Dictionary

ruthfully en · ADV

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *hrewwaną Proto-West Germanic *hreuwan Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Germanic *-ō Proto-West Germanic *-u Proto-West Germanic *hreuwu Old English hrēow Middle English rewe Middle English -the Old Norse hrygðinflu. Middle English reuþe Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁nós Proto-Germanic *fullaz Proto-Germanic *-fullaz Old English -ful Middle English -ful Middle English reuþful Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der. Proto-Germanic *līkąder. Proto-Germanic *-līkaz Proto-Germanic *-ê Proto-Germanic *-līkê Proto-West Germanic *-līkē Old English -līċe Middle English -ly Middle English rewthfully English ruthfully From Middle English rewthfully, equivalent to ruthful + -ly.

Meanings

1. In a manner that is ruthful: ▸ Sorrowfully, ruefully.
   • cæsar [ruthfully] Rufio, Rufio: my men at the barricade are between the sea party and the shore party. I have murdered them. 1898, [George] Bernard Shaw, “Cæsar and Cleopatra”, in Three Plays for Puritans: The Devil’s Disciple, Cæsar and Cleopatra, & Captain Brassbound’s Conversion, London: Grant Richards, […], published 1901, →OCLC, Act III, page 160:
   • No change, he reflected ruthfully a moment later, was to be got from Empson that way. 2001, Michael Innes, Death at the President's Lodging, page 188:
   • They tantalize, particularly when the speaker or the central character of the lyric is a prematurely married girl, ruthfully yearning to return to her parental home, and there, reunite with her childhood lover. 1997, K. Ayyappapanicker, Sahitya Akademi staff, Medieval Indian Literature: An Anthology, page 232:
2. In a manner that is ruthful: ▸ In a manner that causes pity; piteously.
   • 1997, Neil W. Hamilton (quoting Owen Lattimore), Zealotry and Academic Freedom, page 313, This commonplace observation becomes very poignant when you are the man accused, and a man like McCarthy ruthfully exploits his advantage by making the accusations so sensational that the revelation of the truth seems drab and dull by comparison.
3. In a manner that is ruthful: ▸ Compassionately; mercifully.
   • Lee's wait was ruthfully short, although he might have traded the first news that reached him for a return to uncertainty. 1999, Joseph L. Harsh, Taken at the Flood: Robert E. Lee and Confederate Strategy in the Maryland Campaign of 1862, page 285:

Forms