Preposition

(English prepositions)

In a circle around; all round; on every side of; on the outside of.

* c.1604-1605 , (William Shakespeare), ''

So look about you; know you any here?

* 1769 , '', iii, 3

Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:

Near; not far from; regarding approximately time, size, quantity.

* c.1590-1591 , (William Shakespeare),

Therefore I know she is about my height.

* 1769 , '', xx, 3,

And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace

* 1769 , '', ix, 18

Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.

* , chapter=4

, title=[http://openlibrary.org/works/OL5535161W Mr. Pratt's Patients] , passage=I told him about everything I could think of; and what I couldn't think of he did. He asked about six questions during my yarn, but every question had a point to it. At the end he bowed and thanked me once more. As a thanker he was main-truck high; I never see anybody so polite.}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)

, title=[http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21581981-what-pollution-some-opportunity-others-welcome-plastisphere Welcome to the plastisphere] , passage=[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, 

On the point or verge of.

* 1769 , '', xviii, 14

And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Gallio said unto the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you:

* 1866 , A treatise on the law of suits by attachment in the United States , by Charles Daniel Drake, [http://books.google.de/books?id=Igs-AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA80&lpg=PA80&dq=%22was+about+leaving%22&source=bl&ots=aQXMZaxYAu&sig=T2wNto6m-YO2kSAwyWV-SivvnUw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YblHUKaUJc2LswbzkIHQDw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22was%20about%20leaving%22&f=false page 80]

[It] was held, that the latter requirement was fulfilled by an affidavit declaring that "the defendant was about leaving the State permanently."

(Note: This use passes into the adverbial sense.)

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=I was about to say that I had known the Celebrity from the time he wore kilts. But I see I will have to amend that, because he was not a celebrity then, nor, indeed, did he achieve fame until some time after I left New York for the West.}}

On one's person; nearby the person.

* 1837 , , Ernest Maltravers: Volume 1

At this assurance the traveller rose, and approached Alice softly. He drew away her hands from her face, when she said gently, "Have you much money about you?"

"Oh the mercenary baggage!" said the traveller to himself; and then replied aloud "Why, pretty one? Do you sell your kisses so high, then?"

Over or upon different parts of; through or over in various directions; here and there in; to and fro in; throughout.

* 1671 , (John Milton),

That heard the Adversary, who, roving still / About the world, at that assembly famed ...

* 1849 , (Thomas Babington Macaulay), The history of England from the accession of James the Second

He had been known, during several years, as a small poet; and some of the most savage lampoons which were handed about the coffeehouses were imputed to him.

Concerned with; engaged in; intent on.

* 1769 , '', ii, 49

And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?

* 2013 March 14, (Parks and Recreation)'', season 5, episode 16, ''Bailout :

RON: And I'll have the number 8.

WAITER: That's a party platter, it serves 12 people.

RON: I know what I'm about , son.

Concerning; with regard to; on account of; on the subject of; to affect.

* 1671 (John Milton), ''(Samson Agonistes)

I already have made way / To some Philistian lords, with whom to treat / About thy ransom.

* 1860 , (Anthony Trollope), (Framley Parsonage)

"I'll tell you what, Fanny: she must have her way about Sarah Thompson. You can see her to-morrow and tell her so."

* , chapter=4

, title=[http://openlibrary.org/works/OL5535161W Mr. Pratt's Patients] , passage=I told him about everything I could think of; and what I couldn't think of he did. He asked about six questions during my yarn, but every question had a point to it. At the end he bowed and thanked me once more. As a thanker he was main-truck high; I never see anybody so polite.}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)

, title=[http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21579879-buy-out-firm-really-does-focus-operational-improvements-engineers Engineers of a different kind] , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about , they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}

(label) In or near, as in mental faculties or (label) in possession of; in control of; at one's command; in one's makeup.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2 , passage=Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke.

In the immediate neighborhood of; in contiguity or proximity to; near, as to place.

*{{quote-book, year=1892, author=(James Yoxall)

, chapter=5, title=[http://openlibrary.org/works/OL10504990W The Lonely Pyramid] , passage=The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom.

Preposition

(English prepositions)

From one side of an opening to the other.

:

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838

, page=13 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist) , title= Ideas coming down the track , passage=A “moving platform” scheme

Entering, then later leaving.

:

*

*:Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging.He walked the whole way, walking through crowds, and under the noses of dray-horses, carriage-horses, and cart-horses, without taking the least notice of them.

*

*:Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-25, volume=407, issue=8837, page=74, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= No hiding place , passage=In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%.}}

Surrounded by (while moving).

:

*, chapter=1

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.}}

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=76, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Snakes and ladders , passage=Risk is everywhere.

By means of.

:

*{{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 28, author=Tom Rostance, title=Arsenal 2-1 Olympiakos

, work=BBC Sport citation , passage=But the home side were ahead in the eighth minute through 18-year-old Oxlade-Chamberlain.}}

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= The attack of the MOOCs , passage=Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.}}

(lb) To (or up to) and including, with all intermediate values.

: