least of all
23
4.6
- idiom
:
mucho menos
- I never meant to hurt anyone, least of all you.
And we own or possess nobody, least of all our children.
- And we own or possess nobody, least of all our children.
- Because in China, no one has rights, least of all the women.
- Narcissists can't take responsibility for their behavior ever, and least of all when it is being judged negatively.
- And he says there's little prudence, klugeite cleverness in it, and least of all common wisdom or reason.
Examples
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You'll never be able to marry anyone after that, least of all a wealthy man.
-
So no one's useless, least of all the princess.
-
By this time, I had nothing left to lose, least of all money.
Fiction book (1996) -
And we own or possess nobody, least of all our children.
-
Look, I'm not trying to get anybody killed, least of all me.
-
Friendship has never followed any sort of logic, least of all the logic of the market.
Academic text (2001) -
But now nothing was the same, least of all Edwina herself.
Fiction book (1991) -
I don't pretend to understand any of it, least of all myself.
Fiction book (2001) -
The Seoul Convocation was not without its critics, not least of all from the Roman Catholic side.
Academic text (1991) -
I never meant to hurt anyone, least of all you.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'least' (to the smallest degree) combined with 'of all' (among everyone/everything) yields 'the last or least likely/suitable of the group,' which matches the MWE definition. This construction is cross-linguistically common and follows standard comparative/quantifier patterns, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Least of all gives a simple image: imagine a list or line of people and the person at the very end, at the least place among all, is the one you think of the least. That's why we use least of all to say someone or something is 'the least likely' or 'especially not' to do something.