without

alternative obsolete withoute · alternative obsolete wythoute · alternative obsolete wythowt · alternative obsolete wythowte

1. archaicliterarynot comparableOutside, externally.

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

   1904, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez, Norton, published 2005, page 1100

   5 more examples

   Presently a rioting noise was heard without. Starting up, the landlord cried, “That’s the Grampus’s crew. I seed her reported in the offing this morning; a three years’ voyage, and a full ship. Hurrah, boys; now we’ll have the latest news from the Feegees.”

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 3”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC

   And as each and all of them were warmed without by the sun, so each had a private little sun for her soul to bask in; some dream, some affection, some hobby, at least some remote and distant hope which, though perhaps starving to nothing, still lived on, as hopes will.

   1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 18

   Strange silence here: without, the sounding street Heralds the world's swift passage to the fire

   1900, Ernest Dowson, Benedictio Domini, lines 13–14

   The feeling seemed to come not from without, but from within each body, as though every person had become a vibrating string.

   2016, Liu Cixin, translated by Ken Liu, Death's End, Tor, translation of 死神永生, →ISBN, page 236

   Brainiac: This earthquake is quite literally worldwide. Alex Danvers: But the seismic activity [isn't] coming from within the planet, it's coming from without.

   2019 December 8, Supergirl (TV series), season 5, episode 8, "Crisis on Infinite Earths"

2. not comparableLacking something; failing.

   Whose can be used with a following noun or without.

   3 more examples

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

   We've run out of bread; you'll have to do without until I can get to the bakeshop.

   Communication is a kind of beauty, he said – and “beauty manifests itself from the noun itself, without strawberries on the cake.”

   2019 September 24, Jessie Yeung, “Pope Francis loves nouns but is ‘allergic’ to adjectives”, in CNN, archived from the original on 27 Sep 2019

3. euphemisticnot comparablelifestyleWithout a condom being worn.

   “What's within reason?” “Hand-job, blow-job, full sex — straight, full service. Greek, maybe, if you're not too big. Golden shower, if you like, but not reverse. No hardsports. And absolutely nothing without.”

   2012, Maxim Jakubowski, The Best British Crime Omnibus

alternative obsolete withoute · alternative obsolete wythoute · alternative obsolete wythowt · alternative obsolete wythowte

1. archaicliteraryOutside of, beyond.

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

   c. 1689, Thomas Burnet, The Sacred Theory of the Earth

   5 more examples

   MACBETH: There's blood upon your face. FIRST MURDERER: 'Tis Banquo's then. MACBETH: 'Tis better thee without than he within.

   c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]

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

   1697, Virgil, “The Seventh Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

   From thence we came without the Eaſtern gate, (ſtanding on a low Banke, called the daughter of Syon, that over-toppeth the valley of Iehoſaphat,) unto an immoveable ſtone, upon the which they ſaid St. Stephen was ſtoned to death, the firſt Martyr of the Chriſtian faith; and the faithfull fore-runner of many noble followers.

   1640, William Lithgow, “The Sixt Part”, in The Totall Diſcourſe, Of the rare Adventures, and painefull Peregrinations of long nineteene yeares Travailes from Scotland, to the moſt famous Kingdomes in Europe, Aſia, and Affrica […], London: I. Okes, page 249

   […] though it was pitch-dark, and we were obliged to be escorted by grooms and groomlings with candles and lanterns; a very necessary precaution, as the winds blew not more violently without the house than within.

   1835, William Beckford, Italy: With Sketches of Spain and Portugal, volume 1, page 13

   [...] nor shall any slave holder be allowed to emancipate his or her slave or slaves without the consent of congress, unless he or she shall send his or her slave or slaves without the limits of the republic [of Texas].

   1838 [1836], “Constitution of the Republic of Texas”, in Laws of the Republic of Texas, in Two Volumes, volume 1, Houston, archived from the original on 08 Jun 2021, Provisions, page 19

   Antonyms: within

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

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

   5 more examples

   I was without formal education but was well read and articulate.

   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.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   One day my dreams were surely dying, dying, dying baby Just like a flower without rain

   1968 December 8, Henry Cosby, Sylvia Moy, Stevie Wonder, “I’d Be a Fool Right Now”, in For Once in My Life, performed by Stevie Wonder, Tamla Records

   1967, Paul McCartney (writer), The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Life goes on within you and without you.

   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.

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

   Antonyms: with

3. Not doing or not having done something.

   He shot without warning anyone.

   4 more examples

   He likes to eat everything without sharing.

   Without noticing it I grew old.

   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.

   1883, Howard Pyle, chapter V, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC

   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.

   1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 16

alternative obsolete withoute · alternative obsolete wythoute · alternative obsolete wythowt · alternative obsolete wythowte

1. archaicdialectalUnless, except (introducing a clause).

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

   1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   You don't know about me, without you have read a book by the name of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," but that ain't no matter.

   1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter I, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 1

plural withouts · alternative obsolete withoute · alternative obsolete wythoute · alternative obsolete wythowt · alternative obsolete wythowte

1. uncommonSomeone or something lacking in something.