Definition of "about"

So look about you; know you any here?

c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:

1769, King James Bible, Oxford Standard text, Proverbs, iii, 3

The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. […] Roaring, leaping, pouncing, the tempest raged about the wanderers, drowning and blotting out their forms with sandy spume.

1892, James Yoxall, chapter 5, in The Lonely Pyramid

[I]n likeneſs of a Dove / The Spirit deſcended, while the Fathers voice / From Heav'n pronounc'd him his beloved Son. / That heard the Adverſary, who roving ſtill / About the world, at that aſſembly fam'd / Would not be laſt, […]

1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], page 3, lines 30–35

He had been known, during several years, as a small poet; and some of the most savage lampoons which were handed about the coffeehouses were imputed to him.

1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans

I already have made way / To some Philistian lords, with whom to treat / About thy ransom.

1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes

There have been violent quarrels about whether the whole is greater than a part.

1856, Voltaire, Philosophical dictionary

"I'll tell you what, Fanny: she must have her way about Sarah Thompson. You can see her to-morrow and tell her so."

1860, Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage

I told him about everything I could think of; and what I couldn't think of he did. He asked about six questions during my yarn, but every question had a point to it. At the end he bowed and thanked me once more. As a thanker he was main-truck high; I never see anybody so polite.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company

Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.

2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70

Well, let’s not talk about yesterday. Audio (US):(file)

2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?

1769, King James Bible, Oxford Standard text, Luke, ii, 49

RON: And I'll have the number 8. / WAITER: That's a party platter, it serves 12 people. / RON: I know what I'm about, son.

2013 March 14, Parks and Recreation, season 5, episode 16, Bailout

At this assurance the traveller rose, and approached Alice softly. He drew away her hands from her face, when she said gently, "Have you much money about you?" / "Oh the mercenary baggage!" said the traveller to himself; and then replied aloud, "Why, pretty one?—Do you sell your kisses so high, then?"

1837, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], Ernest Maltravers […] , volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], book I, page 16

Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. […] A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes. […] But withal there was a perceptible acumen about the man which was puzzling in the extreme.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.

Why, then, I see, ‘tis time to look about, / When every boy Alphonsus dares control.

1599, Robert Greene, The Comical History of Alphonsus King of Aragon, III-ii

And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.

1769, King James Bible, Oxford Standard text, 1 Timothy, v,13

He and Gerald usually challenged the rollers in a sponson canoe when Gerald was there for the weekend; or, when Lansing came down, the two took long swims seaward or cruised about in Gerald's dory, clad in their swimming-suits; and Selwyn's youth became renewed in a manner almost ridiculous, […].

1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company

Therefore I know she is about my height.

c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace

1769, King James Bible, Oxford Standard text, Matthew, xx, 3

Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.

1769, King James Bible, Oxford Standard text, Exodus, ix, 18

And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.

1769, King James Bible, Oxford Standard text, Exodus, xxxii,28

“Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours are pale blue, Eileen!—you’re about as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumbling à la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is better. […]”

1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company

I told him about everything I could think of; and what I couldn't think of he did. He asked about six questions during my yarn, but every question had a point to it. At the end he bowed and thanked me once more. As a thanker he was main-truck high; I never see anybody so polite.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company

[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […] .

2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845

Mr. Carter, whose back had been turned, turned about and faced his niece.

1888, Horatio Alger, The Errand Boy

When he had finished, he drew his plaid around his head, and went slowly down to the little dell, where he used every day to offer up his morning and evening prayers, and where we have often sat together on Sabbath afternoons, reading verse about with our children in the Bible.

1818, James Hogg, published in The Scots Magazine, Vol. 86, p. 218, "On the Life and Writings of James Hogg" [Quoted in the OED]

Nothing daunted, the fleet put to sea, and after sailing about the island for some time, a landing was effected in the west of Munster.

1886, Duncan Keith, A history of Scotland: civil and ecclesiastical from the earliest times to the death of David I, 1153, volume 1

'John, I have observed that you are often out and about of nights, sometimes as late as half past seven or eight. […]'

, J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet (Arnold’s English Literature Series), London: Edward Arnold & Co.

To my mind, transportation engineering is similar to flying in the 1930s — it has been about for some time but it has taken the present economic jolt to shake it out of its infancy, in the same way that the war started the development of flying to its current stage.

1975, IPC Building & Contract Journals Ltd, Highways & road construction, volume 43

Although it has been about for some time now, I like the typeface Sauna.

2005, IDG Communications, Digit, numbers 89-94

Is not this sudden interest in capturing CO2 — and it has been about for a little while — simply another hidey-hole for the government to creep into?

2006, Great Britain Parliament: House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, Energy: Meeting With Malcolm Wicks MP