say for

idiom

used with words such as something, little, a lot, etc., to show that someone or something does or does not deserve to be praised, admired, etc.
It says a lot for her that she stayed in the game even though she was injured.
The students' low test scores don't say much for the education they're receiving.

Examples of say for in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web What’s more, historians can’t say for sure that they were crafted to resemble dragons. Julia Binswanger, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 Oct. 2024 No one can say for sure, but a lot of that would probably come out of the pockets of consumers, costing the typical middle-income household about $1,700 a year, according to the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Don Lee, Los Angeles Times, 3 Oct. 2024 If anything, the switch this summer from Joe Biden to Kamala Harris only made these races more competitive, and all anyone can say for sure is that when the votes are counted in November things are going to be close. Eric Lach, The New Yorker, 25 Sep. 2024 The researchers can’t say for sure which style came first, although when looking at birds and bats, flapping is the most common, Rosenbach said. Ashley Strickland, CNN, 9 Sep. 2024 The original bones that Longman described don’t have enough defining characteristics to say for certain, but most of the other subsequent specimens categorized as Kronosaurus don’t seem to match with K. queenslandicus. Joshua Rapp Learn, Discover Magazine, 13 Aug. 2024 The agency has used AI to identify faces from a more narrow range of athletes, say for a professional soccer match or NBA game where all of the athletes are already well known. Ina Fried, Axios, 8 Aug. 2024 No one could say for sure who planted it but, as time passed, Denise Williams and Brian Winchester started attracting attention and some suspicion, because years after Mike disappeared, Winchester divorced his wife Kathy. Richard Schlesinger, CBS News, 3 Aug. 2024 The district, which is independent from the village government, must secure Village Board permission to open a library, but trustees say for years town leaders have refused to allow a new building or a temporary home. Jesse Wright, Chicago Tribune, 23 June 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'say for.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Dictionary Entries Near say for

Cite this Entry

“Say for.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/say%20for. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!