entire
Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word entire. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word entire, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say entire in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word entire you have here. The definition of the word entire will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofentire, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English entere, enter, borrowed from Anglo-Norman entier, from Latin integrum, accusative of integer, from in- (“not”) + tangō (“touch”). Doublet of 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: Printed by A[ugustine] M[atthews] for Thomas Iones, →OCLC; republished as Geoffrey Keynes, edited by John Sparrow, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions: , Cambridge: At the University Press, 1923, →OCLC, page 98, lines 2–3:
- No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every 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
|
having a smooth margin
|
botany: consisting of a single piece
complex analysis: differentiable everywhere
|
of a male animal not gelded
|
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