“All but X” is an idiom in (at least American) English which means essentially “99%”. So in this case it didn’t literally cure his insomnia, but is so close to having done so that it may as well have.
Native speaker here, this has kept me distracted on a couple long drives.
“X is all but Y”
Interpretation 1: X has moved so close to Y that it may as well be Y
-> X loosely equals Y
(I think this is the colloquial understanding)
Interpretation 2: In the set that represents X, Y has been removed
-> X is not Y
Excuse the poor notation, I hope this is clear! The tldr is this confuses me too sometimes
mewpmewp2|1 year ago
rexer|1 year ago