• any thing(obsolete)

• (Received Pronunciation)IPA^(key):/ˈɛn.ɪ.θɪŋ/,/ˈɛn.i.θɪŋ/
• (General American)IPA^(key):/ˈɛn.i.θɪŋ/

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• (Ireland)IPA^(key):/ˈæn.i.θɪŋ/
• (General Australian)IPA^(key):/ˈɛn.i.θɪŋ/
• (Canada)IPA^(key):/ˈɛn.ɪ.θɪŋ/,/ˈɛn.i.θɪŋ/
• Hyphenation:an‧y‧thing

FromMiddle Englishanything,enything,onything, from LateOld Englishaniþing, from earlierǣniġ þing(literally“any thing”), equivalent toany +‎thing.

anything

1. Anyobject,act,state,event, orfactwhatsoever; a thing of any kind; something or other.

   Synonym:aught

   I would not do it foranything.

   • 1892,Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, inThe Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.:Harper & Brothers, […],→OCLC:

     Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language[…] his clerks[…] understood him very well. If he had written a love letter, or a farce, or aballade, or a story, no one, either clerks, or friends, or compositors, would have understoodanything but a word here and a word there.

   • 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, inThe Economist, volume407, number8837, page74:

     In 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% boughtanything 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%.

2. (with “as” or “like”)Expressing an indefinite comparison.
   • 1916, Edward S. Moffat,Go Forth and Find, pages81–82:

     Perhaps it was this atmosphere of misplacedness and loneliness as much asanything which led her to speak to him one evening in early summer when the office had closed.

anything (pluralanythings)

1. Someone orsomething ofimportance.
   • 1986, David Henry Hwang,M. Butterfly:

     How long does it take to turn you actors into goodanythings?

   • 2007 May 6, Cindy Chupack, “An Ancient Coda to My 21st-Century Divorce”, inNew York Times‎^[1]:

     So we tried not to talk about first or secondanythings until our meeting with the rabbi.

anything (third-person singular simple presentanythings,present participleanythinging,simple past and past participleanythinged)

1. (ambitransitive,colloquial)Used as a placeholder verb for any verb out of a set of related verbs.[from 19th c.]

   He wasn't cooking, he wasn't sweeping, he wasn'tanythinging!

   [He wasn't cooking, he wasn't sweeping, he wasn't doing anything!]

   –I don't want to accompany him! –You never want toanything him!

   [–I don't want to accompany him! –You never want to do anything with/to him!]

   • 1849, Fanny Hervey Stirling, “Uncle George Declares Himself” (chapter IX), inFanny Hervey; or, The Mother's Choice, volume I, London:Chapman & Hall,page112:

     " No, no," said he, quickly, " I repudiatehalf compliments of all kinds. I will neither be half-uncled, half-respected, nor, in short, half-anythinged, by you. ' Out upon such half-faced fellowship !' I will either be something, or altogether nothing."

   • 1868, Legh Knight, chapter V, inTonic Bitter, volume I, London:Chapman & Hall,page80:

     Papa and mamma beg to be very kindly remembered to you" — I'm sure the two old savages wouldn't beg to be kindlyanythinged, but it looks well that she should say so, doesn't it? But the end is the best.

   • 2007,Ann Packer,Songs Without Words, New York:Alfred A. Knopf,page236:

     “She isn'tdating him.”
     “Oh. What would you call it? I don’t know what you'd call it.”
     “She isn’tanythinging him. She just likes him, and he likes her back. I—I lied earlier.”

   • 2009, Richard Canning,Brif Lives: E..M. Forster,Hesperus Press,page59:

     I came inclined to be pleased and quite free from racial prejudices, but in 10 months I’ve acquired an instinctive dislike to the Arab voice, the Arab figure, the Arab way of looking or walking or pump shitting or eating or laughing oranythinging.

   • 2014, Julia Kent, chapter 4, inComplete We,page90:

     “Are you threatening me?” he asked, clearly amused. Any normal man would have backed down, but this guy was a piece of work.
     “We're notanythinging you,” Laura snapped.

• something (verb)
• everything (verb)

FromMiddle Englishanything,enything,onything,onythynge, fromOld Englishǣniġe þinga,ǣnġi þinga(literally“by any of things”), fromǣniġe, instrumental form ofǣniġ(“any”) +þinga, genitive plural ofþing(“thing”).

anything (notcomparable)

1. In anyway, anyextent or anydegree.

   That isn'tanything like a car.

   She's notanything like as strong as me.

• “anything”, inWebster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.:G. & C. Merriam,1913,→OCLC.

• Thingyan