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WHEREFORE
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The cause or intention underlying an action or situation, especially in the phrase 'the whys and wherefores'
Synonyms:
wherefore; why
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("wherefore" is a kind of...):
ground; reason (a rational motive for a belief or action)
Context examples:
To listen to conversation about such things would mean to be bored, wherefore the idlers decree that such things are shop and must not be talked about.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Wherefore we remain here and wonder when the young men will return with meat.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
Wherefore not?
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
As the grammar had shown him the tie-ribs of language, so that book showed him the tie-ribs of poetry, and he began to learn metre and construction and form, beneath the beauty he loved finding the why and wherefore of that beauty.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
The dog is not killed, because it must pull the sled of the man. No man pulls another man's sled, wherefore the man is killed.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
"He hunts with evil spirits," some of the people contended, "wherefore his hunting is rewarded. How else can it be, save that he hunts with evil spirits?"
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
"It is charged," Ugh-Gluk said ominously, "that thou dealest with evil spirits, wherefore thy hunting is rewarded."
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
It is not good to steal, wherefore it is the law that the man who steals must die.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
Wherefore, old Ebbits said with grave dignity, there be no one to hunt meat for me in my old age, and I sit hungry by my fire and tell my story to the White Man who has given me grub, and strong tea, and tobacco for my pipe.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
For I come not willingly from my country by the sea, and I desire greatly to live; wherefore I obey the will of my master—as thou wilt obey, strange brother, if thou art wise, and wouldst live.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
