Definition of "of"

Expressing distance or motion.

1. (now obsolete or dialectal) From (of distance, direction), "off".  quotations

   Quotations

   • Sir said Galahad by this shelde ben many merueils fallen / Sir sayd the knyght hit befelle after the passion of our lord Ihesu Crist xxxij yere that Ioseph of Armathye the gentyl knyghte / the whiche took doune oure lord of the hooly Crosse att that tyme he departed from Iherusalem with a grete party of his kynred with hym(please add an English translation of this quotation)

     1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter X, in Le Morte Darthur, book XIII

   • Against headache, vertigo, vapours which ascend forth of the stomach to molest the head, read Hercules de Saxonia and others.

     1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, partition 2, section 3, member 5, subsection 2

   • He is never chased; he would run away with rope-walks of line.

     1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter XXXII, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, page 153

2. (obsolete except in phrases) Since, from (a given time, earlier state etc.).  quotations

   Quotations

   • And he axed his father: howe longe is it agoo, sens this hath happened hym? And he sayde, of a chylde.

     1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], Mark ]

   • one that I brought vp of a puppy […] I was sent to deliuer him, as a present to Mistris Siluia, from my Master.

     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, [Act IV, scene iv]

   • Obama has been obliged to make nice of late in hope of rescuing the moribund two-state process and preventing resumed West Bank settlement building.

     2010 July 29, Simon Tisdall, The Guardian

3. From, away from (a position, number, distance etc.).  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Though Washington does not officially recognize Moscow, the Hoover Administration permits a Soviet Russian Information Bureau to flourish in a modest red brick house on Massachusetts Avenue, within a mile of the White House.

     1932 September 30, Time

   • There are now upwards of 1.4 million 99ers in America facing a life with no benefits and few prospects for finding a job in a market in which companies are still not hiring.

     2010 November 7, The Guardian

Expressing separation.

1. Indicating removal, absence or separation, with the action indicated by a transitive verb and the quality or substance by a grammatical object.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • And ther with on his handes and on his knees he wente soo nyghe that he touched the holy vessel / and kyste hit / and anone he was hole / and thenne he sayd lord god I thanke the / for I am helyd of this sekenesse(please add an English translation of this quotation)

     1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xviij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book XIII

   • Antigonus [took] upon him to favour a souldier of his by reason of his vertue and valour, to have great care of him, and see whether they could recover him of a lingering and inward disease which had long tormented him […]

     1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter I, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […]

   • I am almost entirely cured of my rheumatism—just a little pain in my knee now and then, to make me remember what it was, and keep on flannel.

     1816 February 20, Jane Austen, Letter

   • In Houston, ten minutes after the Lindquist Finance Corp. was robbed of $447, Office Manager Howard Willson got a phone call from the thief who complained: "You didn't have enough money over there."

     1951 September 3, Time

2. Indicating removal, absence or separation, with resulting state indicated by an adjective.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • But schemes are perfectly accidental: some will appear barren of hints and matter, but prove to be fruitful […]

     1731 August 28, Jonathan Swift, Letter

   • Yet for long spells Villa looked laboured and devoid of ideas.

     2010 October 31, Stuart James, The Guardian

3. (obsolete) Indicating removal, absence or separation, construed with an intransitive verb.  quotations

   Quotations

   • He was kindly treated by the people at Saco, and recovered of his wounds.

     1822, Jacob Bailey Moore, New Hampshire, volume 1, page 5

Expressing origin.

1. Indicating an ancestral source or origin of descent.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • They wondred all, and marveylled sayinge amonge themselves: Loke, are not all these which speake off galile? And howe heare we every man his awne tongue wherein we were boren?

     1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], Acts ]

   • My father was born of a family of weavers in Manchester, England.

     1954, The Rotarian, volume 85:6

   • Nothing may come of these ideas, yet their potential should not be dismissed.

     2010, “The Cost of Repair”, in The Economist

2. Introducing an epithet that indicates a birthplace, residence, dominion, or other place associated with the individual.  examples

3. Indicating a (non-physical) source of action or emotion; introducing a cause, instigation; from, out of, as an expression of.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Faire knyght said Palomydes me semeth we haue assayed eyther other passyng sore / and yf hit may please the / I requyre the of thy knyghthode telle me thy name / Sir said the knyȝt to Palomydes / that is me loth to doo / for thou hast done me wronge.(please add an English translation of this quotation)

     1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter XIX, in Le Morte Darthur, book X

   • Undoubtedly it is to be understood, that inflicting deserved punishment on all evil doers, of right, belongs to God.

     1803, John Smalley, Sermons

   • The woman who danced for me said she was there of her own free will, but when I pushed a bit further, I discovered that she "owed a man a lot of money", and had to pay it back quickly.

     2008 December 3, Rowenna Davis, The Guardian

4. (following an intransitive verb) Indicates the source or cause of the verb.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • He smelled of beer and cigarette smoke and his own body.

     2006, Joyce Carol Oates, The Female of the Species

   • Two men, one from Somalia and one from Zimbabwe, died of terminal illnesses shortly after their incarceration ended.

     2010 October 5, Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi, The Guardian

5. (following an adjective) Indicates the subject or cause of the adjective.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Lib Dems were appalled by Mr Boles’s offer, however kindly meant: the party is so frightened of losing its independence under Mr Clegg that such a pact would “kill” him, says a senior member.

     2010 September 23, Bagehot, The Economist

   • Thus, one finds individuals dead of a gunshot wound with potentially lethal levels of drugs.

     2015, Vincent J. M. DiMaio, Gunshot Wounds

Expressing agency.

1. (following a passive verb) Indicates the agent (for most verbs, now usually expressed with by).  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • After a good while, the iewes toke cousell amonge themselves to kyll him. But their layinges awayte wer knowen of Saul.

     1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], Acts ]

   • [S]he might appeare to be the lively patterne of another Lucrece, yet know I certainly that, both before that time and afterward, she had beene enjoyed of others upon easier composition.

     1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter I, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […]

   • The family is ordained of God.

     1995, The Family: A Proclamation to the World‎, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

   • Colombia and Venezuela share an elegantly restrained style, with much back-stepping, smaller hand-movements and little use of the elaborate, arm-tangling moves beloved of Cuban dancers.

     2008 March 27, “Selling rhythm to the world”, in The Economist

2. Used to introduce the "subjective genitive"; following a noun to form the head of a postmodifying noun phrase (see also 'Possession' senses below).  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • In Blood and Sand, meanwhile, Valentino repeatedly solicits the attention of women who have turned away from him.

     1994, Paul Coates, Film at the Intersection of High and Mass Culture, page 136

   • Somehow Croatia has escaped the opprobrium of the likes of the German Christian Democrats and others that are against any rapid enlargement of the European Union to the include rest of the western Balkans.

     2009 December 28, “Head to head”, in The Economist

3. (following an adjective) Used to indicate the agent of something described by the adjective.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • When this was over, Mr. Woodhouse gratefully observed,—"It is very kind of you, Mr. Knightley, to come out at this late hour to call upon us."

     1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], Emma: […], volumes (please specify |volume=I, II or III), London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray

   • Morrissey's spokesperson says he is considering the offer. It would perhaps be rude of him to decline.

     2007 January 10, Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian

Expressing composition, substance.

1. (after a verb expressing construction, making etc.) Used to indicate the material or substance used.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • The mallet is made of a hard heavy wood resembling ebony, is about twelve inches in length, and perhaps two in breadth, with a rounded handle at one end […]

     1846 February, Henry Melville, Typee […] : A Peep at Polynesian Life, London: John Murray

2. (directly following a noun) Used to indicate the material of the just-mentioned object.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Perhaps symbolically, Van Doesburg was building a house of straw: he died within a few months of completion, not in Meudon but in Davos, of a heart attack following a bout of asthma.

     2010 January 23, Simon Mawer, The Guardian

   • It's 25km of rolling pitch from the start of the 175 to Nansi. If you want to continue riding through more undeveloped natural landscape, head up the east side of Tsengwen Reservoir.

     2014, Robert Kelly, Chung Wah Chow, Taiwan‎, 9th edition, Lonely Planet, page 253

3. Indicating the composition of a given collective or quantitative noun.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • His papers at this period contain a mass of very unedifying and uninteresting documents […] .

     1844 January–December, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. [The Luck of Barry Lyndon.]”, in Miscellanies: Prose and Verse, volume III, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1856

   • I'd expected to be confronted by oodles of barely suppressed tension and leather-clad, pouty-mouthed, large-haired sexiness; the visual shorthand of rock gods in general, and Jon Bon Jovi in particular.

     2010 October 31, Polly Vernon, The Guardian

4. Used to link a given class of things with a specific example of that class.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • This having the rainy month of March and April to water it, sprung up very pleasantly, and yielded a very good crop […] .

     1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], 3rd edition, London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], published 1719

   • In his studio in the Behlendorf woods, near the Baltic city of Lübeck, Günter Grass reflects on the outcry over his fictive memoir Peeling the Onion.

