Comprehensively.
1833. The air of a man who has heard of the biter bit, and feels rather perplexed on the whole, take it by-and-large.—John Neal, ‘The Down-Easters,’ i. 23.
1845. He had been speaking for four hours, ostensibly on the Panama mission, but actually travelled over everything by and large.—Cornelius Mathews, ‘Writings,’ ii. 159.
1857. I know what women be. I’ve wintered and summered with ’em, and take ’em by and large, they’re better’n men.—J. G. Holland, ‘The Bay-Path,’ p. 172.
1869. Taking it “by and large,” as the sailors say, we had a pleasant ten days’ run from New York to the Azores islands.—Mark Twain, ‘The Innocents Abroad,’ chap. v.
1875. Taking you by-and-large, you do seem to be more different kinds of an ass than any creature I ever saw before.—Mark Twain, ‘Old Times on the Mississippi,’ Atlantic Monthly, xxxv. p. 285/1 (March).
1906. Considered by and large, the canals seem to be equally distributed rount the compass points; and this at all longitudes and nearly all latitudes.—Percival Lowell, ‘Mars and its Canals,’ p. 188.
