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.

  • 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.
  • noun (Bot.) An evergreen plant.
  • noun Twigs and branches of evergreen plants used for decoration.

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Of a document or dataset, continually up-to-date (as opposed to being published at regular intervals and being slightly outdated in-between those publication dates)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