everlasting

everlasting adj Everlasting, endless, interminable, unceasing are comparable when they mean continuing on and on without end. Unlike infinite, eternal, and similar words (see INFINITE), these terms do not presuppose the absence of a beginning and therefore usually have reference only to continued extent or duration.

However, everlasting is often used interchangeably with eternal, differing from it only in placing more stress on the fact of enduring throughout time than on the quality of being independent of time or of all similar human limitations

{

the eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms— Deut 33:27

}

{

and these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal— Mt 25:46

}

Therefore, in serious use, everlasting, rather than eternal, is applied to material things or earthly conditions which endure, or seem to endure, forever

{

see Cromwell damned to everlasting fame— Pope

}

{

these mighty gates of everlasting rock-De Quincey

}

{

each man dreamed of a square meal, new boots, a full powder horn, an end to the everlasting shortages— Mason

}

In lighter use the word is little more than a hyperbolic term expressing loss of patience or extreme boredom and more often applying to recurrence than to duration or extent

{

these everlasting headaches

}

{

his everlasting stupidity

}

Endless is applicable not only to things which continue in time but also in extent; the word is used especially when a circular form or construction is implied

{

endless belt

}

or it may imply no known or apparent or determinable end

{

an endless chain of letters

}

{

an endless road through the mountains

}

{

there has been endless discussion whether we have a distinct faculty for the knowledge of God— Inge

}

{

endless masses of hills on three sides, endless weald or valley on the fourth— Jefferies

}

Interminable is somewhat uncommon in its sense of having no end or incapable of being brought to an end or termination

{

the forest trees above were wild with the wind, but the interminable thickets below were never stirred— Trollope

}

More often it applies to something so extended or prolonged or protracted that it is exceedingly wearisome or exhausts one's patience

{

the weeks were interminable, and papa and mamma were clean forgotten— Kipling

}

{

spleen, chagrin, . . . discontent, misanthropy, and all their interminable train of fretfulness, querulousness, suspicions, jealousies— Peacock

}

Unceasing, like interminable, suggests undue prolonging or protracting, but it emphasizes the extraordinary capacity for going on and on rather than the psychological effect produced (usually on others) by long-continuing activity or continual recurrence

{

unceasing effort

}

{

Jules de Goncourt . . . died from the mental exhaustion of his unceasing struggle to attain an objective style adequate to express the subtle texture of the world as he saw it— Ellis

}

Analogous words: eternal, boundless, infinite: *lasting, perdurable, perpetual: immortal, deathless, undying

Antonyms: transitory

Contrasted words: *transient, passing, fleeting, fugitive, ephemeral, evanescent, momentary, short-lived