Dictionary

posily en · ADV

Etymology

From posey + -ly.

Meanings

1. (colloquial) In an ostentatious and pretentious manner.
   • The men keep staring posily out at the audience like disaffected male models; the male-female partner work is jarringly manipulative; the recurrent emphasis on multiple turns, multiple jumps, balances on point, is mere flash. 2008 June 13, Alastair Macaulay, “The Cross-Country Currents in American Ballet”, in New York Times:
   • The waiter posily slops a bit of wine into my glass, and I go through the cringe-making ritual of snorting into it and tasting a bit and saying fine, fine. 2003, Kate Cann, Hard Cash, page 140:

Forms