Dictionary

testily en · ADV

Etymology

Etymology tree English testy Middle English -ly English -ly English testily From testy + -ly.

Meanings

1. In a testy way; in the manner of someone who is testy.
   • "Sit ye down, I'm sayin'," said Uncle Jobson testily. 1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 43:
   • 'Oh, for heaven's sake,' said Prak and died testily. 1995, Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy: a Trilogy in Five Parts, →ISBN, page 458:
   • `We have been looking for a mystery, and we certainly seem to have found one.' `What do I make of it? Why, that your poor dear father was off his head, of course,' I answered, testily. 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
   • […]thinking it urgent to say something, I asked him presently if he felt any cold draught from the door, which was behind him. "No, no!" he responded shortly and somewhat testily. 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter XXXIII, in Jane Eyre. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC:
   • “Starve? Stuff and nonsense!” he retorted testily. “No able-bodied fellow need starve nowadays. [...] Pshaw! Starve! That's always your, cuckoo cry!” 1942 January 31, The Voice, Hobart, page 5, column 2:

Forms