01 pron., a., & adv. As an interrogative pronoun, used in asking questions regarding either persons or things; as, what is this? what did you say? what poem is …
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1.
As an interrogative pronoun, used in asking questions regarding either persons or things; as, what is this? what did you say? what poem is this? what child is lost?“What see'st thou in the ground?” — Shak.“What is man, that thou art mindful of him?” — Ps. viii. 4.“What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!” — Matt. viii. 27.
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2.
As an exclamatory word: -- (a) Used absolutely or independently; -- often with a question following.“What, could ye not watch with me one hour?” — Matt. xxvi. 40.
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4.
Sometimes prefixed to adjectives in an adverbial sense, as nearly equivalent to how; as, what happy boys!“What partial judges are our love and hate!” — Dryden.
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5.
As a relative pronoun
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6.
Used substantively with the antecedent suppressed, equivalent to that which, or those [persons] who, or those [things] which; -- called a compound relative.“With joy beyond what victory bestows.” — Cowper.“I'm thinking Captain Lawton will count the noses of what are left before they see their whaleboats.” — Cooper.“What followed was in perfect harmony with this beginning.” — Macaulay.“I know well . . . how little you will be disposed to criticise what comes to you from me.” — J. H. Newman.
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7.
Used adjectively, equivalent to the . . . which; the sort or kind of . . . which; rarely, the . . . on, or at, which.“See what natures accompany what colors.” — Bacon.“To restrain what power either the devil or any earthly enemy hath to work us woe.” — Milton.“We know what master laid thy keel, What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel.” — Longfellow.
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8.
Used adverbially in a sense corresponding to the adjectival use; as, he picked what good fruit he saw.
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9.
Whatever; whatsoever; what thing soever; -- used indefinitely.“Whether it were the shortness of his foresight, the strength of his will, . . . or what it was.” — Bacon.
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10.
Used adverbially, in part; partly; somewhat; -- with a following preposition, especially, with, and commonly with repetition.“What for lust [pleasure] and what for lore.” — Chaucer.“Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat, what with the gallows, and what with poverty, I am custom shrunk.” — Shak.“The year before he had so used the matter that what by force, what by policy, he had taken from the Christians above thirty small castles.” — Knolles.“What time the morn mysterious visions brings.” — Pope.