meaningword-usage
I understand that 'withal' can be used as a preposition at the end of a clause to mean 'with' or 'therewith' but it can, I think, also be used to mean 'in addition' or 'together with'.
Concerning the latter meaning, I'm trying to write a poem and wish to use something like the following:
He wax'd in stature great withal.
to mean "He additionally waxed great in stature".
However, does this make any sense?
There is no problem with this phrase - it is idiomatic English.
With is part of the compound adjective over with. To be over with means to be finished. As far as I know, it's only ever used with the verb be.
It's fine as it is. You could say "Can we get this finished?".
The first two mean toilet or bathroom.
The noun can also means
a metal or plastic container for holding film on cores or reels.
When filming is finished, the film will be put into the can. Therefore, in the can means completed.
[Dictionary.Reference.Com]
Completed, as in about a hundred pages of her next book are in the can. This usage originated in filmmaking to describe a completed motion picture, when film was literally put into a can or canister. [Slang; c. 1930]
[The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms]
Your example:
Finally, our planning is completed and we can begin construction tomorrow.
Best Answer
Poetry writes its own rules. But if I saw "wax'd" in the same line with "withal," I would not be inclined to interpret "withal" in the one non-archaic sense that survives today (which Merriam-Webster's gives as "together with this: besides"). Rather I would suppose that it was being used in one of two archaic senses—either to mean "therewith" or to mean "nevertheless."
Other readers might associate it with the Shakespearean meaning "with," as in Rosalind's line in As You Like It:
Merriam-Webster's specifically observes that "withal" in this sense must be "used postpositively with a relative or interrogative pronoun as object"—which is why when Orlando asks "I prithee, who doth he trot withal?" Rosalind answers "Marry, he trots hard with [not "withal"] a young maid between the contract of her marriage and the day it is solemnized"—but I wouldn't count on my readers' understanding that fine point of usage.
If your goal is to sound oldish but not altogether archaic in this poem, I think you might do better with "beside" (in place of "withal"), though you'd have to move it after "wax'd" if you wanted to retain the line's meter:
...but this maneuver creates complications of its own, since "beside" (as a preposition) meaning "besides" (as a preposition) is modern English, but "beside" (as an adverb) meaning "besides" (as an adverb) is archaic, according to Merriam-Webster's.
If you don't mind sounding up-to-date, you could simply (and clearly) end your original line with "besides" or "as well" in place of "withal."