See ifs, ands, or buts in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "Earlier as ifs and 'ans, plurals of if and 'an (or an, en, or and), dialectal for then, influenced by the conjunction an (meaning if) (See OED entry on and conj.2). Thus it meant ifs and thens. Brewer's analyzes it as ifs and ans, with the meaning ifs and ifs, and that the spelling ands is a mistake. In any case, it was later supplemented with buts.",
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"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
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"examples": [
{
"text": "1947, Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire, Dramatists Play Service, Inc. (1952), →ISBN, page 29,\nBLANCHE. That must’ve been what happened. ¶ STANLEY. I don’t want no ifs, ands or buts! What’s all the rest of the papers?"
},
{
"text": "1962, advertisement, in Popular Science, Popular Science Publishing Company, page 175,\nThere are no gimmicks. There are No Exceptions, No Exclusions, No Limitations, waiting periods, no ifs, ands or buts."
},
{
"ref": "1992 March 18, Alice Kahn, “House Cleaners Come Clean; Straight talk about their work, their lives and you”, in San Francisco Chronicle, page Z1:",
"text": "I think individuals do a better job than agencies because agencies have a lot of' ifs, ands or buts' because of insurance.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2003 August, Alice Hoffman, “What I wish I'd told my mother”, in Redbook, volume 201, number 2, page 106:",
"text": "A relationship with a grandmother doesn't contain the same ifs, ands, or buts of a mother-daughter pairing.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"text": "2007, Walt Love, The Gospel According to Rev. Walt \"Baby\" Love: Inspirations and Meditations from the Gospel Radio Legend, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 32,\nThere are no ifs, ands, or buts if we are going to stand on the promises found in the Holy Bible."
}
],
"glosses": [
"Modifications, limitations, or addenda; qualifications of any kind; speculations about whether a particular idea or enterprise is good."
],
"id": "en-ifs,_ands,_or_buts-en-noun-Cgd~l2SS",
"links": [
[
"Modifications",
"modification"
],
[
"limitation",
"limitation"
],
[
"addenda",
"addenda"
],
[
"qualification",
"qualification"
],
[
"speculation",
"speculation"
],
[
"idea",
"idea"
],
[
"enterprise",
"enterprise"
],
[
"good",
"good"
]
],
"related": [
{
"word": "ifs and ans"
},
{
"word": "ifs and buts"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "ifs, ands or buts"
},
{
"word": "if's, and's, or but's"
}
],
"tags": [
"plural",
"plural-only"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "speculation, doubt",
"word": "mutta"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "speculation, doubt",
"word": "jossittelu"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "speculation, doubt",
"word": "Wenn und Aber"
},
{
"code": "ro",
"lang": "Romanian",
"sense": "speculation, doubt",
"word": "dar și poate"
},
{
"code": "ro",
"lang": "Romanian",
"sense": "speculation, doubt",
"word": "doar și poate"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "jesli by da kaby",
"sense": "speculation, doubt",
"tags": [
"colloquial",
"dated"
],
"word": "если бы да кабы"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "ogovorka",
"sense": "speculation, doubt",
"word": "оговорка"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "speculation, doubt",
"word": "om och men"
}
]
}
],
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"word": "ifs, ands, or buts"
}
{
"etymology_text": "Earlier as ifs and 'ans, plurals of if and 'an (or an, en, or and), dialectal for then, influenced by the conjunction an (meaning if) (See OED entry on and conj.2). Thus it meant ifs and thens. Brewer's analyzes it as ifs and ans, with the meaning ifs and ifs, and that the spelling ands is a mistake. In any case, it was later supplemented with buts.",
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"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
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{
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"senses": [
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"English pluralia tantum",
"English terms with quotations",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Terms with Finnish translations",
"Terms with German translations",
"Terms with Romanian translations",
"Terms with Russian translations",
"Terms with Swedish translations"
],
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{
"text": "1947, Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire, Dramatists Play Service, Inc. (1952), →ISBN, page 29,\nBLANCHE. That must’ve been what happened. ¶ STANLEY. I don’t want no ifs, ands or buts! What’s all the rest of the papers?"
},
{
"text": "1962, advertisement, in Popular Science, Popular Science Publishing Company, page 175,\nThere are no gimmicks. There are No Exceptions, No Exclusions, No Limitations, waiting periods, no ifs, ands or buts."
},
{
"ref": "1992 March 18, Alice Kahn, “House Cleaners Come Clean; Straight talk about their work, their lives and you”, in San Francisco Chronicle, page Z1:",
"text": "I think individuals do a better job than agencies because agencies have a lot of' ifs, ands or buts' because of insurance.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2003 August, Alice Hoffman, “What I wish I'd told my mother”, in Redbook, volume 201, number 2, page 106:",
"text": "A relationship with a grandmother doesn't contain the same ifs, ands, or buts of a mother-daughter pairing.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"text": "2007, Walt Love, The Gospel According to Rev. Walt \"Baby\" Love: Inspirations and Meditations from the Gospel Radio Legend, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 32,\nThere are no ifs, ands, or buts if we are going to stand on the promises found in the Holy Bible."
}
],
"glosses": [
"Modifications, limitations, or addenda; qualifications of any kind; speculations about whether a particular idea or enterprise is good."
],
"links": [
[
"Modifications",
"modification"
],
[
"limitation",
"limitation"
],
[
"addenda",
"addenda"
],
[
"qualification",
"qualification"
],
[
"speculation",
"speculation"
],
[
"idea",
"idea"
],
[
"enterprise",
"enterprise"
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[
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"tags": [
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{
"word": "ifs, ands or buts"
},
{
"word": "if's, and's, or but's"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "speculation, doubt",
"word": "mutta"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "speculation, doubt",
"word": "jossittelu"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "speculation, doubt",
"word": "Wenn und Aber"
},
{
"code": "ro",
"lang": "Romanian",
"sense": "speculation, doubt",
"word": "dar și poate"
},
{
"code": "ro",
"lang": "Romanian",
"sense": "speculation, doubt",
"word": "doar și poate"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "jesli by da kaby",
"sense": "speculation, doubt",
"tags": [
"colloquial",
"dated"
],
"word": "если бы да кабы"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "ogovorka",
"sense": "speculation, doubt",
"word": "оговорка"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "speculation, doubt",
"word": "om och men"
}
],
"word": "ifs, ands, or buts"
}
Download raw JSONL data for ifs, ands, or buts meaning in English (4.1kB)
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"path": [
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"section": "English",
"subsection": "noun",
"title": "ifs, ands, or buts",
"trace": ""
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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