easily
advUK /ˈiː.zɪ.li/ · US /ˈi.zɪ.li/
Etymology From Middle English esiliche, equivalent to easy + -ly.
1
Comfortably, without discomfort or anxiety.
- Eftsoones she causd him vp to be conuayd, / And of his armes despoyled easily […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- Why this already very fast train should be speeded up still further, when none of the other more easily timed S.R. West of England trains has a single minute pared from its schedule, is unexplained - unless this is a playful dig at the Western Region, most of whose expresses, by reason of additional stops, will be decelerated from the same date.1961 October, “The winter timetables of British Railways: Southern Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 593:
2
Without difficulty.
- Individuals without a family network are easily controlled.
- He could have easily phoned and told us he'd be late.
3 more examples
- Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations. It is easily earned repetition to state that Josephine St. Auban's was a presence not to be concealed.1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.” He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis[…]interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter III, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- For instance, if the girl character is getting rescued by a boy, we can tell our girls the story could easily have been changed so the girl is doing the rescuing.2014 January 31, Kelly Wallace, “Pink, princess-y and sexy too soon”, in CNN:
3
Colloquial Absolutely, without question.
- This is easily the best meal I have eaten.
4
More quickly or likely than is usual or expected.
- not easily offended
- I get distracted very easily.
- Derived terms
- a fool and his money are easily parted