Definition of "something"

Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic who still resists the idea that something drastic needs to happen for him to turn his life around.

2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21

Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and after her a tall young lady. She stood for a moment holding her skirt above the grimy steps, with something of the stately pose which Richter has given his Queen Louise on the stairway, and the light of the reflector fell full upon her.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.

Christensen, who also edited and co-wrote the film, is becoming something of a specialist in child horror, having launched his feature directorial career with the infant-themed Still/Born in 2017.

2020 May 7, Katie Rife, “If you’re looking to jump in your seat, make a playdate with Z”, in The Onion AV Club‎

"Very poetic." They came to a halt before the outer door. "It's very something," Rusty said wistfully. "How do you do it?"

1986, Marie Nicole, Foxy Lady, page 20

"It's very — it's very something," said Lucy. "It's a kind of love-letter, isn't it?"

1988, Colleen Klein, A Space for Delight, page 200

If it isn't large, I certainly can't say it's small. But it's very something.

2014, Sommer Nectarhoff, A Buck in the Snow

'How proud they have become,' I said, 'how disobedient. I must say, all in all, it's very something.'

2015, Edward Carey, Lungdon

Angelo. Yet giue leaue (my Lord,)That we may bring you something on the way

c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene i]

You can't thrash when you have rheumatic fever – though you want to something awful, Mrs. White says.

1913, Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna‎, L.C. Page

Seeing him here, though, I all of a sudden feel more like I been gone from home three years, instead of three weeks, and I miss my people something fierce.

1994 Summer, Rebecca T. Goodwin, “Keeper of the house”, in Paris Review, volume 36, number 131, page 161

And then she put the coffin right out on her front porch. Jim told everyone he'd built it kind of roomy since Bobby Lee was on the stout side, but that it better get used quick because sycamore tends to warp something terrible.

2001 January, Susan Schorn, “Bobby Lee Carter and the hand of God”, in U.S. Catholic, volume 66, number 1, page 34

He didn’t apply for it for a long time, and then there was a hitch about it, and it was somethinged—vetoed, I believe she said.

1890, William Dean Howells, A Hazard of New Fortunes

She hovers over the something somethinging and awkwardly lowers her bulk.

2003, George Angel, “Allegoady,” in Juncture, Lara Stapleton and Veronica Gonzalez edd.

“Oh how we somethinged on the hmmm hmm we were wed. Dear, was I ever on the stage?”

2005, Floyd Skloot, A World of Light

Yea, ’t is true; I ’d know thee by thine eyen, that are gray, and thoughtful, and dark with a something that lies behind the colour of them,—and shining by the light of a lamp lit somewhere within.

1903, Florence Converse, Long Will: A Romance, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company; Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press, page 138

From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. […] But viewed from high up in one of the growing number of skyscrapers in Sri Lanka’s capital, it is clear that something extraordinary is happening: China is creating a shipping hub just 200 miles from India’s southern tip.

2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 52

What was the something the pilot saw, the something worth killing for?

1999, Nicholas Clapp, The Road to Ubar

Moreover, in all of our experience with these sense impressions, we never lose sight of the fact that they are but incidental facts of our mental existence, and that there is a Something Within which is really the Subject of these sense reports—a Something to which these reports are presented, and which receives them.

2004, Theron Q Dumont, The Master Mind

She wiped something with a cloth, wiped at the wall shelf, and put the something on it, clinking glass.

2004, Ira Levin, The Stepford Wives