How adv.
  1. In what manner or way; by what means or process.
     How can a man be born when he is old?   --John iii. 4.
  2. To what degree or extent, number or amount; in what proportion; by what measure or quality.
     O, how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.   --Ps. cxix. 97.
     By how much they would diminish the present extent of the sea, so much they would impair the fertility, and fountains, and rivers of the earth.   --Bentley.
  3. For what reason; from what cause.
     How now, my love! why is your cheek so pale?   --Shak.
  4. In what state, condition, or plight.
     How, and with what reproach, shall I return?   --Dryden.
  5. By what name, designation, or title.
     How art thou called?   --Shak.
  6. At what price; how dear. [Obs.]
     How a score of ewes now?   --Shak.
  Note: ☞ How is used in each sense, interrogatively, interjectionally, and relatively; it is also often employed to emphasize an interrogation or exclamation. “How are the mighty fallen!” --2 Sam. i. 27. Sometimes, also, it is used as a noun; -- as, the how, the when, the wherefore. --Shelley.
     Let me beg you -- don't say =\“How?” for “What?”\=   --Holmes.
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  how
       adv 1: to what extent or amount or degree; "how tall is she?"
       2: in what way or manner or by what means (`however' is
          sometimes used as an intensive form of `how'); "how did
          you catch the snake?"; "he told us how he did it";
          "however did you get here so soon?" [syn: however]