only too

English

Adverb

only too (not comparable)

  1. (before adjective) very, all too.
    • 1922, Stephen McKenna, The Confessions of a Well-Meaning Woman:
      In a crisis I am only too well aware that I am always left to find a way out, but that night I felt hardly adequate even to ordinary conversation
    • 1913, Kenneth Grahame, chapter 10, in The Wind in the Willows:
      After some miles of country lanes he reached the high road, and as he turned into it and glanced along its white length, he saw approaching him a speck that turned into a dot and then into a blob, and then into something very familiar; and a double note of warning, only too well known, fell on his delighted ear.
  2. (before adverb) to a high degree; very well or very much
    • 2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian:
      Cities were not built to handle this volume of last-mile activity – a fact that firms such as UPS realise only too well.
    • 2014, Trina Chako, Sisters:
      You understand?
      Only too well.” Sudhir said wryly.

Collocations

Often used in combination with "well", where this expression normally collocates with adjectives and verbs connected to understanding and knowledge:

  • know only too well
  • understand only too well
  • be only too aware
  • comprehend only too well
  • remember only too well

See also

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