for all the world

English

Pronunciation

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Prepositional phrase

for all the world

1. (idiomatic) Entirely, to all appearances.
   • 1861, Charles Reade, The Cloister and the Hearth:

     […] not a ha'porth of him left but a goodish piece of his skin, just for all the world like a hedgehog's, and a piece o' old iron furbished up.

   • 1885, Catherine Louisa Pirkis, Lady Lovelace:

     […] Phil offering and giving advice sagely and gravely, for all the world as though he had been old enough to be this young woman's father […]

   • 1917 September 5, Frank Hunter Potter, “Prevention First”, in Alfred Emanuel Smith, editor, New Outlook, page 17:

     […] the babies looking for all the world as though they had stepped out of pictures by Gian Bellini or by Fra Bartolommeo, that greatest of baby painters.