Synonyms for never
- at no time
- don't hold your breath
- forget it
- nevermore
- no way
- not at all
- not ever
- not in any way
- not in the least
- not on your life
- not under any condition
Antonyms for never
EXAMPLES FROM THE WEB FOR NEVER
Yet the great lady is not careless of engagements, and the wait is never prolonged.
He has clothed the Graces, though the Graces never clothed him.
He never ceased to feel cheated when he was obliged to ride in New York.
Besides, I never felt contempt for anything to which the gods had given life.
They were never allowed to learn any liberal art, or to sing manly songs.
I have never seen the soul withdrawn without a struggle with the body.
It was motionless as marble; but never had she seen anything so beautiful, and so unearthly.
A foreign stain floated on the surface, but never mingled with its waters.
But believe me, Eudora, Alcibiades will never divorce Hipparete.
"I never saw a philosopher that dressed so well as Plato," said Eudora.
WORD ORIGIN
Old English næfre "never," compound of ne "not, no" (from PIE root *ne- "no, not;" see un-) + æfre "ever" (see ever). Early used as an emphatic form of not (as still in never mind). Old English, unlike its modern descendant, had the useful custom of attaching ne to words to create their negatives, as in nabban for na habban "not to have."
Italian giammai, French jamais, Spanish jamas are from Latin iam "already" + magis "more;" thus literally "at any time, ever," originally with a negative, but this has been so thoroughly absorbed in sense as to be formally omitted.
Phrase never say die "don't despair" is from 1818. Never Never Land is first attested in Australia as a name for the uninhabited northern part of Queensland (1884), perhaps so called because anyone who had gone there once never wished to return. Meaning "imaginary, illusory or utopian place" first attested 1900 in American English.