ONLY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Only

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/ˈoʊnli/ Listen

adverb

Only adv.

In one manner or degree; for one purpose alone; simply; merely; barely. "And to be loved himself, needs only to be known."

So and no otherwise; no other than; exclusively; solely; wholly. "She being only wicked." "Every imagination... of his heart was only evil."

Singly; without more; as, only-begotten.

Above all others; particularly. (Obs.) "His most only elected mistress."

adjective

Only adj.

One alone; single; as, the only man present; his only occupation.

Alone in its class; by itself; not associated with others of the same class or kind; as, an only child.

Hence, (figuratively): Alone, by reason of superiority; preeminent; chief. "Motley's the only wear."

conjunction

Only conj. Save or except (that); an adversative used elliptically with or without that, and properly introducing a single fact or consideration. "He might have seemed some secretary or clerk... only that his low, flat, unadorned cap... indicated that he belonged to the city."

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Etymology of 'Only'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Only" Quotes from Famous Books

... will retrieve books; a further operating assumption is that standard interfaces will be used as much as possible, where standards can be put in place, because CLASS considers this retrieval software a library application and would like to be able to look at material not only at ...

— LOC WORKSHOP ON ELECTRONIC TEXTS • James Daly

... I lived for many years, prophesying as the Great Spirit revealed the future to me, and my prophecies always came true. I foretold poor harvests, and the issues of our wars. Only once before the last prophecy I made was my word doubted, and then unbelief was born in the minds of many of the men. I spoke the words of truth then, but when I said we should, in time, vanish from this country, ...

— Old Mission Stories of California • Charles Franklin Carter

... commendable, and a feature only a few years old, that the principal morning and evening papers should take up one after another of philanthropic institutions, and even of individual cases, and advocate them vigorously, while they spare no wrong from censure, and freely discuss remedies, ...

— The Voyage Alone in the Yawl "Rob Roy" • John MacGregor

... week. While there the debate took place on the Registration Bill, carried by a majority of only three, by the defection of Howick and Charles Wood, which was caused, as is said, entirely by the influence of Lord Grey, who is always out of humour with the Government, glad to give them a knock, though ostensibly their ...

— The Greville Memoirs (Second Part) - A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1852 - (Volume 1 of 3) • Charles C. F. Greville

... be derived from 2 and 3, while 6 and 9 show no visible trace of kinship with 1 and 4. In Mohican, on the other hand, 6 and 9 seem to be derived from 1 and 4, while 7 and 8 have little or no claim to relationship with 2 and 3. In some scales a single word only is found in the second quinate to indicate that 5 was originally the base on which the system rested. It is hardly to be doubted, even, that change might affect each and every one of the numerals from 5 to 10 or 6 to 9, so that a dependence which might once have ...

— The Number Concept - Its Origin and Development • Levi Leonard Conant

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