just
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Pronunciation: ipa: /d͡ʒʌst/
ipa: /d͡ʒəs(t)/
ipa: /d͡ʒɛst/
ipa: /d͡ʒɪst/
ipa: /d͡ʒʊst/
rhymes: -ʌst
Forms: form: jes
form: jes'
form: jest
form: jist
form: jus'
form: iust
Etymology: From Middle English juste, from Old French juste, from Latin iūstus (“just, lawful, rightful, true, due, proper, moderate”), from Proto-Italic *jowestos, related to Latin iūs (“law, right”); ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂yew-. Compare Scots juist (“just”), Saterland Frisian juust (“just”), West Frisian just (“just”), Dutch juist (“just”), German Low German jüst (“jüst”), German just (“just”), Danish just (“just”), Swedish just (“just”). Doublet of giusto.
Senses: examples: text: Just plant a few tomatoes, unless you can freeze or dry them.
text: He calls it vermilion, but it's just red to me.
text: Philander went into the next room, which was just a lean-to hitched on to the end of the shanty, and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. Then he put the coffee pot on the stove and rummaged out a loaf of dry bread and some hardtack.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
text: From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much.[…] But viewed from high up in one of the growing number of skyscrapers in Sri Lanka’s capital, it is clear that something extraordinary is happening: China is creating a shipping hub just 200 miles from India’s southern tip.
ref: 2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 52:
text: Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths.
ref: 2013 June 14, Sam Leith, “Where the profound meets the profane”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 37:
glosses: Only, simply, merely.
examples: I spent two hours cooking my favorite recipe, just to burn the rice and ruin the meal.
I helped him out, just for him to betray me.
glosses: Only, simply, merely.
Introduces a disappointing or surprising outcome that renders futile something previously mentioned.
examples: text: Just follow the directions on the box.
qualifier: sentence adverb
glosses: Used to reduce the force of an imperative; simply.
examples: text: I'm tired of playing games – just get it done.
qualifier: sentence adverb
glosses: Used to increase the force of an imperative; simply, without questioning.
examples: text: I just called to say "hi".
glosses: Used to convey a less serious or formal tone
examples: text: It is just splendid!
text: just fine
qualifier: degree
glosses: Absolutely, positively
examples: text: They just left, but you may leave a message at the desk.
text: Philander went into the next room[…]and came back with a salt mackerel[…]. Next he put the mackerel in a fry-pan, and the shanty began to smell like a Banks boat just in from a v'yage.
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
glosses: Barely, hardly, scarcely.
Moments ago, only very recently.
examples: text: The fastball just missed my head!
text: The fire department arrived just in time.
text: The piece just might fit.
text: Nanny Broome was looking up at the outer wall. Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime.
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 14, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
glosses: Barely, hardly, scarcely.
By a narrow margin; closely; narrowly; almost not.
examples: text: He wants everything just right for the big day.
text: And having just enough, not covet more.
ref: 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Fourteenth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:
text: The god Pan […] guided my hand so just to the heart of the beast.
ref: c. 1580 (date written), Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “[The Second Booke] Chapter 19”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC, folio 122, recto:
english: The New Arcadia
translation: The New Arcadia
text: To-night, at Herne's oak, just 'twixt twelve and one.
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vi]:
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:
glosses: Exactly, precisely, perfectly.
Synonyms: sense: only
word: merely
word: simply
word: merely
word: freshly
word: lately
word: newly
sense: by a narrow margin
word: barely
word: hardly
word: narrowly
word: scarcely
word: slightly
sense: exactly
word: on the dot
word: smack-dab
word: exactly
Derived terms: a cigar is just a cigar
age is just a number
denial ain't just a river in Egypt
denial is not just a river in Egypt
denial isn't just a river in Egypt
die just how one lived
die just like one lived
die just the way one lived
I just work here
is it just me
is that a gun in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me
it is always darkest just before the dawn
it is darkest just before the dawn
it is not just you
just about
just a minute
just another pretty face
just a sec
just a second
just as soon as
just assume
just as well
just because
just ducky
just enough
just folks
just friends
just gone
just in
just in case
just in time
just-in-time
just kidding
just like that
just my luck
just now
just on
just one of those things
just plain folks
just saying
just say no
just shoot me
just so
just-so story
just then
just the same
just the ticket
just what the doctor ordered
just wondering
just yet
just you wait
my very easy method just speeds up naming planets
my very educated mother just served us nachos
my very educated mother just served us nine pizzas
my very educated mother just served us nine pumpkins
my very educated mother just served us noodles
my very excellent mother just served us nine pizzas
not just another pretty face
not just a pretty face
only just
over-just
shit just got real
so crazy it just might work
so crazy it might just work
sometimes a cigar is just a cigar
that's just me
the darkest hour is always just before the dawn
the darkest hour is just before the dawn
this just in
you just had to