ever so
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Never \Nev"er\ (n[e^]v"[~e]r), adv. [AS. n[=ae]fre; ne not, no +
[=ae]fre ever.]
1. Not ever; not at any time; at no time, whether past,
present, or future. --Shak.
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Death still draws nearer, never seeming near.
--Pope.
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2. In no degree; not in the least; not.
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Whosoever has a friend to guide him, may carry his
eyes in another man's head, and yet see never the
worse. --South.
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And he answered him to never a word. --Matt. xxvii.
14.
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Note: Never is much used in composition with present
participles to form adjectives, as in never-ceasing,
never-dying, never-ending, never-fading, never-failing,
etc., retaining its usual signification.
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{Never a deal}, not a bit. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
{Never so}, as never before; more than at any other time, or
in any other circumstances; especially; particularly; --
now often expressed or replaced by {ever so}.
Ask me never so much dower and gift. --Gen. xxxiv.
12.
A fear of battery, . . . though never so well
grounded, is no duress. --Blackstone.
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from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Ever \Ev"er\adv. [OE. ever, [ae]fre, AS. [ae]fre; perh. akin to
AS. [=a] always. Cf. {Aye}, {Age},{Evry}, {Never}.]
[Sometimes contracted into {e'er}.]
1. At any time; at any period or point of time.
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No man ever yet hated his own flesh. --Eph. v. 29.
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2. At all times; through all time; always; forever.
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He shall ever love, and always be
The subject of by scorn and cruelty. --Dryder.
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3. Without cessation; continually.
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Note: Ever is sometimes used as an intensive or a word of
enforcement. "His the old man e'er a son?" --Shak.
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To produce as much as ever they can. --M. Arnold.
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{Ever and anon}, now and then; often. See under {Anon}.
{Ever is one}, continually; constantly. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
{Ever so}, in whatever degree; to whatever extent; -- used to
intensify indefinitely the meaning of the associated
adjective or adverb. See {Never so}, under {Never}. "Let
him be ever so rich." --Emerson.
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And all the question (wrangle e'er so long),
Is only this, if God has placed him wrong. --Pope.
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You spend ever so much money in entertaining your
equals and betters. --Thackeray.
{For ever}, eternally. See {Forever}.
{For ever and a day}, emphatically forever. --Shak.
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She [Fortune] soon wheeled away, with scornful
laughter, out of sight for ever and day. --Prof.
Wilson.
{Or ever} (for or ere), before. See {Or}, {ere}. [Archaic]
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Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven
Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio! --Shak.
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Note: Ever is sometimes joined to its adjective by a hyphen,
but in most cases the hyphen is needless; as, ever
memorable, ever watchful, ever burning.
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from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
48 Moby Thesaurus words for "ever so":
a deal, a fortiori, a great deal, a lot, above all, abundantly,
all the more, as all creation, as all get-out, beaucoup, chiefly,
considerable, considerably, dominantly, especially, even,
ever so much, first of all, galore, greatly, highly, in chief,
in great measure, in the main, indeed, largely, mainly,
more than ever, mostly, much, muchly, never so, no end, no end of,
not a little, particularly, peculiarly, plenty, predominantly,
pretty much, primarily, principally, so, so very much, still more,
to the skies, very much, yea
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