AWFULLY

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does awfully mean? 

• AWFULLY (adverb)
  The adverb AWFULLY has 3 senses:

1. used as intensifiers

2. of a dreadful kind

3. in a terrible manner

  Familiarity information: AWFULLY used as an adverb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AWFULLY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Used as intensifiers

Synonyms:

awful; awfully; frightfully; terribly

Context example:

I'm awful sorry

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Of a dreadful kind

Synonyms:

awfully; dreadfully; horribly

Context example:

there was a dreadfully bloody accident on the road this morning

Pertainym:

awful (causing fear or dread or terror)

Sense 3

Meaning:

In a terrible manner

Synonyms:

abominably; abysmally; atrociously; awfully; rottenly; terribly

Context example:

she sings terribly

Pertainym:

awful (exceptionally bad or displeasing)

 Context examples 

But the room was awfully stuffy.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

"Oh," said Dorothy, "I'm awfully sorry for you."

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

I returned to the inn yard, and, impressed by my remembrance of the face, looked awfully around for it.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It's really awfully good of you to give me a lift.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Little girl, here is a book entitled the 'Child's Guide,' read it with prayer, especially that part containing 'An account of the awfully sudden death of Martha G—, a naughty child addicted to falsehood and deceit.'

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It is useless, and the time awfully fails me, to prolong this description; no one has ever suffered such torments, let that suffice; and yet even to these, habit brought—no, not alleviation—but a certain callousness of soul, a certain acquiescence of despair; and my punishment might have gone on for years, but for the last calamity which has now fallen, and which has finally severed me from my own face and nature.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Whenever I've met a man I've been awfully scared; but I just roared at him, and he has always run away as fast as he could go.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

He must be awfully old, for his face is all gnarled and twisted like the bark of a tree.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I'm awfully sorry if I seemed to doubt you.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“He does NOT know it,” Miss Murdstone interposes awfully.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)