quantity

Related to quantity: Physical quantity, Quantity Supplied

an unknown quantity

A person or thing that is unpredictable and thus difficult to anticipate. We're still revising our new product, so its potential success is an unknown quantity. This is her first year teaching, so her ability to connect with her students is still an unknown quantity.
See also: quantity, unknown

be an unknown quantity

To be unpredictable and thus difficult to anticipate. We're still revising our new product, so its potential success is an unknown quantity as yet. This is her first year teaching, so her ability to connect with her students is still something of an unknown quantity.
See also: quantity, unknown

consume mass quantities

To eat, drink, or otherwise consume large amounts of something. Primarily heard in US, South Africa. Large family holidays are all typified by consuming mass quantities of food and alcohol. As the largest economy on the planet, our prerogative seems to be to consume mass quantities of the Earth's resources.
See also: consume, mass, quantity

known quantity

Someone or something whose inherent value, characteristics, or properties are previously established. This project is extremely important, so I want every team member working on it to be a known quantity. The success of this product has become something of a known quantity for the company each year.
See also: known, quantity
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

known quantity

someone whose character, personality, and behavior are recognized and understood. We need not worry about how John will behave. He is a known quantity. Lisa is a known quantity and I am sure she will not surprise us by voting with the opposition.
See also: known, quantity

*unknown quantity

Fig. a person or thing about which no one is certain. (*Typically: be ~; become ~.) John is an unknown quantity. We don't know how he's going to act. The new clerk is an unknown quantity. Things may not turn out all right.
See also: quantity, unknown
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

unknown quantity

An unpredictable person or thing, as in We don't know how the new pitcher will do-he's an unknown quantity. This expression comes from algebra, where it signifies an unknown numerical value. Its figurative use dates from the mid-1800s.
See also: quantity, unknown
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

an unknown quantity

COMMON If someone or something is an unknown quantity, not much is known about them. She had met Max several times, but he was still pretty much an unknown quantity. The team is something of an unknown quantity, having played few big games. Ballet was an unknown quantity in the United States at that time.
See also: quantity, unknown
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

unknown quantity

a person or thing whose nature, value, or significance cannot be determined or is not yet known.
See also: quantity, unknown
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

an ˌunknown ˈquantity

a person or thing that you do not know anything or enough about: His ability to make decisions in a crisis is an unknown quantity. Our new director is still an unknown quantity.
See also: quantity, unknown
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • an unknown quantity
  • unknown
  • unknown quantity
  • be an unknown quantity
  • joker
  • the joker in the pack
  • now (that) you mention it
  • what you see is what you get
  • WYSIWYG
  • back to the drawing board
References in periodicals archive
To see this, assume the firm confronts a labor supply curve which describes the wage (W) as a simple function of the quantity of labor supplied, whose first derivative is positive.
Product and resource markets: points of symmetry
The traditional approach to LRIP determination goes something like this: First take the DOT & E requirement and add the quantity the program requires for transition to production; second, see if that the number is less than 10 percent of the total production quantity, and if it is, press on.
Low rate initial production quantity determination
What is being said is simple enough: the reign of quantity and the reduction of the manifest reality to a quantitative plane at the expense of quality is a malady of titanic proportions that has reduced every aspect of modern science to the lowest possible plane of learning.
Shadhrah 3
The decline in the relative price of non-oil imports stimulated the quantity imported, particularly in the second half of the year.
U.S. international transactions in 1989
(The "measurand" is the specific quantity being measured.) It is noteworthy to point out, firstly, that an uncertainty statement is associated with a measurement result, not with the measurement instrument (although the instrument is an uncertainty contributor), and secondly, that measurement uncertainty is associated with a specific measurand and, in general, different measurands may have different uncertainty statements even if they are measured with the same instrument.
A Careful Consideration of the Calibration Concept
For shipping - date, memo number, quantity and total shipped.
Small foundry can gain efficiency by computerizing operations
This suggests, Engeseth says, that for certain applications, which antioxidants are present may be as important as their quantity.
The color of honey: a sweetener that bee-devils food spoilage
You can put a sensor in the presence of the measurable quantity, and, as that quantity changes, the sensor puts out an analog signal, whose electronic amplitude matches the strength of the observable quantity at any given moment.
Throwing light on data-taking; electronic data-taking just isn't fast enough for some kinds of instruments. Starting from those applications, a new technique, photonics, could challenge electronics across the board