I said I felt like quitting, but I didn’t mean it literally (=I did not mean exactly what I said)!literallylit‧e‧ral‧ly /ˈlɪtərəli/ ●●○ S3 adverb 
The name of the cheese is Dolcelatte, literally meaning ‘sweet milk’. I said I felt like quitting, but I didn’t mean it literally (=I did not mean exactly what I said)!2take somebody/something literally to believe exactly what someone or something says rather than trying to understand their general meaning: She takes the Bible literally.3used to emphasize that something, especially a large number, is actually true: The Olympic Games were watched by literally billions of people.4spoken used to emphasize a strong expression or word that is not being used in its real or original meaning. Some people consider this use to be incorrect: Dad was literally blazing with anger.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- Literally thousands of people lost their life savings in the market crash.
- Jan and I have literally nothing in common.
- The word "polygraph" literally means "many writings."
- Disease is literally dis-ease, a state of disharmony and imbalance on one or other, or more, of these levels.
- It was, literally, going places.
- She sinks into a depressed condition in which she can literally but not cognitively see.
- Solarization is another technique that can be used during summer to literally cook the pests.
- Sunnyvale uses literally thousands of measures.
- The Boeing 247 a conventional plane which literally landed, was introduced in 1934.
- They reached the summit together hand in hand, quite literally.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY I said I felt like quitting, but I didn’t mean it literally (=I did not mean exactly what I said)!COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADJECTIVE
I said I felt like quitting, but I didn’t mean it literally (=I did not mean exactly what I said)!· It was almost literally true that she looked no older.· Not at all, he assured me, the story he told was literally true.· In fact this was literally true but the clause on the receipt went further.· Yet, everything in his account was literally true.· It does not imply that the story is completely untrue, but that it is not literally true.· In addition, they asked whether the dreams reported in the New Testament could be literally true.
VERB· This means literally washing a wall with light.· He meant literally what he said.· Spenser, however, does not literally mean the sword.· In fishing this literally means that the catching sector has been forced back into a more primitive, earlier phase.
· The kitchen walls literally run with water at times!· By 1903 his law practice was going so badly, he literally ran out money.· Female speaker I took his sweatshirt off and the blood was literally running down my arms.· I had literally run away - from Englishness!
· This is not to be taken literally.· Music takes us immediately into the realm of the symbolic, a world that is not to be taken literally.· Speech seen but not heard may be taken literally.· To them, the Bible is a scientific document to be taken literally.· A little voice inside her whispered that Luke had never intended his generous words to be taken literally.· But the rhetoric of such movements can not be taken literally.· There is a very strong tendency to take literally what needs imaginative interpretation.· They took literally those words in Romans 13 that forbade resistance to governments.
PHRASES FROM THE ENTRY
1according to the most basic or original meaning of a word or expression: - A lot of what they said on the tapes was damaging if you took it literally.
The name of the cheese is Dolcelatte, literally meaning ‘sweet milk’. I said I felt like quitting, but I didn’t mean it literally (=I did not mean exactly what I said)!2take somebody/something literally to believe exactly what someone or something says rather than trying to understand their general meaning: She takes the Bible literally.3used to emphasize that something, especially a large number, is actually true: The Olympic Games were watched by literally billions of people.4spoken used to emphasize a strong expression or word that is not being used in its real or original meaning. Some people consider this use to be incorrect: Dad was literally blazing with anger.