faintly
adv/ˈfeɪntli/
Etymology From Middle English feintli, feintliche, equivalent to faint + -ly.
1
In a faint manner; very quietly or lightly.
- So this was my future home, I thought![…]Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
- ‘When—when are you going?’ said Jane faintly.1930, Margaret Ayer Barnes, Years of Grace, Part II, Chapter IV, page 198:
1 more example
- Faintlier, faintlier came the footfalls to his ear, until of all the faint sounds that came, by the abandoned air, to his ear, not one was a footfall, as far as he could judge.1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC: