by a long chalk
Prepositional phrase
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Prepositional phrase
- (UK, informal) By far.
- 1891, George Gissing, New Grub Street, ch. 27
- Bowring was a man of few words; he said, "Blaze away, my boy." And I tried to. But it was no use; I had got out of the style; my writing was too literary by a long chalk.
- 1906, L. Frank Baum, Aunt Jane's Nieces, chapter 13
- The world's a stage, they say; but the show ain't always amusing, by a long chalk, and sometimes I wish I didn't have a reserved seat.
- 1913, D. H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 6
- "My boy, remember you're taking your life in your hands," said Mrs. Morel. "NOTHING is as bad as a marriage that's a hopeless failure. Mine was bad enough, God knows, and ought to teach you something; but it might have been worse by a long chalk."
- 1891, George Gissing, New Grub Street, ch. 27
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002