1. what for - Noun
2. what for - Adverb
For what purpose.
What is this tool for?
That's what friends are for.
(colloquial) For what reason; why.
He wants four copies of it? What for?
Ow! What did you do that for?
What do you want to know for?
what for (plural what fors)
(idiomatic, colloquial, usually with "give someone") An unspecified punishment or rebuke
When your dad gets home, he'll give you what for.
Poetry is indispensable - if I only knew what for. Jean Cocteau
What for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel but the irresistible power of unarmed truth. Boris Pasternak
There, in the chords and melodies, is everything I want to say. The words just jolly it along. It's always been my way of expressing what for me is inexpressible by any other means. David Bowie
They talk about those All-Star Games being exhibition affairs, and maybe they are, but I've seen very few players in my life who didn't want to win, no matter whom they were playing or what for. Carl Hubbell
Instead of isolating our school and our many subjects from the every day world, we intend to plant it not merely in the French capital, but in what for next summer at least will be the focal point, the capital of the entire civilized world. Patrick Geddes
They fight a war and they don't know what for. Isn't that crazy? How can one man kill another and not really know the reason why he does it, except that the other man wears a different color uniform and speaks a different language? Michael Morpurgo