| English Dictionary |
DEATHLY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does deathly mean?
• DEATHLY (adjective)
The adjective DEATHLY has 2 senses:
1. having the physical appearance of death
2. causing or capable of causing death
Familiarity information: DEATHLY used as an adjective is rare.
• DEATHLY (adverb)
The adverb DEATHLY has 2 senses:
1. to a degree resembling death
2. to an extreme degree
Familiarity information: DEATHLY used as an adverb is rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Having the physical appearance of death
Synonyms:
deathlike; deathly
Context example:
a deathly pallor
Similar:
dead (no longer having or seeming to have or expecting to have life)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Causing or capable of causing death
Synonyms:
Context example:
a mortal illness
Similar:
fatal (bringing death)
Derivation:
death (the act of killing)
Sense 1
Meaning:
To a degree resembling death
Context example:
he was deathly pale
Sense 2
Meaning:
To an extreme degree
Synonyms:
deathly; exceedingly; extremely; super
Context example:
as a child, I was deathly afraid of snakes
Context examples
He was deathly pale, just like a waxen image, and the red eyes glared with the horrible vindictive look which I knew too well.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
It was a large room fitted round with glass presses, furnished, among other things, with a cheval-glass and a business table, and looking out upon the court by three dusty windows barred with iron. The fire burned in the grate; a lamp was set lighted on the chimney shelf, for even in the houses the fog began to lie thickly; and there, close up to the warmth, sat Dr. Jekyll, looking deathly sick.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
His face was deathly pale, and the lines of it were hard like drawn wires; the thick eyebrows that met over the nose now seemed like a heaving bar of white-hot metal.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
He grew to a positively deathly pallor as he said:—No! no! no!
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
At the bottom there was a dark, tunnel-like passage, through which came a deathly, sickly odour, the odour of old earth newly turned.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
| Learn English with... Proverbs |
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