Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - anything

Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English. 1. You use anything in statements with negative meaning to indicate in a general way that nothing is present or that an action or event does not or cannot happen. We can’t do anything... She couldn’t see or hear anything at all... By the time I get home, I’m too tired to do anything active... PRON: v PRON, oft PRON adj 2. You use anything in questions and conditional clauses to ask or talk about whether something is present or happening. What happened, is anything wrong?... Did you find anything?... Is there anything you can do to help?... PRON: oft PRON adj 3. You can use anything before words which indicate the kind of thing you are talking about. More than anything else, he wanted to become a teacher... Anything that’s cheap this year will be even cheaper next year... PRON: PRON cl/group 4. You use anything to emphasize a possible thing, event, or situation, when you are saying that it could be any one of a very large number of things. He is young, fresh, and ready for anything... At that point, anything could happen... PRON c darkgreen]emphasis 5. You use anything in expressions such as anything near, anything close to and anything like to emphasize a statement that you are making. Doctors have decided the only way he can live anything near a normal life is to give him an operation... PRON: PRON prep c darkgreen]emphasis 6. When you do not want to be exact, you use anything to talk about a particular range of things or quantities. Factory farming has turned the cow into a milk machine, producing anything from 25 to 40 litres of milk per day... PRON: PRON from n to n, PRON between n and n 7. You use anything but in expressions such as anything but quiet and anything but attractive to emphasize that something is not the case. There’s no evidence that he told anyone to say anything but the truth... PHRASE: v-link PHR, usu PHR adj/n c darkgreen]emphasis 8. You can say that you would not do something for anything to emphasize that you definitely would not want to do or be a particular thing. (INFORMAL, SPOKEN) I wouldn’t want to move for anything in the world... PHRASE c darkgreen]emphasis 9. You use if anything, especially after a negative statement, to introduce a statement that adds to what you have just said. I never had to clean up after him. If anything, he did most of the cleaning. PHRASE: PHR with cl 10. You can add or anything to the end of a clause or sentence in order to refer vaguely to other things that are or may be similar to what has just been mentioned. (INFORMAL, SPOKEN) Listen, if you talk to him or anything make sure you let us know, will you... PHRASE c darkgreen]vagueness