in the world
Prepositional phrase
  1. (idiomatic) Expletive used for emphasis, for example after an interrogative word.
    What in the world was that?
    Who in the world would want to do that?
    • 1900, L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Chapter 24
      "My darling child!" she cried, folding the little girl in her arms and covering her face with kisses. "Where in the world did you come from?"
  2. Used for emphasis after a qualified noun.
    the happiest girl in the world
    Synonyms: on the face of the earth
Synonyms
  • seeSynonyms en
Translations
  • French: au monde
  • German: in aller Welt, in Gottes Namen, in Herrgotts Namen, um Himmels willen



This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
Offline English dictionary