much less

Idioms

And certainly not, as in He rarely talks about his outside activities, much less his family. The earliest record of this idiom is in John Milton's Paradise Lost (1671): “The world thou hast not seen, much less her glory.”

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.

A long Strait of Hormuz closure remains unlikely, but much less traffic will transit, according to Oxford Analytica, a geopolitical risk analysis and advisory service owned by Barron’s parent company, Dow Jones.

From Barron's

Having been raised to hate the opposing side simply because they are the opposing side, Rafe and Jule initially cannot believe that their love is possible, much less sustainable.

From Los Angeles Times

Today, the solar system is far more stable, and major impacts are much less frequent.

From Science Daily

“They agree implicitly on what they don’t want, but much less on what comes next.”

From The Wall Street Journal

Whether or not Dr. Kane heard from his dead brother, he left Webb’s Union Hotel much less impressed with the spirits than with the lovely young woman who was talking to the dead.

From Literature

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