to to speak of
16
6.8
- phrasal verb
- /tə spiːk ʌv/
:
que merezca la pena mencionar
- I've met people with no real money to speak of who have tremendous wealth.
I've met people with no real money to speak of who have tremendous wealth.
- I've met people with no real money to speak of who have tremendous wealth.
- At times there is no pain to speak of, but at other times there is.
- So because there's no private gun ownership to speak of, you know, handgun ownership.
- She has no record to speak of, right?
- And we were just so amazed with no advertising really to speak of.
- And Congress doesn't legislate anything to speak of.
- And really, it was the four hour work week that put me on any map to speak of.
- But I also need to, you know, I, I didn't have any math background to speak of.
- We have no voltage control right now to speak of, so short of doing shunt mods, that's about where we're stuck.
- They know who they are and what they do, but they have no real memories to speak of.
- Each of them, at one point in their life, didn't have any title or much status to speak of,
- When my grandfather died, now four years ago, he died with one spazzle shop and not much money to speak of.
- This was the era when the parties were in a sense, well, there was no Republican Southern party to speak of.
- So I, I haven't had any reaction to speak of to outgrowing God.
Examples
-
But surprisingly, I had no wish to speak of these things.
Fiction book (2000) -
At times there is no pain to speak of, but at other times there is.
-
No issues really to speak of, so the assembly here is excellent quality.
-
America really had no industry to speak of, except for agriculture.
Academic text (1990) -
"I mean, I've no property to speak of, and nothing more than a soldier's pay to live on.
Fiction book (1991) -
Gross responded that the Snoqualmie had never received any benefits to speak of from the government.
Academic text (1990) -
Nonetheless, enough patterns of the tradition remain for us to speak of certain readings as typically African American.
Academic text (1994) -
De Gaulle was the last statesman who knew how to speak of France to France.
Academic text (1992) -
It would be vulgar, he believes, to speak of justice or any virtue in terms of material rewards or consequences.
-
There are no major drawbacks to speak of regarding this new policy.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To briefly refer to someone or something in words
951
1.6
To say or write something to make people notice it
532
1.9
To talk about someone or something
127
2.5
Mention something in conversation
6
3.6
To briefly say something about a person or thing
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
to + speak + of
The meaning 'worth mentioning' in 'nothing to speak of' is directly derivable from 'speak' (to mention/talk about) combined with the preposition 'of' (about/regarding); the negative construction simply licenses a 'not worth mentioning' interpretation. This composition follows normal English verb + preposition patterns and is cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows the parts should be able to infer the sense.
Etymology
To speak of comes from the simple idea 'to talk about'. Imagine being asked about someone's training and they hold up empty hands because there is nothing to speak of, so it now means 'not important enough to mention'.