Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind themabout thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:
1843, Thomas Hobbes,The English Works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury: The history of the Grecian war written by Thucydides; tr. by T. Hobbes, page480:
Pagondas[…] sent two companies of horse secretlyabout 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:[…]
1874, David Laing Purves,The English Circumnavigators: The Most Remarkable Voyages Round the World by English Sailors, London : W.P. Nimmo, page214:
[…] for they could not getabout 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,[…]
1877, Alfred Tennyson,The Works of Alfred Tennyson, Poet Laureate ..., page241:
The Roman soldier found Me lying dead, my crownabout my brows,[…]
1879,The Living Age, page727:
She lookedabout 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.
1886, Duncan Keith,A history of Scotland: civil and ecclesiastical from the earliest times to the death of David I, 1153, volume 1:
Nothing daunted, the fleet put to sea, and after sailingabout the island for some time, a landing was effected in the west of Munster.
The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom.[…] Roaring, leaping, pouncing, the tempest ragedabout the wanderers, drowning and blotting out their forms with sandy spume.
1900, William John Tossell,Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Ohio Circuit Courts...: Ohio Circuit Decisions, page581:
There is no controversy[…] that the plaintiff[…] fell into the ditch and was severely injured; [and] that the defendant or its agents left no railingabout 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[…]
1905,The Delineator, page258:
She lookedabout 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.
2016 August 24 [????], Johanna Spyri,Moni the Goat Boy and Other Stories: Moni the Goahout a Friend; The Little Runaway, anboco,→ISBN:
As soon as church was out a group of people gatheredabout her, all curious to hear how she was getting on with the boy.
Over or upon different parts of; through or over in various directions; here and there in; to and fro in; throughout.[from ca. 1150–1350][2]
[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,[…]
He had been known, during several years, as a small poet; and some of the most savage lampoons which were handedabout the coffeehouses were imputed to him.
1598, William Shakespeare,Love's Labour's Lost:
where lies thy pain? And where my liege's? allabout the breast.
1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay Baron Macaulay,The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, page153:
Some Roman Catholicsabout the court had, indiscreetly or artfully, told all, and more than all, that they knew. The Tory Churchmen waited anxiously for fuller information.
1857, George Borrow?,The Quarterly Review, page488:
She travelledabout 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.
2022 November 13 [????], Edith Nesbit,The Collected Works of Edith Nesbit, DigiCat:
[…] to wanderabout 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.
Indicates that something will happen very soon; indicates a plan or intention to do something.
There have been violent quarrels aboutwhether the whole is greater than a part.
1858, Thomas Babington Macaulay,The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, page13:
[It was doubtful that] twenty governments, divided by quarrelsabout precedence, quarrelsabout territory, quarrelsabout trade, quarrelsabout religion, could long act together in perfect harmony.
I told himabout 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.
2008, Sean O'Neill,Cultural Contact and Linguistic Relativity Among the Indians of Northwestern California, University of Oklahoma Press,→ISBN, page31:
Lucy Thompson, a Yurok woman who wrote a bookabout 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.
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 areabout, 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.
2013 September 5, Simon Gray,The Complete Smoking Diaries, Granta Books,→ISBN:
... look at it properly, her hands are the worst thingabout 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[…]
2016 October 14, David J. Leonard, Kimberly B. George, Wade Davis,Football, Culture and Power, Taylor & Francis,→ISBN, page187:
[F]ootball isabout more than making plays on the field. It isabout 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[…]
2021 October 7, Erica S. Simmons, Nicholas Rush Smith,Rethinking Comparison: Innovative Methods for Qualitative Political Inquiry, Cambridge University Press,→ISBN, page272:
... something particularly imaginativeabout comparative work, however one construes the term “comparison.”[…]
Concerned or occupied with; engaged in;intent on.[from ca. 1150–1350][2]
just goingabout their business
Have you much hayabout?(Chester) ―Have you much in the process of making?[4]
“What’s Mary doin'?” “Oh! oo’sabout th’ butter.”(Chester) ―“What’s Mary doing?” “Oh, she’s making the butter.”[4]
1765, James HARRIS (Author of “Hermes.”.),Hermes, Or a Philosophical Inquiry Concerning Universal Grammar ... Second Edition, Etc, page376:
... these Machines ... must be the Work of one, who knew what he wasabout. And what is it, to work, and know what one isabout? Tis to have an Idea of what one is doing; to possess A FORM INTERNAL, correspondent to the EXTERNAL,[…]
I can’t find my reading glasses, but they must be somewhereabout the house.
