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By any means   /baɪ ˈɛni 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 any means" Quotes from Famous Books



... and parcels for the errand cart were numerous; and there were many stoppages to take them in and give them out, which were not by any means the worst parts of the journey. Some people were so full of expectation about their parcels, and other people were so full of wonder about their parcels, and other people were so full of inexhaustible directions about their parcels, and John had such a lively interest in all the ...
— The Cricket on the Hearth • Charles Dickens
... by sound was as hidden from her as it was deep-seated in her and strong. And this was not all: the riming might have passed unperceived by others too, but for the accompanying tendency to rhythm as well. Nor was this by any means all yet: there was in her a great leaning to poetic utterance generally, and that arising from a poetic habit of thought. She had in her everything essential to the making of a poetess; yet of the whole she was profoundly ignorant; and had ...
— Warlock o' Glenwarlock • George MacDonald
... that ye would seek no more from Christ than to be saved from an ill hour, and to be found in him; whereas Paul was not content with this, but made an holy gradation, as we read, Philip iii. 8, &c. He desired to know the power of Christ's resurrection, and to be made conformable to him by any means; and now, when he is found in Christ, and justified, he counts not himself well, or perfect and complete, or to have attained that which he struggled earnestly for. Would not many be content with a Saviour, but they love not to hear of a king to rule over them, nor of his laws ...
— The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning • Hugh Binning
... as when I was here last summer," he helped her out. "Not by any means. Are you going to marry him, Mary?" The question had only a civil emphasis, but a warmer tone informed it. Mary grew pink under the morning light, and Jerome went on: "Yes, I have a perfect right to talk about it, I don't travel three thousand miles every summer to ask you to marry me without ...
— Different Girls • Various
... of this ditch?—a ditch out of which thou canst never get it without the aid of an omnipotent arm. In things pertaining to this life, when a man feels his own strength fail, he will implore the help and aid of another; and no man can, by any means, deliver by his own arm his soul from the power of hell, which thou also wilt confess, if thou beest not a very brute; but what hast thou done with God for help? hast thou cried? hast thou cried out? yea, dost ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan


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