Learn English – the meaning of “we are not without ~”

meaning

What is the meaning of "we are not without ~"?
e.g. Like a Goliath, the giant of evolution defies the living God day after day in the public arena. But we are not without our Davids. Our speaker is a David.

Best Answer

This is a case of litotes:

litotes
A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite, as in:
This is no small problem.
American Heritage Dictionary

The above definition can be hard to get, but with examples it's very easy to understand.

"This is no small problem."

Means that the problem is not small. Logically speaking, when something isn't small, it doesn't mean that it's large. But in this style of speaking or writing (litotes), it actually implies the opposite. Here's an example from the Wikipedia article:

"He was not unfamiliar with the works of Dickens."

Logically if you're NOT unfamiliar with something, it doesn't mean you're necessarily knowledgeable. However this sentence means something like:

"He was quite familiar with the works of Dickens."

or if you want Wikipedia's version:

"He was acquainted with the works of Dickens."

In your example:

But we are not without our Davids.

In this particular form (litotes), means something like:

But we too have our Davids.

Sorry I can't go into more detail, as I don't have much context about this David and Goliath passage.

Here are a number of other examples, and an explanation of this style.

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