Dictionary

unobtrusively en · ADV

Pronunciation

• /ˌʌn.əbˈtɹuː.sɪv.li/ (UK, US)
• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From unobtrusive + -ly or un- + obtrusively.

Meanings

1. In an unobtrusive manner; in a manner that is not noticeable or blatant.
   • Most of the old fishermen's cottages have been unobtrusively modernised, the harbour is busy with summer yachts, and the sands are superb. 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 140, about Cruden Bay:
   • Eudemis moved hastily but as unobtrusively as he could through the gaping crowd[.] 1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 40:
   • He felt not the slightest doubt in his mind that this was the girl who had written him, and, having given an order to the waiter, he started to study her face as unobtrusively as possible. 1920, Herman Cyril McNeile, chapter 1, in Bulldog Drummond:
   • Sometimes she and Miss Baker talked at once, unobtrusively and with a bantering inconsequence that was never quite chatter, that was as cool as their white dresses and their impersonal eyes in the absence of all desire. 1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 1, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN, page 12:

Forms

Relateds

obtrusive · unobtrusiveness · unobtrusive

Synonyms

subtly (in an unobtrusive manner) · inconspicuously (in an unobtrusive manner)

Translations (20)

es con reserva (in a manner that is not noticeable or blatant) · bg ненатрапчиво (in a manner that is not noticeable or blatant) · es discretamente (in a manner that is not noticeable or blatant) · fr en douce (in a manner that is not noticeable or blatant) · hu feltűnés nélkül (in a manner that is not noticeable or blatant) · hu diszkréten (in a manner that is not noticeable or blatant) · it discretamente (in a manner that is not noticeable or blatant) · pl dyskretnie (in a manner that is not noticeable or blatant) · es a la chita callando (in a manner that is not noticeable or blatant) · fr en cachette (in a manner that is not noticeable or blatant) · fi vaatimattomasti (in a manner that is not noticeable or blatant) · it alla chetichella (in a manner that is not noticeable or blatant) · ru ненавязчиво (in a manner that is not noticeable or blatant) · es callandito (in a manner that is not noticeable or blatant) · fi hienovaraisesti (in a manner that is not noticeable or blatant) · fr discrètement (in a manner that is not noticeable or blatant) · tr sessiz sedasız (in a manner that is not noticeable or blatant) · es de callado (in a manner that is not noticeable or blatant) · fr en catimini (in a manner that is not noticeable or blatant) · tr çaktırmadan (in a manner that is not noticeable or blatant)