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What is "might"

Crossword clues for might

might
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
might
I.modal verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
I might add (=used to comment on what you have just said)
▪ She was trying to entertain us – unsuccessfully, I might add.
It might be worth...while
▪ It might be worth your while to talk to the head of department.
might have known (=I am annoyed but not surprised)
▪ I might have known you would take that attitude.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
I/you might as well be hanged for a sheep as (for) a lamb
as well sb might/may
▪ Marilyn looked guilty when she saw me, as well she might.
▪ And a deviant and mentally diseased species as well.
▪ Microscopes caught the imagination, as well they might.
could/can/might easily
▪ A high-resolution image, by contrast, could easily run as large as 15 million to 20 million bytes.
▪ A single mutational step can easily be reversed.
▪ But a small error in the procedure could easily leave her inoperable, or at least changed beyond recognition.
▪ Governments can easily guarantee their employees a job, without guaranteeing the job they currently hold.
▪ If you are writing on a complex topic a reader can easily become confused.
▪ This was his hobby, sketching vertical monstrosities, though he might easily have been a spy.
▪ Yet the world champion is so unpredictably gifted that one on-song display could easily enable her to sweep aside the opposition.
▪ Young minds can easily assimilate and embrace all kinds of musical styles.
could/may/might yet do sth
it might/would be as well
may just/might just
may/might/could (just) as well
▪ And if you have to plough the field anyway, you might as well plant it at the same time.
▪ And we might as well get used to it and resolve to cope.
▪ Besides, they cost so much, you might as well get some fun out of them.
▪ I thought I might just as well come down to the point.
▪ If the traveler expects the high way to be safe and well-graded, he might as well stay at home.
▪ It might as well be now.
▪ She might as well see how the enemy behaved themselves in a place like this.
▪ While she was there, they might as well have added the charge of breaching the Trades Description Act.
may/might/could well
▪ As we have already noted, he may well have been a militant nationalist who did not shrink from violence.
▪ But the women whom they find may well not match their feminist consciousness.
▪ By and large Alex and I think these developments are likely to give tangible gains and could well become a priority for implementation.
▪ In addition, the clarification of such issues could well provide the initial stimulus for a whole school language policy.
▪ It is too early to be entirely sure, but it looks as though the tide may well have turned.
▪ The requirements may well be modified as detailed work and discussion proceed.
pigs might fly
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Might I come in?
▪ Carrie might not be able to go.
▪ He might have been outside.
▪ I thought it might rain, so I brought an umbrella.
▪ If Hawaii is too expensive, we might go to Florida.
▪ Samuel left his children a letter, so that they might understand why he had to go away.
▪ She said she might call you tomorrow.
▪ This might help the pain a little bit.
▪ You might try calling the store.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But you might also want to be bumped.
▪ Democracy might be expected to collapse under such pressure.
▪ For reasons such as these, the property sector is increasingly concerned that these regulations might hold back major developments.
▪ I wanted to tell him I might be the only one besides himself who would be voting for it.
▪ In this way we catch a glimpse of what might be called the hermeneutical communion of saints.
▪ Sewers and wells might halt the disease, but cost much more.
▪ This isn't as difficult as you might think.
▪ With the extra free time, they might do more volunteer work, Jerome said.
II.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
industrial
▪ Boss Mangan, the symbol of industrial and political might, is a love-stricken wreck easily manipulated by the go-getting Ellie Dunn.
▪ They looked to the air as a source of jobs and industrial might.
▪ I do not deny that it plays an important part, but the key to our strength is our industrial might.
military
▪ I had thought all our military might was in the Middle East.
▪ They pointed out that the United States already had more military might than the rest of the world combined.
▪ It was a realm controlled by the disciplined military might of the Franks.
▪ It is not simply enough to amass capital, military might or political support.
▪ But it was good television rather than a convincing display of military might.
▪ Its military and technological might is such that no state can come close to challenging it in the foreseeable future.
▪ The territories described above were all to feel the military might of the Franks under the remarkable leadership of Charles the Great.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ The full might of the army could not defeat them.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ The might of water overwhelmed dark earth, over the summits of the highest mountains.
▪ The Foundation is the source of power and might.
▪ Think of the might of a forest fire or the burning heat of the sun.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Might

May \May\ (m[=a]), v. [imp. Might (m[imac]t)] [AS. pres. m[ae]g I am able, pret. meahte, mihte; akin to D. mogen, G. m["o]gen, OHG. mugan, magan, Icel. mega, Goth. magan, Russ. moche. [root]103. Cf. Dismay, Main strength, Might. The old imp. mought is obsolete, except as a provincial word.] An auxiliary verb qualifying the meaning of another verb, by expressing:

  1. Ability, competency, or possibility; -- now oftener expressed by can.

    How may a man, said he, with idle speech, Be won to spoil the castle of his health!
    --Spenser.

    For what he [the king] may do is of two kinds; what he may do as just, and what he may do as possible.
    --Bacon.

    For of all sad words of tongue or pen The saddest are these: ``It might have been.''
    --Whittier.

  2. Liberty; permission; allowance.

    Thou mayst be no longer steward.
    --Luke xvi. 2.

  3. Contingency or liability; possibility or probability.

    Though what he learns he speaks, and may advance Some general maxims, or be right by chance.
    --Pope.

