Dictionary

grinningly en · ADV

Etymology

From grinning + -ly.

Meanings

1. With a grin.
   • It’s very funny — Bob is played by Bill Murray at his most unhinged, the psychiatrist by Richard Dreyfuss at his most grinningly uptight — but it’s a little creepy too. 2009 July 19, Terrence Rafferty, “On the Screen, the Shrink Has Shrunk”, in New York Times:
   • Squeaker's dog sniffed and barked joyfully around them till his licking efforts to bottom a salmon tin sent him careering in a muzzled frenzy, that caused the younger woman's thick lips to part grinningly till he came too close. 1902, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Bush Studies (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 21:
   • But EastEnders has also just been blessed by the appearance of Walford Community Church. A group of intrepid church planters apparently sent from the planet Throg are meeting in Albert Square. Unfortunately they really do put the old cringometer in the red: a grinningly picture-perfect group in continuous ecstasy, they listen to the preacher with a rapt attention unknown in the history of Christianity. 2001, Jeff Lucas, “Revival in Walford”, in Lucas on Life, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire: Authentic Lifestyle, published 2003, →ISBN, page 31:

Forms