Definition of "according to"

According to him, every person was to be bought.

1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 2, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans

According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.

2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55

Our zeal should be according to knowledge.

1695, Thomas Sprat, A Discourse Made by Ld Bishop of Rochester To the Clergy of his Diocese

there was only a frightening silence, unenlivened even by the invidious enquiries of former years, which culminated, according to its stern nature, in a still more frightening old woman, a figure awaiting her on the very doorstep.

1897, Henry James, What Maisie Knew

Over the past 20 years, the station complex - including the main platform buildings, signal box and level crossing gates - has been lovingly restored, with the gates replaced according to original plans.

2022 December 14, Robin Leleux, “A royal occasion as heritage projects honoured: Wolferton”, in RAIL, number 972, page 61