“ever” – English explanatory dictionary

adv 1. at any time (used with negatives, and in questions) ○ Nothing ever happens here. ○ Did you ever meet my brother? ○ Have you ever been to Germany? □ hardly ever almost never ○ I hardly ever go to the theatre. 2. □ than ever used for emphasis after comparatives ○ She is singing better than ever. ○ He went on playing the trumpet louder than ever. 3. always ○ Ever the optimist, he suggested we try once again. □ ever since or ever since then from that

adv. [OE. ever, aefre, AS. aefre; perh. akin to AS. a always. Cf. Aye, Age,Evry, Never.] [Sometimes contracted into e’er.]
1. At any time; at any period or point of time. “No man ever yet hated his own flesh.” Eph. v. 29.
2. At all times; through all time; always; forever. “He shall ever love, and always be
The subject of by scorn and cruelty.” Dryder.
3. Without cessation; continually. Ever is sometimes used as an intensive or a word of enforcement. ´His the old man e’er a son?´ Shak. “To produce as much as ever they can.” M. Arnold. Ever and anon, now and then; often. See under Anon. — Ever is one, continually; constantly. [Obs.] Chaucer. — Ever so, in whatever degree; to whatever extent; — used to intensify indefinitely the meaning of the associated adjective or adverb. See Never so, under Never. ´Let him be ever so rich.´ Emerson. “And all the question (wrangle e’er so long),
Is only this, if God has placed him wrong.” Pope. “You spend ever so much money in entertaining your equals and betters.” Thackeray. — For ever, eternally. See Forever. — For ever and a day, emphatically forever. Shak. “She [Fortune] soon wheeled away, with scornful laughter, out of sight for ever and day.” Prof. Wilson. — Or ever (for or ere), before. See Or, ere. [Archaic] “Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven
Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio!” Shak. Ever is sometimes joined to its adjective by a hyphen, but in most cases the hyphen is needless; as ever memorable, ever watchful, ever burning.