Contextualizebeta

terribly

adv
/ˈtɛɹ.ɪ.bli/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English terribli. By surface analysis, terrible + -ly.

  1. inherited from terribli

Definitions

  1. So as to cause terror or awe.

    • The lion roared terribly.
    • The mere sensuous impact of trumpet or saxophone, whatever it happened to be playing, was an echo, even though a faint echo, of that excitement and abandon. He wanted to taste, smell, hear: his senses were terribly alive.

  2. Very

    Very; extremely.

    • He's terribly busy and you really shouldn't bother him.
    • The parsnip, stilton and chestnut combination may taste good, but it's not terribly decorative. In fact, dull's the word, a lingering adjectival ghost of nut roasts past that I'm keen to banish from the table.

  3. Very badly.

    • She took part in the karaoke, but sang terribly.
    • “A joyride gone terribly wrong,” Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor said during a news conference in Steilacoom, which is about 3 miles from the island.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at terribly. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01terribly02terror03terribleness04terrible05dreadful06dreadfully

A definitional loop anchored at terribly. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

6 hops · closes at terribly

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA