through
Language: English
Part of speech: prep
Pronunciation: enpr: thro͞o
ipa: /θɹuː/
ipa: /θɹu/
rhymes: -uː
homophone: threw
homophone: thru
Forms: form: thoo
form: thorough
form: thorow
form: thorugh
form: thro'
form: throughe
form: thru
form: thrue
Etymology: From Middle English thrugh, thruch, thruh, metathetic variants of thurgh, thurh, from Old English þurh, from Proto-Germanic *þurhw (“through”), from Proto-Indo-European *tr̥h₂kʷe, suffixed zero-grade from *terh₂- (“to pass through”) + *-kʷe (“and”).
Cognates
Cognate with North Frisian döör (“through”), Saterland Frisian truch (“through”), West Frisian troch (“through”), Dutch door (“through”), German durch (“through”), Luxembourgish duerch (“through”), West Flemish deur (“through”), Yiddish דורך (durkh, “through”), Gothic 𐌸𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌷 (þairh, “through”), Latin trans (“across, over, through”), Albanian tërthor (“through, around”), Welsh tra (“through”). See also thorough.
Senses: examples: text: I drove through Lausanne on my way from Geneva to Zurich.
text: The bullet went right through his leg.
text: A “moving platform” scheme[…]is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays.
ref: 2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):
glosses: From one side or end of (something) to the other.
So as to enter (something), pass within or across, and then leave.
examples: text: The virus broke out in the capital city and is now spreading quickly through the country.
text: I'm working through this box set of 'Downton Abbey'.
glosses: From one side or end of (something) to the other.
So as to progress within (something) or towards the end or limit of (something).
examples: text: Go straight ahead and through that door.
text: Look through the window.
glosses: From one side or end of (something) to the other.
From one side of (an opening) to the other.
examples: text: I hope to start in the autumn, but I've got to get through the interview first.
text: The finance bill did not get through Congress.
text: We're through the worst part.
text: The going will be easier once we're through the bog.
text: You can't see through a brick wall!
text: Risk is everywhere.[…]For each one there is a frighteningly precise measurement of just how likely it is to jump from the shadows and get you. “The Norm Chronicles”[…]aims to help data-phobes find their way through this blizzard of risks.
ref: 2013 June 22, “Snakes and ladders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 76:
glosses: From one side or end of (something) to the other.
To or beyond the other side of (an obstacle); past.
examples: text: Have you got through all those chocolates already?!
text: The company went through its £100m startup investment in six months.
glosses: From one side or end of (something) to the other.
Indicating that something has been consumed or used up.
qualifier: 'get through' etc.
raw_tags: in phrases such as 'go through'
examples: text: We're halfway through the year.
glosses: From one side or end of (something) to the other.
Along the course of; used in expressions of progress towards the end of something.
examples: text: He worked through the night.
text: I never want to sit through another meeting like that again.
glosses: From one side or end of (something) to the other.
Throughout the duration of.
examples: text: The hot water enters through this pipe.
glosses: Via or by way of.
By way of (a physical passage).
examples: text: I met her through a friend of mine.
text: This matter was dealt with through our London office.
text: I received this anonymous letter through the post.
text: Inf America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%.
ref: 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, page 74:
glosses: Via or by way of.
By way of (an intermediary, agent, medium, etc.).
examples: text: There are errors all through this report.
text: Work the eggs and sugar through the mixture.
glosses: Throughout or across the extent of.
examples: text: We slogged through the mud for hours before turning back and giving up.
text: The arrow flew through the air.
text: I spent all day wading through paperwork.
text: Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. […] He walked the whole way, walking through crowds, and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.
ref: 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 16:
text: I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
text: Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
ref: 1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter III (Accessory After the Fact), page 382, column 1:
glosses: Amidst or surrounded by (while moving).
examples: text: from 1945 through 1991;  the numbers 1 through 9;  your membership is active through March 15, 2013
text: It includes patent requests in machine learning through 2016, the last year for which details are available.
ref: 2019 February 3, “UN Study: China, US, Japan Lead World AI Development”, in Voice of America, archived from the original on 07 Feb 2019:
glosses: To (or up to) and including, with all intermediate values; to... inclusive; until the end of.
examples: text: This team believes in winning through intimidation.
text: He's got to where he is today through sheer hard work and determination.
text: But the home side were ahead in the eighth minute through 18-year-old Oxlade-Chamberlain.
ref: 2011 September 28, Tom Rostance, “Arsenal 2-1 Olympiakos”, in BBC Sport:
text: Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.
ref: 2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
glosses: By means of.
examples: text: The project failed through lack of investment.
text: Our minds and hearts are corrupted with the Adamic virus at birth, and through a lifetime of sin and tragedy, our hearts and thoughts get more evil and more corrupted as we experience life's tragedies.
ref: 2012, Dimitri Yanuli, You Might Be Right, but You Ain't Right with the Word of God:
glosses: In consequence of; as a result of.
Derived terms: all-through school
bleed-through
blow a hole through
blow through
breakthrough
break through
bring through
burn through
button through
camel through the eye of a needle
cheek it through
clear through
click-through
click-through rate
coming through
cook through
cut-through
drag through the mud
drill through
drive a coach and horses through
drive a coach and six through
drive a stake through its heart
drive-through
drive-through penalty
fall-through
fall through the cracks
feedthrough
feed-through
feed through
flip through
fly-through
follow-through
get it through one's skull
get through
get through one's head
get through one's thick skull
go through
go through fire and water
go through hell
go through hoops
go through the attitudes
go through the gears
go through the mill
go through the motions
go through the trouble
hear-through
hear through the grapevine
it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God
jump through hoops
K through 12
leap through hoops
let through
let-through
lie through one's teeth
like a hot knife through butter
like a knife through butter
like grease through a goose
like shit through a goose
lock through
look as if one has been dragged through a hedge backwards
look through
look through rose-colored glasses
look through rose-tinted glasses
luck through
move through the gears
muddle through
no through road
over the river and through the woods
passer-through
pass-through
pass through
pass through the hands
pass through the pikes
pay through the nose
peace through strength
play-through
print-through
pull-through
push-through
put one through one's paces
put someone through their paces
put through
put through its paces
put through the mangle
put through the mill
put through the wringer
reach-through
read-through
rise through the ranks
rot through
run barefoot through
run-through
run through the garden
rust through
security-through-obscurity
security through obscurity
the forest through the trees
the trees through the forest
see-through
sell-through
shoot through like a Bondi tram
shot through with
show-through
ski-through
slip through someone's fingers
slip through the cracks
slip through the net
stagger-through
step-through
straight-through
talk through one's ass
talk through one's hat
talk through one's nose
the way to a man's heart is through his stomach
through-and-through
through and through
through-composed
throughgang
through-gird
through-hole technology
through oneself
throughout
throughput
through-shine
through-stitch
through the ceiling
through the floor
through the gate
through the hawsehole
through the looking-glass
through the looking glass
through the mill
through the roof
through the sunroof
through the wazoo
through the wrong end of the telescope
through thick and thin
through with
thumb through
tiptoe through a minefield
walkthrough
walk-through
walk through
wave through
writethrough