The conjunction but (sense 25), used as a name for itself; hence, a verbal objection presented.
1571. Sempill Ballates (1872), 137. Ȝit botis & hummis declairis ȝow quhat I mene.
1614. T. Adams, Divell’s Banq., 139. There is a corrective But, a veruntamen, spoyles all in the vp-shot … here is a But that shipwrackes all.
1682. T. Goodwin, Wks. (1864), IX. 485. The grants of grace run without ifs and ands and buts.
1752. A. Stewart, in Scots Mag. (1753), Sept., 446/2. He was a sufficient but himself for all the sum.
1816. Scott, Antiq., xi. ‘I heartily wish I could, but’—‘Nay, but me no buts—I have set my heart upon it.’
1872. Minto, Eng. Lit., 108. We are … jerked back with a ‘but.’
