this and that
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Also, this, that, and the other. Various miscellaneous items, one thing and another, as in He said this and that about the budget, but nothing new or of great substance, or We spent all evening chatting about this, that, and the other. The first idiom was first recorded in 1581; the variant dates from the early 1900s.
QUIZ
THINGAMABOB OR THINGUMMY: CAN YOU DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE US AND UK TERMS IN THIS QUIZ?
Do you know the difference between everyday US and UK terminology? Test yourself with this quiz on words that differ across the Atlantic.
Question 1 of 7
In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…
Words nearby this and that
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
How to use this and that in a sentence
Naturally, we spend much of our time telling over this-and-that of our adventures.
Blackfeet Tales of Glacier National Park|James Willard SchultzMademoiselle So-and-so, Miss This-and-that,—we'll arrange all that.
A Noble Name|Claire Von GlmerAt home the Chief says rapidly, "Send a wire to So-and-so telling him this-and-that."
And there were some this-and-that and be-damned-to-em people who would never get this inventionthe dirty, thieving rats!