Dictionary

scatteringly en · ADV

Etymology

From scattering + -ly.

Meanings

1. in a scattering manner, suggesting scattering.
   • 'My father went straight to the hiding-place in full sight of everybody, and got out the fish-hooks and brought them and flung them scatteringly over my head, so that they fell in glittering confusion on the platform at my lover's knee. 1899, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories:
   • The other men trooped along scatteringly, dodging under the low boughs of the stunted trees. 1895, Charles Egbert Craddock (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree), The Riddle Of The Rocks:
   • She pushed cautiously down to the edge of the rocks where the bushes grew scatteringly, pretending to herself that she wanted a bit of wild geranium that flourished in a crevice far below the top. 1908, Alice MacGowan, Judith of the Cumberlands:

Forms