whatever

or whatever

A flippant way of indicating something else similar to what was mentioned. Yeah, I'm sure there will be security or whatever there, but it should still be easy enough to sneak in some booze. There are cool clubs and bars or whatever in the main cities, but if you want to see the really interesting stuff, you need to get out into the countryside.

See also: whatever

whatever

interjection Used in conversation to express one's dismissiveness, disinterest, or annoyance. A: "What do you want for dinner?" B: "Whatever, I don't care. I'm not even hungry." A: "Jeff said his dog got sick, that's why he never showed." B: "Really? Well, whatever, I'm over it."

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

whatever

mod. I don’t care; it doesn’t matter which choice; whatever you want. Q: I have chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, kiwi, and lime. Which do you want? A: Oh, whatever.

McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

whatever

In any case; anything goes; as you wish. One of the most recent additions to clichédom, this adverb is used very loosely. David Rosenfelt has it in a character’s conversation with a waitress: “‘. . . I can remember a time when the bananas and walnuts would have been inside the pancakes.’ ‘Whatever,’ she says, demonstrating a disregard for cultural history. ‘You want coffee?’ ‘Not until after the Olympics,’ I say. ‘Whatever.’” (Bury the Lead, 2004). Uttering “whatever” can be irksome, and even incendiary, as well as nonchalant. A New Yorker piece by Nick Paumgarten (July 11 and 18, 2005) reports that actor Russell Crowe, who assaulted a hotel clerk for failing to help him place a telephone call to Australia, did so after the clerk, responding to a threat, replied “Whatever.” The 1995 film Clueless, about Beverly Hills teenagers of the 1990s, popularized the “whatever” gesture, made with holding up the thumb and forefinger of both hands to form the letter W. Perhaps the most chilling use of the word came at the court martial of Private First Class Lynndie R. England, who told the judge that when pressed to join in the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, she responded “OK. Whatever” (quoted by James Carroll, Boston Globe, May 10, 2005). See also the quotation under twenty-four/seven.

The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer