English Dictionary |
SILENTLY
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Dictionary entry overview: What does silently mean?
• SILENTLY (adverb)
The adverb SILENTLY has 1 sense:
Familiarity information: SILENTLY used as an adverb is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Without speaking
Synonyms:
mutely; silently; taciturnly; wordlessly
Context example:
he sat mutely next to her
Pertainym:
silent (failing to speak or communicate etc when expected to)
Context examples
I had silently feared St. John till now, because I had not understood him.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Twelve struck, and one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for whatever might befall.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Ebbits nodded his head and wept silently.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
He put his hands on the Professor's shoulder, and laying his head on his breast, cried for a while silently, whilst we stood unmoving.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
We silently observed him as he sat, still looking at the fire.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
He turned and leaped silently among his enemies.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
When he and Crawford walked into the drawing-room, his mother and Fanny were sitting as intently and silently at work as if there were nothing else to care for.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
She didn't say "perhaps never," but each silently added it, thinking of Father far away, where the fighting was.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
"And now," silently conjectured Elinor, "she will write to Combe by this day's post."
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Drowning can happen quickly and silently.
(Drowning, NIH)
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