such
Language: English
Part of speech: det
Pronunciation: ipa: /sʌt͡ʃ/
ipa: /sɪt͡ʃ/
ipa: /sɛt͡ʃ/
ipa: /sʊt͡ʃ/
rhymes: -ʌtʃ
Forms: form: sich
form: sech
form: soch
form: soche
Etymology: From Middle English such, swuch, swich, swilch, swulch, from Old English swelċ, from Proto-West Germanic *swalīk, from Proto-Germanic *swalīkaz (“so formed, so like”), equivalent to so + like. Cognate with Scots swilk, sic, sik (“such”), Saterland Frisian suk (“such”), West Frisian suk, sok (“such”), Low German sülk, sulk, suk (“such”), Dutch zulk (“such”), German solch (“such”), Danish slig (“like that, such”), Swedish slik (“such”), Icelandic slíkur (“such”). More at so, like.
Senses: examples: text: I’ve never seen such clouds in the sky before.
text: Really? Unfortunately, my mind refuses to bring any such memory forward.
text: I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […], and finally leading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town. I was completely mystified at such an unusual proceeding.
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: She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid,[…]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.
ref: 2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 5 (Technology Quarterly):
glosses: Like this, that, these, those; used to make a comparison with something implied by context.
examples: text: the above address or at such other address as may be provided
qualifier: particularly used in formal documents
glosses: Any.
examples: text: Unfortunately, it wasn't such a good holiday as we thought it would.
text: The party was such a bore. "Bottomless" is such a lie.
text: You're all such kind people!
text: They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.[…].
ref: 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
text: Mr. Cooke at once began a tirade against the residents of Asquith for permitting a sandy and generally disgraceful condition of the roads. So roundly did he vituperate the inn management in particular, and with such a loud flow of words, that I trembled lest he should be heard on the veranda.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
text: Charles had not been employed above six months at Darracott Place, but he was not such a whopstraw as to make the least noise in the performance of his duties when his lordship was out of humour.
ref: 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
qualifier: degree
glosses: Used as an intensifier roughly equivalent to very much (of), quite or rather.
examples: text: Such hypocrisy!
text: Such bouncy children you have.
text: Why, I was absolutely spellbound. She sings with such passion!
qualifier: degree
glosses: Used as an intensifier roughly equivalent to very much (of), quite or rather.
Used with gradable noun phrases to form exclamations.
synonyms: what
examples: text: In rushed one and tells him such a knight / Is new arrived.
ref: 1595, Samuel Daniel, “(please specify the folio number)”, in The First Fowre Bookes of the Ciuile Wars between the Two Houses of Lancaster and Yorke, London: […] P[eter] Short for Simon Waterson, →OCLC:
text: To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, James 4:13:
glosses: A certain; representing the object as already particularized in terms which are not mentioned.