very
Part of speech: adv
adj
Morphological type: simple
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.
Inflected forms:
form: verier
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: veriest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: To a great extent or degree.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
examples: That dress is very you.
Not very many (of them) had been damaged.
She's so very similar to her mother.
‘Is she busy?’ ― ‘Not very.’
In the end, the tickets didn't turn out so very expensive.
Then his sallow face brightened, for the hall had been carefully furnished, and was very clean.
 There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.
“[…] They talk of you as if you were Croesus—and I expect the beggars sponge on you unconscionably.” And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes.
gloss: Conforming to fact, reality or rule; true.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
gloss: Used to firmly establish that nothing else surpasses in some respect.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
examples: He was the very best runner there.
This is my very own treehouse.
gloss: True, real, actual.
pos: adj
tags: literary
not-comparable
usually
examples: the fierce hatred of a very woman
the very blood and bone of our grammar
He tried his very best.
We're approaching the very end of the trip.
[…] I am the veriest varlet that ever chewed with a tooth.
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.
The very essence of truth is plainnesse, and brightnes; the darknes and crookednesse is our own.
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.
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.
[…] : 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; […]
‘Thou seest after all I am a very woman.’
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.
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.
gloss: The same; identical.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
usually
examples: He proposed marriage in the same restaurant, at the very table where they first met.
That's the very tool that I need.
The very man I wanted to see!
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.
gloss: With limiting effect: mere.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
usually
examples: The very idea of climbing the ladder brings me out in a sweat.
The very idea/thought!
We have many examples in our daies, yea in very children, of such as for feare of some slight incommoditie have yeelded unto death.
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.
Synonyms: above a bit
absolutely
sorely
bone
abundantly
all too
but good
completely
damn
eminently
ever so
exceedingly
excessively
extremely
flipping
freaking
fucking
greatly
highly
in spades
jolly
main
mightily
murrain
passing
positively
pretty
quite
really
right
simply
somewhat
sore
specially
strongly
swith
truly
vastly
very
very much
way
way too
wicked
wickedly
Antonyms: almost
mostly
slightly
Related words: degree
quantity
Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class I § 31. Greatness
Derived words: all very well
at very least
fuck you very much
how very dare you
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
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 much
Very Reverend
very special episode
very well
very yes
at the very least
at the very most
for very shame's sake
in very deed
the very idea
the very thing
under one's very eyes
under one's very nose
very same
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