Dictionary

punningly en · ADV

Etymology

Etymology tree English punning Middle English -ly English -ly English punningly From punning + -ly.

Meanings

1. In a punning manner; so as to form a pun.
   • Even though some names or words polysemically carry sexual meanings, this does not automatically mean that every usage of them in literary texts, even those of a pornographic nature, has a sexual meaning, either explicitly or punningly. 2011, Patrick Spedding, James Lambert, “Fanny Hill, Lord Fanny, and the Myth of Metonymy”, in Studies in Philology, volume 108, number 1, page 113:
   • The film is an anthology of three whimsical short stories set in France in the mid-20th Century. The conceit is that they were all published in an English-language magazine which is edited in the punningly-named fictional French city of Ennui-sur-Blasé, but which is attached to an American newspaper based in Kansas. 2021 July 12, Nicholas Barber, “The French Dispatch: Four stars for Wes Anderson's latest”, in BBC:

Forms