     2010 October 30, Maya Jaggi, The Guardian

5. Links two nouns in near-apposition, with the first qualifying the second; "which is also".  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • As he swallowed the soup his heart warmed to this fool of a girl.

     1911, Katherine Mansfield, In a German Pension

   • "I'm having a bitch of a day," he says, after ordering a restorative pint of Guinness and flopping down in a seat by the front window.

     2010 August 22, Sean O'Hagan, The Guardian

Introducing subject matter.

1. Links an intransitive verb, or a transitive verb and its subject (especially verbs to do with thinking, feeling, expressing etc.), with its subject-matter; concerning, with regard to.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • [H]e spoke of his uncle with warm regard, was fond of talking of him […]

     1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], Emma: […], volumes (please specify |volume=I, II or III), London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray

   • You must not judge of Celia's feeling from mine. I think she likes these small pets.

     1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter III, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, book I, page 44

   • while producing Cook, which includes more than 250 seasonal recipes by 80 different chefs, we washed up more than 500 times (oh, how I dreamed of dishwashers).

     2010 October 19, Rebecca Seal, The Guardian

2. (following a noun (now chiefly nouns of knowledge, communication etc.)) Introduces its subject matter; about, concerning.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Recession and rising unemployment have put paid to most thoughts of further EU enlargement.

     2010 October 21, The Economist

3. (following an adjective) Introduces its subject matter.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • The same secludedness and isolation to which the schoolmaster whale betakes himself in his advancing years, is true of all aged Sperm Whales.

     1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley

Having partitive effect.

1. (following a number or other quantitive word) Introduces the whole for which is indicated only the specified part or segment; "from among".  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • But as for me said sire Gareth I medle not of their maters therfore there is none of them that loueth me / And for I vnderstande they be murtherers of good knyghtes I lefte theyre company(please add an English translation of this quotation)

     1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “lviij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book X

   • The dead bodies of the Koreish were despoiled and insulted; two of the most obnoxious prisoners were punished with death […]

     1788, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume VI, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […]

   • Many of the civilisational achievements of Mesopotamia are the product of that symbiosis.

     2010 November 10, Michael Wood, The Guardian

2. (following a noun) Indicates a given part.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • everyone, even the ladies of the village, called the dish tzigayner shmeklekh, or “gypsies' penises.”

     2005, Naomi Wolf, The Treehouse, page 58

   • That, I think, is the buried core of the outrage people feel most generally.

     2006, Norman Mailer, The Big Empty

3. (now archaic, literary, with preceding partitive word assumed, or as a predicate after to be) Some, an amount of, one of.  quotations

   Quotations

   • And the folysshe sayde to the wyse: geve us of youre oyle, for oure lampes goo out?

     1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], Matthew ]

   • My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains / My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, […]

     1819, John Keats, “Ode to a Nightingale”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, stanza 1, page 107

   • Dunning, however, is of the old school, and does not like new faces; so he will have no Irishman at his door […]

     1846, James Fenimore Cooper, The Redskins

4. Links to a genitive noun or possessive pronoun, with partitive effect (though now often merged with possessive senses, below).  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • He is just what I should have liked a son of mine to be.

     1893, Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance, section IV

   • In its flattering way, the press tried to invest this habit of Bush's with the sense that it was indicative of a particularly sharp wit.

     2010 August 27, Michael Tomasky, The Guardian

Expressing possession.

1. Belonging to, existing in, or taking place in a given location, place or time. Compare "origin" senses, above.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • The building was erected in two years, at the parochial expence, on the foundation of the former one, which was irreparably damaged by the hurricane of Auguſt, 1712.

     1774, Edward Long, The History of Jamaica. Or, General Survey of the Antient and Modern State of that Island, volume 2, book 2, chapter 7, 5

   • Thus, as he dressed, the thoughts and the rage of yesterday began to stir and move in his mind again.

     1908, E. F. Benson, The Blotting Book

   • Within ten seconds, the citizens of New York, Cleveland, Detroit and Toronto were being given first-hand experience of what it was like to live in the nineteenth century.

     2003 August 20, Julian Borger, The Guardian

2. Belonging to (a place) through having title, ownership or control over it.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • In a much-anticipated radio broadcast the Duke of Edinburgh said last night that Britain will be a grim place in the year 2000 […]

     1977 October 28, The Guardian

   • The third son, William John (1826-1902), was headmaster of the Boys' British School, Hitchin […]

     2001, Dictionary of National Biography, page 27

3. Belonging to (someone or something) as something they possess or have as a characteristic; the "possessive genitive". (With abstract nouns, this intersects with the subjective genitive, above under "agency" senses.)  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • The breasts of young girls sometimes become tender at puberty in sympathy with the evolution of the sexual organs […]

     1933, Havelock Ellis, Psychology of Sex, volume 4

   • It amounts to knocking on the door of No 10 then running away.

