Etimology
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, wel.
adjective
very (not generally comparable, comparative verier, superlative veriest)
(literary) True, real, actual.
The same; identical.
With limiting effect: mere.
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.
[…] 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.
He proposed marriage in the same restaurant, at the very table where they first met.
That's the very tool that I need.
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.
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.
Related words
synonyms
(same, identical): ilk (Scotland, Northern England), selfsame, wicked (Rhode Island)
adverb
very (not comparable)
To a great extent or degree.
Conforming to fact, reality or rule; true.
(with superlatives) Used to firmly establish that nothing else surpasses in some respect.
Examples
Synonyms: greatly, drastically, extremely
That dress is very you.
Not very many had been damaged.
She's very like her mother.
‘Is she busy?’ ― ‘Not very.’
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.
Synonyms: truly, actually, authentically
He was the very best runner there.
This is my very own treehouse.
Related words
synonyms
(to a great extent): ever so, main (dialectal), mighty, sore (archaic), swith (dialectal), way too, eminently, wicked (Rhode Island)