soever, adv.
(səʊˈɛvə(r))
Also poet. soe'er.
[See so adv. and ever adv. 8 e.]
† 1. Whenever. Obs.—1
| 1517 R. Torkington Pilgr. (1884) 27 And so ever ony Sarazin comyth by that Sepulcre he cast a stonne ther att. |
2. Used with generalizing or emphatic force after words or phrases preceded by how, what, which, whose, etc. (Cf. howsoever, etc.)
| 1557 North Gueuara's Diall Pr. iv. xix. (1568) 170 How great a frend..so euer hee bee to them. 1580 Campion in Allen Martyrdom (1908) 23 The feare of what punishment temporal soever. 1595 Shakes. John iv. iii. 91 Whose tongue so ere speakes false. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. (1637) 569 How great, or how faire soever it hath been. 1671 Milton Samson 1015 Which way soever men refer it. 1701 Swift Contests Nobles & Comm. v, I conceive it far below the Dignity..of human Nature..to be engaged in any Party, the most plausible soever, upon such servile Conditions. 1779 Mirror No. 24 What pencil, how animated soever, can equal the glories of the sky at sun-set? 1835 J. H. Newman Par. Serm. (1837) I. 267 To all who are perplexed in any way soever. 1885 R. Bridges Eros & Psyche Aug. xxvii, By which law all things soe'er Are..held. |