VERY WELL

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does very well mean? 

• VERY WELL (adverb)
  The adverb VERY WELL has 2 senses:

1. quite well

2. an expression of agreement normally occurring at the beginning of a sentence

  Familiarity information: VERY WELL used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VERY WELL (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Quite well

Synonyms:

first-rate; very well

Context example:

she doesn't feel first-rate today

Sense 2

Meaning:

An expression of agreement normally occurring at the beginning of a sentence

Synonyms:

all right; alright; fine; OK; very well

 Context examples 

“He had better not be in a hurry. He seemed to me very well off as he was. We were always glad to see him at Hartfield.”

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

From that night there grew up in my breast a feeling for Peggotty which I cannot very well define.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He saw very well that he could not escape death.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

It might do very well; she believed she should accept him; and she began accordingly to interest herself a little about the horse which he had to run at the B— races.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I understood that language very well, and getting upon my feet, said, “I was a poor Yahoo banished from the Houyhnhnms, and desired they would please to let me depart.”

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

Fame was all very well, but it was for Ruth that his splendid dream arose.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

If your relationship is strong, it will fare very well under your very positive aspects in February.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

It's been very well studied, but not much is known about its cellular function.

(Researchers Zero-In on Cholesterol's Role in Cells, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

I am fond of history—and am very well contented to take the false with the true.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

No, no; Henrietta might do worse than marry Charles Hayter; and if she has him, and Louisa can get Captain Wentworth, I shall be very well satisfied.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)