Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adv. At all times; always: ever hoping to strike it rich.
- adv. At any time: Have you ever been to Europe?
- adv. In any way; at all: How did they ever manage? See Usage Note at rarely.
- adv. To a great extent or degree. Used for emphasis often with so: He was ever so sorry. Was she ever mad!
- idiom. again Now and then; occasionally.
- idiom. for ever and a day Always; forever.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- At all times; always; continually.
- At any time; at any period or point of time, past or future: in negative, interrogative, or comparative sentences: as, no man is ever the happier for injustice; did you ever see anything like it? I do not think I ever did.
- In any degree; any; at all: usually in connection with an adverb or adjective in the comparative degree, and after a negative.
- To any possible degree; in any possible case: with as: a word of enforcement or emphasis: as, as soon as ever he had done it.
- For all time; to the end of life.
- Continually; incessantly; without intermission: as, he is for ever in the way; she is for ever singing, from morning to night.
Wiktionary
- adv. Always.
- adv. At any time.
- adv. In any way
- adv. As intensifier.
- adj. Occurring at any time, occurring even but once during a timespan.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adv. At any time; at any period or point of time.
- adv. At all times; through all time; always; forever.
- adv. Without cessation; continually.
WordNet 3.0
- adv. at all times; all the time and on every occasion
- adv. at any time
- adv. (intensifier for adjectives) very
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old English ǣfre; see aiw- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Which means I am never, ever, *ever* going to find one.”
“And no one ever, *ever* buys candy corn for themselves.”
“But my real point is that nobody ever, *ever* has any actual evidence.”
“This is a serious problem for the boy scouts and even the girl scouts have very strict rules about children ever *ever* being alone with only one adult and they have a right to enforce as best they can an environment where it is *very* clear that sexual activity between boys or between scout leaders and boys is not in any way acceptable.”
“But if there was ever *ever* the merest suggestion that my child's citizenship was affected by the fact that his parents were active duty military stationed overseas it would have been *decided* or the military wouldn't so much as function.”
Who will determine whether John McCain is a "natural-born citizen," qualified for the presidency?
“A comic that no one has ever asked for ever** is listed in Overstreet, while a comic by an acclaimed, award-winning cartoonist is not.”
“They didn't want her to grow up, or have friends, or ever _ever_ have a boyfriend.”
Analog Science Fiction and Fact
“I found my voice as she tucked me into the front seat of a dilapidated sedan, and I said it was the most beautiful car I'd ever seen, _ever_.”
Working Murder
“Lord's Prayer is marked for praise by a Termination, viz. _for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory for ever and ever_.”
“When it is to be used for Praise, the words "_for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever_" are placed at the end: when it is to be used for Prayer, the Lesser Litany "_Lord have mercy upon us, Christ have mercy upon us, Lord have mercy upon us_" is placed at the beginning.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ever’.
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On with their heads!
Words that make other words with the addition of one letter at the beginning. The resulting words are tagged "behead".
men, his, yes, any, iota, limb, aged, laid, land, lead, read, word and 315 more...
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Time
clock, forever, never, ever, ago, when, then, now, past, present, future, timeline and 119 more...
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Words Heard Too Often In Songs
Words overused in modern pop music.
Also see ruzuzu's list: Words that should be heard in songs more often.love, heart, dance, dancefloor, down, take, want, night, fight, baby, like, ooooh and 135 more...
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Big Tent
Universal quantifiers, totalizing pronouns and superlatives will save us ALL (and NONE)!
everyone, nobody, all, every, none, everybody, never, always, no one, nothing, nowhere, everywhere and 16 more...
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What . . .
For more fun with phrase fragments, see That's... and Where is...?
now, next, in the world, were you thinking, a wonderful world, do you know, would jesus do, else is new, the heck, evil lurks, if, ever and 17 more...
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