all but

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Adverb

all but (not comparable)

1. Very nearly; everything short of.

   The food is all but finished.

   • 2013 September 28, Kenan Malik, "London Is Special, but Not That Special ↗," New York Times (retrieved 28 September 2013):

     When the first wave of postwar immigrants arrived in Britain in the 1950s and ’60s, it was a period of rising wages, full employment, an expanding welfare state and strong trade unions. Today, Britain’s manufacturing base has all but disappeared, working-class communities have disintegrated, unions have been neutered and the welfare state has begun to crumble.

Synonyms

• almost, nearly, nigh on

Translations

• French: presque, plus ou moins
• German: fast
• Italian: quasi, praticamente, quasi del tutto, all'atto pratico
• Portuguese: praticamente, quase
• Russian: почти́
• Spanish: casi

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