Whatever \What*ev"er\, pron. Anything soever which; the thing or things of any kind; being this or that; of one nature or another; one thing or another; anything that may be; all that; the whole that; all particulars that; -- used both substantively and adjectively.

Whatever fortune stays from his word. --Shak.

Whatever Earth, all-bearing mother, yields. --Milton.

Whatever be its intrinsic value. --J. H. Newman.

Note: Whatever often follows a noun, being used elliptically. ``There being no room for any physical discovery whatever'' [sc. it may be]. --Whately.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)