John’s in the garden, probably somewhereabout the woodshed.
1777, Edward Ledwich,Antiquitates Sarisburienses: Or, The History and Antiquities of Old and New Sarum, page 7:
Carausius was born of mean parentageabout Cleves in Germany, he rose in the Army by his bravery, and was appointed [...] Governor of Bononia or Bolougne in France, and Admiral[…]
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, page53:
The Saffron Crocus (C. sativus) grows in meadowsabout Essex, where it is cultivated for its fragrant stigmas, which constitute saffron.
1864,Zoologist: A Monthly Journal of Natural History, page9108:
... small dipterous insects, which are abundantabout the heaps of sea-weed.
1868, William Rossiter,The Elements of Plane and Spherical Trigonometry, page14:
[…] if there be any number of equiangular triangles, the sidesabout the equal angles are proportionals.
On one’s person; nearby the person.[from ca. 1350–1470][2]
I had no weaponabout me but a stick.
The policy covers all belongings and other personal things that somebody can carryabout them.
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 moneyabout 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?"
(figurative) On or near (one's person); attached as an attribute to; in the makeup of, or at the command of.[from ca. 1350–1470][2]
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 acumenabout the man which was puzzling in the extreme.
1953, Oliver Wendell Holmes (Jr.),Holmes-Laski Letters: 1926-1935:
And there is a mature wisdomabout 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[…]
2017 November 11, Linn Edwards,Food Frenzy, JMS Books LLC,→ISBN:
... there was a mature airabout 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[…]
(Indicates that something will happen very soon): In modern English, always followed by an infinitive that begins withto ("I am about to bathe"); seeabout to. In the past, it was possible to instead follow theabout with the present participle ("I am about swimming"), but this format is no longer used or widely understood.
(concerning): Used as a function word to indicate what is dealt with as the object of thought, feeling, or action.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions atWiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions atWiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Why, then, I see, ’tis time to lookabout, / When every boy Alphonsus dares control.
1610-11, William Shakespeare,The Tempest:
all the blessings / Of a glad father compass theeabout
1673, John Ray,Observations Topographical, Moral, & Physiological: Made in a Journey Through Part of the Low-countries, Germany, Italy, and France: with a Catalogue of Plants Not Native of England, Found Spontaneously Growing in Those Parts, and Their Virtues:
Dunkerk is[…] well-built and populous, strongly fortified allabout where it is capable: only toward the Downs or sandy Hills on the Southwest side of the Town, though there had been much Cost bestowed in raising Forts, yet were they almost filled up and spoiled with Sand driven in by the force of stormy Winds, against which it will be very hard to secure any Fort that shall be there erected.
1716, Virgil, translated by Dryden,The Works of Virgil ... Translated Into English Verse; by Mr. Dryden, page110:
And from the middle Darkness flashing out, By fits he deals his fiery Boltsabout. Earth feels the Motions of her angry God, Her Entrails tremble, and her Mountains nod;[…]
Here and there; around; in one place and another; up and down.[from before 1150[2]]
Bits of old machinery were lyingabout.
1876, Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant,The Makers of Florence: Dante, Giotto, Savonarola; and Their City ... With Portrait of Savonarola ... and Illustrations from Drawings by Professor Delamotte:
... the tocsins of immemorial strife were sounding allabout, the fierce old bell pealing out its periodical summons from the airy heights of the Palazzo Vecchio, and armed men, fierce and furious, swarming about the streets.
