very

1. not comparableTo a great extent or degree.

   That dress is very you.

   5 more examples

   Not very many (of them) had been damaged.

   She's so very similar to her mother.

   ‘Is she busy?’ ― ‘Not very.’

   In the end, the tickets didn't turn out so very expensive.

   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.

   1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0091

2. not comparableConforming to fact, reality or rule; true.

   Synonyms: truly, actually, authentically

3. not comparableUsed to firmly establish that nothing else surpasses in some respect.

   This is my very own treehouse.

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   He was the very best runner there.

comparative verier · superlative veriest

1. literarynot comparableusuallyTrue, real, actual.

   He tried his very best.

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   the fierce hatred of a very woman

   the very blood and bone of our grammar

   We're approaching the very end of the trip.

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

   c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]

   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.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 27:21

2. not comparableusuallyThe same; identical.

   The very man I wanted to see!

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   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.

   1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: selfsame, ilk, wicked

3. not comparableusuallyWith limiting effect: mere.

   The very idea/thought!

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   The very idea of climbing the ladder brings me out in a sweat.

   We have many examples in our daies, yea in very children, of such as for feare of some slight incommoditie have yeelded unto death.

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 40, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

   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.

   2004, Paul Campos, The Obesity Myth: Why America's Obsession with Weight is Hazardous to Your Health, Penguin, →ISBN

   Synonyms: bare, simple, only, alone, bare, just, mere, only

1. A surname, variant of Verey.