if and when

Definitions

1. 1

   At the time of an event, contingent on that event happening at all.

   • [T]o his son Thomas Battersbee, if and when he should attain the age of 21; but if he should die under that age then to his daughter Sophia, if and when she should attain that age...
   • Since, as many parents have found to their sorrow, you cannot force a child to sleep, most find it easier on everybody to accept this nightwalking if and when it occurs
   • Still, one cannot completely ignore the differences in the nature of the paper trail the two sets of rules give us if and when we want to look back at a particular decision.

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