What

pron., a.,	1.
	1.	As an interrogative pronoun, used in asking questions regarding either persons or things; as, what is this? what did you say? what poem is this? what child is lost? What see'st thou in the ground? - Shak. What is man, that thou art mindful of him? - Ps. viii. 4. What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him! - Matt. viii. 27.
	2.	As an exclamatory word: - (a) Used absolutely or independently; - often with a question following. What, could ye not watch with me one hour? - Matt. xxvi. 40.
	3.	Used adjectively, meaning how remarkable, or how great; as, what folly! what eloquence! what courage! What a piece of work is man! - Shak. O what a riddle of absurdity! - Young.
	3.	As a relative pronoun
	4.	Sometimes prefixed to adjectives in an adverbial sense, as nearly equivalent to how; as, what happy boys! What partial judges are our love and hate! - Dryden.
	4.	Used substantively with the antecedent suppressed, equivalent to that which, or those [persons] who, or those [things] which; - called a compound relative. With joy beyond what victory bestows. - Cowper. I'm thinking Captain Lawton will count the noses of what are left before they see their whaleboats. - Cooper. What followed was in perfect harmony with this beginning. - Macaulay. I know well . . . how little you will be disposed to criticise what comes to you from me. - J. H. Newman.
	4.	Whatever; whatsoever; what thing soever; - used indefinitely. Whether it were the shortness of his foresight, the strength of his will, . . . or what it was. - Bacon.
	5.	Used adjectively, equivalent to the . . . which; the sort or kind of . . . which; rarely, the . . . on, or at, which. See what natures accompany what colors. - Bacon. To restrain what power either the devil or any earthly enemy hath to work us woe. - Milton. We know what master laid thy keel, What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel. - Longfellow.
	5.	Used adverbially, in part; partly; somewhat; - with a following preposition, especially, with, and commonly with repetition. What for lust [pleasure] and what for lore. - Chaucer. Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat, what with the gallows, and what with poverty, I am custom shrunk. - Shak. The year before he had so used the matter that what by force, what by policy, he had taken from the Christians above thirty small castles. - Knolles. What ho! an exclamation of calling. What if what will it matter if; what will happen or be the result if. What of this what follows from this, that, it, etc., often with the implication that it is of no consequence. - Shak. What though even granting that; allowing that; supposing it true that. - Shak. What time when. - Shak. What time the morn mysterious visions brings. - Pope.
	6.	Used adverbially in a sense corresponding to the adjectival use; as, he picked what good fruit he saw.
n.	1.	Something; thing; stuff. And gave him for to feed, Such homely what as serves the simple lown. - Spenser.
interrog.	1.	Why? For what purpose? On what account? What should I tell the answer of the knight. - Chaucer. But what do I stand reckoning upon advantages and gains lost by the misrule and turbulency of the prelates? What do I pick up so thriftily their scatterings and diminishings of the meaner subject? - Milton.

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