| 释义 |
frightfully, adv.|ˈfraɪtfʊlɪ|
[f. frightful + -ly2.]
In a frightful manner; to a frightful degree.
†1. subjectively. In a manner indicating fright; timidly. Obs.
1621Lady M. Wroth Urania 237 She, as if her enemy had been at hand, amazedly and frightfully answered [etc.]. 1653H. More Antid. Ath. ii. xii. (1712) 82 To run away from a snail, and very ruefully and frightfully to look back. 1674Brevint Saul at Endor 55 [He] cryed out frightfully, Who art thou?
2. objectively.
†a. qualifying a vb.: Like a ‘fright’; hideously. Obs.
1729Swift Lady's Jrnl. 48 Then to her glass; and, ‘Betty, pray Don't I look frightfully to-day?’ 1752Johnson Rambler No. 193 ⁋8 The Beauty remarks how frightfully she looks.
b. To a frightful extent or degree. Often hyperbolically as a mere intensive with adjs. of unfavourable connotation. Now freq. without depreciatory reference, but merely = ‘awfully’, greatly, very (colloq. or slang). Cf. frightful 2.
1817J. Scott Paris Revis. (ed. 4) 350 Their reverses made one feel the place frightfully unsafe. 1828Lady Granville Lett. 22 Nov. (1894) II. 36 His thirst for knowledge is frightfully minute. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 252 His cheeks..grew frightfully livid. Ibid. 275 His features were frightfully harsh. 1870Dickens E. Drood ii, You look frightfully ill. 1875Punch 24 July 31/1 Everything is..‘How deliciously frightful!’ ‘How frightfully charming!’ 1880Mrs. Forrester Roy. & V. I. 65 We English are frightfully wanting in tact. 1928Galsworthy Swan Song i. v. 39 With more jaw, and deeper set eyes, but frightfully like Jon! Ibid. iii. vii. 308, I don't know that I approve of it frightfully. 1958P. Kemp No Colours or Crest ii. 14, I say, you know, it's frightfully nice of you chaps to go on this show. |