not by any means

not by any means

Not in any way; not at all; absolutely not. A: "Tell me the truth: you thought that the play was awful." B: "Not by any means! It wasn't perfect, but I definitely enjoyed it." Not by any means shall our country be drawn into yet another war overseas.
See also: any, by, mean, not
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • by no means
  • not exactly
  • not for a second
  • not for a minute
  • not for a moment
  • aint
  • ain't
  • not for a instant
  • not for a/one minute/moment/second/instant
  • hope not
References in classic literature
The Dolphin, though quite willing to give him assistance, was unable to do so, as he could not by any means reach the land.
Fables
I have sent Charles to town to make matters up if he can, for I do not by any means want her here.
Lady Susan
And though this also holds true of merchant vessels, yet not by any means to the same extent as with whalemen.
Moby Dick I LXVII
Several large islands certainly exist in the lake; one of which is said to be mountainous, but not by any means to the extent required to furnish the series of peaks above mentioned.
Adventures of Captain Bonneville USA in the Rocky Mountains and
As to our lodging, it's not by any means splendid, because I have my own bread to earn, and my father hasn't anything to give me, and I shouldn't be willing to take it, if he had.
Great Expectations
I was right, as appeared later; but in the meantime, the house being stifling hot and the little patch of sand inside the palisade ablaze with midday sun, I began to get another thought into my head, which was not by any means so right.
Treasure Island
The Kurdish presidency called the Turkish government and the PKK party to adopt dialogue to solve the question, "because fighting will not by any means".
Iraqi Kurdistan expresses concern for killing 43 Turkish Kurds
Vet the ending is appropriate, and it is not by any means disappointing.
Stroud, Jonathan. Ptolemy's Gate
"But rarely do we appreciate battles as human phenomena of the cumulative effects--the ripples--that change communities for years, or centuries even, well after the day's killing is over." This is not by any means an anti-war argument.
From here to eternity: the unintended consequences of war
Harris's work is not by any means the final word, but it is a good introduction to the world of Baptists.
The Origins and Growth of the Baptist Faith: 20 Baptist Trailblazers in World History
While apparently confining extra dimensions to less than 0.2 mm, the new result "does not by any means rule anything out," argues Nima Arkani-Hamed of Lawrence Berkeley (Calif.) National Laboratory.
Gravity gets measured to greater certainty
To be sure, one need not by any means arrive at the conclusion that literature or the Academy has no useful role in relation to the excluded or dominated Other.
Double Consciousness/Double Bind: Theoretical Issues in Twentieth Century Black Literature
We have here a collection of pioneering essays that scout unfamiliar terrain, not by any means a definitive work.
Law, Family and Women: Toward a Legal Anthropology of Renaissance Italy