"all" = very; quite

[Jonathan Lighter]

Maybe one could force-fit this adverbial "all" into OED def. 2, but I doubt it. It's absurdly common in speech, and has been for decades.

1993           http://groups.google.com/group/rec.music.folk/browse_frm/thread/edb973b564500555/ed7aeb5f7bef3ebf?lnk=st&q=YGBSM&rnum=675#ed7aeb5f7bef3ebf  (Feb. 11) :  Does anyone know where I can find a "Wild Weasel" patch that has the little weasel looking all worried and the inscription of "You Gotta Be Shitting Me" on it.


I'm not even certain that something like "He/she was all upset over it" is adequately characterized by the quotes under def. 2, but I'll leave the details to our syntacticians.

JL

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