with
/wɪð/ preposition, adverb
Also a form of withe
Forms withs wyth whith wᵗʰ wᵗ w/ w whit wi' wit wit' wid wif wiv
- preposition Against. “He picked a fight with the class bully.”
- preposition In the company of; alongside, close to; near to. “He went with his friends.”
- preposition In addition to; as an accessory to. “She owns a motorcycle with a sidecar.”
- preposition Used to add supplemental information, especially to indicate simultaneous happening, or immediate succession or consequence. “Jim was listening to Bach with his eyes closed.”
- preposition In support of. “We are with you all the way.”
- preposition In regard to. “There are a number of problems with your plan.”
- preposition (obsolete) To denote the accomplishment of cause, means, instrument, etc; – sometimes equivalent to by. “slain with robbers”
- preposition Using as an instrument; by means of. “cut with a knife”
- adverb (regional US, chiefly Midwest and West, informal) Along, together with others, in a group, etc. “Do you want to come with?”
Synonyms
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English with, from Old English wiþ (“against, opposite, toward, with”), from Proto-West Germanic *wiþi, a shortened form of Proto-Germanic *wiþrą (“against”).
In Middle English, the word shifted to denote association rather than opposition, displacing Middle English mid (“with”), from Old English mid (“with”), from Proto-Germanic *midi; an earlier model of this meaning shift exists in cognate Old Norse við; elsewhere, the converse meaning shift is exemplified by Old South Arabian 𐩨𐩺𐩬 (byn, “between, amid”) spawning Old South Arabian 𐩨𐩬 (bn, “against”) and even likewise frequent reverse meaning 𐩨𐩬 (bn, “from”). The adverb sense is probably a semantic loan from various other Germanic languages, such as German mit, Norwegian med, and Swedish med.
From Middle English withe, wiþþe, from Old English wiþþe. More at withe.
Webster’s 1913
- noun See Withe.
- preposition With denotes or expresses some situation or relation of nearness, proximity, association, connection, or the like. It is used especially: --
- preposition To denote a close or direct relation of opposition or hostility; - -equivalent to against.
Etymology [OE. with, AS. wi with, against; akin to AS. wi against, OFries. with, OS. wi, wi, D. weder, weêr (in comp.), G. wider against, wieder gain, OHG. widar again, against, Icel. vi against, with, by, at, Sw. vid at, by, Dan. ved, Goth. wipra against, Skr. vi asunder. Cf. Withdraw, Withers, Withstand.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “with”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details