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as such

idiom

4 meanings of as such

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  1. 1
    idiom
    In the role, capacity, or manner of the thing just mentioned.

    She chairs the committee and as such decides the order of business.

    He serves as the building's manager and as such handles every tenant complaint.

  2. 2
    idiom
    As the thing previously mentioned or described.

    The painting was declared a national treasure and is now protected as such.

    They registered as students and were charged as such for the tickets.

    Note

    The phrase can open a clause and carry a whole earlier description into it: I'm a mother of four young children; as such, I'm always rushed off my feet. Such points back to that description, so the second clause states what follows from being it. Unlike the "in that role" meaning, it often stands at the head of the sentence, set off by a comma.

  3. 3
    idiom
    By itself, considered on its own apart from other things.

    There is nothing harmful about the chemical as such, only about how it is handled.

    The technology as such is neutral; its uses determine whether it helps or harms.

    Note

    The philosopher's use: morality as such, the psychical as such, even a medieval what-it-is-as-such. It sets a thing's own nature apart from its circumstances, doing the work of per se. It is at home in Y. Yovel's Nietzsche as Affirmative Thinker (2012) and J.J. Kockelmans's Phenomenological Psychology. It always follows its noun directly. Everyday speech makes the same move: money as such is not the root of evil.

  4. 4
    idiom
    In a true or literal sense of the term.

    What they offered wasn't a salary as such, but a small monthly stipend.

    The building has no lobby as such, just a wide hallway near the entrance.

    Note

    A hedge that almost always comes with a negative: not a library as such, no lobby as such. It admits that a label does not strictly fit. Then, usually after but, it offers what is really there: a large collection of books, a wide hallway. Place it right after the noun it qualifies. It softens a denial rather than flatly refusing the word.

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