musefully
advEtymology From museful + -ly.
1
In a museful manner, musingly, pensively.
- Diana’s face was clearly before him through the deluge; now in single features, the dimple running from her mouth, the dark bright eyes and cut of eyelids, and nostrils alive under their lightning; now in her whole radiant smile, or musefully listening, nursing a thought.1885, George Meredith, chapter 42, in Diana of the Crossways, volume I, London: Chapman & Hall, page 276:
- He spoke more musefully, in a slightly higher-pitched voice, and appeared to be in no hurry to reach those definite conclusions at which his cousin arrived—somewhat long-windedly but always with the end well in view.1938, Siegfried Sassoon, chapter 4, in The Old Century and Seven More Years, London: Faber & Faber, page 241:
1 more example
- Phil, with his musefully mordant views of life, views he invariably expressed with not-a-consonant-wasted economy, could always make me laugh, even during moments that by all rights should make us shudder.2008, Bob Greene, chapter 15, in When We Get to Surf City, New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, page 200: