Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adverb At all times; always.
- adverb At any time.
- adverb In any way; at all.
- adverb To a great extent or degree. Used for emphasis, often with so.
- idiom (again/anon) Now and then; occasionally.
- idiom (for ever and a day) Always; forever.
from The Century Dictionary.
- 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.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adverb At any time; at any period or point of time.
- adverb At all times; through all time; always; forever.
- adverb Without cessation; continually.
- adverb now and then; often. See under
Anon . - adverb [Obs.] continually; constantly.
- adverb in whatever degree; to whatever extent; -- used to intensify indefinitely the meaning of the associated adjective or adverb. See Never so, under
Never . - adverb eternally. See
Forever . - adverb emphatically forever.
- adverb [Archaic] before. See
Or ,ere .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adverb Always
- adverb At any time.
- adverb In any way
- adverb informal As intensifier.
- adjective epidemiology Occurring at any time, occurring even but once during a timespan.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adverb at all times; all the time and on every occasion
- adverb at any time
- adverb (intensifier for adjectives) very
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Examples
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Which means I am never, ever, *ever* going to find one.
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And no one ever, *ever* buys candy corn for themselves.
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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.
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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?
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But my real point is that nobody ever, *ever* has any actual evidence.
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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.
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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.
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They didn't want her to grow up, or have friends, or ever _ever_ have a boyfriend.
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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_.
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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_.
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