Définition de « something » en Anglais

pronoun

1. An uncertain or unspecified thing; one thing.

   • I must have forgotten to pack something, but I can't think what.
   • I have something for you in my bag.
   • I have a feeling something good is going to happen today.
   • The answer to four down is P something T something Y.
   • She looked thirty-something. (anything from thirty-one to thirty-nine years old)

2. (colloquial, of someone or something) A quality to a moderate degree.

   • The performance was something of a disappointment.
   • That child is something of a genius.

3. (colloquial, of a person) A talent or quality that is difficult to specify.

   • She has a certain something.

4. (colloquial, often with really or quite) Somebody who or something that is superlative or notable in some way.

   • He's really something! I've never heard such a great voice.
   • She's quite something. I can't believe she would do such a mean thing.
   • Some marmosets are less than six inches tall. —Well, isn't that something?

adjective

1. Having a characteristic that the speaker cannot specify.

adverb

1. (degree) Somewhat; to a degree.

   • The baby looks something like his father.

2. (colloquial, especially in certain set combinations) Used to adverbialise a following adjective

   • I miss them something terrible/rotten. (I miss them terribly)

verb

1. (colloquial) Designates an action whose name is forgotten by, unknown or unimportant to the user, e.g. from words of a song.

   • 1890, William Dean Howells, A Hazard of New Fortunes http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN0140439234&id=IOZeJi7U4eEC&pg=PA96&lpg=PA96&sig=LW2P-uKmoZabe70ZKnIHIMQLXlw He didn’t apply for it for a long time, and then there was a hitch about it, and it was somethinged—vetoed, I believe she said.
   • 2003, George Angel, “Allegoady,” in Juncture, Lara Stapleton and Veronica Gonzalez edd. http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN1887128913&id=qB-D32yV1VAC&pg=PA161&lpg=PA161&sig=9AYyYLA-MQqTgAbptreoe3VyOzQ She hovers over the something somethinging and awkwardly lowers her bulk.
   • 2005, Floyd Skloot, A World of Light http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN0803243189&id=TEgRGe6FiTkC&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&sig=zEj4BPQ0eEFkj6LdOI8eRJlZrzE “Oh how we somethinged on the hmmm hmm we were wed. Dear, was I ever on the stage?”

noun

1. An object whose nature is yet to be defined.

2. An object whose name is forgotten by, unknown or unimportant to the user, e.g., from words of a song. Also used to refer to an object earlier indefinitely referred to as 'something' (pronoun sense).

   • What was the something the pilot saw, the something worth killing for?
   • 2004, Theron Q Dumont, The Master Mind http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN0766185435&id=-n_jW7BVfawC&pg=PA26&lpg=PA26&sig=ou-CrIyWbKyZQ0s3q0uaJTiHdsI Moreover, in all of our experience with these sense impressions, we never lose sight of the fact that they are but incidental facts of our mental existence, and that there is a Something Within which is really the Subject of these sense reports—a Something to which these reports are presented, and which receives them.
   • 2004, Ira Levin, The Stepford Wives http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN0060738197&id=rKeKLf7LeXAC&pg=PA151&lpg=PA151&sig=uAeyLuj-HYk1dLAme_rokCWQITc She wiped something with a cloth, wiped at the wall shelf, and put the something on it, clinking glass.