unknown quantity
English
Noun
unknown quantity (plural unknown quantities)
- (idiomatic) A person or thing whose nature or value is a mystery.
- 1895 October 1, Stephen Crane, chapter 1, in The Red Badge of Courage, 1st US edition, New York: D. Appleton and Company, page 14:
- Whatever he had learned of himself was here of no avail. He was an unknown quantity.
- 1907, The Bookman, vol. 25, p. 166 (Google snippet view):
- . . . the Evening Post of this city to refer to him recently as "the young Belgian painter," and to the general public he is an unknown quantity.
- 1982 Sep. 22, Henry Tanner, "Gemayel Brothers Assessed in Syria," New York Times (retrieved 9 Jan 2016):
- Amin Gemayel, it is felt here, is an unknown quantity and it is impossible to predict how he will act.
- 2015 Dec. 6, "Congratulations on 10 years, David Cameron - but don't rest on your laurels," Telegraph (UK) (retrieved 9 Jan 2016):
- [H]e was still an unknown quantity – a young, untested figure.
- Antonyms: known quantity, household name
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Synonyms
- blank canvas, enigma
References
- unknown quantity at OneLook Dictionary Search