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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
well-nigh
adverb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
well-nigh impossibleformal (= almost impossible )
▪ Policing the entire coastline is well-nigh impossible.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
impossible
▪ It comes easy to the habitual vagrant; it is well-nigh impossible to the inexperienced.
▪ But concentration on the story was well-nigh impossible.
▪ But that, as they suggest, is a well-nigh impossible task at this distance in time.
▪ To understand what other creatures perceive we have to do the well-nigh impossible.
▪ Habitually fractious, difficult, Andrew is now becoming well-nigh impossible.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And both Rim-Suardal and Rim-Drynoch are well-nigh deserted - or so Ord says.
▪ But concentration on the story was well-nigh impossible.
▪ But that, as they suggest, is a well-nigh impossible task at this distance in time.
▪ Habitually fractious, difficult, Andrew is now becoming well-nigh impossible.
▪ Hair seems to be well-nigh everlasting, and so discovery of a tuft or two does not guarantee recent activity.
▪ It comes easy to the habitual vagrant; it is well-nigh impossible to the inexperienced.
▪ The fused, bony plates that protect their soft parts make them well-nigh invulnerable.
▪ To understand what other creatures perceive we have to do the well-nigh impossible.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Well-nigh

Well-nigh \Well"-nigh`\, adv. Almost; nearly.
--Chaucer.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
well-nigh

Old English wel neah, from well (adv.) + nigh.

Wiktionary
well-nigh

adv. almost, very nearly

WordNet
well-nigh

adv. (of actions or states) slightly short of or not quite accomplished; `near' is sometimes used informally for `nearly' and `most' is sometimes used informally for `almost'; "the job is (just) about done"; "the baby was almost asleep when the alarm sounded"; "we're almost finished"; "the car all but ran her down"; "he nearly fainted"; "talked for nigh onto 2 hours"; "the recording is well-nigh perfect"; "virtually all the parties signed the contract"; "I was near exhausted by the run"; "most everyone agrees" [syn: about, just about, almost, most, all but, nearly, near, nigh, virtually]

Usage examples of "well-nigh".

When the sun sank I sat on the terrace meditating and contemplating the colors of the darkly shimmering well-nigh blackish green foliage of the magnolias, the snow of the mountains opposite, glittering golden in the evening light, above it the luminous, pale greenish blue sky, and below the purplish violet mountain slopes and the soft steel blue lake.

He had applied at the plant to be taken on again, being well-nigh desperate with hunger, and Mortlake had assigned him to the present task, for which, if the truth be told, he had no great liking.

This alone or in conjunction with a dash of some one of the many really good proprietary sauces on the market is well-nigh indispensable in chafing-dish cookery.

Otter smote not Ralph squarely, but Ralph smote full amidst of his shield, and so dight him that he well-nigh fell, and could not master his horse, but yet just barely kept his saddle.

A misfortune soon after this befell Dick Varley which well-nigh caused him to give way to despair.

French had taken from us, was moored two hundred paces from the shore, two archers, little Robin Withstaff and Elias Baddlesmere, in four shots each cut every strand of her hempen anchor-cord, so that she well-nigh came upon the rocks.

Fairley in multi-shooting arquebuses, cannon, stronger gunpowder, transport, vehicles, and this new, simple, inexpensive ignition system have rendered my army well-nigh invincible.

Sick at heart, absentminded, and feeling the effects of a sleepless night, I was well-nigh mad with love, jealousy, and despair.

Poison-Pen was swamped and well-nigh forgotten in that stream of genial commination always poured out from the lips of examinees elect upon examining bodies.

Then as he rose from the depths, an unconscious, helpless hulk, a strong tan-colored arm wound around him like a lifebelt, and a well-nigh breathless boy, with almost superhuman strength, flung him, limp and nearly lifeness, across the canoe.

The rage in which I had arrested the three procuresses, and my terror in seeing the woman who had well-nigh killed me, shewed that I was not really cured.

O wretched Caitife, behold thou wert well-nigh perished againe, with the overmuch curiositie : well, goe thou, and do thy message to my Mother, and in the meane season, I will provide for all things accordingly : wherewithall he tooke his flight into the aire, and Psyches brought her present to Venus.

In this manner did the crafty Fathom turn to account those ingratiating qualifications he inherited from nature, and maintain, with incredible assiduity and circumspection, an amorous correspondence with two domestic rivals, who watched the conduct of each other with the most indefatigable virulence of envious suspicion, until an accident happened, which had well-nigh overturned the bark of his policy, and induced him to alter the course, that he might not be shipwrecked on the rocks that began to multiply in the prosecution of his present voyage.

There seemed to be a well-nigh infinite number of stars, a sea of cosmic creation aswarm with fiery beacons radiating light and life to countless worlds.

Dante, one of the bravest, but hardest bestead of God's saints, was, just like you, well-nigh giving up the mountain altogether when his Greatheart, who was always at his side, divining what was going on within him, said to him - "Those scars That when they pain thee most then kindliest heal.