of all things
12
7.1
- idiom
- Informal
:
precisamente
- And now you go and stir things up over sweet potato pie, of all things.
If you are a mantis shrimp of all things, you see hundreds of colors that human beings can't see.
- If you are a mantis shrimp of all things, you see hundreds of colors that human beings can't see.
- She takes a few classes at Columbia's teacher College, and she eventually becomes a social worker of all things.
- When I met Jennifer Grey on my second film, I finally got work from an ad from Backstage magazine of all things.
Examples
-
In my second year, I lost myself in study instead, an English major of all things.
Fiction book (2000) -
Meanwhile, our son has become, of all things, a man of the law.
Fiction book (1998) -
So what if the President of the United States is making himself out to be, of all things, a victim?
Fiction book (1998) -
Why was I interested in the mica industry, of all things?
Academic text (1992) -
And I think that of all things to make me cry, my goodness, I didn't think it would make me this sad.
-
I found her, seven years later, on her front porch examining, of all things, pictures of my sister Liz's children.
Fiction book (1997) -
All right, so a quick teaser, especially for those of you who are fanboys or girls of all things Apple.
-
So ironically, we met in a Nietzsche class of all things, that University of Virginia, of course.
-
But then she had a memory—a memory of high school basketball, of all things.
Fiction book (1998) -
I can't believe he chose to study philosophy, of all things, instead of something practical.
Synonyms
347
8.9
An angry or surprised question showing you do not believe something
90
8.9
A short cry to show surprise, confusion, disbelief, or casual acceptance
8
2.6
Words people say when they are surprised to see something
A short phrase people say to show surprise or confusion
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal components ('of' + 'all' + 'things') do yield the sense 'out of all possibilities', so a learner can partly reconstruct the propositional meaning. However, the conventionalized pragmatic meaning — a fixed exclamation of surprise or disbelief in a specific slot (e.g. 'of all people/things') — requires knowledge of idiomatic usage and emphasis, so it is not fully predictable from the words alone.
Etymology
The phrase of all things comes from the simple image of picking one thing out of many and that one choice being very odd or unlikely. That's why when people say of all things they show 'surprise' or 'disbelief' that this particular thing happened.