whatever

Etymology

From Middle English whatever; equivalent to what + ever.

det

1. (interrogative) What ever; emphatic form of 'what'.
   Good heavens! Whatever time is it?!
2. Regardless of the ... that; for any ... that.
   Whatever choice you make, there will be consequences.
   I will stick with you, whatever fate befalls us.
3. Any ... that; of no matter what type or kind that.
   Whatever doubts I had were quickly dispelled.
   Write down whatever thoughts come into your mind.
   In an expression that reflects the pathos of a person without memory of a recent past, Milner quotes H.M. as saying, "Every day is alone in itself, whatever enjoyment I've had, and whatever sorrow I've had Right now, I'm wondering. Have I done or said anything amiss? That's what worries me. It's like waking from a dream; I just don't remember." 1997, Warren S. Brown, Nancey C. Murphy, H. Newton Malony, Whatever Happened to the Soul?:, page 115
4. Any; of no matter what type or kind.
   I must obtain it at whatever cost.

pron

1. (interrogative) What ever; emphasised form of 'what', used to ask which thing, event, circumstance, etc.
   Whatever do you mean?
   Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky? He got an ice pick That made his ears burn 1977, Hugh Cornwell, Jean-Jacques Burnel, Jet Black (lyrics and music), “No More Heroes”, in No More Heroes, performed by The Stranglers
2. Regardless of anything that.
   Whatever he does, he will still lose the game.
   Whatever happens, stay calm.
3. (fused relative) Anything that; all that.
   Do whatever works.
   I’ll do whatever I can.
   The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight. 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist
4. (informal) Anything; thing(s) of unspecified kind, or no matter what kind; sometimes used to indicate that the speaker does not care about options.
   I don't need any of this stuff, so take whatever.
   There's a pile of stuff on that table; clippings, pamphlets, posters, whatever, that needs to be sorted and filed. 2021, Michael Kurland, Whatever the Cost

adv

1. (with negative) At all; in any way; whatsoever.
   There is no point whatever in going on with this discussion.
   He is quite unconscious; and, though your presence is a relief to me, you must remember that there is no hope - no hope whatever. 1874, Dorothy Henrietta Boulger, True to her trust; or, 'Womanly past question', page 236
   So then arose the horrible confusion perpetuated ever since, of perversely different kinds of weights, jostling each other in Britain; Troy weight and Avoirdupois weight and Apothecaries' weight, wherein or whereamongst every one is at sea with regard to testing them, and no one whatever is satisfied. 1864, Charles Piazzi Smyth, Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid, page 207
   In the third place, the superelevation and alignment of the track, theoretically calculated for speeds of 70 to 75 m.p.h., was adequate for the 80 to 85 m.p.h. or so normally attained as maxima over the G.N. main line; but nothing whatever had been done to prepare it for the enormous increment over these figures that this run was to produce. 1941 June, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Maagazine, page 263
   His repetitive toil is his life and reality, and it goes on forever, and it is without any meaning whatever. 1999, Louis P. Pojman, Life and Death: A Reader in Moral Problems, page 112
2. (interrogative) In what way; to what extent.
   Whatever does it matter now?

intj

1. (colloquial) A holophrastic expression used to dismiss something that the speaker doesn't care about, doesn't think important, or doesn't want to consider or discuss any further.
   So you don't like Mrs Jones. Whatever. What's that got to do with my question?
   I wonder which I'm supposed to take ... whatever, I'll just pick any one.
   Go brush your teeth. – Whatever!
   "It's not silk, it's muslin." "Whatever." Jan 1991, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, page 66

adj

1. (colloquial) Unexceptional or unimportant; blah.
   All in all, I guess I shouldn't be complaining, but the rest of the show, imho, was very whatever-ish. 1996, Mathias, “Lake Placid Comments”, in rec.music.phish (Usenet)
   She's like so whatever / You can do so much better 2007, Avril Lavigne (lyrics and music), “Girlfriend”, in The Best Damn Thing

noun

1. (colloquial) Something whose exact kind or nature is unimportant; a thingy.
   How would you feel if you're a plant elf, and your daily bonus is tied to the number of whatevers you produce, and then this big clumsy thing barges in and knocks your rate back for the whole week? 2003, David Soubly, Santa, CEO, page 91
   I think it's the HYDRA, the group of whatevers that rule the world, those elitists that laugh at us, joke about their environmentalist sheeples doing their bidding while they sip the best wine on the planet, ride around in private jets, […] 2011, Carol Ann Lindsay, The Planet of Comet Sense, page 55