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}.