about to

English

Pronunciation

Audio (AU) (file)

Phrase

about to

(idiomatic, with infinitive verb) Indicates something that will happen very soon; indicates action that is imminent.
He's standing at the edge, and I think he's about to jump.

She seemed about to say something.
- 1769, King James Bible, Oxford Standard text, Acts of the Apostles, 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:
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
  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.
(as negative 'not about to', informal, originally US, Canada) Indicates that one has no intention of doing the stated thing at any time in the future.
I'm not about to let the lockdown stop me from going to the beach every day.

I'm not about to wander around at night to find it.
(obsolete in affirmative) Indicates that one is preparing or planning to do the stated thing at some time in the future, not necessarily imminently. [from ca. 1150—1350 to late 18th c.[1]]

Synonyms

Translations

indicating imminence

Albanian: please add this translation if you can
Arabic: عَلَى وَشْك (ʕalā wašk) (followed by a verbal noun in the definite form)
Armenian: պատրաստվել (hy) (patrastvel)
Burmese: please add this translation if you can
Chinese:
Eastern Min: 欲 (buóh)

Hokkien: 欲 (zh-min-nan) (beh)

Mandarin: (for both forms, particle 了 (le) is used after verb) 就要 (zh) (jiùyào), 快要 (zh) (kuàiyào), 剛要／刚要 (gāngyào)
Cornish: parys dhe
Danish: være ved at (be about to)
Dutch: op het punt staan (om) te
Esperanto: (expressed by the future participle of the verb)
Finnish: fifth infinitive of the verb (different grammatical structure; see usage example in tekemäisillään)
French: sur le point de (fr), aller (fr) (auxiliary verb ‘to be about to’)
Galician: a punto de (gl)
Georgian: თითქმის მზად (titkmis mzad)
German: gleich (de) (adverb modifying the verb), wollen (de) (auxiliary verb ‘to be about to’)
Greek:
Ancient Greek: μέλλω (méllō)
Hebrew: עמד ל־ m (amád l-)
Hungarian: készül (hu), szándékában áll
Indonesian: hampir saja
Irish: ar tí
Old Irish: fri
Italian: in procinto di (it) (followed by infinitive), sul punto di (it) (+ inf.), stare per (it) (+ inf.)
Japanese: (after verbs in the basic form) ... ところ (ja) (...tokoro), まさに...しようとしている (masa ni ... shiyō to shite iru)
Khmer: ស្ទើរតែ (stəə tae)
Korean: (으)려고 하다 ((eu)ryeogo hada), ^{(please verify)} 막...하려고 하다 (mak...haryeogo hada)
Kurdish:
Northern Kurdish: hema hema (ku), hema bêje (ku)
Lao: please add this translation if you can
Latin: (expressed by the future participle of the verb)
Latvian: please add this translation if you can
Lithuanian: ruoštis (verb 'prepare to' + inf.), ketinti (verb 'intend to, be about to' + inf.), tuoj (adverb 'at once'), greitai (adverb 'soon')
Maori: whano, hono
Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
Norwegian:
Bokmål: være i ferd med å (+ inf.)
Occitan: al mand de
Polish: zaraz (pl), właśnie (pl)
Portuguese: no limiar de, prestes a, a ponto de (pt)
Russian: собира́ться (ru) (sobirátʹsja)
Sardinian: amega
Scottish Gaelic: an impis
Spanish: a punto de (es)
Tày: ái
Thai: กำลังจะ (gam-lang jà)
Tibetan: ཁད (khad), verb + ལ་ཁད (la khad), verb + འགྲོའོ ('gro'o)/གྲབས (grabs) (colloquial/literary) + existential auxiliary ཡོད (yod)/ཡོད་རེད (yod red)/འདུག ('dug) (egophoric/assertive/testimonial), verb + ཆོག་ཆོག (chog chog) (in the sense of readiness or preparedness)
Turkish: üzere (tr)
Vietnamese: sắp (vi)
Welsh: ar (cy), ar fin
Yiddish: האַלטן בײַם (haltn baym)

References

“about to”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief, William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “about to”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 7.

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[SOED-1] Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief, William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “about to”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 7.