only too
28
6.5
- idiom
:
muy
- And I was only too happy to be able to weigh in with what I thought.
- only too well
- only too happy
- only too willing
And I was only too happy to be able to weigh in with what I thought.
- And I was only too happy to be able to weigh in with what I thought.
- The problem here is not that partisanship doesn't reflect reality, it reflects it only too well.
- And whatever positions I've taken that are unpopular, I'm only too happy to alter to fit the political climate.
- But the flesh eating piranhas whipping up social media outrage are only too happy to trample on the rights of honest, hard working men like him.
- They should be thrown in prison among the community that they have are only too happy to service.
- And inevitably that larger than life person is not only too good to be true.
- However, it's only too much if he's never calling you and you're always calling him.
Examples
-
If you want me to, I'll be only too glad to put in a good word for you.
-
And I'm only too happy to oblige.
-
And as we all know only too well, women are afraid to walk home at night alone.
-
Then the commission will be only too happy to look into it.
-
Soon you will know us all only too well.
-
You might think so; but as you know only too well, you would be wrong.
Academic text (1994) -
I'd be only too happy to show you.
-
I'm only too glad to help.
-
And we're only too happy to be able to oblige.
-
I know only too well how difficult it can be to find a job these days.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
More than is needed or wanted
∞
1.2
More than is needed or healthy
∞
1.0
To a very great degree
351
1.4
To show strong feeling or degree
189
3.5
To a degree that is too much or not wanted
162
4.7
More than is wanted or expected
32
3.0
To a degree that is more than needed or acceptable
21
6.9
More than is reasonable or necessary
7
7.5
To a much greater degree than is normal
How Intense
Surface Forms
Morphology
only + too
The phrase 'only too' functions as a conventional intensifier meaning 'very' or 'more than willing', which is not the straightforward compositional result of 'only' (just/solely) + 'too' (excessively). A B1 learner who knows the individual words may be confused by the apparent contradiction or fail to infer the conventional sense without prior exposure; similar intensifying patterns exist cross-linguistically but the exact collocation is idiomatic in English.
Etymology
Only too comes from a simple way to stress willingness: someone says 'only' and then adds 'too' to show they are even more willing than asked. So only too means 'very' or 'even more than expected', and it can sometimes suggest something is a little 'too much'.