Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In an infirm manner.

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

  • adverb In an infirm manner.

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

  • adverb In an infirm manner; feebly.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

infirm +‎ -ly

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Examples

  • I believe rather infirmly (I have a relatively weak memory belief here) that the population of greater New York is more than 17 million; I also believe that the area of greater New York is 1,384 square miles; that proposition is many times more likely with respect to the serious alternative hypothesis that the population of New York is less than 10 million.

    Warranted Christian Belief 1932- 2000

  • The Margarita, that was next to the Consolacion in greatness, sailed so infirmly that mercy 'twas the seas were smooth.

    1492, 1922

  • The _Margarita_, that was next to the _Consolacion_ in greatness, sailed so infirmly that mercy 'twas the seas were smooth.

    1492 Mary Johnston 1903

  • Here the status of women as vicarious consumers is beginning to lose its place in the sections of the body of the people; and as a consequence the ideal of feminine beauty is beginning to change back again from the infirmly delicate, translucent, and hazardously slender, to a woman of the archaic type that does not disown her hands and feet, nor, indeed, the other gross material facts of her person.

    The theory of the leisure class; an economic study of institutions 1899

  • Yahoo, that I walked infirmly on my hinder feet, had found out a contrivance to make my claws of no use or defense, and to remove the hair from my chin, which was intended as a shelter from the sun and the weather.

    Gulliver's Travels 1896

  • Here the status of women as vicarious consumers is beginning to lose its place in the sections of the body of the people; and as a consequence the ideal of feminine beauty is beginning to change back again from the infirmly delicate, translucent, and hazardously slender, to a woman of the archaic type that does not disown her hands and feet, nor, indeed, the other gross material facts of her person.

    Theory of the Leisure Class Thorstein Veblen 1893

  • Zerrilla had admitted them, and at her greeting a young fellow in the shabby shore-suit of a sailor, buttoning imperfectly over the nautical blue flannel of his shirt, got up from where he had been sitting, on one side of the stove, and stood infirmly on his feet, in token of receiving the visitor.

    The Rise of Silas Lapham William Dean Howells 1878

  • She is covered with heavy drapery, stands infirmly as if about to fall, _is bound by a cord round her neck to an image_ which she carries in her hand, and has flames bursting forth at her feet.

    Stones of Venice [introductions] John Ruskin 1859

  • Mr. Blyth, however, was beyond all comparison the more laughable object of the two, as he soared nervously into the air on Mat's foot, tottering infirmly in the strong grasp that supported him, till he seemed to be trembling all over, from the tips of his crisp black hair to the flying tails of his frock-coat.

    Hide and Seek Wilkie Collins 1856

  • "Oh, Lavvie! the Dowager Countess is downstairs, and her ladyship likes the pictures," exclaimed the old man, snuffling and smiling infirmly in

    Hide and Seek Wilkie Collins 1856

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