Definition of "whatever"

So may whatever tempest mars⁠Mid-ocean, spare thee, sacred bark;⁠And balmy drops in summer darkSlide from the bosom of the stars.

1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], canto XVII, page 28

Whatever utility the work may have outside of its stated boundaries will be largely because of such a nonprovincial approach.

1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, page viii

In an expression that reflects the pathos of a person without memory of a recent past, Milner quotes H.M. as saying, "Every day is alone in itself, whatever enjoyment I've had, and whatever sorrow I've had Right now, I'm wondering. Have I done or said anything amiss? That's what worries me. It's like waking from a dream; I just don't remember."

1997, Warren S. Brown, Nancey C. Murphy, H. Newton Malony, Whatever Happened to the Soul?:, page 115

Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky?He got an ice pickThat made his ears burn

1977, Hugh Cornwell, Jean-Jacques Burnel, Jet Black (lyrics and music), “No More Heroes”, in No More Heroes, performed by The Stranglers

And ſpight of Pride, and in thy Reaſon's ſpight, / One truth is clear; "Whatever Is, is Right."

1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], epistle I, London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], page 16, lines 280–281

The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.

2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist‎

There's a pile of stuff on that table; clippings, pamphlets, posters, whatever, that needs to be sorted and filed.

2021, Michael Kurland, Whatever the Cost

He is quite unconscious; and, though your presence is a relief to me, you must remember that there is no hope - no hope whatever.

1874, Dorothy Henrietta Boulger, True to her trust; or, 'Womanly past question', page 236

So then arose the horrible confusion perpetuated ever since, of perversely different kinds of weights, jostling each other in Britain; Troy weight and Avoirdupois weight and Apothecaries' weight, wherein or whereamongst every one is at sea with regard to testing them, and no one whatever is satisfied.

1864, Charles Piazzi Smyth, Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid, page 207

Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.

1910, Emerson Hough, “The Purchase Price”, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company

In the third place, the superelevation and alignment of the track, theoretically calculated for speeds of 70 to 75 m.p.h., was adequate for the 80 to 85 m.p.h. or so normally attained as maxima over the G.N. main line; but nothing whatever had been done to prepare it for the enormous increment over these figures that this run was to produce.

1941 June, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Maagazine, page 263

His repetitive toil is his life and reality, and it goes on forever, and it is without any meaning whatever.

1999, Louis P. Pojman, Life and Death: A Reader in Moral Problems, page 112

"It's not silk, it's muslin." "Whatever."

1991 January, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, page 66

All in all, I guess I shouldn't be complaining, but the rest of the show, imho, was very whatever-ish.

1996, Mathias, “Lake Placid Comments”, in rec.music.phish (Usenet)

She's like so whatever / You can do so much better

2007, Avril Lavigne (lyrics and music), “Girlfriend”, in The Best Damn Thing

How would you feel if you're a plant elf, and your daily bonus is tied to the number of whatevers you produce, and then this big clumsy thing barges in and knocks your rate back for the whole week?

2003, David Soubly, Santa, CEO, page 91

I think it's the HYDRA, the group of whatevers that rule the world, those elitists that laugh at us, joke about their environmentalist sheeples doing their bidding while they sip the best wine on the planet, ride around in private jets, […]

2011, Carol Ann Lindsay, The Planet of Comet Sense, page 55