UNNECESSARILY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does unnecessarily mean? 

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

1. in an unnecessary manner

2. without any necessity

  Familiarity information: UNNECESSARILY used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNNECESSARILY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

In an unnecessary manner

Context example:

they were unnecessarily rude

Antonym:

necessarily (in an essential manner)

Pertainym:

unnecessary (not necessary)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Without any necessity

Context example:

this marathon would exhaust him unnecessarily

Pertainym:

unnecessary (not necessary)

 Context examples 

He had induced her to place herself, for his sake, in a situation of extreme difficulty and uneasiness, and it should have been his first object to prevent her from suffering unnecessarily.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

“Are you sure that you are really fit to discuss things? I have given you a serious shock by my unnecessarily dramatic reappearance.”

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

His absence was unnecessarily long.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Elizabeth's spirits were so high on this occasion, that though she did not often speak unnecessarily to Mr. Collins, she could not help asking him whether he intended to accept Mr. Bingley's invitation, and if he did, whether he would think it proper to join in the evening's amusement; and she was rather surprised to find that he entertained no scruple whatever on that head, and was very far from dreading a rebuke either from the Archbishop, or Lady Catherine de Bourgh, by venturing to dance.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Without emulating the feelings of an Emma towards her Henry, she would have attended on Louisa with a zeal above the common claims of regard, for his sake; and she hoped he would not long be so unjust as to suppose she would shrink unnecessarily from the office of a friend.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

He spoke of some burglary which, he said, had been committed in the West End, and he appeared, I remember, to be quite unnecessarily excited about it, declaring that a day should not pass before we should add stronger bolts to our windows and doors.

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

Janet ventured to suggest that my aunt might be disturbing herself unnecessarily, and that she believed the donkey in question was then engaged in the sand-and-gravel line of business, and was not available for purposes of trespass.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She was displeased; I thought unreasonably so: I thought her, on a thousand occasions, unnecessarily scrupulous and cautious: I thought her even cold.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Certainly she had often, especially of late, thought his manners to herself unnecessarily gallant; but it had passed as his way, as a mere error of judgment, of knowledge, of taste, as one proof among others that he had not always lived in the best society, that with all the gentleness of his address, true elegance was sometimes wanting; but, till this very day, she had never, for an instant, suspected it to mean any thing but grateful respect to her as Harriet's friend.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)