Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In an atavistic manner; in atavistic examples.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb In an atavistic manner.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

atavistic +‎ -ally

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Examples

  • But, if I am beginning to be reconciled to their presence, Mother's state can only be described as atavistically maternal.

    Podkayne Of Mars Heinlein, Robert A. 1963

  • The idea of grievance seems to define them in some eternal way and link them atavistically to a community of loved ones.

    2009 August 21 « Sigmund, Carl and Alfred 2009

  • The 4-winged homeotic mutants have changed the Hox mutation so that they atavistically recover the ancestral 4-winged insect condition, and never develop halteres.

    No Longer Sleeping in Seattle - The Panda's Thumb 2009

  • So here stands contemporary American conservatism amidst its cultural liabilities and, now, its electoral failures -- with no mechanism to redeem America of its shames, atavistically resisted by minorities, and vulnerable to stigmatization as a bigoted and imperialistic political orientation.

    The GOP's Minority Deficit 2009

  • So here stands contemporary American conservatism amidst its cultural liabilities and, now, its electoral failures -- with no mechanism to redeem America of its shames, atavistically resisted by minorities, and vulnerable to stigmatization as a bigoted and imperialistic political orientation.

    Why the GOP Can't Win With Minorities 2009

  • The idea of grievance will seem to define them in some eternal way, and it will link them atavistically to a community of loved ones.

    The GOP's Minority Deficit 2009

  • The idea of grievance seems to define them in some eternal way and link them atavistically to a community of loved ones.

    Shelby Steele:Why minorities are estranged from conservatism « Sigmund, Carl and Alfred 2009

  • The idea of grievance will seem to define them in some eternal way, and it will link them atavistically to a community of loved ones.

    Why the GOP Can't Win With Minorities 2009

  • This message will probably also be zapped by the guiding hand of the all-wise “progressive” movement that atavistically the opposite of progress wants to wipe out the American model of self-government–and runs this site.

    Think Progress » The Dixie Chicks Ad NBC Doesn’t Want You To See 2006

  • In the country there was less noise as though they were all listening atavistically for wolves in the wide snow.

    Tender is the Night 2003

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  • ...nine out of ten oafs in the street,

    a census informs me with cheer,

    fondly imagine we'll find

    desposits of copper and oil

    ad nauseam, or find substitutes.

    Possibly; possibly not.

    Meanwhile, CIPEC and OPEC

    won't give it away, we will pay -

    or, atavistically, war.

    - Peter Reading, Nothing for Anyone, from Nothing for Anyone, 1977

    June 26, 2008