very
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈvɛɹi/
rhymes: -ɛɹi
homophone: vary stripped-by-parse_pron_post_template_fn
Forms: form: verier
form: veriest
Etymology: From Middle English verray, from Old French verai (“true”), from Early Medieval Latin vērāgus, from Classical Latin vērāx, derived from vērus, from Proto-Italic *wēros, from Proto-Indo-European *weh₁ros.
Distantly cognate with the Old English wǣr (“true”). Over time displaced the use of a number of Germanic words or prefixes to convey the sense 'very' such as fele, full-, mægen, sore, sin-, swith, (partially) wel.
Senses: examples: text: The fierce hatred of a very woman.
text: The very blood and bone of our grammar.
text: He tried his very best.
text: We're approaching the very end of the trip.
text: The very man I wanted to see!
text: Look, these tablets are the very thing for your cold.
text: […] I am the veriest varlet that ever chewed with a tooth.
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
text: And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 27:21:
text: The very essence of truth is plainnesse, and brightnes; the darknes and crookednesse is our own.
ref: 1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavses that hitherto have Hindred it. […], [London]: […] Thomas Vnderhill, →OCLC; republished in (Please provide a date or year):
text: 1659, Henry Hammond, A Paraphrase and Annotations upon All the Books of the New Testament, London: Richard Davis, 2nd edition, The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians, Chapter 3, verse 19, p. 517,
[…] they that think to be wiser then other men, are by so much verier fools then others, and so are discerned to be.
text: I looked on the consideration of publick service, or publick ornament, to be real and very justice: and I ever held, a scanty and penurious justice to partake of the nature of a wrong.
ref: 1796, Edmund Burke, A Letter from the Right Honourable Edmund Burke to a Noble Lord, on the Attacks Made upon Him and His Pension, London: J. Owen and F. & C. Rivington, page 30:
text: […] : he has become a very democrat. He disdains not to be seen in the back-parlour of the petty tradesman, or the cleanly cottage of the intelligent mechanic. He raises his voice in the cause of progress; […]
ref: 1855, Chambers's Journal, page 257:
text: ‘Thou seest after all I am a very woman.’
ref: 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
text: Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
ref: 1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter III (Accessory After the Fact), page 382, column 1:
text: The country’s first black president, and its first president to reach adulthood after the Vietnam War and Watergate, Mr. Obama seemed like a digital-age leader who could at last dislodge the stalemate between those who clung to the government of the Great Society, on the one hand, and those who disdained the very idea of government, on the other.
ref: 2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times:
glosses: True, real, actual.
examples: text: He proposed marriage in the same restaurant, at the very table where they first met.
text: That's the very tool that I need.
text: Molly the dairymaid came a little way from the rickyard, and said she would pluck the pigeon that very night after work. She was always ready to do anything for us boys; and we could never quite make out why they scolded her so for an idle hussy indoors. It seemed so unjust. Looking back, I recollect she had very beautiful brown eyes.
ref: 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
glosses: The same; identical.
examples: text: The very idea of climbing the ladder brings me out in a sweat. The very idea/thought!
text: We have many examples in our daies, yea in very children, of such as for feare of some slight incommoditie have yeelded unto death.
ref: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 40, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
text: Given the degree of fear and loathing inspired by the very thought of a fat body in America today, it is important to emphasize that all of the medical information in the counterfactual world I have just sketched is itself quite factual.
ref: 2004, Paul Campos, The Obesity Myth: Why America's Obsession with Weight is Hazardous to Your Health, Penguin, →ISBN:
glosses: With limiting effect: mere.
Synonyms: sense: same, identical
word: ilk
sense: same, identical
word: selfsame
sense: same, identical
english: Rhode Island
translation: Rhode Island
word: wicked
Derived terms: all very well
at the very least
at the very most
for very shame's sake
fuck you very much
in very deed
my very easy method just speeds up naming planets
my very educated mother just served us nachos
my very educated mother just served us nine pizzas
my very educated mother just served us nine pumpkins
my very educated mother just served us noodles
my very excellent mother just served us nine pizzas
spank you very much
thank ye so very much
thank you very much
the very idea
the very thing
under one's very eyes
under one's very nose
very good
very high frequency
very important person
very large crude carrier
very-large-scale
very-large-scale integration
very large scale integration
very less
very-light
very light
very like a whale
very-long-baseline interferometry
very-long-chain
very long-chain
very low mass star
very same
very special episode
very spit of
very well
very yes