disastrouslyadv.
/dᵻˈzɑːstrəsli/, /dᵻˈzastrəsli/, U.S. /dəˈzæstrəsli/ 1. In a disastrous or catastrophic manner; calamitously, ruinously. In early use also: in a manner attended by misfortune; ill-fatedly, unluckily.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > adversity > calamity or misfortune > [adverb] > calamitously
tragically1561
disastrously1596
fatally1663
calamitously1794
1596 W. Warner Albions Eng. (rev. ed.) x. lix. 259 Nor fairer yeat than virtuous, though disastrously she speade: Such is admyred Bewtie.
1603 M. Drayton Barrons Wars v. xxv. 106 Whilst things are thus disastrously decreed.
1609 R. Parsons Quiet Reckoning v. 312 It might be taken for an argument that God did abandon them and their dignity, for suffering them to dye disastrously, as this man would inferre of Popes... How many Popes soeuer did dye vnfortunatly, this doth not excuse M. Morton.
1678 S. Butler Hudibras: Third Pt. iii. i. 5 To answer, with his Vessel, all That might disastrously befall.
a1716 R. South Serm. Several Occasions (1744) IX. 103 Have we not seen..a glorious church broke in pieces..? and a prince..disasterously cut off by the hand of violence?
1794 R. J. Sulivan View of Nature V. 187 The almost universal darkness, which licentious desolation..disastrously introduced into the world.
1804 Morning Post 6 Feb. The expedition, which has terminated thus disastrously for France, was designed by Bonaparte as the first step towards..universal domination.
1869 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest (1876) III. xii. 180 The great invasion of Normandy, which ended so disastrously for the French.
1913 H. R. Hall Anc. Hist. Near East xi. 532 The Lelantine War..ended disastrously for Eretria.
1988 J. Cartwright Interior xiv. 167 The river was still swollen; it was all too easy to imagine the raft tipping disastrously.
2013 Washington Post (Nexis) 27 Nov. c3 The operation immediately went disastrously wrong.
2. Highly unsuccessfully; in a manner characterized by failure.
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1889 Standard 20 Sept. 6/5 The day's sport concluded disastrously for the talent, when Jazreel succumbed in the Stretford Plate to Queen Lily.
1920 Jamestown (Indiana) Press 8 Jan. He attempted a sudden change in direction, which ended disastrously, and he found himself very much sprawled out upon the floor.
1977 J. Richards Swordsmen of Screen x. 242/2 Universal remade the film disastrously in 1967 as The King's Pirate with Don Weis directing.
2006 Chess Dec. 42/2 We were the defending champions, but we started disastrously in the first round.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2017; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adv.1596