Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Sportive; lively; joyful.
  • Gaily; joyfully.
  • In a game or plucky manner.

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

  • adverb In a plucky manner; spiritedly.

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

  • adjective Sportive; lively; joyful.
  • adjective hunting, fishing, etc. Of or pertaining to game.
  • adverb obsolete Gaily; joyfully.
  • adverb In a game or plucky manner; in a willing and spirited fashion.

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

  • adverb in a plucky manner

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English gamelich, from Old English gamelīc, gamenlīc ("belonging to games, sportive, theatrical, ridiculous"), equivalent to game +‎ -ly. Cognate with Middle High German gāmelich, gemelich ("joyful").

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Examples

  • Yet Scott says she "gamely" gives a "solid performance", and I also felt she was strong.

    Stories from The Sun 2009

  • She seemed surprised to have been passed the ball so quickly, but she gamely smiled and glanced around at the wide-eyed students.

    A Stitch Before Dying Anne Canadeo 2011

  • Crossing that bridge to Mercado Sonora, Quetzal walks gamely forward, a pixieish figure, with his womanly legs, bushy black locks, his delicate air.

    Down and Delirious in Mexico City Daniel Hernandez 2011

  • In "Critical Film Studies" — on the surface a Pulp Fiction homage, but really a stealth tribute to My Dinner with Andre — Pudi gamely inhabited the anti-Abed, a dark and stern "normal" grown-up whose epiphany has left him all too happy to trash his real pop culture-loving self.

    Emmys: TVGuide.com's Picks for Supporting Actor in a Comedy 2011

  • Mr. Panetta and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Martin Dempsey, tried gamely yesterday to dress up these cuts not as a drawdown but as a "strategic shift."

    Obama's Defense Drawdown 2012

  • In an entry just posted on the Inside Higher Ed Web page, the president of Sarah Lawrence College gamely addressed what has become this liberal arts school's most notorious distinction: a price tag of $58,716 including tuition, fees and room and board for 2011-12, which makes it America's most expensive college.

    When Big Government Goes to College William McGurn 2011

  • Levi grabbed a microphone to lip-synch along to Britney Spears' "Hold It Against Me" — just one of the many tunes spun by an on-set DJ — while Favorite Villain costar and onetime James Bond Timothy Dalton gamely pelted him with maraschino cherries and even drank champagne out of a Giuseppe Zanotti stiletto.

    TV Guide Magazine's Fan Favorites Awards Revealed! 2011

  • Smiling, gamely in lockstep, they sailed over to the press.

    Carl Sferrazza Anthony: How Hollywood Helped Reagan Change Washington (PHOTOS) Carl Sferrazza Anthony 2011

  • Sen. Menendez argued gamely that the Senate can do both the energy AND immigration reform this year, which would be climate change of a different sort.

    State of the Union: Candy Crowley's Crib Sheet for April 25 2010

  • Smiling, gamely in lockstep, they sailed over to the press.

    Carl Sferrazza Anthony: How Hollywood Helped Reagan Change Washington (PHOTOS) Carl Sferrazza Anthony 2011

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