"but for" meaning in English

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "there but for the grace of God go I"
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositions",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "but for",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "but for",
      "name": "en-prep"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "25 36 38",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "14 42 44",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English prepositions",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1880, Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad",
          "text": "But for that beneficent drug, not one of those men would have slept a moment during that fearful night.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1945 March and April, “Higher speeds”, in Railway Magazine, page 67",
          "text": "In reconditioning existing locomotives, carriages and wagons, it is intended to replace obsolete types which would have been scrapped but for the war and to embody the latest scientific improvements.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1992, Najīb Maḥfūẓ, Sugar Street, page 48",
          "text": "But for the stinging cold of January, this Casanova would not have taken shelter behind the coffeehouse window, […].",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Except, except for, not counting; were it not for."
      ],
      "id": "en-but_for-en-prep-veDWL0L6",
      "links": [
        [
          "Except",
          "except"
        ]
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "89 11",
          "code": "ga",
          "lang": "Irish",
          "sense": "except for, were it not for",
          "word": "murach"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "25 36 38",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "14 42 44",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English prepositions",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "despite; in spite of"
      ],
      "id": "en-but_for-en-prep-9avmx2K7",
      "links": [
        [
          "despite",
          "despite"
        ],
        [
          "in spite of",
          "in spite of"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "but for"
}

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "but for (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Law",
          "orig": "en:Law",
          "parents": [
            "Justice",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "25 36 38",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "14 42 44",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English prepositions",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1985, Herbert Lionel Adolphus Hart, Tony Honoré, Causation in the Law, page xlv",
          "text": "This relevance can in many cases, as here, be tested by the sine qua non or ‘but for’ rule.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003, Mark A. Glick, Lara A. Reymann, Richard Hoffman, Intellectual Property Damages: Guidelines and Analysis, Wiley, page 37",
          "text": "When the expert constructs the \"but for\" world, he or she must construct it by taking into account how the plaintiff could have adjusted or did adjust to the changed circumstances.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003, A. P. Simester, G. R. Sullivan, Criminal Law: Theory and Doctrine, page 71",
          "text": "But it is important to realise that but for causation is no more than indicative of true legal causation.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006, Tal Becker, Terrorism and the State: Rethinking the Rules of State Responsibility, page 291",
          "text": "But in important ways the ‘but for’ test obscures the true role played by causal principles in assessing legal responsibility.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Pertaining to a test of causation whereby an agent or action is considered to have caused an event (and therefore to be responsible and/or liable for said event) if, had said agent or action not existed, the event would not have taken place."
      ],
      "id": "en-but_for-en-adj-DBquzZtv",
      "links": [
        [
          "law",
          "law#English"
        ],
        [
          "causation",
          "causation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(law) Pertaining to a test of causation whereby an agent or action is considered to have caused an event (and therefore to be responsible and/or liable for said event) if, had said agent or action not existed, the event would not have taken place."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "sense": "legal term",
          "word": "but-for"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "not-comparable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "law"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "but for"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English adjectives",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English prepositions",
    "English uncomparable adjectives"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "there but for the grace of God go I"
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositions",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "but for",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "but for",
      "name": "en-prep"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1880, Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad",
          "text": "But for that beneficent drug, not one of those men would have slept a moment during that fearful night.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1945 March and April, “Higher speeds”, in Railway Magazine, page 67",
          "text": "In reconditioning existing locomotives, carriages and wagons, it is intended to replace obsolete types which would have been scrapped but for the war and to embody the latest scientific improvements.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1992, Najīb Maḥfūẓ, Sugar Street, page 48",
          "text": "But for the stinging cold of January, this Casanova would not have taken shelter behind the coffeehouse window, […].",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Except, except for, not counting; were it not for."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Except",
          "except"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "despite; in spite of"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "despite",
          "despite"
        ],
        [
          "in spite of",
          "in spite of"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "ga",
      "lang": "Irish",
      "sense": "except for, were it not for",
      "word": "murach"
    }
  ],
  "word": "but for"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English adjectives",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English prepositions",
    "English uncomparable adjectives"
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "but for (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "en:Law"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1985, Herbert Lionel Adolphus Hart, Tony Honoré, Causation in the Law, page xlv",
          "text": "This relevance can in many cases, as here, be tested by the sine qua non or ‘but for’ rule.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003, Mark A. Glick, Lara A. Reymann, Richard Hoffman, Intellectual Property Damages: Guidelines and Analysis, Wiley, page 37",
          "text": "When the expert constructs the \"but for\" world, he or she must construct it by taking into account how the plaintiff could have adjusted or did adjust to the changed circumstances.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2003, A. P. Simester, G. R. Sullivan, Criminal Law: Theory and Doctrine, page 71",
          "text": "But it is important to realise that but for causation is no more than indicative of true legal causation.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006, Tal Becker, Terrorism and the State: Rethinking the Rules of State Responsibility, page 291",
          "text": "But in important ways the ‘but for’ test obscures the true role played by causal principles in assessing legal responsibility.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Pertaining to a test of causation whereby an agent or action is considered to have caused an event (and therefore to be responsible and/or liable for said event) if, had said agent or action not existed, the event would not have taken place."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "law",
          "law#English"
        ],
        [
          "causation",
          "causation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(law) Pertaining to a test of causation whereby an agent or action is considered to have caused an event (and therefore to be responsible and/or liable for said event) if, had said agent or action not existed, the event would not have taken place."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "not-comparable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "law"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "legal term",
      "word": "but-for"
    }
  ],
  "word": "but for"
}