without

Alternative formsEdit

• withoute (archaic); wythoute, wythowt (obsolete), wythowte (obsolete)

EtymologyEdit

From Late Old English wiþūtan. with- +‎ out

PronunciationEdit

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /wɪθˈaʊt/, /wɪðˈaʊt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: with‧out

AdverbEdit

without (comparative more without, superlative most without)

1. (archaic or literary) outside, externally
   • c.1600s, William Shakespeare, Macbeth

     Macbeth: There's blood upon your face

     Murderer: 'tis Banquo's then

     Macbeth: 'tis better thee without then he within.

   • 1900, Ernest Dowson, Benedictio Domini, lines 13-14

     Strange silence here: without, the sounding street

     Heralds the world's swift passage to the fire

   • 1904, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez (Norton 2005, p.1100)

     I knew that someone had entered the house cautiously from without.

2. Lacking something.

   Being from a large, poor family, he learned to live without.

PrepositionEdit

without

1. (archaic or literary) Outside of, beyond.

   The snow was swirling without the cottage, but it was warm within.

   • John Dryden (1631-1700)

     Without the gate / Some drive the cars, and some the coursers rein.

   • Thomas Burnet (1635?-1715)

     Eternity, before the world and after, is without our reach.

   • 1967, George Harrison, Sgt Pepper

     Life goes on within you and without you.

2. Not having, containing, characteristic of, etc.

   It was a mistake to leave my house without a coat.

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 22, The Mirror and the Lamp:

     From another point of view, it was a place without a soul. The well-to-do had hearts of stone; the rich were brutally bumptious; the Press, the Municipality, all the public men, were ridiculously, vaingloriously self-satisfied.

   • 1967, George Harrison, Sgt Pepper

     Life goes on within you and without you.

   • 2013 June 29, “Travels and travails”, The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 55: 

     Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema.

3. Not doing or not having done something.

   He likes to eat everything without sharing.

   He shot without warning anyone.

   • 1893, Walter Besant, The Ivory Gate, Prologue:

     Athelstan Arundel walked home […], foaming and raging. […] He walked the whole way, walking through crowds, and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.

Derived termsEdit

• withoutness

SynonymsEdit

• lacking, outwith, with no, -less, w/o, sans

AntonymsEdit

• (outside): within
• (not having): with, having, characteristic of, endowed with

TranslationsEdit

ConjunctionEdit

without

1. Unless, except (introducing a clause).
   • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book XV, chapter iij:

     And whanne this old man had sayd thus he came to one of tho knyghtes and sayd I haue lost alle that I haue sette in the / For thou hast rulyd the ageynste me as a warryour and vsed wrong werres with vayne glory more for the pleasyr of the world than to please me / therfor thow shalt be confounded withoute thow yelde me my tresour

   • 1913, DH Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, Penguin, 2006, p.264:

     ‘Why,’ he blurted, ‘because they say I've no right to come up like this—without we mean to marry—’

   • 1883, Howard Pyle, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood Chapter V

     But in the meantime Robin Hood and his band lived quietly in Sherwood Forest, without showing their faces abroad, for Robin knew that it would not be wise for him to be seen in the neighborhood of Nottingham, those in authority being very wroth with him.

StatisticsEdit

• Most common English words before 1923: came · men · come · #109: without · make · def · might

AnagramsEdit

• outwith