Dictionary

delayingly en · ADV

Etymology

From delaying + -ly.

Meanings

1. So as to delay.
   • The mother glanced round at the bed, and said, glad to occupy herself delayingly with the minor care: “Why, you have been sitting up all night! You will kill yourself.” 1885, William Dean Howells, chapter VII, in The Rise of Silas Lapham:
   • He was unpacking too, though as coyly and delayingly as he had undressed that day at the Highgate Ponds. 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 11, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN:
   • And Annie could have wept for pity of him; And yet she held him on delayingly With many a scarce-believable excuse, Trying his truth and his long-sufferance, Till half-another year had slipt away. 1864, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Enoch Arden:

Forms