Definition of "only"
only
adjective
not comparable
Quotations
The San Juan market is Mexico City's most famous deli of exotic meats, where an adventurous shopper can hunt down hard-to-find critters such as ostrich, wild boar and crocodile. Only the city zoo offers greater species diversity.
2013 July 26, Nick Miroff, “Mexico gets a taste for eating insects […]”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 7, page 32
Singularly superior; the best.
Quotations
(obsolete) Mere.
adverb
not comparable
Without others or anything further; exclusively.
Quotations
In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.
2013 June 7, Ed Pilkington, “‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 6
Quotations
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
Quotations
The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).
2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847
Introduces a disappointing or surprising outcome that renders futile something previously mentioned.
Quotations
He met Luis Suarez's cross at the far post, only for Chelsea keeper Petr Cech to show brilliant reflexes to deflect his header on to the bar. Carroll turned away to lead Liverpool's insistent protests that the ball had crossed the line but referee Phil Dowd and assistant referee Andrew Garratt waved play on, with even a succession of replays proving inconclusive.
2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport
conjunction
(informal) Under the condition that; but. (clarification of this definition is needed)
But; except. (clarification of this definition is needed)
Quotations
noun
plural onlys or onlies