […] , volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC, book I, page 16:
glosses: On one’s person; nearby the person.
examples: text: He has his wits about him.
text: There was an air of confidence about the woman.
text: Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke.[…]A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes. […] But withal there was a perceptible acumen about the man which was puzzling in the extreme.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
text: And there is a mature wisdom about him which, without being new, is newly refreshed. I did not know how profoundly my emotional loyalties were engaged to him until these days. Our plans are simple. We stay here until Thursday; then Amherst[…]
ref: 1953, Oliver Wendell Holmes (Jr.), Holmes-Laski Letters: 1926-1935:
text: ... there was a mature air about him that also suggested vacationing professional. He wore a button-down, collared shirt open a few more interesting buttons than most, revealing a small spatter of blondish-reddish hair on a broad chest[…]
ref: 2017 November 11, Linn Edwards, Food Frenzy, JMS Books LLC, →ISBN:
glosses: On or near (one's person); attached as an attribute to; in the makeup of, or at the command of.
Synonyms: word: about
word: anent
word: apropos
word: as far as
word: as for
word: as regards
word: as relates to
word: as respects
word: as to
word: concerned with
word: connected with
word: concerning
word: dealing with
word: in reference to
word: in regard to
word: in regards to
word: in relation to
word: in respect of
word: IRT
word: in terms of
word: on
word: re
word: referring to
word: regarding
word: relating to
word: relative to
word: respecting
word: with regard to
word: with respect to
word: WRT
word: touching