‘The Prime Minister has never been one to let a past friendship get in the way of making a new ally.’
‘His putt never troubles the hole and it slips a few feet past for another difficult putt.’
‘He certainly would never have got permission for a hotel, or even a six bedroom house.’
‘Though never a love match, by then her affection had grown for the man two years her senior.’
not at all, certainly not, not for a moment, not in any circumstances, not under any circumstances, in no circumstances, under no circumstances, on no account
2.1British informal as exclamation(expressing surprise) surely not.
‘What, you, Annabel? Never!’
‘What me? Never!’
Phrases
well I never! informal
Expressing great surprise or indignation.
‘Well I never—that's not like you!’
‘There was the mother in her alpine attire staring rigidly ahead muttering ‘well I never!’’
never a one
Not one.
‘there are no paintings, never a one’
‘Never did a sheep wander away, never a one was attacked by wolves, never a one lost in foul weather.’
‘Through friends and family I have heard many stories of Holly with never a one being bad.’
‘For all that, there's never a one of the fine fellows a word of his wouldn't send scuttling into the nearest rat-hole.’
‘And never a one of the fifty to sneer at a rival bride.’
‘I have had scores of amateur photographers on the Craigs, including many meenisters, and most of them have taken my likeness and promised to send me a copy, but never a one has reached me.’
‘The Dorset dialect jingle asks for a husband, and finishes by hoping for a good one, but anyone better than never a one.’
‘On, and on, and on the examples go, never a weak moment, never a lost sentence, never a word out of place - and never a one of those words mattering in the least, never a one of them aimed at any purpose but their own light comedy, never a one of them anything but wasted.’
‘There lived a King and Queen, who lamented day by day that they had no children, and yet never a one was born’
‘I asked her whether she would have a new one or an old one; she said, a second-hand one; I told her we had never a one; but my mother called out and said, we have a second-hand cotton one.’
Origin
Old English nǣfre, from ne ‘not’ + ǣfre ‘ever’.
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