Definition of It

What does the word It mean?

• part of speech: pronoun

  (poss. its; pl. they, obj. them, poss. their). The thing in question; the person in question, as who is it (that knocks)?, it (the person that knocks) is I, (archaic poet.) it (what occupies my mind) is the miller\'s daughter, & she is grown so dear, (nursery sympathetic) has it lost its rattle then? (have you, your); (as subject of impers. vb) it rains, it is cold; it (the season) is winter, it (the day) is Ash Wednesday, it is Ash Wednesday today, it (the distance) is 6 miles to Oxford; it says in the Bible (the Bible says) that all men are liars; I would go if it were not (would go but) for the expense; (as subject, anticipating deferred virtual subject in more or less conscious apposition) it is absurd talking (or to talk) like that, it is incredible that he should refuse, it is a dirty business, this meat-canning; (anticipating deferred subject introduced by that conj., separated from it by adv. predicate) it is seldom that he fails, it is in vain that you quibble, it is to him that you must apply; (as antecedent to relative of either number& any gender, separated by predicate) it was a purse that he dropped, it was the Russians that began it; (as indef. obj. w. trans. or intr. vb) face it out, carry it with a high hand, deuce take it, run for it, lord it over him, cab it (go habitually or on the particular occasion in cab), give it him (hot), have done it (blundered). [old English]