|
|
||||||||||||||
|
Home > Vocabulary Lessons > |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
Copyright © 2015 ENGLISHCOLLOCATION.COM TERMS OF USE | CONTACT | PRIVACY POLICY |
- Top Definitions
- Quiz
- Related Content
- Examples
- British
- Idioms And Phrases
This shows grade level based on the word’s complexity.
[ en-ee-thing ]
/ ˈɛn iˌθɪŋ /
This shows grade level based on the word’s complexity.
pronoun
any thing whatever; something, no matter what: Do you have anything for a toothache?
noun
adverb
in any degree; to any extent; in any way; at all: Does it taste anything like chocolate?
QUIZ
CAN YOU ANSWER THESE COMMON GRAMMAR DEBATES?
There are grammar debates that never die; and the ones highlighted in the questions in this quiz are sure to rile everyone up once again. Do you know how to answer the questions that cause some of the greatest grammar debates?
Which sentence is correct?
Idioms about anything
anything but, in no degree or respect; not in the least: The plans were anything but definite.
anything goes, any type of conduct, dress, speech, etc., is considered acceptable or valid or is likely to be encountered and tolerated: That resort is a place where anything goes!
Origin of anything
before 900; Middle English ani thing, eni thing,Old English ǣnig thing.See any, thing1
Words nearby anything
anyone, anyone’s guess, anyplace, Any port in a storm, anyroad, anything, anything but, anything goes, anything like, anytime, anyway
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Words related to anything
How to use anything in a sentence
-
If anything the work the two cops and the maintenance guy were doing deserves more respect and probably helped a lot more people.
-
Like many trans users, Transartist often gets used as a source of information more than anything else.
-
Neither the Republican nor the Democratic party have done anything to consistently target Asian- American voters.
-
But Krauss said that from the moment he and the other scientists arrived on the island, they never saw anything untoward.
-
So I started to think about anything in my life that would be worth people giving it any amount of time.
-
There was a rumor that Alessandro and his father had both died; but no one knew anything certainly.
-
As men fixed in the grip of nightmare, we were powerless—unable to do anything but wait.
-
He made me think of an old time magician more than anything, and I felt that with a touch of his wand he could transform us all.
-
Strathland would bundle me out in ten minutes if anything happened to Jack.
-
It is no good settling down in a world that, on its part, refuses to do anything of the sort.
British Dictionary definitions for anything
pronoun
any object, event, action, etc, whateveranything might happen
noun
a thing of any kindhave you anything to declare?
adverb
in any wayhe wasn’t anything like his father
anything but by no means; not in the leastshe was anything but happy
like anything (intensifier; usually euphemistic)he ran like anything
Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with anything
In addition to the idioms beginning with anything
- anything but
- anything goes
- anything like
also see:
- can’t do anything with
- if anything
- like anything
- not anything like
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
- We’ll do almost anything for our beloved animals.
The class of NPIs (Negatively-oriented Polarity-sensitive Items) includes the any class of items: any, anybody, any longer, any more (AmE anymore), anyone, anything, anywhere.
And you seem to already understand a bit on how NPIs work, in that NPIs are restricted to non-affirmative contexts (where an affirmative context is a declarative main clause in a positive environment).
But some of the items also have a «free choice sense», and so, they can occur in an affirmative context (where a NPI can’t).
For example:
-
1.) She didn’t make any changes. — (NPI sense)
-
2.) Any changes must be approved by the board. — («free choice sense»)
Your example of «We’ll do almost anything for our beloved animals» seems to be using the «free choice sense» of anything. And that is why your example is grammatical.
Examples and info were borrowed from the 2002 reference grammar by Huddleston and Pullum et al., The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (CGEL), pages 822-3.