English

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Etymology

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From black +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

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Adverb

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blackly (comparative more blackly, superlative most blackly)

  1. With a black appearance.
    • 2011, T. J. Forrester, Miracles, Inc., page 37:
      Here and there, sun glanced off water, and slick surfaces shone blackly orange in the morning light.
  2. Darkly or gloomily.
    • 1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 26, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:
      Maccario, it was evident, did not care to take the risk of blundering upon a picket, and a man led them by twisting paths until at last the hacienda rose blackly before them.
    • 1997, Joan Gordon, Veronica Hollinger, Blood Read: The Vampire as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture:
      One of the most interesting — and confusing — vampire stories to deal with questions of morality in the postmodern context is the blackly comic film Vampire's Kiss (dir. Robert Bierman, 1988), which tells of a despicable yuppie named Peter Low — played in completely over-the-top fashion by Nicholas Cage — and his encounter at a singles bar with the vampire Rachel.
  3. Wickedly.
    • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
      He knew himself for a lost soul, and all that he loved in the world was out in the tides. There, at any rate, he could go, too, and give back that gift of life he had so blackly misused.
  4. In accordance with black cultural sensibility.
    • 1987 December 20, Barbara Smith, “We Must Always Bury Our Dead Twice”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 23, page 10:
      Maya Angelou's ecomium[sic]/tribute set the tone for all that followed because she spoke so passionately, personally, and Blackly about her love for Baldwin. She said that it's easy for a woman to find a lover, that she could stand on any street corner or even sit in any church pew and do that, but that brothers were much harder to come by.

Translations

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