morallymor‧al‧ly /ˈmɒrəli $ ˈmɔː-/ ●○○ adverb 
What you did wasn’t illegal, but it was morally wrong. There is a belief that village life is somehow morally superior to city life. Such hypocrisy is morally indefensible. The Constitution is not morally neutral but is based on certain central values.2morally certain old-fashioned certain about something that cannot be proved: I am morally certain that he is incapable of deliberately harming anyone.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- He was morally opposed to the war.
- It is morally wrong to punish someone for something they did not do.
- It is often difficult to behave morally.
- My belief that abortion is morally wrong is not based on religion.
- The government is morally obliged to do all it can for the refugees.
- We are morally opposed to capital punishment.
- Both acts are morally wrong - Edward should not have abused his divine right and curried favour by dishing out peerages.
- Gao Yang glared at the would-be murderer feeling morally superior to some one for the first time in his life.
- Had you said I was morally at fault because I was involved with some one, that would have been another story.
- His stark little ploy may succeed in appealing to the sartorially challenged, but the morally ambiguous generation behind him?
- Identification with one's community is, though not morally obligatory, a desirable state, at least if that community is reasonably just.
- The conservative critique along such lines argues that liberalism is morally bankrupt.
- This Society aimed to popularise sanitary knowledge and thus to elevate the people physically, socially, morally and spiritually.
Longman Language Activatorrelating to what is right or wrong
· We follow the moral laws laid down by our religion.· They live according to a deeply held moral code.· Everything that he writes has a high moral purpose.moral obligation (=something that you do not have to do, but your moral sense says that you must do) · You have a moral obligation to help your sister's children.
according to what is right or wrong, or good or evil: · We are morally opposed to capital punishment.· The government is morally obliged to do all it can for the refugees.· It is morally wrong to punish someone for something they did not do.
morally correct according to the rules of behaviour in a particular profession: · It would not be ethical for me, as a doctor, to talk to you about my patients.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY What you did wasn’t illegal, but it was morally wrong.COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES The opposition attacked the government as morally bankrupt. I find their behaviour morally reprehensible. Animal experiments are morally repugnant to many people.
What you did wasn’t illegal, but it was morally wrong. The opposition attacked the government as morally bankrupt.· Non-believers were considered morally inferior by people who adopted the new religion.
I find their behaviour morally reprehensible. Animal experiments are morally repugnant to many people.· They also accuse Christians of pretending to be morally superior.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADJECTIVE· If reparation were more consistently pursued we should have a much more civilized and morally acceptable penal system than the present one.
· The conservative critique along such lines argues that liberalism is morally bankrupt.· But the annexation of the other planets of the Althosian system had left Nicaea economically and morally bankrupt.
· Such a degree of hypocrisy can not be tolerated; it is morally indefensible, and in defiance of the rule of law.
· He makes it clear that pursuing money is distasteful but having money is morally neutral.
· Sweetman splits his subject in half into Gauguin, a morally reprehensible man, and Gauguin, a heroic artist.
· Authority represents a two-way process: a claim to be obeyed, and a recognition that this claim is morally right.· None of which makes it morally right for us to kill him.· It needs to convince us that cars are causing global warming and that it's morally right to bleed motorists dry.· You might be morally right, but it is better to be pragmatic.· Is it morally right to sentence a young person to a period in custody?· We are clearly never obliged to follow any human direction contrary to what we know to be scriptural or morally right.
· I am so pleased that we have solved the dilemma and we can feel morally superior!· Jealous, resentful, morally superior, I stayed on with the rest of the proletariat.· Verse is here the morally superior medium, but at least Boult redeems prose from its worst associations.
· Such testimony was not necessarily regarded as morally wrong.· It would be morally wrong to do otherwise.· Why is insider dealing morally wrong?· On the other hand, the child who has some expectation that Lying will go unpunished sees nothing morally wrong with lying.· The assertion that some particular type of conduct is morally wrong because it is may appear unsatisfactory but it is unchallengeable.· It follows that it is wrong to convict and punish some one who has done nothing morally wrong.· It is on this basis that many see insider dealing as morally wrong.· I have a nagging sense of being unsatisfied with my behaviour, as though I was doing something morally wrong.
VERB· I am so pleased that we have solved the dilemma and we can feel morally superior!· Then they may feel morally devalued and a new standard of behavior can take root: the good of the service.· One may affirm the fundamental principle of non-violence and yet feel morally bound to kill the madman given the circumstances.· Gao Yang glared at the would-be murderer feeling morally superior to some one for the first time in his life.
WORD FAMILYnounmoralmoralsmorality ≠ immoralitymoralistamoralityadjectivemoral ≠ immoralamoralmoralisticverbmoralizeadverbmorally ≠ immorally
1according to moral principles about what is right and wrong: What you did wasn’t illegal, but it was morally wrong. There is a belief that village life is somehow morally superior to city life. Such hypocrisy is morally indefensible. The Constitution is not morally neutral but is based on certain central values.2morally certain old-fashioned certain about something that cannot be proved: I am morally certain that he is incapable of deliberately harming anyone.