adv. [f. FRIGHTFUL + -LY2.] In a frightful manner; to a frightful degree.
† 1. subjectively. In a manner indicating fright; timidly. Obs.
1621. Lady M. Wroth, Urania, 237. She, as if her enemy had been at hand, amazedly, and frightfully answered [etc.].
c, Antid. Ath., II. xii. (1712), 82. Have so little Wit or Courage as to run away from a Snail, and very ruefully and frightfully to look back, as being afraid she would follow him.
1674. Brevint, Saul at Endor, 55. [He] cryed out frightfully, Who art thou?
2. objectively. † a. qualifying a vb.: Like a ‘fright’; hideously. Obs.
1729. Swift, The Journal of a Modern Lady, 48.
| Then to her Glass; and, ‘Betty, pray, | |
| Don’t I look frightfully To-day?’ |
1752. Johnson, Rambler, No. 193, Jan. 21, ¶ 8. The Beauty remarks how frightfully she looks.
b. To a frightful extent or degree. Often hyperbolically as a mere intensive with adjs. of unfavorable connotation. Cf. FRIGHTFUL 2.
1817. J. Scott, Paris Revis. (ed. 4), 350. Connecting one event with another, their reverses made one feel the place frightfully unsafe.
1828. Lady Granville, Lett., 22 Nov. (1894), II. 36. His thirst for knowledge is frightfully minute.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 252. His cheeks, always sallow, grew frightfully livid. Ibid., 275. His features were frightfully harsh.
1870. Dickens, E. Drood, ii. Good Heaven, Jack, you look frightfully ill!
1880. Mrs. Forrester, Roy & Viola, I. 65. Upon my word, we English are frightfully wanting in tact.
