Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In a carnal manner; according to the flesh; not spiritually.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb According to the flesh, to the world, or to human nature; in a manner to gratify animal appetites and lusts; sensually.

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

  • adverb In a carnal manner.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb in a carnal manner

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

carnal +‎ -ly

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Examples

  • His curious phrase, {62b} in a letter to a pair of sisters, "the prophets of God are often impeded to pray for such as carnally they love unfeignedly," is difficult to understand.

    John Knox and the Reformation Andrew Lang 1878

  • {62b} in a letter to a pair of sisters, “the prophets of God are often impeded to pray for such as carnally they love unfeignedly,” is difficult to understand.

    John Knox and the Reformation Lang, Andrew, 1844-1912 1905

  • After a summer of safe investigation in D.C., where no one could find me and out me, I decided to take the plunge into a life both frightening as hell, liberating beyond belief, and carnally as well as intimately exhilarating.

    Adrian Margaret Brune: Guiding Proud: LGBT Youth Program Deals with Stigma Unsolved by Rights Adrian Margaret Brune 2011

  • While it might have been disavowed -- "I find now that I can more or less acquit myself on any charge of having desired Martin carnally" -- the fact remains that after all the heady talk of Amis, all the heaps of praise and the retold stories, Hitchens' passion demands a disclaimer, even if the disclaimer is self-negating

    Ashley Rindsberg: On Hitchens Ashley Rindsberg 2011

  • After a summer of safe investigation in D.C., where no one could find me and out me, I decided to take the plunge into a life both frightening as hell, liberating beyond belief, and carnally as well as intimately exhilarating.

    Adrian Margaret Brune: Guiding Proud: LGBT Youth Program Deals with Stigma Unsolved by Rights Adrian Margaret Brune 2011

  • While it might have been disavowed -- "I find now that I can more or less acquit myself on any charge of having desired Martin carnally" -- the fact remains that after all the heady talk of Amis, all the heaps of praise and the retold stories, Hitchens' passion demands a disclaimer, even if the disclaimer is self-negating

    Ashley Rindsberg: On Hitchens Ashley Rindsberg 2011

  • After a summer of safe investigation in D.C., where no one could find me and out me, I decided to take the plunge into a life both frightening as hell, liberating beyond belief, and carnally as well as intimately exhilarating.

    Adrian Margaret Brune: Guiding Proud: LGBT Youth Program Deals with Stigma Unsolved by Rights Adrian Margaret Brune 2011

  • Interpreters can make matters worse, as Jimmy Carter discovered on a visit to Poland in 1977, where he apparently told the Poles he desired them carnally, that their constitution was an object of ridicule and that he had come from the US never to return.

    In praise of … mistranslations | Editorial 2011

  • After a summer of safe investigation in D.C., where no one could find me and out me, I decided to take the plunge into a life both frightening as hell, liberating beyond belief, and carnally as well as intimately exhilarating.

    Adrian Margaret Brune: Guiding Proud: LGBT Youth Program Deals with Stigma Unsolved by Rights Adrian Margaret Brune 2011

  • Speaking of sex tapes, here's diaper-wearing prostitute enthusiast David Vitter, whose every facial expression, to me, looks like one of a man both simultaneously deeply confused and carnally excited.

    TV SoundOff: Sunday Talking Heads 2010

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