withal

English

Alternative forms

• withall (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English withal, withalle; equivalent to with +‎ all, used in place of earlier Old English mid ealle.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /wɪˈðɔːl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /wɪˈðɑl/, /wɪˈðɔl/
• Rhymes: -ɔːl

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Postposition

withal

1. (archaic) Synonym for with, appearing at the end of a clause or sentence, after the object.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene ii], page 262:

     You cannot Sir take from me any thing that I will more willingly part withall, except my life, my life.

   • 1844, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rappaccini's Daughter‎^[1]:

     [He has] produced new varieties of poison, more horribly deleterious than Nature […] would ever have plagued the world withal.

Adverb

withal (not comparable)

1. (archaic) All things considered; nevertheless; besides.

   Synonyms: even so; see also Thesaurus:nevertheless

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., OCLC 222716698:

     But withal there was a perceptible acumen about the man which was puzzling in the extreme.

   • 1905, Jack London, War of the Classes‎^[2]:

     But, just as I had been an individualist without knowing it, I was now a Socialist without knowing it, withal, an unscientific one.

   • 1907, Parker, Gilbert, The Weavers:

     Yet, withal, David was the true altruist.

   • 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., OCLC 18478577; republished as “(please specify the chapter number)”, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, volume 1, New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, OCLC 988016180:

     So-al was a mighty fine-looking girl, built like a tigress as to strength and sinuosity, but withal sweet and womanly.

2. (obsolete) With this; with that.
   • c. 1503–1512, John Skelton, Ware the Hauke; republished in John Scattergood, editor, John Skelton: The Complete English Poems, 1983, OCLC 8728872, lines 23, 27–28, page 62:

     Thys boke we have devysed, […]
     In hope that no man shall
     Be myscontent withall.

   • c. 1590–1591, William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene vii]:

     […] I fear me he will scarce be pleased withal.

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene i]:

     So glad of this as they I cannot be,
     Who are surpris'd withal, but my rejoicing
     At nothing can be more. […]

   • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, chapter 1, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, OCLC 191225086, book I (Proem):

     The condition of England is justly regarded as one of the most ominous, and withal one of the strangest, ever seen in this world.