GRACEFULLY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does gracefully mean? 

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

1. in a graceful manner

2. in a gracious or graceful manner

  Familiarity information: GRACEFULLY used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GRACEFULLY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

In a graceful manner

Context example:

she swooped gracefully

Antonym:

gracelessly (in a graceless manner)

Pertainym:

graceful (characterized by beauty of movement, style, form, or execution)

Sense 2

Meaning:

In a gracious or graceful manner

Synonyms:

gracefully; graciously

Context example:

he did not have a chance to grow up graciously

Antonym:

ungracefully (without grace; rigidly)

Pertainym:

graceful (suggesting taste, ease, and wealth)

 Context examples 

The sweeping style suits you best, and you must learn to trail your skirts gracefully.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He looked at us each in turn, and then he bowed very gracefully to my mother and kissed her upon either cheek.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Whatever he said, was said well; and whatever he did, done gracefully.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

And for the first block along the street he walked very stiff and straight and awkwardly, until he forgot himself in his thoughts, whereupon his rolling gait gracefully returned to him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

She is standing alone at the table, bending gracefully over an album.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

On my replying to both these questions in the negative, it occurred to me that I fell again in her good opinion; but she concealed the fact gracefully, and invited me to dinner next day.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

This was a sort of victory for Thomas Mugridge, and enabled him to accept more gracefully the defeat I had given him, though, of course, he was too discreet to attempt to drive the hunters away.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

It was all said very gracefully, and the cards with which she had provided herself, the Miss Elliot at home, were laid on the table, with a courteous, comprehensive smile to all, and one smile and one card more decidedly for Captain Wentworth.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Timidly she crept from her lattice, put her hand on Roderigo's shoulder, and was about to leap gracefully down when "Alas! Alas for Zara!" she forgot her train.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The remaining toasts were DOCTOR MELL; Mrs. MICAWBER (who gracefully bowed her acknowledgements from the side-door, where a galaxy of beauty was elevated on chairs, at once to witness and adorn the gratifying scene), Mrs. RIDGER BEGS (late Miss Micawber); Mrs. MELL; WILKINS MICAWBER, ESQUIRE, JUNIOR (who convulsed the assembly by humorously remarking that he found himself unable to return thanks in a speech, but would do so, with their permission, in a song); Mrs. MICAWBER'S FAMILY (well known, it is needless to remark, in the mother-country), &c. &c. &c.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)