Dictionary

hotly en · ADV

Pronunciation

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Etymology

From Middle English *hotly, *hatliche, from Old English hātlīċe (“ardently, fervently”); equivalent to hot + -ly.

Meanings

1. With great amounts of heat.
2. In a heated manner; intensely or vehemently.
   • It is interesting that this argument should have come up at this moment," Mr. Smith adds, "when the subject is being debated so hotly in the field of the petrol-driven internal combustion engine." 1951 September, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 621:
   • "You are really intolerable!" said I, hotly. 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
   • The prospective staff redundancy that would ensue from adoption of the plan is, of course, one of the hotly controversial aspects of the proposals and the chief issue on which a three-day N.U.R. strike was threatened for May 14-16, a few days after this issue went to press. 1963 June, “News and Comment: The redundancy problem”, in Modern Railways, pages 362–363:
   • In my excitement I had not been taking notice of other things, and I looked up to see the lord of the harem charging down upon me. Again I fled to the boat, hotly pursued; but this time Maud made no suggestion of turning back. 1904, Jack London, chapter 30, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC:

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