Meaning of in name | Babel Free

Definitions

Nominally, not essentially.

Equivalents

Examples

“He is a friend in name only.”

“From briefing material I was aware that Chiang Ching was an ideological fanatic who had strongly opposed my trip. She had led a checkered and contradictory life, from her younger days as an aspiring actress to her leadership of the radical forces in the Cultural Revolution of 1966. For many years she had been Mao's wife in name only, but there was no better name in China, and she had used it for all it was worth to build up her personal faction of supporters.”

“Ethnobotanist Gary P. Nabhan of the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix made a painful pilgrimage to see Texas wild-rice for his 1989 book, Enduring Seeds. He called it a surviving species in name more than in behavior.”

CEFR level