saucily
advEtymology From saucy + -ly.
1
In a saucy manner; impudently or impertinently.
- She walked off saucily and I watched, entranced, until she turned the corner; then I ran after her to ask her for a date.
- The Clown put his hands in his pockets, and after puffing out his cheeks and nodding his head at them saucily he said, “My lady fair, / Why do you stare / At poor old Mr. Joker? / You’re quite as stiff / And prim as if / You’d eaten up a poker!”1900 May 17, L[yman] Frank Baum, “The Dainty China Country”, in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M[elvin] Hill Co., →OCLC, page 232:
1 more example
- 'What do you want?' she called saucily from the top of the stairs.1956 [1880], Johanna Spyri, Heidi, translation of original by Eileen Hall, page 62: