dimly

English

Etymology

From dim +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɪmli/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪmli

Adverb

dimly (comparative more dimly, superlative most dimly)

1. In a dim manner; not clearly.
   • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

     I began dimly to understand.

   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 249:

     It was a miserable evening; outside it was snowing and blowing, and in the squire's parlour the candle burned so dimly that you could scarcely distinguish anything in the room but a clock-case with some Chinese ornaments, a large mirror in an old-fashioned frame, and a silver family tankard.

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     "The evil is for those benighted ones who will have none of it; seeing the light the true believers worship, as the fishes see the stars, but dimly."

   • 1984 December 22, Ingrid Sell, “Changing Boston”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 23, page 4:

     The well-heeled gay yuppies of Bay Village would just as soon banish Drag Queens and hustlers entirely from their lives, only to dimly acknowledge them once a year in flowery paeans to "the gay men and Lesbians who rioted at Stonewall and gave birth to our movement" on Gay Pride Day.

Translations

in a dim manner

• Catalan: tènuement (ca)
• Esperanto: nebule
• French: faiblement (fr), obscurément (fr), vaguement (fr), confusément (fr)
• Occitan: vagament, escurament
• Portuguese: vagamente
• Spanish: tenuemente (es)