2013 December 9, Michael Phillips,The Sword, the Garden, and the King, Rosetta Books,→ISBN:
Feathers were strewn about—white feathers! With them were several splotches of dried blood splattered across the dirt. Matthew's heart sank. He knew whose feathers those were! Something terrible had happened here.
From one place or position to another in succession;indicating repeated movement or activity.
1769,King James Bible, Oxford Standard text,1 Timothy, v,13,
And withal they learn to be idle, wanderingabout from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.
He and Gerald usually challenged the rollers in a sponson canoe when Gerald was there for the weekend; or, when Lansing came down, the two took long swims seaward or cruisedabout in Gerald's dory, clad in their swimming-suits; and Selwyn's youth became renewed in a manner almost ridiculous,[…].
1824, James Hogg,The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, page271:
He bustledabout andabout, speaking to every one, but declined listening for a single moment to any.
2008 January 29, Emile Zola,The Beast Within, Penguin,→ISBN:
She was [...] moving furnitureabout, and marching into the apartment at the front even before the tenants had left.
Behold, to morrowabout this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.
1769,King James Bible, Oxford Standard text,Exodus, xxxii,28:
And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that dayabout three thousand men.
“Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yoursare pale blue, Eileen!—you’reabout as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumblingà la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is better.[…]”
I told him about everything I could think of; and what I couldn't think of he did. He askedabout 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.
1828, William Cobbett,A Year's Residence in the United States of America. Treating of the Face of the Country, the Climate, the Soil, the Products, the Mode of Cultivating the Land ...[With a Map.], page12:
Inabout every one of these works I have pleaded the cause of the working people; and I shall now see that cause triumph, in spite of all that can be done to prevent it.
1863, Virginia Penny,The Employments of Women: A Cyclopaedia of Woman's Work, page480:
[…] about the hour of closing, we observed the sudden egress ofabout a hundred women from the establishment, all Irish, and all decently clad and well conducted. On inquiry, we found that they are employed continuously in the works, piling the lead for oxidation,[…]
1867,The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art, page745:
[H]e isabout the most ignorant Rector within the four seas.
1945,Journal of the United States Artillery, page49:
The civilian proved to be a boy ofabout sixteen in knee pants.
[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits areabout the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].
201310, Joelle Charbonneau,Skating Under the Wire: A Mystery, Macmillan,→ISBN, page138:
I was about to leave when the door swung open, revealing a womanabout my height with straight, light brown hair and sad eyes. "Can I help you?"
Mr. Carter, whose back had been turned, turnedabout and faced his niece.
1995, Alan Ryan,John Dewey and the High Tide of American Liberalism, W. W. Norton & Company,→ISBN, page383:
Dykhuizen has the story the other wayabout, that Dewey decided in 1939 that he wished no longer to continue as "Emeritus Professor in Residence" and so informed Columbia in the knowledge that this would involve a substantial reduction in his income.
2017 October 16, Jeannie Troll,A Clever Girl: Part One, Page Publishing Inc,→ISBN:
I am sorry to hear of his illness. But I know she will bring himabout. And if I smile, it is not out of disregard for your worries but only because mine are somewhat eased. I am relieved to know why I have not heard from her.
1809,The Harleian Miscellany: a collection of scarce, curious, and entertaining pamphlets and tracts ... found in the late Earl of Oxford's library. Interspersed with historical, political, and critical notes, etc. With an introduction by Samuel Johnson, page45:
Before he goethabout, he will shoot off a piece; and, beingabout, will put forth another light, upon the poop[…]
1818, James Hogg, published inThe Scots Magazine, Vol. 86, p. 218, "On the Life and Writings of James Hogg"[1] [Quoted in the OED]
When he had finished, he drew his plaid around his head, and went slowly down to the little dell, where he used every day to offer up his morning and evening prayers, and where we have often sat together on Sabbath afternoons, reading verseabout with our children in the Bible.
(obsolete or rare) In rotation or revolution.[from before 1150[2]]
1908 [c.1606], William Shakespeare,The Tragedie of Coriolanus, Oppidan Library, page96:
What an Arme he has, he turn'd meabout with his finger and his thumbe, as one would set up a Top.
