Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Very"

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

Very \Ver"y\, a. [Compar. {Verier}; superl. {Veriest}.] [OE.
verai, verray, OF. verai, vrai, F. vrai, (assumed) LL.
veracus, for L. verax true, veracious, fr. verus true; akin
to OHG. & OS. w[=a]r, G. wahr, D. waar; perhaps originally,
that is or exists, and akin to E. was. Cf. {Aver}, v. t.,
{Veracious}, {Verdict}, {Verity}.]
True; real; actual; veritable.

Whether thou be my very son Esau or not. --Gen. xxvii.
21.

He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he
that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.
--Prov. xvii.
9.

The very essence of truth is plainness and brightness.
--Milton.

I looked on the consideration of public service or
public ornament to be real and very justice. --Burke.

Note: Very is sometimes used to make the word with which it
is connected emphatic, and may then be paraphrased by
same, self-same, itself, and the like. ``The very hand,
the very words.'' --Shak. ``The very rats instinctively
have quit it.'' --Shak. ``Yea, there where very
desolation dwells.'' --Milton. Very is used
occasionally in the comparative degree, and more
frequently in the superlative. ``Was not my lord the
verier wag of the two?'' --Shak. ``The veriest hermit
in the nation.'' --Pope. ``He had spoken the very
truth, and transformed it into the veriest falsehood.''
--Hawthorne.

{Very Reverend}. See the Note under {Reverend}.

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

Very \Ver"y\, adv.
In a high degree; to no small extent; exceedingly;
excessively; extremely; as, a very great mountain; a very
bright sum; a very cold day; the river flows very rapidly; he
was very much hurt.

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

Very's \Ver"y's\, or Very \Ver"y\, night signals \night signals\
. [After Lieut. Samuel W. Very, who invented the system in
1877.] (Naut.)
A system of signaling in which balls of red and green fire
are fired from a pistol, the arrangement in groups denoting
numbers having a code significance.

From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)

very
adj 1: precisely as stated; "the very center of town" [syn: {very(a)}]
2: being the exact same one; not any other:; "this is the
identical room we stayed in before"; "the themes of his
stories are one and the same"; "saw the selfsame quotation
in two newspapers"; "on this very spot"; "the very thing
he said yesterday"; "the very man I want to see" [syn: {identical},
{one and the same(p)}, {selfsame(a)}, {very(a)}]
3: used to give emphasis to the relevance of the thing
modified; "his very name struck terror"; "caught in the
very act" [syn: {very(a)}]
4: used to give emphasis; "the very essence of artistic
expression is invention"- Irving R. Kaufman; "the very
back of the room" [syn: {very(a)}]
adv 1: intensifiers; "she was very gifted"; "he played very well";
"a really enjoyable evening"; (`real' is sometimes
used informally for `really' as in "I'm real sorry
about it"; `rattling' is informal as in "a rattling
good yarn") [syn: {really}, {real}, {rattling}]
2: precisely so; "on the very next page"; "he expected the very
opposite"


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