softly
adv/ˈsɔftli/US/ˈsɑftli//ˈsɒftli/UK
Etymology
From Middle English softely, softeliche, equivalent to soft + -ly.
- inherited from softely
Definitions
In a soft manner
In a soft manner; gently.
- The masseuse was rubbing my back too softly for my liking, so I asked her to go harder.
- He had married a lady well educated and softly nurtured, but not dowered with worldly wealth. […] They would give up ideas of gentle living, of soft raiment, and delicate feeding.
Not loudly
Not loudly; nearly inaudibly.
- whisper softly in someone's ear
- play music softly
With subdued color
With subdued color; faded or misty with distance.
- And they sat very still, the two of them, and looked out over that great, beautiful desert—away to the home mesa that they could see, softly blue, in the distance.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for softly. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA