Note: In the ancient phrases, all too dear, all too much, all so long, etc., this word retains its appropriate sense or becomes intensive. 2. Even; just. (Often a mere intensive adjunct.) [Obs. or Poet.] All as his straying flock he fed. --Spenser. A damsel lay deploring All on a rock reclined. --Gay. All to, or All-to. In such phrases as ``all to rent,'' ``all to break,'' ``all-to frozen,'' etc., which are of frequent occurrence in our old authors, the all and the to have commonly been regarded as forming a compound adverb, equivalent in meaning to entirely, completely, altogether. But the sense of entireness lies wholly in the word all (as it does in ``all forlorn,'' and similar expressions), and the to properly belongs to the following word, being a kind of intensive prefix (orig. meaning asunder and answering to the LG. ter-, HG. zer-). It is frequently to be met with in old books, used without the all. Thus Wyclif says, ``The vail of the temple was to rent:'' and of Judas, ``He was hanged and to-burst the middle:'' i. e., burst in two, or asunder. All along. See under Along. All and some, individually and collectively, one and all. [Obs.] ``Displeased all and some.'' --Fairfax. All but. (a) Scarcely; not even. [Obs.] --Shak. (b) Almost; nearly. ``The fine arts were all but proscribed.'' --Macaulay. All hollow, entirely, completely; as, to beat any one all hollow. [Low] All one, the same thing in effect; that is, wholly the same thing. All over, over the whole extent; thoroughly; wholly; as, she is her mother all over. [Colloq.] All the better, wholly the better; that is, better by the whole difference. All the same, nevertheless. ``There they [certain phenomena] remain rooted all the same, whether we recognize them or not.'' --J. C. Shairp. ``But Rugby is a very nice place all the same.'' --T. Arnold. -- See also under All, n.
