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pretty much

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Adverb

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pretty much (not comparable)

  1. Almost completely; very nearly; mostly; more or less; basically.
    • 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter III, in Great Expectations [], volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, [], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 42:
      That's my life pretty much, down to such times as I got shipped off, arter Pip stood my friend.
    • 1912, G. K. Chesterton, “The Separatist and Sacred Things,”, in A Miscellany of Men:
      Poets are pretty much the same everywhere in their poetry—and in their prose.
    • 2008 January 6, Ron Liddle, “Bring back British Rail, all is forgiven”, in Sunday Times, UK, retrieved 16 July 2008:
      Pretty much all of the train operating companies have announced huge fare increases.

Usage notes

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  • Similar in meaning to more or less; however, pretty much sometimes implies a higher or more satisfactory degree of completeness.

Translations

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