Nev"er (?), adv. [AS. nfre; ne not, no + fre ever.]

1.

Not ever; not at any time; at no time, whether past, present, or future.

Shak.

Death still draws nearer, never seeming near. Pope.

2.

In no degree; not in the least; not.

Whosoever has a friend to guide him, may carry his eyes in another man's head, and yet see never the worse. South.

And he answered him to never a word. Matt. xxvii. 14.

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.

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.

 

© Webster 1913.

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