Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
1.
Never means at no time in the past or at no time in the future.
I have ~ lost the weight I put on in my teens...
Never had he been so free of worry...
That was a mistake. We’ll ~ do it again...
Never say that. Never, do you hear?...
He was ~ really healthy...
This is ~ to happen again.
ADV: ADV before v, ADV group/to-inf
2.
Never means ‘not in any circumstances at all’.
I would ~ do anything to hurt him...
Even if you are desperate to get married, ~ let it show...
Divorce is ~ easy for children...
The golden rule is ~ to clean a valuable coin.
ADV: ADV before v, ADV group/to-inf
3.
Never ever is an emphatic way of saying ‘~’.
I ~, ever sit around thinking, ‘What shall I do next?’...
He’s vowed ~ ever to talk about anything personal in public, ever again.
PHRASE: PHR before v, be PHR group emphasis
4.
Never is used to refer to the past and means ‘not’.
He ~ achieved anything...
He waited until all the luggage was cleared, but Paula’s ~ appeared...
I ~ knew the lad...
I’d ~ have dreamt of doing such a thing.
ADV
5.
You say ‘~!’ to indicate how surprised or shocked you are by something that someone has just said. (SPOKEN)
EXCLAM feelings
6.
You say ‘Well, I ~’ to indicate that you are very surprised about something that you have just seen or found out. (OLD-FASHIONED, SPOKEN)
‘What were you up to there?’—‘I was head of the information department.’—‘Well I ~!’
EXCLAM feelings
7.
If you say that something will ~ do or would ~ do, you are saying, often humorously, that you think it is not appropriate or not suitable in some way.
It would ~ do to have Henry there in her apartment...
I don’t think it is an example of bad writing myself, otherwise I’d be agreeing with Leavis, and that would ~ do.
PHRASE: oft it PHR to-inf
8.
~ mind: see mind