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NOTWITHSTANDING
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Dictionary entry overview: What does notwithstanding mean?
• NOTWITHSTANDING (adverb)
The adverb NOTWITHSTANDING has 1 sense:
1. despite anything to the contrary (usually preceding a concession)
Familiarity information: NOTWITHSTANDING used as an adverb is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Despite anything to the contrary (usually preceding a concession)
Synonyms:
all the same; at the same time; even so; however; nevertheless; nonetheless; notwithstanding; still; withal; yet
Context example:
granted that it is dangerous, all the same I still want to go
Context examples
No one would believe it at first; and even now Elizabeth will not be convinced, notwithstanding all the evidence.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
But he sat and looked at her, notwithstanding, for nearly two hours, as she sat looking at the fire, until he was again called out.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Notwithstanding his brave words, he fears us; he fear time, he fear want!
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Sympathies, I believe, exist (for instance, between far-distant, long-absent, wholly estranged relatives asserting, notwithstanding their alienation, the unity of the source to which each traces his origin) whose workings baffle mortal comprehension.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
He said so many other obliging things, and I knew him to be so honest a man, that I could not reject this proposal; the thirst I had of seeing the world, notwithstanding my past misfortunes, continuing as violent as ever.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
As Mr. Kirwin said this, notwithstanding the agitation I endured on this retrospect of my sufferings, I also felt considerable surprise at the knowledge he seemed to possess concerning me.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
My mother couldn't help it notwithstanding, so she cried until she had had her cry out.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
She had obviously not heard anything to her advantage: and it seemed to me, from her prolonged fit of gloom and taciturnity, that she herself, notwithstanding her professed indifference, attached undue importance to whatever revelations had been made her.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
He did not delay notwithstanding this, for as Jonathan, with desperate energy, attacked one end of the chest, attempting to prize off the lid with his great Kukri knife, he attacked the other frantically with his bowie.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Whereas, by a statute made in the reign of his imperial majesty Calin Deffar Plune, it is enacted, that, whoever shall make water within the precincts of the royal palace, shall be liable to the pains and penalties of high-treason; notwithstanding, the said Quinbus Flestrin, in open breach of the said law, under colour of extinguishing the fire kindled in the apartment of his majesty’s most dear imperial consort, did maliciously, traitorously, and devilishly, by discharge of his urine, put out the said fire kindled in the said apartment, lying and being within the precincts of the said royal palace, against the statute in that case provided, etc. against the duty, etc.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
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