Dictionary

not but en · CCONJ

Meanings

1. (archaic) Introducing a subordinate clause, frequently with that or what: "it is not that (the following clause) is not the case".
   • [H]e did not fail to be extremely disconcerted at his first entrance into a scene of life to which he was totally a stranger. Not but that he met with abundance of people in the country […]. 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:
   • I believe you they dread him. Not but what he's artful, even in his defiance of them. 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter VI, in Great Expectations […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 94:
   • '[…] Fanny used to say that she would marry sooner and better than you did; not but what she is exceedingly fond of you -- but so it happened to strike her. […]' 1811, [Jane Austen], chapter XI, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume II, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:
   • “[Y]ou don't believe in the actual devil?” “Do you?” retorted the woman curtly. “Not but that there are plenty of men worse than devils to make a hell of this earth,” she muttered to herself. 1911, Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes, Penguin Classics, published 2007, page 232:
   • Spenser's Calendar, in Mr Dryden's opinion, is the most complete work of this kind which any nation has produced ever since the time of Virgil. Not but that he may be thought imperfect in some few points. 1717, Alexander Pope, A Discourse on Pastoral Poetry:
   • This was the only very severe thing I ever said in my Life; not but that I have often felt myself extremely satirical but it was the only time I ever made my feelings public. 1792, Jane Austen, ‘Lesley Castle’, Juvenilia:
   • Not but your father has good qualities, and I assure you I remember him a very fine gentleman himself. 1768, Isaac Bickerstaff, Lionel and Clarissa: