MEANLY

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does meanly mean? 

• MEANLY (adverb)
  The adverb MEANLY has 4 senses:

1. in a nasty ill-tempered manner

2. in a despicable, ignoble manner

3. poorly or in an inferior manner

4. in a miserly manner

  Familiarity information: MEANLY used as an adverb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MEANLY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

In a nasty ill-tempered manner

Synonyms:

meanly; nastily

Context example:

'Don't expect me to help you,' he added nastily

Pertainym:

mean (characterized by malice)

Sense 2

Meaning:

In a despicable, ignoble manner

Synonyms:

basely; meanly; scurvily

Context example:

this new leader meanly threatens the deepest values of our society

Pertainym:

mean (having or showing an ignoble lack of honor or morality)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Poorly or in an inferior manner

Context example:

troops meanly equipped

Pertainym:

mean ((used of sums of money) so small in amount as to deserve contempt)

Sense 4

Meaning:

In a miserly manner

Synonyms:

humbly; meanly

Context example:

they lived meanly and without ostentation

Pertainym:

mean ((used of sums of money) so small in amount as to deserve contempt)

 Context examples 

Here it was all material, and meanly material.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Why, then, should you think so meanly of him?

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

Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very meanly of me.

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

Yet she was meanly dressed, a coarse blue petticoat and a linen jacket being her only garb; her fair hair was plaited but not adorned: she looked patient yet sad.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Unfortunately an only son (for many years an only child), I was spoilt by my parents, who, though good themselves (my father, particularly, all that was benevolent and amiable), allowed, encouraged, almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing; to care for none beyond my own family circle; to think meanly of all the rest of the world; to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

They would feel that they could trust him; that the nephew who had done rightly by his father, would do rightly by them; for they know, as well as he does, as well as all the world must know, that he ought to pay this visit to his father; and while meanly exerting their power to delay it, are in their hearts not thinking the better of him for submitting to their whims.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

They were rather handsome, had been educated in one of the first private seminaries in town, had a fortune of twenty thousand pounds, were in the habit of spending more than they ought, and of associating with people of rank, and were therefore in every respect entitled to think well of themselves, and meanly of others.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)