ELEGANTLY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does elegantly mean? 

• ELEGANTLY (adverb)
  The adverb ELEGANTLY has 2 senses:

1. with elegance; in a tastefully elegant manner

2. in a gracefully elegant manner

  Familiarity information: ELEGANTLY used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ELEGANTLY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

With elegance; in a tastefully elegant manner

Context example:

the room was elegantly decorated

Antonym:

inelegantly (without elegance)

Pertainym:

elegant (refined and tasteful in appearance or behavior or style)

Sense 2

Meaning:

In a gracefully elegant manner

Context example:

the members of these groups do not express themselves as accurately or as elegantly as their critics do

Pertainym:

elegant (displaying effortless beauty and simplicity in movement or execution)

 Context examples 

She was not elegantly dressed, but a noble-looking woman, and the girls thought the gray cloak and unfashionable bonnet covered the most splendid mother in the world.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

A tall and beautifully proportioned man, very elegantly dressed, was strolling towards us.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

On sending in our cards we were shown into an elegantly appointed drawing-room, where we were joined in a few minutes by a rather stout man who received us with much hospitality.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He had the air of congratulating himself on having brought such a woman to Highbury, as not even Miss Woodhouse could equal; and the greater part of her new acquaintance, disposed to commend, or not in the habit of judging, following the lead of Miss Bates's good-will, or taking it for granted that the bride must be as clever and as agreeable as she professed herself, were very well satisfied; so that Mrs. Elton's praise passed from one mouth to another as it ought to do, unimpeded by Miss Woodhouse, who readily continued her first contribution and talked with a good grace of her being very pleasant and very elegantly dressed.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The bride was elegantly dressed; the two bridesmaids were duly inferior; her father gave her away; her mother stood with salts in her hand, expecting to be agitated; her aunt tried to cry; and the service was impressively read by Dr.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The visit was of course short; and there was so much embarrassment and occupation of mind to shorten it, that Emma would not allow herself entirely to form an opinion of the lady, and on no account to give one, beyond the nothing-meaning terms of being elegantly dressed, and very pleasing.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The Picture, elegantly framed, came safely to hand soon after Mr. Elton's return, and being hung over the mantelpiece of the common sitting-room, he got up to look at it, and sighed out his half sentences of admiration just as he ought; and as for Harriet's feelings, they were visibly forming themselves into as strong and steady an attachment as her youth and sort of mind admitted.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)