Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Wiktionary
pre. 1 Combining form to indicate complete power or authority in an area. 2 Combining form to indicate that a term applies in a general manner.
Usage examples of "all-".
The greatest of all--that which I felt most, but which I had the good sense to try and consider a favour-- was that a week before the departure of the army M.
He was young, marked with the small-pox, a greedy eater, a loud talker, laughing and speaking at random, and altogether I took him for a servant in disguise.
CHAPTER IV My Amours With Donna Ignazia--My Imprisonment At Buen Retiro--My Triumph --I Am Commended to the Venetian Ambassador by One of the State Inquisitors We entered the ball-room and walked round several times.
The party took place according to agreement, and at the given signal we all left the ball-room.
This charming Frenchwoman died of the small-pox a few months later, and there can be no doubt that her death was a blessing, as she would have fallen into misery and poverty after her beauty had once decayed.
We rejoined her aunt, and returned to the ball-room, but with all my endeavours I could not regain my calm.
Her hall-door was opened and shut a hundred times in a day, and even then she was not able to satisfy the desires aroused.
The woman had a daughter of sixteen or seventeen years old, who would have been very pretty if the small-pox had not deprived her of one eye.
I entered the ball-room, and as there were a score of Pierrots nobody noticed me.
And you have believed such a thing, knowing that I occupy this room alone, and seeing me leave the ball-room and the supper-table yesterday alone, leaving her with you all!
Do you write the question, set up the pyramids, and inscribe with your own hand the all-powerful initials.
I saw a well-made man of about my own age, slightly marked with the small-pox, and dressed as a traveller.
I found myself placed in a strange position, and above all, I regretted having made the all-important application, precisely because it was certain to have too decisive a result.
I put away the cheque, and after shaking him by the hand, I got up and rolled away in true Pierrot fashion, and after making the tour of the ball-room I went to a box on the third tier of which I had given the key to the young officer, and there I found my beggars.
CHAPTER III Bettina Is Supposed to Go Mad--Father Mancia--The Small-pox-- I Leave Padua Bettina must have been in despair, not knowing into whose hands her letter had fallen.