PERPETUAL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does perpetual mean? 

• PERPETUAL (adjective)
  The adjective PERPETUAL has 2 senses:

1. continuing forever or indefinitely

2. uninterrupted in time and indefinitely long continuing

  Familiarity information: PERPETUAL used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PERPETUAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Continuing forever or indefinitely

Synonyms:

aeonian; ageless; eonian; eternal; everlasting; perpetual; unceasing; unending

Context example:

the unending bliss of heaven

Similar:

lasting; permanent (continuing or enduring without marked change in status or condition or place)

Derivation:

perpetuity (the property of being perpetual (seemingly ceaseless))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Uninterrupted in time and indefinitely long continuing

Synonyms:

ceaseless; constant; incessant; never-ending; perpetual; unceasing; unremitting

Context example:

unremitting demands of hunger

Similar:

continuous; uninterrupted (continuing in time or space without interruption)

Derivation:

perpetuity (the property of being perpetual (seemingly ceaseless))

 Context examples 

Valrosa well deserved its name, for in that climate of perpetual summer roses blossomed everywhere.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“But why stronger?” he went on at once with his perpetual queries.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

She must have been a perpetual enemy.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

This strange phenomenon happens because the 'iron rain' planet only ever shows one face, its day side, to its parent star, its cooler night side remaining in perpetual darkness.

(ESO Telescope Observes Exoplanet Where It Rains Iron, ESO)

"To you, then, my goal is as much a chimera as perpetual motion?" he demanded.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

She rubs everything that can be rubbed, until it shines, like her own honest forehead, with perpetual friction.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He never had enough, and suffered from perpetual hunger pangs.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual smell of drink.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There, Margaret, the sun is for ever visible, its broad disk just skirting the horizon and diffusing a perpetual splendour.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

With its swirl of reddish hues, it’s 2-3 times as wide as Earth and is seen by many as a “perpetual hurricane,” with winds peaking at about 400 miles an hour.

(Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Likely a Massive Heat Source, NASA)