  4. Modesty, courtesy, or concession, or a desire to soften a question or remark.

    How old may Phillis be, you ask.
    --Prior.

  5. Desire or wish, as in prayer, imprecation, benediction, and the like. ``May you live happily.''
    --Dryden.

    May be, & It may be, are used as equivalent to possibly, perhaps, maybe, by chance, peradventure. See 1st Maybe.

Might

Might \Might\ (m[imac]t), imp. of May. [AS. meahte, mihte.]

Might

Might \Might\, n. [AS. meaht, miht, from the root of magan to be able, E. may; akin to D. magt, OS. maht, G. macht, Icel. m[=a]ttr, Goth. mahts. [root]103. See May, v.] Force or power of any kind, whether of body or mind; energy or intensity of purpose, feeling, or action; means or resources to effect an object; strength; force; power; ability; capacity.

What so strong, But wanting rest, will also want of might?
--Spenser.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
--Deut. vi. 5.

With might and main. See under 2d Main.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
might

Old English mihte, meahte, originally the past tense of may (Old English magen "to be able"), thus "*may-ed." See may (v.). The first record of might-have-been is from 1848.

might

Old English miht, earlier mæht "might, bodily strength, power, authority, ability," from Proto-Germanic *makhti- (cognates: Old Norse mattr, Old Frisian, Middle Dutch, Dutch macht, Old High German maht, German Macht, Gothic mahts), Germanic suffixed form of PIE root *magh- (1) "be able, have power" (see may (v.)).

Wiktionary
might

Etymology 1

  1. (context obsolete chiefly before 1900 English) mighty; powerful; possible. n. 1 (context uncountable English) power, strength, force or influence held by a person or group. 2 (context uncountable English) physical strength. 3 (context uncountable English) The ability to do something. Etymology 2

    v

  2. (lb en auxiliary) Used to indicate conditional or possible actions.

Related phrases:
WordNet
might

n. physical strength [syn: mightiness, power]

might

See may

Wikipedia
Might

Might may refer to:

  • might, one of the English modal verbs
  • "Might", a song by Modest Mouse from their 1996 album This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About
  • Might magazine, a magazine founded by American author Dave Eggers
  • Might!, a 1995 album by Boyd Rice under the moniker NON
  • USS Might (PG-94), corvette of the US Navy
  • Strength (disambiguation)
Might (magazine)

Might was a San Francisco-based magazine co-founded in the early 1990s by David Moodie, Marny Requa and Dave Eggers, who went on to describe the magazine's rise and fall in his bestselling memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.

With its name meant to suggest both "power" and "possibility," the magazine might be summarized as an effort by twentysomethings to say something instead of nothing. Might went out of business in 1997, but back issues are still available through the Web site of Eggers's philanthropic writing organization, 826 Valencia.

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "might".

The Empress might have enough support among the nobles to keep a precarious hold on her throne, but she had made no overtures to the common folk, and they were solidly opposed to the idea of an Aberrant ruler.

That quest was abetted by a sympathetic schoolteacher, Rebecca, who saw in the lad a glimmering hope that occasionally there might be resurrection from a bitter life sentence in the emotionally barren and aesthetically vitiated Kentucky hamlet, and who ultimately seduced him.

Had it not been for a determined English professor named Arthur Holmes, the quest might well have fallen into abeyance altogether.

I will not wear thy soul with words about my grief and sorrow: but it is to be told that I sat now in a perilous place, and yet I might not step down from it and abide in that land, for then it was a sure thing, that some of my foes would have laid hand on me and brought me to judgment for being but myself, and I should have ended miserably.

Now he thought that he would abide their coming and see if he might join their company, since if he crossed the water he would be on the backward way: and it was but a little while ere the head of them came up over the hill, and were presently going past Ralph, who rose up to look on them, and be seen of them, but they took little heed of him.

Now Ralph, he and his, being known for friends, these wild men could not make enough of them, and as it were, compelled them to abide there three days, feasting them, and making them all the cheer they might.

He was almost convinced that reducing a tree to lumber expunged whatever might be abiding within when he saw the long, hooked tongue emerge from the wall behind the bed.

For a fraction of an instant Abie caught herself wondering what he might look like with no shirt.

Even the news that the Yorktown, after quelling the fires and resuming fleet speed, had been torpedoed in a second attack, was again ablaze and listing, and might be abandoned, could be taken in stride.

I was really frightened because I thought, if she realised we were Aboriginal, she might have the children taken away.

You see, the police were called Protectors of Aborigines in those days, so we thought we might get some protection from them.

I respond by pointing out that one of those babies that was aborted thirty years ago might have grown up to be a brilliant scientist and could have discovered the cure for AIDS.

Then the courage came into his body, and with a great might he abraid upon his feet, and smote the black and yellow knight upon the helm by an overstroke so fierce that the sword sheared away the third part of his head, as it had been a rotten cheese.

He might abuse her in some other way, such as by inserting his fingers or an object to demonstrate his control and contempt, and in fact, we soon learned of the vaginal abrasions and bruising.

However, the Supreme Court declined to sustain Congress when, under the guise of enforcing the Fourteenth Amendment by appropriate legislation, it enacted a statute which was not limited to take effect only in case a State should abridge the privileges of United States citizens, but applied no matter how well the State might have performed its duty, and would subject to punishment private individuals who conspired to deprive anyone of the equal protection of the laws.