slightingly

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English[edit]

WOTD – 9 January 2024

Etymology[edit]

From slighting (“in the manner of a slight, belittling, deprecative”, adjective) +‎ -ly (suffix forming adverbs).[1]

Pronunciation[edit]

Adverb[edit]

slightingly (comparative more slightingly, superlative most slightingly)

  1. (archaic) In a slighting manner; belittlingly, contemptuously.
    Synonyms: deprecatively, disdainfully, dismissively, disparagingly
    • 1741, [Samuel Richardson], “Tuesday Morning, the Sixth of My Happiness”, in Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded. […], 3rd edition, volume II, London: […] C[harles] Rivington, […]; and J. Osborn, […], →OCLC, page 291:
      Huſh, Siſter! Huſh! ſaid he: I vvill not bear to hear her ſpoken ſlightingly of! 'Tis enough, that to oblige your violent and indecent Caprice, you make me compromiſe vvith you thus.
    • 1791, James Boswell, “[1775]”, in The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. […], volume I, London: […] Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, […], →OCLC, page 515:
      After having talked ſlightingly of muſick, he vvas obſerved to liſten very attentively vvhile Miſs Thrale played on the harpſichord, […]
    • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter VII, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 62:
      "I am astonished, my dear," said Mrs. Bennet, "that you should be so ready to think your own children silly. If I wished to think slightingly of anybody's children, it should not be of my own however."
    • 1832, Edward Berens, “Letter X. English Reading.”, in Advice to a Young Man upon First Going to Oxford, […], London: […] [Gilbert & Rivington] for J. G. & F. Rivington, […], →OCLC, pages 145–146:
      In order to enter with more discrimination into the style of our different authors, read often "Blair's Lectures." They are, I believe, sometimes spoken slightingly of by men of learning; I, however, as an unlearned man, think them particularly useful.
    • 1880, John Nichol, “1821–1823. Pisa—Genoa—Don Juan.”, in John Morley, editor, Byron (English Men of Letters), London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 167:
      He [Lord Byron] is fond of gossip, and apt to speak slightingly of some of his friends, but is loyal to others.
    • 1899, Knut Hamsun, “Part III”, in George Egerton [pseudonym; Mary Chavelita Dunne Bright], transl., Hunger […], London: Leonard Smithers and Co […], →OCLC, page 161:
      In order to console myself—to indemnify myself in some measure—I take to picking all possible faults in the people who glide by. I shrug my shoulders contemptuously, and look slightingly at them according as they pass.
    • 1915, James Branch Cabell, chapter V, in The Rivet in Grandfather’s Neck […], New York, N.Y.: Robert M[edill] McBride & Company, →OCLC, page 104:
      The colonel touched upon the time when buzzards, in the guise of carpet-baggers, had battened upon the recumbent form; and spoke slightingly of divers persons of antiquity as compared with various Confederate leaders, whose names were greeted with approving nods and ripples of polite enthusiasm.

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

in a slighting manner — see contemptuously

References[edit]

  1. ^ “slightingly, adv.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “slightingly, adv.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=slightingly&oldid=77579249"