abysmally
English
Etymology
abysmal + -ly
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /əˈbɪz.ml̩.i/
Audio (UK) (file)
- (US) IPA(key): /əˈbɪz.ml̩.i/
Adverb
abysmally (comparative more abysmally, superlative most abysmally)
- Very; incredibly; profoundly; to an extreme degree; dreadfully. [First attested in the late 19th century.][1]
- 1879, George Eliot, Impressions of Theophrastus Such:
- Abysmally ignorant
- 2015 April 4, Judith Woods, “I knew it! Spring cleaning is bad for your family's health [print version: Vindicated at last! It's healthier to be a slatternly housewife, p. 28]”, in The Daily Telegraph, archived from the original on 9 April 2015:
- Am I alone in feeling smug (if slatternly) about the news that super-clean homes are a breeding ground for infection? Apparently, all that bleach is bad not just for germs but for children's immune systems, too, and paradoxically causes more disease than it prevents. Not round my gaff. Oh no. My standards of housekeeping are so abysmally low that my eldest daughter was three years old before she even developed a temperature.
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Translations
to an extreme degree
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References
- Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief; William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “abysmally”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 11.