Read full poem →The patriot's plain, but untrod path pursue;
If not, 'tis I must be ashamed of you.
Dictionary Entry
Used to link a semantically weaker word to a semantically stronger word following the adverb, both sharing the same basic meaning, indicating the increased likelihood of the former.
Origin
Origin details are still being enriched for this entry.
Common Phrases
Still being gathered for this entry.
Missing dictionary details are being fetched in the background.
Synonyms
No synonyms yet.
Antonyms
No antonyms yet.
Poetry examples for “if not”
Excerpts from the ReadingWillow English Library collection.
Read full poem →Our birthday nobles' splendid livery.
If not so pleased, at council-board rejoice,
To see their judgments hang upon thy voice;
Read full poem →The clasp and kiss and wedlock of the sea,
Were not your mother if not your brethren we.
Read full poem →Will be our planet in your mouth.
If not, I must parch in death's wide drouth
Until I gain to where you are,
Read full poem →The grave found empty there?—
If not there, then elsewhere;
If not where Joseph laid Him first, why then
Read full poem →I must be off. But yet again some day
Again will I resume it; if not I,
I in some child of late posterity.
Read full poem →My father is no better than his son:
If not as overbearing, proud and hard,
Yet prayerless, worldly, almost more than Cain.
Read full poem →Not that I mind very much! Why should I? I am not in love, and
Am prepared, I think, if not by previous habit,
Yet in the spirit beforehand for this and all that is like it;
Read full poem →graces. The greatest pleasure of an audience is a chase of wit kept up
on both sides, and swiitly managed : And this our forefathers (if not we)
have had in Fletcher's plays, to a much higher degree of perfection than