RATHER • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Rather

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/rˈæðər/ /rˈəðər/ Listen

adverb

Rather adv.

1.

Earlier; sooner; before. (Obs.) "Thou shalt, quod he, be rather false than I." "A good mean to come the rather to grace."

2.

More readily or willingly; preferably. "My soul chooseth... death rather than my life."

3.

On the other hand; to the contrary of what was said or suggested; instead. "Was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse."

4.

Of two alternatives conceived of, this by preference to, or as more likely than, the other; somewhat. "He sought throughout the world, but sought in vain, And nowhere finding, rather feared her slain."

5.

More properly; more correctly speaking. "This is an art Which does mend nature, change it rather, but The art itself is nature."

6.

In some degree; somewhat; as, the day is rather warm; the house is rather damp.

The rather, the more so; especially; for better reason; for particular cause. "You are come to me in happy time, The rather for I have some sport in hand."

Had rather, or Would rather, prefer to; prefers to; as, he had rather, or would rather go than stay. "I had rather speak five words with my understanding than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue." See Had rather, under Had.

adjective

Rather adj. Prior; earlier; former. (Obs.) "Now no man dwelleth at the rather town."

See images of 'Rather'

Etymology of 'Rather'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Rather" Quotes from Famous Books

... it is not recommended by the mode of its delivery,' is how she writes of this divine; yet she is charitable withal, and removes the sting by adding that more good may sometimes be obtained from humble instruments than from the highest privileges, and that she must examine her own heart rather than speak unkindly of the preacher. Up to this period it is evident that Marian Evans' views upon religion were orthodox, and that her life was passed in ceaseless striving for the 'peace that passeth understanding;' but in 1843 a letter was written to Elizabeth Evans by ...

— George Eliot; A Critical Study of Her Life, Writings & Philosophy • George Willis Cooke

... labour of my pen the speech of a far superior artist, when he surveyed the first productions of his pencil. After viewing some portraits which he had painted in his youth, my friend Sir Joshua Reynolds acknowledged to me, that he was rather humbled than flattered by the comparison with his present works; and that after so much time and study, he had conceived his improvement to be much greater than he found it ...

— Memoirs of My Life and Writings • Edward Gibbon

... nobility, but that they are richer, and not military, resemble at all other points the Lacedaemonian, as I have already shown. These Machiavel excepts from his rule, by saying that their estates are rather personal than real, or of any great revenue in land, which comes to our account, and shows that a nobility or party of the nobility, not overbalancing in dominion, is not dangerous, but of necessary use in every commonwealth, provided it be rightly ordered; for ...

— The Commonwealth of Oceana • James Harrington

... because there is not room to tell of every one, and he is not so important as some or so interesting as others. So I leave you to learn about him later. It is to Chaucer, too, much more than to Gower that James owes his music. And if he is grave like Gower rather than merry like Chaucer, we must remember that for nineteen years he had lived a captive, so that it was natural his verse should be somber as his life had been. And though there is no laughter in this poem, it shows a power of feeling joy as well as sorrow, which makes us sad when we remember ...

— English Literature For Boys And Girls • H.E. Marshall

... one desired to affix seals. On a roundabout conveniently near there were books of reference that included the current volume of the London Post Office Directory. The sofas and chairs were upholstered in dark green leather, the chimney-piece was of carved marble, a few ancient and rather dismal pictures hung almost out of sight on the walls; and generally, the room would have produced an impression of a repellent and ungenial kind of pomp, if it had not been for the extremely human note struck by the large assortment ...

— The Devil's Garden • W. B. Maxwell

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