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It seems that a good explanation of "and then some" is:

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/and+then+some

and then some
(Informal) With considerably more in addition: This project will take all our skill and then some.

Is this a quite accurate definition? (with the stress of "considerably more"). Why is it like that, I wonder -- is it a short form of something, such as "and then some more" or "and then some considerably more amount"? Actually, just from the word "some", it seems it is a little more or somewhat more, without the meaning of "considerably more".

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Closely related: Is “and then some” an offensive expression? – Daniel δ Jul 12 '12 at 22:10
@Daniel: You should really go back and update your answer on that earlier question to include a clear definition of the expression. Then we can just close this one as a dup. – FumbleFingers Jul 12 '12 at 22:36
@動靜能量: (I hope not too many users here adopt that kind of monicker - they'll all just merge into a single "user:squiggle" for me). I just wanted to point out that I'm not convinced "and then some" implies "considerably more", so much as it implies that what came before it was considerably large already. – FumbleFingers Jul 12 '12 at 23:27
1  
@FumbleFingers Done, check it out. I can't vote to close as dupe, since I already voted for gen ref. – Daniel δ Jul 13 '12 at 14:54

3 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

The Macmillan dictionary has this entry for and then some:

: used for emphasizing that there is more in addition to what you have mentioned

The house must have cost half a million dollars and then some.

Macmillan also notes that and then some is generally a spoken expression.

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up vote 2 down vote

Is this a quite accurate definition? (with the stress of "considerably more"). Why is it like that, I wonder -- is it a short form of something, such as "and then some more"

In a word - yes.

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up vote 2 down vote

"And then some" is an idiomatic expression, intentionally understated for effect.

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