nary

Etymology

Variant form of ne'er a.

adv

1. Not, never.
   Every day, uncomplaining, this ten-ounce muscle contracts 100 thousand times nary “missing a beat.” Over a lifetime of faithful service, these two self-lubricating, self-regulating, high-capacity pumps beat two and one-half billion times […] 2014, Richard Swenson, More Than Meets the Eye: Fascinating Glimpses of God's Power and Design, Tyndale House
   And all about the room, candles gleaming in branched sconces. Nary one glare of electric light. 1923, Photoplay: The Aristocrat of Motion Picture Magazines
   Then, it took her nary ten minutes to diagnose me with adrenal fatigue 2014, Lori Gertz, When Mama Can't Kiss it Better, A journey of love, loss and acceptance
   Nary three weeks before, on December 12, Officer Cherylann Young steered a marked Miami-Dade County police cruiser toward the perimeter of MIA, the international airport. 2018, Antero Pietila, The Ghosts of Johns Hopkins: The Life and Legacy that Shaped an American City
   Mr. Hat: 'GOLDARMOR, THERE YOU ARE! I WAS THINKING... I'VE FOUGHT SCADS OF FOES, YET NARY A HAT IS WITHIN A GRASP!' 2019 December 10, Yacht Club Games, "Story" (Mr. Hat), in Shovel Knight Showdown (version 4.1), Nintendo Switch

adj

1. Not any.
   We'uns wuz willin't fout fur ole Tennessee, but for nary other State. When he started out o' Tennessee we'uns jest concluded t' strike out and leave him. 1910, John McElroy, Si Klegg: Experiences of Si and Shorty on the Great Tullahoma Campaign, page 109
   I'm cheered you liked [“The Partridge Festival”] but I must have it back as I have nary other copy. If you really want to read somebody, read Proust for pity's sake. 1961 March 20, Flannery O'Connor, letter to Maryat Lee, [ublished in 1988, The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
   Together standing on the step outside the apartment house. Where nary a moth will ever come to smash its little dust on a Bonniface window pane. 1963, J P Donleavy, A Singular Man, published 1963 (USA), page 286
   "Pish, and who cares for nary other?" Mrs. Bostwick cried out, tossing Etta's hand away from her. "I do, for one," said Etta tartly. 2010, Dorothy McCleary, Not for Heaven, Wildside Press LLC, page 289