1897 [c.1610], William Shakespeare,The Tempest, ed. by F.S. Boas, page27:
Prithee, do not turn meabout; my stomach is not constant.
1902, Mary Mapes Dodge,St. Nicholas, page1095:
"turn and turnabout is fair play : you saw the rat that was killed in the parlor." "Turnabout [is] fair play, indeed!" cried the cat. "Then all of you get to your spits; I am sure that is turnabout!" "Nay, "said the turnspits, wagging their tails and laughing. "That is over and over again,which is not fair play. 'T is the coffee-mill that is turn and turnabout."
201202, Edmund C. Schimek,A Small Time in Space, AuthorHouse,→ISBN, page12:
I was driving by myself. The only hard part was shifting, I did grind the gears a few times until I got used to it. I practiced goingabout in circles and backing in and out of the barn.
(possibly obsolete, outside set phrases) In the course of events.
The island was a mileabout, and a third of a mile across.
c.1597-1602, William Shakespeare,The Merry Wives of Windsor:
Indeede I am in the waste two yardsabout.
1904 [1600?], Richard Hakluyt,The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques & Discoveries of the English Nation Made by Sea Or Over-land to the Remote and Farthest Distant Quarters of the Earth at Any Time Within the Compasse of These 1600 Yeeres, page104:
... a more easie way, though it were fartherabout.
1842 [1650?], Francis Bacon,Sylva sylvarum, or A natural history; Papers relating to the Earl of Essex; Papers relating to Sir Edward Coke, page50:
... the sure way, though mostabout, to make gold, is to know the causes of the several natures before rehearsed,[…]
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions atWiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
'John, I have observed that you are often out andabout of nights, sometimes as late as half past seven or eight.[…]'
c.1600, William Shakespeare,Hamlet:
About, my Braine!
c.1597-1602, William Shakespeare,The Merry Wives of Windsor:
About,about; Search Windsor Castle, elves, within and out.
1828 [1663], Samuel Pepys,Diary, page95:
... the building of St. James's by my Lord St. Albans, which is nowabout (and which the City stomach I perceive highly, but dare not oppose it,) were it now to be done, it would not be done for a million of money.
To my mind, transportation engineering is similar to flying in the 1930s — it has beenabout for some time but it has taken the present economic jolt to shake it out of its infancy, in the same way that the war started the development of flying to its current stage.
2005, IDG Communications,Digit, numbers89-94:
Although it has beenabout for some time now, I like the typeface Sauna.
2006, Great Britain Parliament: House of Lords Science and Technology Committee,Energy: Meeting With Malcolm Wicks MP,
Is not this sudden interest in capturing CO2 — and it has beenabout for a little while — simply another hidey-hole for the government to creep into?
Near; in the vicinity or neighbourhood.
I had my keys just a minute ago, so they must beabout somewhere.
about (third-person singular simple presentabouts,present participleabouting,simple past and past participleabouted)
(nautical,uncommon) To change the course of (a ship) to the other tack; to bring (a ship)about.
1694, John Martyn (Londres), James Allestry (Londres), Henry Oldenburg,Philosophical Transactions, Giving Some Accompt of the Present Undertakings, Studies and Labors of the Ingenious in Many Considerable Parts of the World, page984:
The Channel at Archer's Hope Point lies close by the Shoar, and makes such an Angle there by reason of Hog Island, that going up or down the River, let the Wind be where it will, they must there bring the contrary Tack on Board, and generally when theyAbout the Ship as they call it, they are so nigh the Shoar, that a Man may almost fling a Finger-stone on Board.
1937, United States Senate Committee on Commerce,Amending the Merchant Marine Act of 1936: Hearing Before the Committee on Commerce and the Committee on Education and Labor, United States Senate, Seventy-fifth Congress, Second[-third] Session, on S. 3078, a Bill to Amend the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, and for Other Purposes ..., page456:
Mr. Whalen:] they had "abouted ship." They had changed the course to put her into the wind—
^Philip Babcock Gove (editor),Webster's Third International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (G. & C. Merriam Co., 1976 [1909],→ISBN), page 5
