wasn't

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was·n't

(wŭz′ənt, wŏz′-)

Contraction of was not.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

wasn't

(ˈwɒzənt)

contraction of

was not

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

was•n't

(ˈwʌz ənt, ˈwɒz-)

contraction of was not.

Translations

be

(biː) present tense am (am) are (aː) , is (iz) : past tense was (woz) , were (wəː) : present participle ˈbeing: past participle been (biːn, (American) bin) : subjunctive were (wəː) : short forms I'm (aim) (I am), you're (juə) (you are), he's (hiːz) (he is), she's (ʃiːz) (she is), it's (its) (it is), we're (wiə) (we are), they're (θeə) (they are): negative short forms isn't (ˈiznt) (is not), aren't (aːnt) (are not), wasn't (ˈwoznt) (was not), weren't (wəːnt) (were not) – verb

1. used with a present participle to form the progressive or continuous tenses. I'm reading; I am being followed; What were you saying?.

2. used with a present participle to form a type of future tense. I'm going to London.

3. used with a past participle to form the passive voice. He was shot.

4. used with an infinitive to express several ideas, eg necessity (When am I to leave?), purpose (The letter is to tell us he's coming), a possible future happening (If he were to lose, I'd win) etc.

5. used in giving or asking for information about something or someone. I am Mr Smith; Is he alive?; She wants to be an actress; The money will be ours; They are being silly.

ˈbeing noun

1. existence. When did the Roman Empire come into being?

2. any living person or thing. beings from outer space.

the be-all and end-all

the final aim apart from which nothing is of any real importance. This job isn't the be-all and end-all of existence.

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References in classic literature ?

At the hearin' of this, ye may swear, though, I was as mad as a grasshopper, but I remimbered that I was Sir Pathrick O'Grandison, Barronitt, and that it wasn't althegither gentaal to lit the anger git the upper hand o' the purliteness, so I made light o' the matter and kipt dark, and got quite sociable wid the little chap, and afther a while what did he do but ask me to go wid him to the widdy's, saying he wud give me the feshionable inthroduction to her leddyship.

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Well, wasn't Mr Garland kind when he said 'Christopher, here's your money, and you have earned it well;' and wasn't Mrs Garland kind when she said 'Barbara, here's yours, and I'm much pleased with you;' and didn't Kit sign his name bold to his receipt, and didn't Barbara sign her name all a trembling to hers; and wasn't it beautiful to see how Mrs Garland poured out Barbara's mother a glass of wine; and didn't Barbara's mother speak up when she said

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'What do you reckon he wanted with that?' I said I didn't know; but when he wasn't looking I hooked it.

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This was Green Gables and they didn't want her because she wasn't a boy!

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Peter has never played tit-tat-x in church or got drunk and says it wasn't as bad as he expected.

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But the Cat's-meat Man wasn't very rich and he only got sick once a year--at Christmas-time, when he used to give the Doctor sixpence for a bottle of medicine.

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We used to sit and look at them for hours; there wasn't much to look at out there.

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The sun was shining, the little birds was singing, and there wasn't a thing, east, west, north, or south, that looked like work.

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You see, at first the lady 'most took my jelly, and I was so afraid I wasn't going to see you at all.

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But here, even in my grand room of state, there wasn't anything in the nature of a picture except a thing the size of a bedquilt, which was either woven or knitted (it had darned places in it), and nothing in it was the right color or the right shape; and as for proportions, even Raphael himself couldn't have botched them more formidably, after all his practice on those nightmares they call his "celebrated Hampton Court cartoons." Raphael was a bird.

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`Then it wasn't very civil of you to offer it,' said Alice angrily.

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And then reverting, and as if to account further for what she had herself done, "But it wasn't only THAT, that you hadn't been at home," she went on.