Meanings
- An answer in reply to a yes-no question, indicating there is no simple "yes" or "no" answer
Mr. JENNINGS. But if it is on the basis of handling it under a "with recourse" situation, that isn't affected by this bill. Mr. MIKVA. It is and it isn't. Mr. JENNINGS. It is from the standpoint of collection, you are right.
1972, United States House Committee on the District of Columbia Hearings on Interest, Usury, and Consumer Credit, page 1111 more example
If you want to know how many people are taller than six feet tall, then you just pick people out at random, and you see that maybe forty of them are more than six feet so you guess that maybe everybody is. Sounds stupid. Well, it is and it isn't. If you pick the hundred out by seeing which ones come through a low door, you're going to get it wrong.
2009, Richard P. Feynman, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist, page 84
Cite this entry
it is and it isn't. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/it%20is%20and%20it%20isn't
“it is and it isn't.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/it%20is%20and%20it%20isn't. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “it is and it isn't,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/it%20is%20and%20it%20isn't.
Source: it is and it isn't on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.