entire
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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English entere, enter, borrowed from Anglo-Norman entier, from Latin integrum, accusative of integer (“whole”), from Proto-Italic *əntagros (“untouched”). Doublet of entier and integer.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɪnˈtaɪə/, /ənˈtaɪə/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ɪnˈtaɪɚ/, /ənˈtaɪɚ/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)
Adjective
entire (not comparable)
- (sometimes postpositive) Whole; complete.
- We had the entire building to ourselves for the evening.
- 1624, John Donne, “17. Meditation”, in Deuotions upon Emergent Occasions, and Seuerall Steps in My Sicknes: , London: A M for Thomas Iones, →OCLC, pages 415–416:
- No man is an Iland, intire of it ſelfe; euery man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; […]
- (botany) Having a smooth margin without any indentation.
- (botany) Consisting of a single piece, as a corolla.
- (complex analysis, of a complex function) Complex-differentiable on all of ℂ.
- (of a male animal) Not gelded.
- 2018, Markus Zusak, Bridge of Clay, page 423:
- On top of that, he was entire, which meant his bloodline could carry on.
- Morally whole; pure; sheer.
- c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
- See now, whether pure fear and entire cowardice doth not make thee / wrong this virtuous gentlewoman to close with us.
- 1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, “(please specify |book=I to XVI)”, in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the Theater, published 1707, →OCLC:
- No man had ever a heart more entire to the king.
- Internal; interior.
- 1595, Edmunde Spenser [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “[Amoretti.] Sonnet VI”, in Amoretti and Epithalamion. , London: [Peter Short] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC:
- Depp is the wound, that dints the parts entire
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
whole
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having a smooth margin
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botany: consisting of a single piece
complex analysis: differentiable everywhere
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of a male animal not gelded
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without mixture or alloy of anything
Noun
entire (countable and uncountable, plural entires)
- (now rare) The whole of something; the entirety.
- 1876, WE Gladstone, Homeric Synchronism:
- In the entire of the Poems we never hear of a merchant ship of the Greeks.
- 1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin, published 2005, page 19:
- ‘Then is the City Magistrate the entire of your family now?’
- An uncastrated horse; a stallion.
- 2005, James Meek, The People's Act of Love, Canongate, published 2006, page 124:
- He asked why Hijaz was an entire. You know what an entire is, do you not, Anna? A stallion which has not been castrated.
- (philately) A complete envelope with stamps and all official markings: (prior to the use of envelopes) a page folded and posted.
- Porter or stout as delivered from the brewery.
Translations
stallion — see stallion
wholly