brokenly

adv — 2 senses

brokenly

adv

Etymology From broken + -ly.

1

In a broken manner.

  • —Something I said, But faint and brokenly of former days, When in the paths of science and of hope, We walk'd, twin-hearted.—Then there came a peal Of vacant laughter from those bloated lips, And the swoll'n hand with trembling haste was stretch'd For friendship's grasp.1827, Lydia Sigourney, Poems, Intemperence, page 155:
  • It split and melted and splayed its contents brokenly.1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 125:
2

with gaps between words so that normal flow or fluency is affected, as due to emotion; disjointedly.

  • It was a long time before he could steady his nerves to answer my questions, and then he answered perplexingly and brokenly.1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 83:
  • Upon which, you slink out, bathed in shame and confusion, and Upjohn thanks me brokenly and says if there is anything he can do for me, I have only to name it.1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XVI, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.