Dictionary

somniferously en · ADV

Etymology

From somniferous + -ly.

Meanings

1. In a somniferous way.
   • Shortly afterwards the effects of exertion and the glass combined operated so somniferously on the upper works of Scroggy, that he laid down his head and went to sleep. 1906, Henry Downes Miles, Pugilistica: The History of British Boxing Containing Lives of the Most Celebrated Pugilists:
   • Of the writers in their late forties or their fifties, some go on rather somniferously bringing out just the same kind of books that they were writing with more energy twenty years ago; and others, who have practised an intenser art and seemed to promise self-renewal, are in a state of suspended animation. 1944 February 14, Edmund Wilson, “Thoughts on being bibliographied”, in Princeton University Library Chronicle:
   • While, leaders of the wheat, a row / Of Poppies, gaudily declaiming, / Like Counsellor O'Bric and Co., / Stand forth, somniferously flaming! 1827, Thomas Moore, “Corn and Catholics”, in The poetical works of Thomas Moore:

Forms