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By any means   /baɪ ˈɛni minz/   Listen
noun
Mean  n.  
1.
That which is mean, or intermediate, between two extremes of place, time, or number; the middle point or place; middle rate or degree; mediocrity; medium; absence of extremes or excess; moderation; measure. "But to speak in a mean, the virtue of prosperity is temperance; the virtue of adversity is fortitude." "There is a mean in all things." "The extremes we have mentioned, between which the wellinstracted Christian holds the mean, are correlatives."
2.
(Math.) A quantity having an intermediate value between several others, from which it is derived, and of which it expresses the resultant value; usually, unless otherwise specified, it is the simple average, formed by adding the quantities together and dividing by their number, which is called an arithmetical mean. A geometrical mean is the nth root of the product of the n quantities being averaged.
3.
That through which, or by the help of which, an end is attained; something tending to an object desired; intermediate agency or measure; necessary condition or coagent; instrument. "Their virtuous conversation was a mean to work the conversion of the heathen to Christ." "You may be able, by this mean, to review your own scientific acquirements." "Philosophical doubt is not an end, but a mean." Note: In this sense the word is usually employed in the plural form means, and often with a singular attribute or predicate, as if a singular noun. "By this means he had them more at vantage." "What other means is left unto us."
4.
pl. Hence: Resources; property, revenue, or the like, considered as the condition of easy livelihood, or an instrumentality at command for effecting any purpose; disposable force or substance. "Your means are very slender, and your waste is great."
5.
(Mus.) A part, whether alto or tenor, intermediate between the soprano and base; a middle part. (Obs.) "The mean is drowned with your unruly base."
6.
Meantime; meanwhile. (Obs.)
7.
A mediator; a go-between. (Obs.) "He wooeth her by means and by brokage."
By all means, certainly; without fail; as, go, by all means.
By any means, in any way; possibly; at all. "If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead."
By no means, or By no manner of means, not at all; certainly not; not in any degree. "The wine on this side of the lake is by no means so good as that on the other."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"By any means" Quotes from Famous Books



... throughout all Italy; you have pronounced that colleague and ally of all wickedness a public enemy. What peace can there be with this man? Even if he were a foreign enemy, still, after such actions as have taken place, it would be scarcely possible, by any means whatever, to have peace. Though seas and mountains, and vast regions lay between you, still you would hate such a man without seeing him. But these men will stick to your eyes, and when they can, to your ...
— The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Volume 4 • Cicero
... Sorceress, who has studied many arts of magic that I know nothing of. Even the little Wizard of Oz can do some things I am unable to accomplish, while I can accomplish things unknown to the Wizard. This is to explain that I'm not all-powerful, by any means. My magic is simply fairy magic, and not ...
— Glinda of Oz • L. Frank Baum
... there is still left to them sabotage, assassination, and civil war. These can neither be outlawed nor even effectively guarded against if there are individuals enough who are disposed to wield them. And it is not by any means idle speculation that a country which can sit calmly by and face such evils as are perpetrated by this vast commerce in violence, by this class use of the State, and by such monstrous outrages as were committed in Homestead, in ...
— Violence and the Labor Movement • Robert Hunter
... me?" Can he be angry with her for this unlucky preference? Was ever a man angry at such a reason? He would not have been so well pleased, perhaps, had he known all; and that he was only one of the performers in the comedy, not the principal character by any means; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in the Tragedy, the part of Hamlet by a gentleman unknown. How often are our little vanities shocked in this way, and subjected to wholesome humiliation! Have you not fancied that ...
— The Virginians • William Makepeace Thackeray
... place Walter above Joseph, Theseus, Jason or Hippolytos. May Apollo preserve me from such blind partiality. Not by any means do I regard my hero as the most interesting mortal that ever left a woman in the lurch. No, not in Walter's worth do I seek for the measure of the forsaken lady's despair. Indeed, Juffrouw Laps's pain was not caused by any reflections ...
— Walter Pieterse - A Story of Holland • Multatuli


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