ever after

idiom

old-fashioned
: from that time forward
She remembered him fondly ever after.
The fairy tale ended by saying that the characters in the story lived happily ever after.
the phrase live happily ever after is also used to describe real people who are being compared in some way to characters in a fairy tale
His biography tells the story of a poor boy who grew up to be a millionaire and lived happily ever after.

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web There’s not really any character that has a happily ever after. Jordan Moreau, Variety, 7 May 2023 Placement with a different family frequently creates feelings of pain and dislocation; insisting that adoption must mean living happily ever after can compound that hurt. Emma Sarappo, The Atlantic, 10 Mar. 2023 So go ahead, follow your heart and ask the question that could lead to your happily ever after. Karla Pope, Good Housekeeping, 24 Jan. 2023 But she's set for her biggest year ever after starring opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, and Brendan Fraser in the new Martin Scorsese film Killers of the Flower Moon. Brendan Morrow, The Week, 5 Jan. 2023 Viewers will have to wait for season four to find out if Emily ever truly gets her happily ever after. Jasmine Washington, Seventeen, 4 Jan. 2023 Those words carried more weight than ever after weeks of reports that described Griner’s conditions as getting more and more dire. Paige Mcglauflin, Fortune, 9 Dec. 2022 How can young people have high hopes or sing about forever love and peace ever after when the world shows them none of these things? BostonGlobe.com, 14 Apr. 2023 Alas, Sylvia and her true love never got their happily ever after. Kristen Baldwin, EW.com, 9 Feb. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ever after.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Dictionary Entries Near ever after

Cite this Entry

“Ever after.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ever%20after. Accessed 30 May. 2023.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!