but

prep

1. Apart from, except (for), excluding.

   “Everyone but Father left early.”

   “I like everything but that.”

   “Nobody answered the door when I knocked, so I had no choice but to leave.”

   “Luiz struggled with the movement of Helguson in the box, as he collected a long ball and the Spaniard barged him over, leaving referee Chris Foy little option but to point to the spot.”

2. Outside of.

   “Away but the hoose and tell me whae's there.”

adv

1. (literary, not-comparable, poetic)Merely, only, just, no more than

   “Christmas comes but once a year, so we can but wait till then.”

   “If they kill us, we shall but die.”

   “For to see her was to love her, Love but her, and love for ever.”

   “In those days, when my hands were much employed, I read but little, but the least scraps of paper which lay on the ground, my holder, or tablecloth, afforded me as much entertainment, in fact answered the same purpose as the Iliad.”

   “Now the Wicked Witch of the West had but one eye, yet that was as powerful as a telescope, and could see everywhere.”

2. (Australia, Geordie, Scotland, conjunctive, not-comparable)Though, however.

   “I'll have to go home early but.”

   “"Supposin' the chap ain't dead, but?" Regan persisted.”

   “‘I didn’t like that sheila that tried to latch onto him, but.’”

3. (not-comparable)Used to repeat an adverb for emphasis; simply; just; absolutely.

   “I would never, but never do such a thing!”

   ““I would never,” said Joan, as she backed the car and worked on the wheel, “but never have allowed my child to go abroad with that old Lesbian.””

   “The Nobel prize for literature is announced tomorrow lunchtime so it's time for the usual annual guessing game here on the Books desk, safe in the knowledge that we always, but always, get it wrong.”

conj

1. However, although, nevertheless, on the other hand (introducing a clause contrary to prior belief or in contrast with the preceding clause or sentence).

   “She is very old but still attractive.”

   “She’s welcomed them but been rude to us.”

   “You told me I could do that, but she said that I could not.”

2. On the contrary, rather (as a regular adversative conjunction, introducing a word or clause in contrast or contradiction with the preceding negative clause or sentence).

   “I am not rich but [I am] poor.  Not John but Peter went there.”

   “It’s not so much that we don’t wanna go, but I just haven’t time.”

3. (colloquial)Used at the beginning of a sentence to express opposition to a remark.

   “But I never said you could do that!”

   “In reality, I apprehend every amorous widow on the stage would run the hazard of being condemned as a servile imitation of Dido, but that happily very few of our play-house critics understand enough of Latin to read Virgil.”

   “Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits. Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.”

   “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. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee.”

4. Except that (introducing a subordinate clause which qualifies a negative statement); also, (archaic) with omission of the subject of the subordinate clause, acting as a negative relative, "except one that", "except such that".

   “I cannot but feel offended.”

   “My kid does nothing but watch TV all day.”

   “And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by, From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be rememberèd—”

   “There is no reason but hath another contrary unto it, saith the wisest party of Philosophers.”

   “And but my noble Moor is true of mind […] it were enough to put him to ill thinking.”

5. (colloquial)Used to link an interjection to the following remark as an intensifier.

   “Wow! But that's amazing!”

   “Oh, the engineers would see him sitting in the shade / Strumming with the rhythm that the drivers made / People passing by, they would stop and say / "Oh, my, but that little country boy could play"”

   “Say, Candy and Ronnie, have you seen them yet? / Ooh, but they're so spaced out / B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets / Oh, but they're weird and they're wonderful / Oh, Bennie, she's really keen”

   “"Jakers, but we worked." With a long breath she shut her eyes. "But it was too much for one woman and a half-grown girl […]"”

6. (archaic)Without it also being the case that; unless that (introducing a necessary concomitant).

   “It never rains but it pours”

   “I never hear this song but I think of you.”

   “No arboret with painted blossomes drest, / And smelling sweet, but there it might be found […]”

   “For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”

7. (obsolete)Except with; unless with; without.

   “This man unable to manage his own happineſſe, grew ſo inſolent that he could not go, but either ſpurning his equals, or trampling on his inferiours.”

8. (obsolete)Only; solely; merely.

   “Observe but how their own principles combat one another.”

   “a formidable man but to his friends”

9. (obsolete)Until.

   “'Tshall not be long but I'll be here again.”

10. (obsolete)That.

    “It is not impossible but next year I may have the honour of waiting on your Lordship at St. Asaph, If I go to Ireland I certainly will go that way.”

    ““I am convinced, if you were to press this matter earnestly upon her, she would consent.” “It is not impossible but she might,” said Madame de Seidlits […].”

    “It is not improbable but future observations will add Pliny's Well to the class of irregular reciprocators.”

noun

1. An instance of using the word "but"; an objection or caveat.

   “It has to be done—no ifs, ands, or buts.”

   “But—and this is a big but—you have to come home by sundown.”

   “The children are taught to be afraid of winter, of war, of death, of hard times, of disease, of examtinations. Perhaps that is one of the reasons that children so seldom find the conversation of their elders uplifting. It is full of don’ts, buts and nots.”

   “"I support you/understand where you're coming from, but..." ¶ No. No "buts" when it comes to other people's survival.”

   “But - and this is a pretty important but - it's just as bad to eat the wrong thing before a workout as it is to eat nothing at all.”

2. (Scotland)The outer room of a small two-room cottage.
3. A limit; a boundary.
4. The end; especially the larger or thicker end, or the blunt, in distinction from the sharp, end; the butt.

verb

1. (archaic)Use the word "but".

   “But me no buts.”

name

1. A surname.