Nev"er (?), adv. [AS.
n&?;fre; 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. &fist;
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.
Hear it pronounced