Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having foliage that persists and remains green throughout the year.
  • adjective Perennially fresh or interesting; enduring.
  • adjective Automatically renewed or repeatedly made valid.
  • noun A tree, shrub, or plant having foliage that persists and remains green throughout the year.
  • noun Twigs or branches of evergreen plants used as decoration.
  • noun Something that remains perennially fresh, interesting, or well liked.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Always green; verdant throughout the year; sempervirid: as, the pine is an evergreen tree.
  • noun A plant that retains its verdure through all the seasons, as the pine and other coniferous trees, the holly, laurel, holm-oak, ivy, rhododendron, and many others.
  • noun A woolen material similar to cassimere: a term in use about 1850.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) An evergreen plant.
  • noun Twigs and branches of evergreen plants used for decoration.
  • adjective (Bot.) Remaining unwithered through the winter, or retaining unwithered leaves until the leaves of the next year are expanded, as pines cedars, hemlocks, and the like.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of plants, especially trees, that do not shed their leaves seasonally.
  • adjective Continually fresh or self-renewing; often used metaphorically.
  • adjective Of a document or dataset, continually up-to-date (as opposed to being published at regular intervals and being slightly outdated in-between those publication dates)
  • adjective broadcasting Suitable for transmission at any time; not urgent or time-dependent.
  • noun A tree or shrub that does not shed its leaves or needles seasonally.
  • noun informal More specifically, a conifer tree.
  • noun colloquial A news story that can be published or broadcast at any time.
  • verb patents, pharmaceuticals To extend the term of a patent beyond the normal legal limit, usually through repeated small modifications.
  • verb banking To set the repayment rate of a loan at or below the interest rate, so low that the principal will never be repaid.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective (of plants and shrubs) bearing foliage throughout the year
  • noun a plant having foliage that persists and remains green throughout the year

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From ever +‎ green

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Examples

  • Also, not to rag on the religious anymore than I already have, the evergreen is a symbol of the pagan festivities so charitably replaced by the birth of Jesus. stuf64

    Christmas Ornaments Goes Digital 2009

  • Many of their tents were decorated on the outside with wreaths, festoons, corps badges wrought in evergreen, and many other beautiful designs.

    At Gettysburg, or, What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle: A True Narrative 1889

  • The contract being negotiated would be effective through September of 2010, and would be, like the current contract, "evergreen" - meaning, unless specific action is taken to terminate Fletcher's employment, his position is renewed for another year.

    Aspen Times - Top Stories 2009

  • The contract being negotiated would be effective through September of 2010, and would be, like the current contract, "evergreen" - meaning, unless specific action is taken to terminate Fletcher's employment, his position is renewed for another year.

    Aspen Times - Top Stories 2009

  • The contract being negotiated would be effective through September of 2010, and would be, like the current contract, "evergreen" - meaning, unless specific action is taken to terminate Fletcher's employment, his position is renewed for another year.

    Aspen Times - Top Stories 2009

  • The contract being negotiated would be effective through September of 2010, and would be, like the current contract, "evergreen" - meaning, unless specific action is taken to terminate Fletcher's employment, his position is renewed for another year.

    Aspen Times - Top Stories 2009

  • The contract being negotiated would be effective through September of 2010, and would be, like the current contract, "evergreen" - meaning, unless specific action is taken to terminate Fletcher's employment, his position is renewed for another year.

    Aspen Times - Top Stories 2009

  • The contract being negotiated would be effective through September of 2010, and would be, like the current contract, "evergreen" - meaning, unless specific action is taken to terminate Fletcher's employment, his position is renewed for another year.

    Aspen Times - Top Stories 2009

  • The contract being negotiated would be effective through September of 2010, and would be, like the current contract, "evergreen" - meaning, unless specific action is taken to terminate Fletcher's employment, his position is renewed for another year.

    Aspen Times - Top Stories 2009

  • Interaction designers would do well to identify work that's "evergreen" - work that can be done any time, but that buys time to do design and design validation work.

    Usabilidoido [ feed completo ] 2008

Comments

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  • If green is verdant, what's evergreen?

    January 2, 2007

  • Hillary Clinton's Secret Service code name...

    November 15, 2008

  • "Garden centres are full of miniature narcissi, crocuses, primroses, pansies, young grasses and evergreens."

    - Val Bourne, The 10-minute gardener, telegraph.co.uk, 13 March 2009.

    They have plants as well.

    March 14, 2009