all the

1. The entire amount of, as in These cousins were all the family he had . In this usage all the is short for all of the . [Ninth century a.d. ]

2. Even, more so, as in Painting the room white will make it all the lighter , or They liked her all the better for not pretending , or You don't care for dessert? Good, all the more for us . Used to underscore a comparison, this idiom was used by Shakespeare in As You Like It (1:2): “All the better; we shall be the more marketable.” [Late 1500s] For a synonym, see so much the .