(ôl)
adjective- Being or representing the entire or total number, amount, or quantity: All the windows are open. Deal all the cards. See Synonyms at whole.
- Constituting, being, or representing the total extent or the whole: all Christendom.
- Being the utmost possible of: argued the case in all seriousness.
- Every: got into all manner of trouble.
- Any whatsoever: beyond all doubt.
- Pennsylvania Finished; used up: The apples are all. See Regional Note at gum band.
- Informal Being more than one: Who all came to the party? See Regional Note at you-all.
noun The whole of one's fortune, resources, or energy; everything one has: The brave defenders gave their all.
pron.- The entire or total number, amount, or quantity; totality: All of us are sick. All that I have is yours.
- Everyone; everything: justice for all.
adverb- Wholly; completely: a room painted all white; directions that were all wrong.
- Each; apiece: a score of five all.
- So much: I am all the better for that experience.
Usage Note: The construction
all that is used informally in questions and negative sentences to mean “to the degree expected.” In the late 1960s, the Usage Panel rejected its use, but evidently resistance to
all that is crumbling. Seventy-two percent of the Panel now finds the construction acceptable in the sentence
The movie is not all that interesting. • Sentences of the form
All X's are not Y may be ambiguous.
All of the departments did not file a report may mean that some departments did not file, or that none did. The first meaning can be expressed unambiguously by the sentence
Not all of the departments filed a report. The second meaning requires a paraphrase such as
None of the departments filed a report or
All of the departments failed to file a report. The same problem can arise with other universal terms such as
every in negated sentences, as in the ambiguous
Every department did not file a report. See Usage Note at
every.
Our Living Language Among the newest ways of introducing direct speech in the United States is the construction consisting of a form of
be with
all, as in
I'm all, “I'm not gonna do that!” And she's all, “Yes you are!” This construction is particularly common in the animated speech of young people in California and elsewhere on the West Coast, who use it more frequently than the informal East Coast alternatives,
be like and
go, as in
He's like (or goes), “I'm not gonna do that!” These indicators of direct speech tend to be used more often with pronoun subjects (
He's all, “I'm not᠁”) than with nouns (
The man's all, “I'm not᠁”), and with the historical present (
He's all᠁) than with the past (
He was all᠁). All of these locutions can introduce a gesture or facial expression rather than a quotation, as in
He's all᠁ followed by a shrug of the shoulders.
Be all and
be like can also preface a statement that sums up an attitude, as in
“I'm all ‘No way!’” See Notes at
go1,
like2.
