By and the large
Example: By and large, the project was successful this year.
Definition
"By and large" is an idiomatic expression used to indicate that something is generally true or mostly the case, despite possible minor exceptions. For example, in the phrase 'By and large, the project was successful this year,' it means the project was successful overall.
Etymology
The phrase "by and large" originates from nautical terminology in the 17th century, where 'by' meant sailing close to the wind and 'large' meant sailing with the wind behind the ship. Together, they implied 'in all respects' or 'generally.' Did you know this phrase was adopted into everyday language to convey a sense of generalization or overall summary?
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"By and the large" appears in the Vocaplus list "English - General - Idioms and Proverbs - (C2) - set 1", containing 106 commonly used expressions.
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