somewhat

adv

1. (not-comparable)To a limited extent or degree; not completely.

   “The crowd was somewhat larger than expected, perhaps due to the good weather.”

   “The decision to shave or not is a somewhat personal one.”

   “The searing heat cooled somewhat as the sun set in the evening.”

   “That hat seems somewhat small for him.”

   “I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […] and finally leading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town. I was completely mystified at such an unusual proceeding.”

2. (UK, not-comparable)Very.

   “That hat seems somewhat small for him.”

   “Two of the coaches are still on the site of the line; one, a first class observation coach carrying the S.R. number 6991, is at Snapper Halt, where it still stands, in fair condition but somewhat weatherbeaten […]”

pron

1. (archaic)Something.

   “Proceeding to the midst he stil did stand, As if in minde he somewhat had to say […]”

   “a. 1716, Robert Trail, sermon on the Lord's Prayer But this text and theme I am upon, relates to somewhat far higher and greater, than all the beholdings of his glory that ever any saint on earth received.”

   “Mr Jones had somewhat about him, which, though I think writers are not thoroughly agreed in its name, doth certainly inhabit some human breasts […]”

   “Not seldom in this life, when, on the right side, fortune's favourites sail close by us, we, though all adroop before, catch somewhat of the rushing breeze, and joyfully feel our bagging sails fill out.”

   “Somewhat he knoweth of art magical, yet useth not that art; for it sappeth the life and strength, nor is it held worthy that a Demon should put trust in that art, but rather in his own might and main.”

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A certain quantity or degree; a part, more or less; something.

   “Somewhat of his good sense will suffer, in this transfusion, and much of the beauty of his thoughts will be lost.”

   “Then they set somewhat of food before me, whereof I ate my fill, and gave me somewhat of clothes wherewith I clad myself anew and covered my nakedness; after which they took me up into the ship, […]”

2. (countable, uncountable)A person or thing of importance; a somebody.

   “c. 1810-1820, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Notes on Troilus and Cressida Pity that the researchful notary has not either told us in what century, and of what history, he was a writer, or been simply content to depose, that Lollius, if a writer of that name existed at all, was a somewhat somewhere.”

   “Am I to blame for this, / That here come those that worship me? Ha! ha! / They think that I am somewhat. What am I?”