awfully

[ aw-fuh-lee, awf-lee ]

adverb

1. very; extremely:

   That was awfully nice of you. He's awfully slow.

2. in a manner provoking censure, disapproval, or the like:

   She behaved awfully all evening.

3. Archaic.
   1. in a manner inspiring awe:

      shouting awfully the dreaded curse.

   2. in a manner expressing awe:

      to stare awfully.

awfully

/ ˈɔːflɪ; ˈɔːfəlɪ /

adverb

1. in an unpleasant, bad, or reprehensible manner
2. informal.
   (intensifier)

   I'm awfully keen to come

3. archaic.
   so as to express or inspire awe

Confusables Note

See awful.

Word History and Origins

Origin of awfully¹

1350–1400; Middle English auefulli; awful, -ly

Example Sentences

I covered New York politics for 15 years, and I saw some awfully tense moments between the police and Democratic politicians.

From The Daily Beast

But there is much more to this story, some of which will seem awfully familiar.

From The Daily Beast

Matt and Daniel come awfully close, however, to having a pretty good guess at what the next few years will bring.

From The Daily Beast

They can be unmade by judicial fiat, but it feels awfully cruel to do so.

From The Daily Beast

But warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition came awfully close to striking one of their HQs.

From The Daily Beast

Another time she might have smiled at the thought as fanciful: it seemed awfully real now.

From Project Gutenberg

They say he was awfully wild and reckless at that time, and Liszt paid his debts over and over again.

From Project Gutenberg

Because, if you were never unkind to her, like Nurse said you were, she'll be most awfully glad to see you again.

From Project Gutenberg

"Mother would be awfully cross if you walked through that ditch," says Judy, continuing a conversation.

From Project Gutenberg

She just told me so, and she showed me the papers and said there were awfully hard questions in them.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• dreadfully
• excessively
• extremely
• hugely
• immensely
• quite
• terribly
• truly