ever so
advUK /ˈɛvə ˌsəʊ/ · US /ˈɛvəɹ ˌsoʊ/
1
Very, extremely.
- ever so slightly ― by a very small amount
- Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.1823, John Howard Payne, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
2 more examples
- He was five feet six, I should judge, and had his grip on the handle–end of ever so many millions.1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I:
- How bad is Voldemort? Ever so bad!2002: S. K. Elkins (poster on Harry Potter for Grownups Yahoogroup), re: Draco Malfoy Is Ever So Lame. Yet Sympathetic. And Dead, Too (read at http://elkins.theennead.com/hp/archives/000109.html on 13 May 2006)
2
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see ever, so.
- Were ironic quotation marks ever so deserved?2003, Peter Lee, Halcyon days: How to lose a war in a week: