Dictionary

complainingly en · ADV

Etymology

From complaining + -ly.

Meanings

1. In a complaining manner; peevishly.
   • Tucking into rissoles of rice, bacon, and potatoes served up on fried bread, he said complainingly, "By ginger, Mudgy, you do go off the handle over nothing. I tell you straight, I was damned annoyed with you this afternoon, going pop like that at a man over nothing." 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 93:
   • A voice answered from within: "tell him I cannot see anyone," it said, complainingly. 1886, Robert Louis Stephenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde:

Forms