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THAT IS TO SAY
I. (adverb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
As follows
Synonyms:
namely; that is to say; to wit; videlicet; viz.
Classified under:
Context examples:
This person (who had thus, from the first moment of his entrance, struck in me what I can only describe as a disgustful curiosity) was dressed in a fashion that would have made an ordinary person laughable; his clothes, that is to say, although they were of rich and sober fabric, were enormously too large for him in every measurement—the trousers hanging on his legs and rolled up to keep them from the ground, the waist of the coat below his haunches, and the collar sprawling wide upon his shoulders.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
She was greatly pleased, and very merry; and we four, that is to say, my aunt, Mr. Dick, Traddles, and I, went down to Canterbury by the Dover mail that night.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if we had got home all safe, and after that we met him—that is to say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house any more.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
As the minuteness of the parts formed a great hindrance to my speed, I resolved, contrary to my first intention, to make the being of a gigantic stature, that is to say, about eight feet in height, and proportionably large.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
He had been several years at sea, and had, in the course of those removals to which all midshipmen are liable, and especially such midshipmen as every captain wishes to get rid of, been six months on board Captain Frederick Wentworth's frigate, the Laconia; and from the Laconia he had, under the influence of his captain, written the only two letters which his father and mother had ever received from him during the whole of his absence; that is to say, the only two disinterested letters; all the rest had been mere applications for money.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Mr. Micawber read on, almost smacking his lips: To wit, in manner following, that is to say.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Well, I am what they call an Oxford man, he returned; that is to say, I get bored to death down there, periodically—and I am on my way now to my mother's.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
And I have the document, Mr. Micawber read again, looking about as if it were the text of a sermon, in my possession,—that is to say, I had, early this morning, when this was written, but have since relinquished it to Mr. Traddles.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Allow me to offer my inquiries with reference to the physical welfare of Mrs. Copperfield in esse, and Mrs. Traddles in posse,—presuming, that is to say, that my friend Mr. Traddles is not yet united to the object of his affections, for weal and for woe.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
In the space within the horse-shoe, lower than these, that is to say, on about the level of the floor, were sundry other gentlemen, of Mr. Spenlow's rank, and dressed like him in black gowns with white fur upon them, sitting at a long green table.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
