| Library / English Dictionary |
EXPRESSLY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adverb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
With specific intentions; for the express purpose
Example:
she needs the money expressly for her patients
Classified under:
Pertainym:
express (not tacit or implied)
Context examples:
He took care, however, that they should be allowed to go to the shops they came out expressly to visit; and it did not delay them long, for Fanny could so little bear to excite impatience, or be waited for, that before the gentlemen, as they stood at the door, could do more than begin upon the last naval regulations, or settle the number of three-deckers now in commission, their companions were ready to proceed.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
The quaint old garden had sheltered many pairs of lovers, and seemed expressly made for them, so sunny and secluded was it, with nothing but the tower to overlook them, and the wide lake to carry away the echo of their words, as it rippled by below.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Mr. Micawber is going to a distant country expressly in order that he may be fully understood and appreciated for the first time.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
She expressly conditioned, however, for paying no visits, and would do no more than accompany them to Gray's in Sackville Street, where Elinor was carrying on a negotiation for the exchange of a few old-fashioned jewels of her mother.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
I approached him tenderly, for I loved even him; but he showed his whole set of teeth, got under a chair expressly to snarl, and wouldn't hear of the least familiarity.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
He knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and put it on a ledge in the back of his chair, expressly made for its reception.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Whatever was reserved for him, he expressly said, or wherever his abode might be, we might rely on this—there would always be a room for Traddles, and a knife and fork for me.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
He was so polite as to stop at a public-house, expressly on our account, and entertain us with broiled mutton and beer.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
As we stood, front to front, I saw so plainly, in the stealthy exultation of his face, what I already so plainly knew; I mean that he forced his confidence upon me, expressly to make me miserable, and had set a deliberate trap for me in this very matter; that I couldn't bear it.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
We were all extremely glad to see Traddles so put down, and exalted Steerforth to the skies: especially when he told us, as he condescended to do, that what he had done had been done expressly for us, and for our cause; and that he had conferred a great boon upon us by unselfishly doing it.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
