With1, prep.
prep. [A-S. widh, wid, with, at, against; O. Sax. wid, against, with, O. Fries. with, withe, against, Icel. vidh, against, Sw. vid, Dan. ved, around, through. Cf. A-S. mid, midh, O. Sax. midi, mid, met, O. Fries. mit, mith, D. met, Goth. mith, Icel. medh, Sw. & Dan. med, Ger. mit, with.]
With denotes or expresses,—
Sense 1. Nearness; proximity; association; connection; partnership; intercourse; as, to be distressed with pain, or excited with joy.
I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you. Shak.
Pity your own, or pity our estate, Nor twist our fortunes with your sinking fate. Dryden.
See where on earth the flowery glories lie; With her they flourished, and with her they die. Pope.
There is no living with thee or without thee. Tatler.
Sense 2. Situation or estimation among; treatment or regard by.
Tragedy was originally, with the ancients, a piece of religious worship. Rymer.
Such arguments had invincible force with those pagan philosophers. Addison.
Sense 3. Friendship or support; assistance; countenance; a being on the side of; — in a pregnant sense.
Fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee. Gen. xxvi. 24.
Sense 4. Accompanying cause or occasion; instrument; means.
Thou wilt be like a lover presently, And tire the hearer with a book of words. Shak.
Sense 5. Correspondence; comparison.
Can blazing carbuncles with her compare? Sandys.
Sense 6. Close succession; immediate subsequence.
With that she told me . . . that she would hide no truth from me. Sidney.
With this he pointed to his face. Dryden.
With and by are closely allied in many of their uses, and it is not easy to lay down a rule by which their uses may be distinguished. It is observed by Johnson that with seems rather to denote an instrument, and by a cause; as, he killed an enemy with a sword, but he died by an arrow. But this rule is not always observed. — With, in composition, signifies sometimes opposition, privation, separation, or departure.