different between very vs werry

English

Etymology

From Middle English verray, verrai (“true”), from Old French verai (“true”) (Modern French vrai), from assumed Vulgar Latin v?r?cus, alteration of Latin v?r?x (“truthful”), from v?rus (“true”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weh?- (“true, benevolent”). Cognate with Old English w?r (“true, correct”), Dutch waar (“true”), German wahr (“true”), Icelandic alvöru (“earnest”). Displaced native Middle English sore, s?r (“very”) (from Old English s?r (“grievous, extreme”) (Compare German sehr, Dutch zeer), Middle English wel (“very”) (from Old English wel (“well, very”)) (Compare German wohl, Dutch wel, Swedish väl), and Middle English swith (“quickly; very”) (from Old English sw?þe (“very”). More at warlock.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /?v??i/
• Rhymes: -?ri
• Homophone: vary (in some dialects)

Adjective

very (not generally comparable, comparative verier, superlative veriest)

1. (literary) True, real, actual.
   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, Act II, Scene 2,^[1]

     […] I am the veriest varlet that ever chewed with a tooth.

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Genesis 27:21,^[2]

     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.

   • 1641, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1916, pp. 32-33,^[3]

     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,^[4]

     […] they that think to be wiser then other men, are by so much verier fools then others, and so are discerned to be.

   • 1796, Edmund Burke, A Letter from the Right Honourable Edmund Burke to a Noble Lord, on the Attacks Made upon Him and His Pension, London: J. Owen and F. & C. Rivington, p. 30,^[5]

     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.

   • 1855, Chambers's Journal, page 257:

     […]  : 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; […]

   • 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.
2. The same; identical.
3. With limiting effect: mere.
   • 2004, Paul Campos, The Obesity Myth: Why America's Obsession with Weight is Hazardous to Your Health, Penguin (?ISBN):

     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.

Usage notes

• very is used exclusively attributively and never predicatively.

Synonyms

• (same, identical): ilk (Scotland, Northern England), selfsame

Translations

Adverb

very (not comparable)

1. To a great extent or degree.

   Synonyms: greatly, drastically, extremely

   • 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.
2. Conforming to fact, reality or rule; true.

   Synonyms: truly, actually, authentically

3. (with superlatives) Used to firmly establish that nothing else surpasses in some respect.

Usage notes

• When used in their senses as degree adverbs, "very" and "too" never modify verbs (except in some dialects influenced by Chinese: see citations).

Synonyms

• (to a great extent): ever so, main (dialectal), mighty, sore (archaic), swith (dialectal), way too, eminently

Translations

Anagrams

• ev'ry

Malagasy

Adjective

very

1. lost
2. (archaic) enslaved

Middle English

Alternative forms

• verai, veray, verra, verray, verre, verrei, verrey, verri, verry
• werai, werrai, wery

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French verai.

Adjective

very (comparative verier)

1. true

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:very.

Adverb

very

1. very

English

Adverb

werry (not comparable)

1. (obsolete, Britain, Cockney) very

Anagrams

• wryer

Middle English

Verb

werry

1. Alternative form of werreyen