nimbly

adv

nimbly

adv

Etymology From nimble + -ly.

1

in a nimble manner

  • And now, in ſtead of mounting Barbed Steeds, / To fright the Soules of fearfull Aduersaries, / He capers nimbly in a Ladies Chamber, / To the laſcivious pleaſing of a Lute.c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 173:
  • “Nimbly” quoth he, “do the fingers move / If a man be but used to his trade.”1834 [1799], Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, “The Devil's Thoughts”, in The Poetical Works of S. T. Coleridge, volume II, London: W. Pickering, page 85:
1 more example
  • "The bee belongs to the one who caught it! If you catch it, it's your bee!" he said, nimbly jumping up and snatching a bee out of the air. "Yow! This one's mine!"2000, Eiji Yoshikawa, translated by William Scott Wilson, Taiko: An Epic Novel of War and Glory in Feudal Japan, →ISBN:

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