much of a muchness
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English[edit]
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Pronunciation[edit]
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Phrase[edit]
- (idiomatic) Of two or more things, having little difference of any significance between them.
- 1819, The London Literary Gazette and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, Etc, page 683:
- As to any existing dearth of materials for comedy, I hold it to be merely imaginary; for I believe that on a fair comparison, the manners and morals of the present age and those of the past, would prove much of a muchness.
- 1850, James Fenimore Cooper, “The Ways of the Hour”, in Precaution / The Ways of the Hour, facsimile edition, published 2010, page 30:
- “He was not,” answered a juror. “Old Peter Goodwin could not have been more than five feet five, and Dorothy was all of that, I should think. When they came to meeting together, they looked much of a muchness.”
- 1926 October 2, “Chats with Office Callers”, in Henry Ford, W. J. Cameron, editors, Dearborn Independent Magazine October 1925-December 1926, page 28:
- In fact, he said, in spite of all efforts to lift the popular taste, things were much of a muchness with the old days when in popular novels the villain, had to be foiled, the hero had to triumph and the lovers had to be united.
- c. 1931, Virginia Woolf, “Portrait of a Londoner”, in The London Scene, published 2004, page 75:
- Private houses in London are apt to be much of a muchness. The door opens on a dark hall; from the dark hall rises a narrow staircase; off the landing opens a double drawing-room, and in this double drawing-room are two sofas on each side of a blazing fire, six armchairs, and three long windows giving upon the street.
- 2000, Patrick Whitefield, How To Make A Forest Garden, Permanent Publications, UK, page 13:
- There are small trees and large shrubs which are much of a muchness, and it may not be possible to say whether an individual plant is a tall member of the shrub layer or a short tree.
- 2000, Steve Bruce, Sociology: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, page 80:
- There were many legislative and political battles to be fought before the fundamental idea that all people were much of a muchness was translated into a culture of equal rights for all, but gradually rights were extended from landowners, to rich men, to not so rich men, to all men, and then to women.
- 2019 October 6, Funmi Fetto, “Smoky eyes get a contemporary colour revamp”, in The Guardian[1]:
- The majority are much of a muchness so, unless you are desperately trying to find a way to waste money, I’d rarely venture into high double digits.
Translations[edit]
little difference between multiple things
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