'By any means' definitions:

Definition of 'by any means'

From: WordNet
adverb
In any way necessary; "I'll pass this course by hook or by crook" [syn: by hook or by crook, by any means]

Definition of 'By any means'

From: GCIDE
  • Mean \Mean\, n.
  • 1. That which is mean, or intermediate, between two extremes of place, time, or number; the middle point or place; middle rate or degree; mediocrity; medium; absence of extremes or excess; moderation; measure. [1913 Webster]
  • But to speak in a mean, the virtue of prosperity is temperance; the virtue of adversity is fortitude. --Bacon. [1913 Webster]
  • There is a mean in all things. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
  • The extremes we have mentioned, between which the wellinstracted Christian holds the mean, are correlatives. --I. Taylor. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. (Math.) A quantity having an intermediate value between several others, from which it is derived, and of which it expresses the resultant value; usually, unless otherwise specified, it is the simple average, formed by adding the quantities together and dividing by their number, which is called an arithmetical mean. A geometrical mean is the nth root of the product of the n quantities being averaged. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. That through which, or by the help of which, an end is attained; something tending to an object desired; intermediate agency or measure; necessary condition or coagent; instrument. [1913 Webster]
  • Their virtuous conversation was a mean to work the conversion of the heathen to Christ. --Hooker. [1913 Webster]
  • You may be able, by this mean, to review your own scientific acquirements. --Coleridge. [1913 Webster]
  • Philosophical doubt is not an end, but a mean. --Sir W. Hamilton. [1913 Webster]
  • Note: In this sense the word is usually employed in the plural form means, and often with a singular attribute or predicate, as if a singular noun. [1913 Webster]
  • By this means he had them more at vantage. --Bacon. [1913 Webster]
  • What other means is left unto us. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. pl. Hence: Resources; property, revenue, or the like, considered as the condition of easy livelihood, or an instrumentality at command for effecting any purpose; disposable force or substance. [1913 Webster]
  • Your means are very slender, and your waste is great. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 5. (Mus.) A part, whether alto or tenor, intermediate between the soprano and base; a middle part. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
  • The mean is drowned with your unruly base. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 6. Meantime; meanwhile. [Obs.] --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
  • 7. A mediator; a go-between. [Obs.] --Piers Plowman. [1913 Webster]
  • He wooeth her by means and by brokage. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
  • By all means, certainly; without fail; as, go, by all means.
  • By any means, in any way; possibly; at all. [1913 Webster]
  • If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. --Phil. iii. ll. [1913 Webster]
  • By no means, or By no manner of means, not at all; certainly not; not in any degree. [1913 Webster]
  • The wine on this side of the lake is by no means so good as that on the other. --Addison. [1913 Webster]

Words containing 'By any means'