adverb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
ever since (= all the time since )
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We’ve been friends ever since we were at school together.
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She’s been terrified of the sound of aircraft ever since the crash.
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We came to the UK in 1974 and have lived here ever since.
ever so slightly
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He leaned forward ever so slightly .
ever so British English
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They’re being ever so quiet.
hardly ever (= almost never )
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She lives in Spain, so we hardly ever see her.
have ever had the misfortune to do/of doing (= used for emphasizing how bad something is )
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He was the most arrogant man I'd ever had the misfortune of meeting.
Have you ever been to (= have you ever travelled to )
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Have you ever been to Japan?
lived happily ever after (= used at the end of children’s stories to say that someone was happy for the rest of their life )
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So she married the prince, and they lived happily ever after .
never ever (= used to emphasize what you are saying )
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I’ll never ever forgive him for leaving me.
sb will never know/no one will ever know
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Just take it. No one will ever know.
scarcely ever
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He scarcely ever left the region.
the best/greatest etc that/who ever lived (= the best, greatest etc who has been alive at any time )
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He’s probably the best journalist who ever lived.
why on earth/why ever etc (= used for emphasis when you are surprised, angry etc )
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Why on earth didn’t you ask me to help?
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‘I don’t want us to be seen together.’ ‘Why ever not?’
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ VERB
become
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But will these little companies ever become big?
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With computers becoming ever more common in the home, consumers are flocking to tax-preparation software.
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Only once or twice did he ever become aroused enough for them to make love.
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With so little money between us, I often worried about what would happen if he ever became ill.
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People seemed to become ever more critical even vicious.
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One by one, they drifted into slumber, becoming ever more difficult to rouse.
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In the age of mass communications, politics is becoming ever more marginal.
come
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And the biggest - the biggest godsend that ever came to Bass's in the maltings was the endless belt.
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The position, which still pertains, is as close as the Church has ever come to legitimizing family planning.
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Until now, he'd given up hope that such a burgeoning time would ever come again.
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How did we ever come to perceive body and mind as separate, nature as dead resource, and place as inconsequential?
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In life, the right man to love hardly ever comes at the right time for loving.
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Who has ever come to me hungry and unfed?
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It was like it fell into the greatest silence I have ever come across.
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It was the first time I had ever come out and said anything like that when the children could hear me.
feel
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She had hoped that after so long here nomole would ever feel the need to ask her.
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Nothing has ever felt so warm.
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I don't think I'd ever felt so taxed in my career.
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Story: Ever feel that your life is too busy to be time-managed by one person?
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Had she ever felt so brittle and so cold?
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Do you ever feel like you missed out on things?
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Have you ever felt as though you don't belong in either place?
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Afterwards I continue to argue for rugby, feeling ever more like the devil's advocate.
find
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I never thought I would ever find a woman who could mean as much.
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They could not find lasting zest and pleasure in their success and eventually had given up hope of ever finding it.
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Many people spend years detecting without ever finding Roman coins.
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Nobody, not even Mr Bumble, could ever find him there!
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I ever find any of them dead in bed?
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And no nomes will ever find you again.
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I have ever found your plain things the knottiest of all.
get
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Nobody's mother ever got it right.
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Probably because no one ever got around to starting one.
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Will the magazine ever get put together in time?
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Before I could ever get to my life, conscience was arranging it all like a still life or tableau.
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It loves jobs that no human would ever get round to -- or find time to finish.
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Did you ever get one stuck in you?
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He'd never ever got used to Rachel's being pregnant.
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DecentralizedHow can any large-scale project ever get anything done with only ten people?
happen
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Nothing like this had ever happened to her before, and she should have been afraid.
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It was Pete who said it was the best thing that ever happened .
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That kiss had been so bewildering, so utterly unlike anything that had ever happened to her in all her twenty-four years.
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If anything ever happened to her, she was all set.
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Thankfully, nothing like this has ever happened since.
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We could say our lives are boring, that nothing ever happens .
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But Dot had thought it wouldn't ever happen to their baby.
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A disclaimer at the start claims that none of the events depicted ever happened .
hear
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Have you ever heard Michael Wilson speak?
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Have you ever heard of the singer Shirley Horn?
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We are not aware that Macmillan had ever heard of Bethune-Baker.
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Later, I forgot or thought I forgot I ever heard such a thing.
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Have you ever heard of such an audit system?
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Even if you had the greatest of talents, no one would ever hear of you.
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The program re-created various historical events complete with conversations no one had ever heard .
know
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Mr. McMaster How will we ever know if those claims are not assessed?
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I wired it up with lipstick cameras, and nobody ever knew what hit them.
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I forgot everything I ever knew about standing up for myself and, without argument, I slunk meekly into the night.
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Who ever knows ? 25 Evidence Reminds me of those three monkeys.
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It was the only life we'd ever known .
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She was the sweetest person you ever knew .
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We won't ever know what might have been if the two had met.
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I believe a baby is born knowing all she will ever know, all that can be known.
live
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You have to understand that no one but my family had ever lived at Low Birk Hatt before I sold it.
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On a sunny Friday afternoon, the Open bid farewell to Nicklaus, to date the greatest golfer who has ever lived .
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The actual animals that have ever lived on Earth are a tiny subset of the theoretical animals that could exist.
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He has lived ever since on the ThaiBurma border, seeking to support and revive the democracy movement in his country.
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But it was the first time they had ever lived privately together.
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How would I ever live this down?
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Taking souvenir pictures neither of them would ever live to see.
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So for every man who has ever lived , in this Universe there shines a star.
make
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It was the first I had ever made , would you believe, and it was delicious!
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It is the greatest mistake I have ever made .
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It was the first time the family had ever made a trip together.
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Some of them are returned to normal prisons before they ever make the intensive group therapy regime.
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Well, no film was ever made that way.
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It was the best decision I have ever made in my life.
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What treaty that the white man ever made with us have they kept?
meet
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Sandoz fell asleep faster than anyone he'd ever met .
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If two men ever met , there would be an almighty, violent battle.
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She is the least self-conscious creature I have ever met .
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He was an extraordinary man, one of the most civilized and cultured men I have ever met .
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If you ever meet a Capricorn who truly this description, let me know.
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He was the grimmest man I ever met , in formation.
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He knew now how fully, as time had passed, he despaired he would ever meet it.
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He was an original, Mungo decided; one of the few he had ever met .
see
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Have you ever seen the effect of that?
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It was the first movie we ever saw alone without our parents.
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I had only ever seen them in a tank or on a slab and this was totally different.
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The Plot John Henry was born with a hammer in his hand and was the strongest baby anybody had ever seen .
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Thus would be decided whether or not C.N.L. should ever see the documents.
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Math books, unlike any you have ever seen before, flip open.
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Honor thought she was the most exquisite girl she had ever seen and her heart sank lower than ever.
think
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Never in my wildest dreams had I ever thought I would even go to Hollywood, let alone work with people like him.
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Who had ever thought the rice barrel could become an engineer?
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How can he ever think tiny people are real people with real thoughts?
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He would look at her and wonder why he had ever thought there was any purpose in daily life.
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From that day to this Adam had never set eyes on Mary Gage and had hardly ever thought of her.
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Who ever thinks about a first baby that way?
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Have you ever thought , ruefully, that far from raising an obedient child you've become an obedient parent?
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Not many people I know ever think of the Panhandle as a Florida golf destination.
want
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Everything I've loved, everything I've ever wanted in life you've taken away from me, so you have Natasha.
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But then I asked whether anyone had ever wanted to.
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That's all a soldier ever wants , isn't it, to know what he's dying for?
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These folks, Raymond, are the nicest folks you could ever want to meet.
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No-one has ever wanted to be sent to Coventry.
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The thing is, no one ever wants another one.
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Everything that she had ever wanted was coming true.
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All Bud ever wanted to do was to be loved and be respected.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
forever and ever
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And I want John to love me forever and ever.
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Bless the underground stream that gave the town its water, and pray that it flows forever and ever.
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He asked you for life, and you gave it to him - length of days forever and ever.
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Praised be the Lord who is to be praised forever and ever.
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She wanted it to go on forever and ever!
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The only way out is to be Dennis's lover forever and ever.
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To him be glory forever and ever.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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Ever optimistic, Jen gave him another chance.
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Have you ever been on a ship like this before?
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Have you ever bought any of their products?
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I don't remember ever seeing him before.
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I don't think I'll ever get used to that feeling of excitement before a show.
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If you're ever in Wilmington, give us a call.
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Nothing ever makes Ted mad.
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Stan, ever the leader, made all the decisions.
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That's the biggest fish I've ever seen.
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That was the biggest mistake I ever made.
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When he left, Bartlett didn't know if he'd ever see Alaska again.
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Within a few years of the two World Wars, the standard of living of Western European countries was higher than ever before.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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For many young people this is the most difficult problem that they have ever had to deal with in their lives.
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From a place on the shady side I watched the most forlorn spectacle I have ever seen.
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If you have ever read some of the match reports from games in the 60's you would appreciate his skill.
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In spite of a longer work day, employees were producing more than ever before.
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Scarcely anyone ever went near that closet.
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The sound of the door to the Robemaker's Workshops closing, was one of the worst sounds Nuadu had ever heard.
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There is no evidence that the rifling and thievery of the files ever occurred.