ruthfully
advEtymology From Middle English rewthfully, equivalent to ruthful + -ly.
› In a manner that is ruthful:
1
Manner Sorrowfully, ruefully.
- cæsar [ruthfully] Rufio, Rufio: my men at the barricade are between the sea party and the shore party. I have murdered them.1898, [George] Bernard Shaw, “Cæsar and Cleopatra”, in Three Plays for Puritans: The Devil’s Disciple, Cæsar and Cleopatra, & Captain Brassbound’s Conversion, London: Grant Richards, […], published 1901, →OCLC, Act III, page 160:
- They tantalize, particularly when the speaker or the central character of the lyric is a prematurely married girl, ruthfully yearning to return to her parental home, and there, reunite with her childhood lover.1997, K. Ayyappapanicker, Sahitya Akademi staff, Medieval Indian Literature: An Anthology, page 232:
1 more example
- No change, he reflected ruthfully a moment later, was to be got from Empson that way.2001, Michael Innes, Death at the President's Lodging, page 188:
2
Manner In a manner that causes pity; piteously.
- 1997, Neil W. Hamilton (quoting Owen Lattimore), Zealotry and Academic Freedom, page 313, This commonplace observation becomes very poignant when you are the man accused, and a man like McCarthy ruthfully exploits his advantage by making the accusations so sensational that the revelation of the truth seems drab and dull by comparison.
3
Manner Compassionately; mercifully.
- Lee's wait was ruthfully short, although he might have traded the first news that reached him for a return to uncertainty.1999, Joseph L. Harsh, Taken at the Flood: Robert E. Lee and Confederate Strategy in the Maryland Campaign of 1862, page 285: