Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adv. With little weight or force; gently.
- adv. To a slight extent or amount: apply paint lightly.
- adv. With little difficulty; easily.
- adv. With agility and grace; nimbly.
- adv. In a carefree manner; cheerfully: took the news lightly.
- adv. Without sufficient care or consideration; indifferently: treated the situation much too lightly.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Not heavily; with little weight or force; not oppressively or severely: as, to tread lightly; to punish lightly; his cares sit lightly upon him.
- With little effort; without difficulty; easily.
- Without good reason; upon slight grounds; readily.
- With little regard; slightingly; indifferently.
- Parsimoniously; niggardly.
- Without deliberation; heedlessly; inconsiderately.
- In a light-hearted manner; cheerfully; cheerily; airily; with levity.
- With agility; nimbly; quickly.
- Commonly; usually.
- To make light of; slight; disparage. Also lichtly.
Wiktionary
- adv. In a light manner.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adv. With little weight; with little force
- adv. Swiftly; nimbly; with agility.
- adv. Without deep impression.
- adv. In a small degree; slightly; not severely.
- adv. With little effort or difficulty; easily; readily.
- adv. Without reason, or for reasons of little weight.
- adv. obsolete Commonly; usually.
- adv. Without dejection; cheerfully.
- adv. Without heed or care; with levity; gayly; airily.
- adv. Not chastely; wantonly.
WordNet 3.0
- adv. with indifference or without dejection
- adv. indulging with temperance
- adv. with little weight or force
- adv. in a small quantity or extent
- adv. with few burdens
- adv. without good reason
- adv. to a slight degree
Etymologies
- light + -ly (Wiktionary)
Examples
“I use the term lightly when it comes to Daniel, Noelle clarified, munching on some greens.”
“The latest celebrity and we use the term lightly to take nude pics for PETA is Brooke Hogan, who unveiled the photos with the help of her father, Hulk Hogan, at the Women In Cages exhibit in Miami.”
“When I think of all the mediocrity in an area of expensive real estate like the City of London, and think how little a genius like Jan – and I don't use the term lightly – saw built in his lifetime, you can't help but think two things: one, the dice are loaded against great architecture; two: work harder.”
The Guardian: The Saturday interview: architect Amanda Levete
“Madam — and I use the term lightly — would you happen to have a loaded Glock concealed between those rolls of gut, or breasts, or whatever you want to call them?”
Fictionaut: Excerpt from VITAL FLUID, published by Enigmatic Ink
“Yes the very same companies to which our government (from here on out, I will use the term lightly, as it doesn't seem able to "govern" anything!) took the liberty of bailing out, along WITH AIG ...”
AIG, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Others...The Circle of Financial Life
“Hmmmm. Halperin is reporting (and I use the term lightly, of course) that both Biden and Bayh are speaking on Wednesday.”
Bayh: I Don't Remember Ever Joining Committee For The Liberation Of Iraq
“This is, and I don't use the term lightly, awesome.”
“Just goes to show that you and your "boys" and I use the term lightly will never win anything and will always be on the sidelines.”
“There are no words for how relieved I am that I'm not the only person who saw that 'hamburger' I use the term lightly! and thought "zomgFrogger"!”
“Parmington has joined a very small chorus of voices whose primary point (and I use the term lightly) seems to be: 'Don't bother, you're wasting your time.”
Matt Browner Hamlin: In Response: Western Activism Helps Tibet
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘lightly’.
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ttobba's Words
graph, amore, labrador, sun, boreal, norsk, coffee, cafe, pekin, peking, train, rail and 97 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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favorite words
diffuse, ameliorate, needlessly, murky, lethargic, opaque, chouette, ambiguous, finesse, verisimilitude, gingerly, delicate and 42 more...
Tweets
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