like anything

Idioms  

1. Extremely, vigorously, as in She cried like anything when the dog died. This idiom probably substitutes anything for a swear word. [Colloquial; late 1600s]

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

like anything

They took their proverbial foot off the gas, ran out of gas, sputtered to the finish line, got outscored 23-7 in the fourth quarter and looked like anything but a team with serious playoff plans.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026

"We see something that doesn't really look like anything else we've identified in the solar system; it doesn't match anything we have in our spectral libraries."

From Science Daily ● Aug. 14, 2026

Instead, I was in San Diego at an event that was nothing like anything in politics.

From Salon ● Jul. 31, 2026

Because she "never feels like anything is too far away", it encourages her to post on TikTok more often - another reason she thinks her online audience has grown since moving to Manchester from London.

From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026

Perhaps he’s reached that state of intoxication which power is said to inspire, the state in which you believe you are indispensable and can therefore do anything, absolutely anything you feel like, anything at all.

From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood