for all

1. for all one cares or knows . So far as one knows; also, one doesn't really care or know. These phrases are employed like a negative. For example, He can buy ten houses for all I care , meaning one doesn't care at all, or For all I know she's gone to China , meaning one doesn't really know where she is. [Mid-1700s]

2. Also, for all that . In spite of, notwithstanding. For example, For all her protests she still loved the attention , or He's too old for the part but he did a good job for all that . [Early 1300s]

Example Sentences

Could anger at the Obamacare rollout make Americans more receptive to a kind of Medicare-for-all system?

From The Daily Beast

They were surely trying to locate as many rightful owners as possible before the media free-for-all, but news got out.

From The Daily Beast

The less urbanized Persian empire recovered first and seized the chance to launch a once-and-for-all war against depleted Rome.

From The Daily Beast

What started as a website to promote his run for presidency in hours became a free-for-all for negative commentary.

From The Daily Beast

The Internet has emerged as a pharmaceutical free-for-all in recent years.

From The Daily Beast

It was nearly eleven o'clock when the free-for-all running race was announced.

From Project Gutenberg

The method pursued was to read a chapter, and follow with a free-for-all exposition of it.

From Project Gutenberg

The most exciting feature of this weekly frivolity consisted of a free-for-all exercise in mental arithmetic.

From Project Gutenberg

I wondered about Marian; somehow I still don't like seeing a woman tangled up in a free-for-all.

From Project Gutenberg

The Virginia reel was a marvel of supple, exaggerated grace and the quadrille looked like a free-for-all for unbroken colts.

From Project Gutenberg