exchange no more than (an amount of) words

exchange no more than (an amount of) words

To speak only briefly to someone. A certain number of words is stated after "than." I did see Miranda tonight, but we exchanged no more than three words, so I don't know how she's doing. Steve must be mad at me—we exchanged no more than two words all day. I exchanged no more than five words with John today, so I have no idea how his project's going.

See also: amount, exchange, more, no, word

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

exchange no more than

some number of words with someone and not exchange more than some number of words with someone; hardly exchange more than some number of words with someone; scarcely exchange more than some number of words with someone to say hardly anything to someone. (Always negative.) I know Tom was there, but I am sure that I didn't exchange more than three words with him before he left. We hardly exchanged more than two words the whole evening. Sally and Liz didn't have enough time to exchange more than five words.

See also: exchange, more, no

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.