'For ever and a day' definitions:
Definition of 'For ever and a day'
From: GCIDE
- Ever \Ev"er\adv. [OE. ever, [ae]fre, AS. [ae]fre; perh. akin to AS. [=a] always. Cf. Aye, Age,Evry, Never.] [Sometimes contracted into e'er.]
- 1. At any time; at any period or point of time. [1913 Webster]
- No man ever yet hated his own flesh. --Eph. v. 29. [1913 Webster]
- 2. At all times; through all time; always; forever. [1913 Webster]
- He shall ever love, and always be The subject of by scorn and cruelty. --Dryder. [1913 Webster]
- 3. Without cessation; continually. [1913 Webster]
- Note: Ever is sometimes used as an intensive or a word of enforcement. "His the old man e'er a son?" --Shak. [1913 Webster]
- To produce as much as ever they can. --M. Arnold. [1913 Webster]
- Ever and anon, now and then; often. See under Anon.
- Ever is one, continually; constantly. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
- Ever so, in whatever degree; to whatever extent; -- used to intensify indefinitely the meaning of the associated adjective or adverb. See Never so, under Never. "Let him be ever so rich." --Emerson. [1913 Webster]
- And all the question (wrangle e'er so long), Is only this, if God has placed him wrong. --Pope. [1913 Webster]
- You spend ever so much money in entertaining your equals and betters. --Thackeray.
- For ever, eternally. See Forever.
- For ever and a day, emphatically forever. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
- She [Fortune] soon wheeled away, with scornful laughter, out of sight for ever and day. --Prof. Wilson.
- Or ever (for or ere), before. See Or, ere. [Archaic] [1913 Webster]
- Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio! --Shak. [1913 Webster]
- Note: Ever is sometimes joined to its adjective by a hyphen, but in most cases the hyphen is needless; as, ever memorable, ever watchful, ever burning. [1913 Webster]