[jiang]

Dear JSmiley,

Thank you very much for explaining the word so patiently. I think I understand it now. However, I still want to cite the text in my dictionary.The name of the dictionary is Random House Webster's Dictionary of American English edited by Gerard M.Dalgish. The quoted part is on Page 52:

anything ( I can't type pronounciation here): pron.1. any thing whatever; something:
[in questions]: Do you have anything for a toothache? [with negative words or phrases]: I don’t have anything for your today. 2.no matter what: She’ll do anything to get promoted.

What I didn't understand is why in questions and with negative words or phrases it means 'any thing whatever, something. when it is used in statements it means 'no matter what'. Since you said 'Im having trouble understanding your definitions as well...' maybe it is better to hear something from you.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thank you in advance.

Jiang

Originally Posted by JSmiley

No. 1: Yes, I think you have got it.

No. 2:

Im having trouble understanding your definitions as well...

'anything' and 'whatever' can be synonyms like this:

Give me anything (and I don't care what). Give me whatever (you can spare).

'No matter what (happens)' and 'no matter how' are synonyms of ANYWAY, or ANYHOW in the following sentence:
::I will do it anyway / I will do it, no matter what (happens).
But
"I will do it anything." is wrong.
Also
"I will do anything" and "I will do it no matter what" have very different meanings.
and
"I will do no matter what" is wrong.
::I don't think 'no matter what' is a good definition of 'anything.' :-p

However this is possible:
Anything you give me will be okay. / No matter what you give me, it will be okay.

Hope that that helps you. If you are still confused about the definitions in your dictionary, then please copy the whole definition word-for-word and letter-for-letter in your post, so that we can see the complete thing.

I suspect that you may need a better dictionary!!!