but that

conjunction

Except that.

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Meanings

conjunction
  1. archaicpoeticExcept that.

    After the master of the house found there was no remedy, but that he, his wife, and his children were to be locked up with this poor distempered servant[…]

    1722, Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year
  2. archaicliteraryWere it not that.

    He would be wholly a Christian, but that he is something of an atheist, and wholly an atheist, but that he is partly a Christian; and a perfect heretic, but that there are so many to distract him.

    1628, John Earle, Microcosmography
  3. archaicpoeticSo that.

    For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

    1611, “John 3:17”, in The Holy Bible, King James Version
    1 more example

    Here I found that the ship was bulged, and had a great deal of water in her hold, but that she lay so on the side of a bank of hard sand, or, rather earth, that her stern lay lifted up upon the bank, and her head low, almost to the water.

    1719, Daniel Defoe, The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
  4. literarypoeticFollowing not so, an elaboration of that.

    […]the present is not so glorious but that I should not wish to dwell a little in the past.

    1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel
Cite this entry
APA

but that. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/but%20that

MLA

“but that.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/but%20that. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “but that,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/but%20that.

Source: but that on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.