Dictionary

villainously en · ADV

Etymology

Etymology tree English villainous Middle English -ly English -ly English villainously From villainous + -ly.

Meanings

1. In a villainous manner; in the manner of a villain; evilly.
2. Dreadfully; awfully.
   • I am now at liberty to confess, that much which I have heard objected to my late friend’s writings was well-founded. Crude they are, I grant you—a sort of unlicked, incondite things—villainously pranked in an affected array of antique modes and phrases. 1833, [Charles Lamb], “Preface. By a Friend of the Late Elia.”, in The Last Essays of Elia. […], London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page v:
   • “You're singing villainously out of tune, Kurrell,” said the Major, truthfully. “Pass me that banjo.” 1889, Rudyard Kipling, “A Wayside Comedy”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 76:

Forms

Synonyms

villainly