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. | 
