notbut

1. (now rare, archaic) Introducing a subordinate clause, frequently withthat: "it is not that (the following clause) is not the case".[17th–19th c.]
   • 1717,Alexander Pope,A Discourse on Pastoral Poetry:

     Spenser's Calendar, in Mr Dryden's opinion, is the most complete work of this kind which any nation has produced ever since the time of Virgil.Not but that he may be thought imperfect in some few points.

   • 1751,[Tobias] Smollett,The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume(please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […],→OCLC:

     [H]e did not fail to be extremely disconcerted at his first entrance into a scene of life to which he was totally a stranger.Not but that he met with abundance of people in the country[…].

   • 1768,Isaac Bickerstaff,Lionel and Clarissa:

     Not but your father has good qualities, and I assure you I remember him a very fine gentleman himself.

   • 1792,Jane Austen, ‘Lesley Castle’,Juvenilia:

     This was the only very severe thing I ever said in my Life;not but that I have often felt myself extremely satirical but it was the only time I ever made my feelings public.

   • 1860 December –1861 August,Charles Dickens, chapter VI, inGreat Expectations […], volume II, London:Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861,→OCLC,page94:

     I believe you they dread him.Not but what he's artful, even in his defiance of them.

• Button,button

• English lemmas
• English conjunctions
• English multiword terms
• English terms with rare senses
• English terms with archaic senses
• English terms with quotations

• Pages with entries
• Pages with 1 entry
• Quotation templates to be cleaned