WHAT.
330. (1) Relative pronoun.
That is what I understand by scientific education.—Huxley.
(a) Indefinite relative.
Those shadowy recollections,
Which be they what they may,
Are yet the fountain light of all our day.
—Wordsworth.
(2) Interrogative pronoun: (a) Direct question.
What would be an English merchant's character after a few such transactions?—Thackeray.
(b) Indirect question.
I have not allowed myself to look beyond the Union, to see what might be hidden.—Webster.
(3) Indefinite pronoun: The saying, "I'll tell you what."
But woe to what thing or person stood in the way.—Emerson.
(a) Indefinite relative adjective.
To say what good of fashion we can, it rests on reality.—Id.
(5) Interrogative adjective: (a) Direct question.
What right have you to infer that this condition was caused by the action of heat?—Agassiz.
(b) Indirect question.
At what rate these materials would be distributed,...it is impossible to determine.—Id.
(6) Exclamatory adjective.
Saint Mary! what a scene is here!—Scott.
(7) Adverb of degree.
If he has [been in America], he knows what good people are to be found there.—Thackeray.
(8) Conjunction, nearly equivalent to partly... partly, or not only...but.
What with the Maltese goats, who go tinkling by to their pasturage; what with the vocal seller of bread in the early morning;...these sounds are only to be heard...in Pera.—S.S. Cox.
(9) As an exclamation.
What, silent still, and silent all!—Byron.
What, Adam Woodcock at court!—Scott.