Adjective

(en-adj)

True, real, actual.

:

*Bible, (w) xxvii. 21

*:whether thou be my very son Esau or not

*(John Milton) (1608-1674)

*:The very essence of truth is plainness and brightness.

*(Edmund Burke) (1729-1797)

*:I looked on the consideration of public service or public ornament to be real and very justice.

*

*:Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.

*{{quote-news, year=2012, date=November 7, author=Matt Bai, title=Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds, work=New York Times citation

, passage=The country’s first black president, and its first president to reach adulthood after the Vietnam War and Watergate, Mr. Obama seemed like a digital-age leader who could at last dislodge the stalemate between those who clung to the government of the Great Society, on the one hand, and those who disdained the very idea of government, on the other.}}

The same; identical.

:

*

*:Molly the dairymaid came a little way from the rickyard, and said she would pluck the pigeon that very night after work. She was always ready to do anything for us boys; and we could never quite make out why they scolded her so for an idle hussy indoors. It seemed so unjust. Looking back, I recollect she had very beautiful brown eyes.

With limiting effect: mere.

*, I.40:

*:We have many examples in our daies, yea in very children, of such as for feare of some slight incommoditie have yeelded unto death.

Adjective

(en adjective)

Too implausible to be credible; beyond belief; unbelievable.

* 1980 September 16, (w), quoted in William A. Schwartz et al., The Nuclear Seduction: Why the Arms Race Doesn’t Matter—And What Does , University of California Press (1990, 1993), ISBN 0-520-06134-9, page 29:

I get lost in what is credible and not credible. This whole thing gets so incredible when you consider wiping out whole nations, it is difficult to establish credibility.

* 2009 , (Diarmaid MacCulloch), A History of Christianity , Penguin 2010, page 796:

He therefore found revealed religion incredible in a literal sense, and, as Bayle had done before him, he radically separated morality from the practice of organized religion.

Amazing; astonishing; awe-inspiring.

He was so wrapped up in watching the incredible special effects that he couldn't keep track of the story.

Marvelous; profoundly affecting; wonderful.

I had such an incredible slice of pizza last night that I simply can't think about anything else.