Meanings
- idiomaticinformalOwing to; because of; as a result of (used typically to introduce several causes of something)
What with it being too late and raining, we decided to stay home.
4 more examples
She was sleeping very badly these days, what with the new baby and all the activity surrounding him.
Her half-brother had now ample means again, but what with debts and what with new madness wasted them most fearfully again.
1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter III, in Great Expectations […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 39It’s amazing that Plato, Aristotle and Socrates got any philosophizing done at all, what with all the lewd and lascivious behavior going on.
2005, Annabelle du Fouet, “The murky world from whence it all came” (chapter 2), in Weather Balloons Make Rotten Sex Toys, Ellora's Cave, →ISBN, page 36It was hard to take him seriously, though, what with his multi-colored eye makeup.
2009 October 29, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Mr Stink, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN
Synonyms & antonyms
Translations
Arabic حَيْث, لِأَن
- حَيْث (ḥayṯ)owing to
- لِأَن (liʔan)owing to
- بِسَبَب (bi-sabab)owing to
Icelandic út af
- út afowing to
Polish z powodu, ze względu na
- z powoduowing to
- ze względu naowing to
Portuguese por conta de
- por conta deowing to
Cite this entry
what with. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/what%20with
“what with.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/what%20with. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “what with,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/what%20with.
Source: what with on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.