half of it

Idioms

Only part of something, as in You saw them together, but that's just the half of it; she's moved in with him. This phrase, signifying the most important portion (more than half), is often put negatively as not the half of it, as in You thought they played badly? That's not the half of it, because they've been kicked out of the league. [First half of 1900s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“That’s not even the half of it,” I said as my brain raced with horrible possibility after horrible possibility.

From Literature

“They’ve been trained for acts in the circus; that’s why they’re so valuable. It takes a long time to train a monkey, but you haven’t heard the half of it yet. You’re overlooking something very important.”

From Literature

Over half of it will be elevated -- a major concern for Alexandrians who fear the tree-lined track will be replaced by eyesore concrete stilts.

From Barron's

"If you could reduce the spread from animals to humans you could have a significant impact on the antibiotic resistance problem since roughly half of it is estimated to come from the environment."

From Science Daily

Oracle said just before its bond sale that it would raise $45 billion to $50 billion this year, half of it from issuing new equity—an encouraging development for bond investors who worried that the company might lean even more on debt financing.

From The Wall Street Journal

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023