adv. Forms: 1 almæst, ealmæst, ælmæst, 2 ælmest, 2–4 almest, 3 all-masst, almaste, 4–5 almeste, -moost, 4–6 -moste, 5 allemost, 7 allmost, 4– almost. Also 8– a’most, still used dial., and aphet. ’most; mod. Sc. amaist, ’maist. [f. ALL + MOST adv. = mostly.]
† 1. adj. or adv. Mostly all, nearly all; for the most part. Obs.
a. 1000. Bæda, in Thorpe, Hom., II. 466 (Bosw.). Hit is eal mǽst mid háligra manna naman geset.
1036. O. E. Chron. Mæst ealle þa þeʓenas be norðan Temese. Ibid. (1091). Seo scipfyrde … ælmæst earmlice forfór. Ibid. (1130). Se burch for-bernde æl-mæst.
c. 1200. Ormin, 9617. Þatt Issraæle þeod allmasst Þa shollde beon forrworrpen.
1417. in E. E. Wills (1882), 24. Thys twey Lynis I wrete almeste with myn owne Hond.
1570. Ascham, Scholem., II. (Arb.), 133. Thies giuers were almost Northmen.
1658. trans. Mouffet’s Theat. Ins., 1093. The women … do that work almost.
2. adv. Very nearly, wellnigh, all but: a. qualifying a verb or attribute.
c. 1200. in Cod. Dipl., V. 18. Fram ðe heðe forðriȝte to herdeies ouerende almest.
1250. Lay., 19328. H’ is almest dead.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter cxviii. 87. Almaste in erthe þai me forname.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Frankl. T., 443. They were come almoost [v.r. almost(e] to that Citee.
1432–50. trans. Higden, I. The heete of hit is ioynede allemoste with heuyn.
1531. Elyot, Governour (1834), 31. I had almost forgotten where I was.
1580. Baret, Alv., A 323. It is almost twelue a clocke, Duodecima instat.
1611. Bible, Acts xxvi. 28. Almost thou perswadest mee to bee a Christian.
1639. J. Clarke, Parœmiologia, 3. Almost was never hang’d.
a. 1674. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., II. VI. 134. The flame of this Common Combustion hath allmost devour’d Ireland.
1710. Palmer, Proverbs, 232. They had a’most as live be call’d any thing, as to be thought too old for an agreeable conversation.
1756. Burke, Vind. Nat. Soc., Wks. I. 11. Diet … confined almost wholly to the vegetable kind.
1816. Scott, Bl. Dwarf, iv. 26. As sair vexed amaist for you as for me.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 597. He was almost within sight of their city.
1869. J. Martineau, Ess., II. 190. Mistakes … on almost every page.
1879. McCarthy, Hist. Own Times, I. 199. Passionate and almost hysterical declamation.
b. qualifying a sb. with implied attribute.
1552. Huloet, Almost nyght, serum lumen.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, V. i. 113. You are almost come to part almost a fray.
1709. J. Collier, Ess. Mor. Subj., II. (ed. 6), 193. The almost Omnipresence of an Advantage is a Circumstance of Value.
1808. Southey, Lett. (1856), II. 108. I am a heretic requiring toleration, an almost Quaker.
c. 1875. Whitney, Essen. Eng. Gram., 382. His almost impudence of manner.
3. With a negative: Almost no = scarcely any; almost never = scarcely ever, etc.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froissart, I. ccxv. 270. Bycause they were so great a company, almoost nothynge helde agaynst theym.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Paraphr. John iii. 32. But no man almoste reciueth his witnes.
1652. Needham, trans. Selden’s Mare Cl., 335. So that the French King had neither any shore almost, nor any considerable use of Sea-affairs.
1777. R. Watson, Philip II. (1793), III. XXIV. 314. His affairs almost never prospered where he was not present.
1857. H. Reed, Brit. Poets, vi. 200. Of Shakspeare we know almost nothing.
1875. Higginson, Hist. U. S., xxv. 252. There were almost no roads.
† 4. Used to intensify a rhetorical interrogative. (L. quis fere.) Obs.
1595. Shaks., John, IV. iii. 42. Or do you almost thinke, although you see, that you do see?
1615. Bedwell, Moham. Imp., K iiij. In what page almost shal you not meet with some exoticke and strange terme?
1670. South, Serm. (1737), III. 123. Whom almost can we see who opens his arms to his enemies?
1743. G. White, MS. Serm. Who almost are there who do not know these things?
