He all but ran out of the building If I understand it correctly (English is not my native language), this sentence means "he ran out of the building", and the "all but" is here to stress the fact that he didn't do anything else (besides running). That being said, the first time I came acros...

Here's two ways I've seen the "all, but" idiom used: "Close all tabs but this one" (Any modern application with a number of tabs might have this as an option.) It means "close all the tabs, but not this one". "With that goal, the championship is all but decided". This seems to mean "you can say...

The Tomb of the Unknown Solider has the engraving "KNOWN BUT TO GOD", as presumably no man knows his name, but shouldn't it read "unknown, but to God", as the default for everyone is "unknown", with the exception "but to God"? Is the construction older? How should it be parsed?

What does "all but" mean in this expression? Today, under pressure from P2P distribution, optical disc piracy in wealthy countries is "all but eliminated" and profit margins elsewhere are slim. Major report debunks alleged link between piracy and terrorism, Ars Technica I have seen thi...

What is the difference between these phrases? When is it valid to use which? Should they be avoided as being ambiguous?