quite a bit
235
2.8
- idiom
- Informal
:
bastante
- Planning a wedding can take quite a bit of time and effort.
- know quite a bit
- quite a bit more
- spend quite a bit
Last night I was in quite a bit of pain again.
- Last night I was in quite a bit of pain again.
- Apparently we've done quite a bit of dancing on the show.
- She probably has been through, you know, quite a bit more with relationships.
- So we were doing that live quite a bit by the second album.
- But I'm aware of quite a bit, if not most things.
- Yeah, I think that look has been featured quite a bit in Fashion World.
- So that boosted my confidence quite a bit that this was all real.
Examples
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He saved quite a bit of money by shopping during the sales.
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You did drink quite a bit of wine.
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So it does take quite a bit of work.
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So I ended up having quite a bit of credit card debt.
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Last night I was in quite a bit of pain again.
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Look, I have quite a bit to explain to you.
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I know you bought some information yesterday and you paid quite a bit for it.
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And speaking of that, we still have quite a bit of cleaning to do.
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Her teacher's rating of social acceptance, however, was quite a bit lower than the previous year.
Academic text (1996) -
It costs quite a bit of money to keep an entire floor empty.
Synonyms
677
1.6
A large amount of something, for example patience or money
3
6.6
A fairly large amount of something
Antonyms
How Much
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines the intensifier 'quite' with 'a bit' (a small amount), but the combined meaning 'a considerable amount' involves a pragmatic/intensifying shift: the smallness of 'bit' is overridden. This is partially compositional (you can see an intensifying relation) but not fully predictable from the literal parts, so a B1 learner who knows the words may still need exposure to interpret it correctly.
Etymology
Quite a bit may come from adding quite, which makes things bigger, to bit, a small piece, so many small pieces together make a large amount, like filling a jar with stones. So, quite a bit now means 'a lot'.