Nēv'er, adv.
[A-S. næfre, næfor, nēfor, nēfre, from ne, not, and æfre, æfer, ever.]
Sense 1. Not ever; not at any time; at no time, whether past or present.
Death draws near, never seeming near. Pope.
Sense 2. In no degree; not in the least.
Whoever has a friend to guide him, may carry his eyes in another man's head, and yet see never the worse. South.
Sense 3. Not.
And he answered him to never a word. Matt. xxvii. 14.
☞ Never is much used in composition, as in never-coming, never-dying, never-ending, never-fading, never-failing, and the like, but in all such compounds it retains its usual signification.
Never so, as never before; more than at any other time, or in any other circumstances; especially; particularly; — now usually 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.