of the essence

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Idioms and Phrases

Of the greatest importance, crucial, as in Time is of the essence . This idiom, which uses essence in the sense of “the most important element of something,” was first recorded in 1873, although the phrase the essence of ... was already being used in the mid-1600s.

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

of the devil of the first water

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