FEARFULLY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does fearfully mean? 

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

1. in fear

2. in an alarming manner

  Familiarity information: FEARFULLY used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FEARFULLY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

In fear

Context example:

she hurried down the stairs fearfully

Antonym:

fearlessly (without fear)

Pertainym:

fearful (experiencing or showing fear)

Sense 2

Meaning:

In an alarming manner

Context example:

they were fearfully attacked

Pertainym:

awful (causing fear or dread or terror)

 Context examples 

While he lay in the bush, recovering from his fright and peering fearfully out, the mother-ptarmigan on the other side of the open space fluttered out of the ravaged nest.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

But, oh, is he on land or sea? Where is he, and how? I am getting fearfully anxious about him.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I stepped fearfully in: the apartment was empty, and my bedroom was also freed from its hideous guest.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

How fearfully will you examine the furniture of your apartment!

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

When this appeared improbable for that night, I undressed, and went to bed; and, there, I began to wonder fearfully what would be done to me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“Yes,” replied Harriet modestly, but not fearfully—“I must say that I have.”

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

She reproached herself, coloured, and looked fearfully towards her father and mother.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

But that men should wreak their anger on others by the bruising of the flesh and the letting of blood was something strangely and fearfully new to me.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

When he watched the hairy man sleeping by the fire, head between his knees and hands clasped above, Buck saw that he slept restlessly, with many starts and awakenings, at which times he would peer fearfully into the darkness and fling more wood upon the fire.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Charles, in the meanwhile, was very decidedly declaring his resolution of calling on his aunt, now that he was so near; and very evidently, though more fearfully, trying to induce his wife to go too.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)