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[ adverb ] in a serious manner
Synonyms Examples "talking earnestly with his son" "she started studying snakes in earnest" "a play dealing seriously with the question of divorce" Used in print (Max F. Millikan and Donald L. M. Blackmer,...)We have every obligation to take seriously their claims to being democratic and free countries ; we also have , in consequence , the duty to appraise realistically and honestly their performance and to communicate our judgments to their leaders in frank but friendly ways . (J. H. Hexter, "Thomas More: On the Margins...)That a writer who is gay cannot be serious is a common professional illusion , sedulously fostered by all_too many academics who mistakenly believe that their frivolous efforts should be taken seriously because they are expressed with that dreary solemnity which is the only mode of expression their authors are capable of . (Christopher Davis, First Family....)His parents talked seriously and lengthily to their own doctor and to a specialist at the University_Hospital - Mr._McKinley was entitled to a discount for members of his family - and it was decided it would be best for him to take the remainder of the term off , spend a_lot of time in bed and , for the rest , do pretty_much as he chose - provided , of_course , he chose to do nothing too exciting or too debilitating . (W. E. B. DuBois, Worlds of Color....)But there was one thing that he had_to stress , and that was that the contribution to the general church expenses , the dollar money , had been seriously falling_behind in this church , and that must be looked_after immediately . (John Hazard Wildman, "Take It Off," The Arizona...)One of the many things that was so nice about her was that she always took your questions seriously , particularly your very , very serious questions . |
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[ adverb ] to a severe or serious degree
Examples "fingers so badly frozen they had to be amputated" "badly injured" "a severely impaired heart" "is gravely ill" "was seriously ill" Used in print (Edward Austin Walton, "On Education for the Interior...)No one can deny that these `` back_door '' admissions to membership provisions have been seriously abused nor that they have not resulted in the admission of downright incompetents to membership in supposedly learned societies . |
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