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By no means   /baɪ noʊ minz/   Listen
noun
Mean  n.  
1.
That which is mean, or intermediate, between two extremes of place, time, or number; the middle point or place; middle rate or degree; mediocrity; medium; absence of extremes or excess; moderation; measure. "But to speak in a mean, the virtue of prosperity is temperance; the virtue of adversity is fortitude." "There is a mean in all things." "The extremes we have mentioned, between which the wellinstracted Christian holds the mean, are correlatives."
2.
(Math.) A quantity having an intermediate value between several others, from which it is derived, and of which it expresses the resultant value; usually, unless otherwise specified, it is the simple average, formed by adding the quantities together and dividing by their number, which is called an arithmetical mean. A geometrical mean is the nth root of the product of the n quantities being averaged.
3.
That through which, or by the help of which, an end is attained; something tending to an object desired; intermediate agency or measure; necessary condition or coagent; instrument. "Their virtuous conversation was a mean to work the conversion of the heathen to Christ." "You may be able, by this mean, to review your own scientific acquirements." "Philosophical doubt is not an end, but a mean." Note: In this sense the word is usually employed in the plural form means, and often with a singular attribute or predicate, as if a singular noun. "By this means he had them more at vantage." "What other means is left unto us."
4.
pl. Hence: Resources; property, revenue, or the like, considered as the condition of easy livelihood, or an instrumentality at command for effecting any purpose; disposable force or substance. "Your means are very slender, and your waste is great."
5.
(Mus.) A part, whether alto or tenor, intermediate between the soprano and base; a middle part. (Obs.) "The mean is drowned with your unruly base."
6.
Meantime; meanwhile. (Obs.)
7.
A mediator; a go-between. (Obs.) "He wooeth her by means and by brokage."
By all means, certainly; without fail; as, go, by all means.
By any means, in any way; possibly; at all. "If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead."
By no means, or By no manner of means, not at all; certainly not; not in any degree. "The wine on this side of the lake is by no means so good as that on the other."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"By no means" Quotes from Famous Books



... ceased to be in harmony with my present dispositions, and to be quit of appearances which could only mislead. But I was anxious to proceed very deliberately, especially as I felt that a reaction within a more or less considerable interval was by no means improbable. An accidental circumstance had the effect of bringing the crisis to a head quicker than I had intended. Upon my arrival at St. Sulpice, I was informed that I was no longer to be attached to the Seminary, but to the Carmelite establishment, which the Archbishop ...
— Recollections of My Youth • Ernest Renan
... Plains, Ginn, Boston, 1931. While this landmark in historical interpretation of the West is by no means limited to the subject of grazing, it contains a long and penetrating chapter entitled "The Cattle Kingdom." The book is an analysis of land, climate, barbed wire, dry farming, wells and windmills, native animal life, ...
— Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest • J. Frank Dobie
... the Bible does not end as it began, by revealing a God who, however loving and merciful, long-suffering, and of great goodness, still wages war eternally against all sin and unrighteousness of man, and who will by no means clear the guilty; a God of whom the apostle St. Paul, who knew most of his mercy and forgiveness to sinners, could nevertheless say, just as Moses had said ages before him, 'Our God ...
— The Gospel of the Pentateuch • Charles Kingsley
... good times with other girls, or is jealous of your friendship for them, she is encouraging conceit and selfishness. I'm glad you asked me about the way I feel toward Agnes, for it makes me see that I am by no means the true friend I ought to be. If I loved her as I should, I'd want her to have all the good times, all the love, all the benefit she could get from others, and I mean to fight against any other feeling but the right one. I don't believe my little ...
— A Dear Little Girl's Thanksgiving Holidays • Amy E. Blanchard
... stood in the centre of the room, and the mistress of the dwelling was hurrying to and fro, evidently intent on preparing the evening repast, while from the bake-kettle, that had just been taken from the fire, the fragrance of newly-baked bread ascended, filling the place with its odor; an odor by no means ungrateful to appetites, sharpened by ...
— Woman As She Should Be - or, Agnes Wiltshire • Mary E. Herbert


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