Very \Ver"y\, a. [Compar. Verier; superl. Veriest.]

[OE. verai, verray, OF. verai, vrai, F. vrai, (assumed) LL. veracus, for L. verax true, veracious, fr. verus true; akin to OHG. & OS. w[=a]r, G. wahr, D. waar; perhaps originally, that is or exists, and akin to E. was. Cf. Aver, v. t., Veracious, Verdict, Verity.]

True; real; actual; veritable.

Whether thou be my very son Esau or not. --Gen. xxvii. 21.

He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends. --Prov. xvii. 9.

The very essence of truth is plainness and brightness. --Milton.

I looked on the consideration of public service or public ornament to be real and very justice. --Burke.

Note: Very is sometimes used to make the word with which it is connected emphatic, and may then be paraphrased by same, self-same, itself, and the like. ``The very hand, the very words.'' --Shak. ``The very rats instinctively have quit it.'' --Shak. ``Yea, there where very desolation dwells.'' --Milton. Very is used occasionally in the comparative degree, and more frequently in the superlative. ``Was not my lord the verier wag of the two?'' --Shak. ``The veriest hermit in the nation.'' --Pope. ``He had spoken the very truth, and transformed it into the veriest falsehood.'' --Hawthorne.

Very Reverend. See the Note under Reverend.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Very \Ver"y\, adv. In a high degree; to no small extent; exceedingly; excessively; extremely; as, a very great mountain; a very bright sum; a very cold day; the river flows very rapidly; he was very much hurt.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Very's \Ver"y's\, or Very \Ver"y\, night signals \night signals\ . [After Lieut. Samuel W. Very, who invented the system in 1877.]

(Naut.) A system of signaling in which balls of red and green fire are fired from a pistol, the arrangement in groups denoting numbers having a code significance.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)