The gentle art of dictionary browsing

I just had the occasion to use wherewithal in a sentence. What a lovely word.

The Macquarie Dictionary defines it as follows:

noun that wherewith to do something; means or supplies for the
purpose or need, especially money: the wherewithal to pay my rent.

But what is wherewith?  And why is there a ‘that’ in front of it? This definition left me none the wiser, so I consulted my trusty 2003 Australian Collins instead, (my favourite dictionary, here’s a photo so you can see why).

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Not sure I’ll be using wherewith in a sentence anytime soon, but a satisfying dictionary browse nonetheless.

And now I also know what a wherry is.

And so do you.

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