EVERLASTING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does everlasting mean? 

• EVERLASTING (noun)
  The noun EVERLASTING has 1 sense:

1. any of various plants of various genera of the family Compositae having flowers that can be dried without loss of form or color

  Familiarity information: EVERLASTING used as a noun is very rare.

• EVERLASTING (adjective)
  The adjective EVERLASTING has 2 senses:

1. continuing forever or indefinitely

2. without qualification; used informally as (often pejorative) intensifiers

  Familiarity information: EVERLASTING used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EVERLASTING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of various plants of various genera of the family Compositae having flowers that can be dried without loss of form or color

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

everlasting; everlasting flower

Hypernyms ("everlasting" is a kind of...):

composite; composite plant (considered the most highly evolved dicotyledonous plants, characterized by florets arranged in dense heads that resemble single flowers)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "everlasting"):

Acroclinium roseum; pink-and-white everlasting; pink paper daisy (flower of southwestern Australia having bright pink daisylike papery flowers; grown for drying)

Anaphalis margaritacea; cottonweed; pearly everlasting (an American everlasting having foliage with soft wooly hairs and corymbose heads with pearly white bracts)

cudweed (any of numerous plants of the genus Gnaphalium having flowers that can be dried without loss of form or color)

golden everlasting; Helichrysum bracteatum; strawflower; yellow paper daisy (Australian plant naturalized in Spain having flowers of lemon yellow to deep gold; the frequent choice of those who love dried flowers)

strawflower (any of various plants of the genus Helipterum)

cascade everlasting; Helichrysum secundiflorum; Ozothamnus secundiflorus (shrub with white woolly branches and woolly leaves having fragrant flowers forming long sprays; flowers suitable for drying; sometimes placed in genus Helichrysum)

Helipterum manglesii; rhodanthe; Rhodanthe manglesii; Swan River everlasting (Australian annual everlasting having light pink nodding flower heads; sometimes placed in genus Helipterum)

immortelle; Xeranthemum annuum (mostly widely cultivated species of everlasting flowers having usually purple flowers; southern Europe to Iran; naturalized elsewhere)

Holonyms ("everlasting" is a member of...):

aster family; Asteraceae; Compositae; family Asteraceae; family Compositae (plants with heads composed of many florets: aster; daisy; dandelion; goldenrod; marigold; lettuces; ragweed; sunflower; thistle; zinnia)

• EVERLASTING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Continuing forever or indefinitely

Synonyms:

aeonian; ageless; eonian; eternal; everlasting; perpetual; unceasing; unending

Context example:

the unending bliss of heaven

Similar:

lasting; permanent (continuing or enduring without marked change in status or condition or place)

Derivation:

everlastingness (the property of lasting forever)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Without qualification; used informally as (often pejorative) intensifiers

Synonyms:

arrant; complete; consummate; double-dyed; everlasting; gross; perfect; pure; sodding; staring; stark; thorough; thoroughgoing; unadulterated; utter

Context example:

the unadulterated truth

Similar:

unmitigated (not diminished or moderated in intensity or severity; sometimes used as an intensifier)

 Context examples 

Follow me; I seek the everlasting ices of the north, where you will feel the misery of cold and frost, to which I am impassive.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

"Not that I bother my head about their everlasting discussions," he said at the end of a block.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Wolf Larsen was on the poop, smoking his everlasting cigar.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

They seemed to get clearer views of life and duty up there among the everlasting hills.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

God saw the look that she turned on me as she spoke, and if there be indeed a Recording Angel that look is noted to her everlasting honour.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Neither Lady Middleton nor Mrs. Jennings could supply to her the conversation she missed; although the latter was an everlasting talker, and from the first had regarded her with a kindness which ensured her a large share of her discourse.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

But I was soon better informed, to my everlasting mortification; for the horse, beckoning to me with his head, and repeating the hhuun, hhuun, as he did upon the road, which I understood was to attend him, led me out into a kind of court, where was another building, at some distance from the house.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

No; from that moment I declared everlasting war against the species, and more than all, against him who had formed me and sent me forth to this insupportable misery.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

But saints in slime—ah, that was the everlasting wonder!

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

"Mother says I may when I'm eighteen perhaps, but two years is an everlasting time to wait."

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)