only too

English

Adverb

only too (not comparable)

1. (before adjective) very, all too.

   I'll be only too happy to help.

   I'm only too keen to leave school.

   • 1922, Stephen McKenna, The Confessions of a Well-Meaning Woman‎:

     In a crisis I am only too well aware that I am always left to find a way out, but that night I felt hardly adequate even to ordinary conversation

   • 1913, Kenneth Grahame, chapter 10, in The Wind in the Willows:

     After some miles of country lanes he reached the high road, and as he turned into it and glanced along its white length, he saw approaching him a speck that turned into a dot and then into a blob, and then into something very familiar; and a double note of warning, only too well known, fell on his delighted ear.

2. (before adverb) to a high degree; very well or very much
   • 2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian‎:

     Cities were not built to handle this volume of last-mile activity – a fact that firms such as UPS realise only too well.

   • 2014, Trina Chako, Sisters‎:

     You understand?”
     “Only too well.” Sudhir said wryly.

Collocations

Often used in combination with "well", where this expression normally collocates with adjectives and verbs connected to understanding and knowledge:

• know only too well
• understand only too well
• be only too aware
• comprehend only too well
• remember only too well

See also

• full well, fully well