poisonously en · ADV
Etymology
Etymology tree English poisonous Middle English -ly English -ly English poisonously From poisonous + -ly.
Meanings
-
In a poisonous manner.
To Edward […] he was terrible, nerve-inflaming, poisonously asphyxiating. He sat rocking himself in the late Mr. Churchill's swing chair, smoking and twaddling.
1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:c. 1900, Thomas Edison, quotation The x-ray had affected poisonously my assistant, Mr. Dally.
- (obsolete) Using poison.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| most poisonously | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| more poisonously | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic |