INSTINCTIVELY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does instinctively mean? 

• INSTINCTIVELY (adverb)
  The adverb INSTINCTIVELY has 1 sense:

1. as a matter of instinct

  Familiarity information: INSTINCTIVELY used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INSTINCTIVELY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

As a matter of instinct

Context example:

he instinctively grabbed the knife

Pertainym:

instinctive (unthinking; prompted by (or as if by) instinct)

 Context examples 

His finger and thumb closed on her pulse, as I thought instinctively and unconsciously, as she spoke:—The Count is a criminal and of criminal type.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I saw the door move, and instinctively tried to hold the latch on the outside, to gain a moment's time.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The man saved his life by instinctively throwing out his arm, but was hurled backward to the floor with Buck on top of him.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

The unknown with all its terrors rushed upon him, and he shrank back instinctively into the shelter of the bush.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Laurie felt this instinctively and laid himself down again, with a sense of disappointment which he could not explain.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

As he stepped toward me I shrank back instinctively, for I saw that in his eyes which spelled death.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Anne was still in the lane; and though instinctively beginning to decline, she was not allowed to proceed.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

But whether her brother had still exceeded her in resentment, Catherine, though she instinctively addressed herself as much to one as to the other in her vindication, had no means of knowing.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Starting, the lady instinctively moved a step or two, but recovering herself in a moment, affected to laugh, and asked him, in a tone not much louder, “If he would give her away?”

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

She had instinctively turned away; but stopping on his approach, received his compliments with an embarrassment impossible to be overcome.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)