Definition of as

What does the word as mean?

• part of speech: noun

  Roman copper coin, orig. weighing 12 oz., but finally reduced to 1/2 oz. [Latin]

• part of speech: noun

  as.as. (the first as often omitted) in phrr. expressing by reference to a proverbial type the highest or a high degree of some quality, and in alliterative or punning phrr. modelled on these: bald as a coot, black as pitch, black as your or my hat, blind as a bat, bold as brass, brave as a lion, bright as a button, bright as a new pin, brown as a berry, busy as a bee, cold as charity, common as dirt, cool as a cucumber, cross as two sticks, dead as a doornail, dead as mutton, deaf as a post, drunk as a fiddler, drunk as a lord, dry as a bone, dull as ditchwater, easy as A B C, easy as lying, fat as a porpoise, fit as a fiddle, flat as a pancake, good as gold (of children\'s conduct), good as a play (amusing), hard as nails, heavy as lead, hungry as a hunter, jolly as a sandboy, keen as mustard, large as life, light as air, long as your or my arm, mad as a hatter, mad as a March hare, meek as Moses, merry as a grig, old as the hills, pale as a ghost, plain as a pikestaff, pleased as Punch, plentiful as blackberries, plump as a partridge, proud as a peacock, proud as Lucifer, quick as thought, quiet as a mouse, rich as a Jew, right as a trivet, right as rain, safe as a house, sharp as a needle, silent as the grave, snug as a bug in a rug, soft as butter, soft as velvet, sound as a bell, stiff as a poker, straight as a die, strong as a horse, stubborn as a mule, sure as fate, sweet as a nut, thick as thieves, thin as a lath, tight as a drum, tight as wax, true as steel, ugly as sin, warm as a toast, weak as a cat, weak as water, white as a sheet.

• part of speech: adverb

  1. adv. (in main sentence, foll. by as in subord. clause expressed or understood) in the same degree, as I came as soon as I could, I know that as well as you, you might as well help me, as FAR as. 2. rel. adv. or conj. in subord. clause, with or without antecedent as, so, expressing manner, degree, &c., of the principal sentence; (degree) you are as good as he, it is not so (or as) easy as you think, quick as thought he jumped out, fair as (=though) she is; (manner) do as you like, according as we decide, he looks as if he had seen a ghost, treat him as a stranger, you are, as it were (=as if it were actually so), compromised, they rose as one man, late as usual, he smiled, as who should say (=as a man would smile who); (time) it struck me as I was speaking; (reason) as you are not ready, we must go on; (result) he so arranged matters as to suit everyone, be so good as to come. 3. rel. pron. That, who, which, as I had the same trouble as you, such countries as Spain; (with antecedent inferred from main sentence) he was a foreigner, as (which fact) they perceived from his accent. 4. special phrr.: as regards, so far as it concerns; as yet, up to this time; I thought as much, I thought so; as well (as), in addition (to); as good as dead, practically dead. [old English]