fishingly en · ADV
Etymology
From fishing + -ly.
Meanings
-
(not-comparable) In a manner that suggests fishing, such as groping in search of something, or seeking compliments.
Monk enquired fishingly whether Presbytery, to which he was well inclined on the whole, might not be thought somewhat rigid.
1858, Macphail's Edinburgh ecclesiastical journal and literary review, page 285:But the pen-tongued and compulsive verbalizer / Goes fishingly groping for words
2012, Samuel Whittemore Fowler, Alive! Volume 2, page 96: