Dictionary

prohibitively en · ADV

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree English prohibitive Middle English -ly English -ly English prohibitively From prohibitive + -ly.

Meanings

1. In a prohibitive manner.
   • Ghostlily, motherlily, manlily, beastlily are all dictionary-approved but prohibitively awkward, as is, in another way, lily-liveredly, Likylikely, though . . . […] In American English, at least, there seems to be no way to say something along these lines: “For the nine months I carried you, growing inside me, no charge,” Tammy Wynette sang motherlily. 2011, Roy Blount Jr., “-ly”, in Alphabetter Juice: or, The Joy of Text, New York, N.Y.: Sara Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 145:
   • Running shops and specialist running kit barely existed before the 1970s, when Bill Bowerman, founder of Nike, simultaneously launched a concept – jogging – and a product – thick-heeled running-shoes – without which the jogger’s heel-striking action was prohibitively uncomfortable. 2014 March 3, Richard Askwith, “Back to nature: a modest proposal for a runners’ revolution”, in The Independent, London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 04 Mar 2014, page 32, column 3:
2. To a prohibitive extent.
   • a prohibitively expensive gift
   • The war years proved encouraging to North Pomfret farmers, with additional demand and higher prices for their milk. With war’s end, farmers found it possible to mechanize and expand their herds to produce more milk. Prices for milk stagnated, however, and throughout the 1950s and 1960s dairymen found that they had to expand their operations continually in order to make even more milk for less money. The final straw for North Pomfret’s farmers was the imposition of bulk-tank requirements and additional barn renovations in order to keep operating. These proved prohibitively costly and led to the last of the dairymen quitting farming. 2011, Cameron Clifford, Farms, Flatlanders, and Fords: A Story of People and Place in Rural Vermont 1890-2010:

Forms

Translations (1)

es prohibitivamente (Translations)