ever so

ever-so-, everso

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛvə(ɹ) ˌsoʊ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

ever so (not comparable)

1. Very, extremely.
   • 1823, John Howard Payne, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.

   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I:

     He was five feet six, I should judge, and had his grip on the handle–end of ever so many millions.

   • 2002: S. K. Elkins (poster on Harry Potter for Grownups Yahoogroup), re: Draco Malfoy Is Ever So Lame. Yet Sympathetic. And Dead, Too (read at [1] on 13 May 2006)

     How bad is Voldemort? Ever so bad!

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see ever,‎ so.
   • 2003, Peter Lee, Halcyon days: How to lose a war in a week:

     Were ironic quotation marks ever so deserved?

• soever