ever and anon

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English

Adverb

ever and anon (not comparable)

  1. (literary) Synonym of occasionally, now and then.
    • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 3, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 12:
      Ever and anon a bright, but, alas, deceptive idea would dart you through.
    • 1898, Kate Douglas Wiggin, chapter 6, in Penelope’s Progress , Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company , →OCLC:
      I could see Salemina at the far end of the table radiant with success, the W. S. at her side bending ever and anon to catch the (artificial) pearls of thought that dropped from her lips.
    • 1944 May and June, “When the Circle was Steam Operated”, in Railway Magazine, page 134:
      Ever and anon the guard's face could be dimly seen at his window, more like a ghost than a man; [...].
    • 1955, J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King, Book V, Chapter 1:
      Pippin never forgot that hour in the great hall under the piercing eye of the Lord of Gondor, stabbed ever and anon by his shrewd questions