     2010 October 29, Marina Hyde, The Guardian

Forming the "objective genitive".

1. Follows an agent noun, verbal noun or noun of action.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

     1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Matthew 4:

   • Antifeminism has been a credible cover and an effective vehicle because the hatred of women is not politically anathema on either the Right or the Left.

     2000, Sheila Ruth, Issues in Feminism

Expressing qualities or characteristics.

1. (archaic or literary) Links an adjective with a noun or noun phrase to form a quasi-adverbial qualifier; in respect to, as regards.  quotations

   Quotations

   • He was huge, raw-boned, knotty, long of body and long of leg, with the head of a war charger.

     1917, Zane Gray, Wildfire, page 35

   • Still nimble of mind and fleet of foot, Morris buzzed here and there, linking well and getting stuck in at every opportunity.

     2004 August 11, Sean Ingle, The Guardian

2. Indicates a quality or characteristic; "characterized by".  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • His frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and firmness.

     1891, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Boscombe Valley Mystery

   • No other man has made so deep a mark on his time and on our world unless he has been a man of action, a Cromwell or a Napoleon.

     1951, Jacob Bronowski, The Common Sense of Science

3. Indicates quantity, age, price, etc.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • She was a tall young girl of about twenty-two or three, holding herself erect and with fine dignity.

     1903, Frank Norris, The Pit, Doubleday, published 1924, page 4

   • A police car, traveling southbound at a speed of 40.0 m/s, approaches with its siren producing sound at a frequency of 2 500 Hz.

     1996, Raymond A. Serway, John W. Jewett, Principles of Physics, published 2006, page 428

4. (US, informal, considered incorrect by some) Used to link singular indefinite nouns (preceded by the indefinite article) and attributive adjectives modified by certain common adverbs of degree.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Such hegemonic projects often appropriate certain local traditions and re-inscribe them as "national," while dismissing other traditions which pose too great of a threat to the reproduction of the existing socio-political order.

     1990, Mary Crain, “The Social Construction of National Identity in Highland Ecuador”, in Anthropological Quarterly, volume 61, number 1, page 43

   • For some individuals, even 1000 calories/day may be too great of a deficit.

     1998, Lyle McDonald, The Ketogenic Diet: A Complete Guide for the Dieter and Practitioner, page 98

   • While it is quite obvious that the state continues to try and dilute the voting power of Native Americans, at least as big of a challenge is the need for mobilizing Native American voters.

     2017, Jean Reith Schroedel, Artour Aslanian, “A Case Study of Descriptive Representation: The Experience of Native American Elected Officials in South Dakota”, in American Indian Quarterly, volume 41, number 3, page 278

Expressing a point in time.

1. (chiefly regional) During the course of (a set period of time, day of the week etc.), now specifically with implied repetition or regularity.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • For, sometimes of an afternoon when Miss Pupford has been reading the paper through her little gold eye-glass […], she has become agitated, […]

     1861, Charles Dickens, “Tom Tiddler’s Ground. Chapter VI. Picking Up Miss Kimmeens.”, in Christmas Stories […] (The Works of Charles Dickens; XV), de luxe edition, London: Chapman and Hall, published 1881, page 242

   • If there was a type Ida despised, Sir Claude communicated to Maisie, it was the man who pottered about town of a Sunday […]

     1897 October 16, Henry James, What Maisie Knew, Chicago, Ill., New York, N.Y.: Herbert S. Stone & Co.

2. (UK, dialectal, chiefly in the negative) For (a given length of time).  examples

3. (after a noun) Indicates duration of a state, activity etc.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • The cab driver's claim he was sleepwalking during the attack has already been supported by his wife of 37 years.

     2011 March 2, Grant McCabe, The Sun

4. (chiefly US) Before (the hour); to (the hour).  quotations

   Quotations

   • "Fellow Democrats," he began, "I left Washington at a quarter of two this morning […] "

     1940 June 17, “Little Bull Booed”, in Time

   • Quarter of seven. Fifteen minutes to go.

     1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 194

   1. (informal) Often used without the hour  examples

(usually in modal perfect constructions) Eye dialect spelling of have or ’ve, chiefly in depictions of colloquial speech.  quotations  examples

(stenoscript) Abbreviation of off, often  examples