Library / English Dictionary |
HOURLY
Pronunciation (US): | (GB): |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Occurring every hour or payable by the hour
Example:
hourly pay
Classified under:
Similar:
periodic; periodical (happening or recurring at regular intervals)
Derivation:
hour (a period of time equal to 1/24th of a day)
II. (adverb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Example:
daily, hourly, I grew stronger
Classified under:
Pertainym:
hourly (occurring every hour or payable by the hour)
Context examples:
The desolate feeling with which I went abroad, deepened and widened hourly.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Such a burden to be left on my hands—and so much annoyance as she caused me, daily and hourly, with her incomprehensible disposition, and her sudden starts of temper, and her continual, unnatural watchings of one's movements!
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
With quickness in understanding the tempers of those she had to deal with, and no natural timidity to restrain any consequent wishes, she was soon welcome and useful to all; and after Fanny's removal succeeded so naturally to her influence over the hourly comfort of her aunt, as gradually to become, perhaps, the most beloved of the two.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
I could not unlove him, because I felt sure he would soon marry this very lady—because I read daily in her a proud security in his intentions respecting her—because I witnessed hourly in him a style of courtship which, if careless and choosing rather to be sought than to seek, was yet, in its very carelessness, captivating, and in its very pride, irresistible.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Yes, Mary, my Fanny will feel a difference indeed: a daily, hourly difference, in the behaviour of every being who approaches her; and it will be the completion of my happiness to know that I am the doer of it, that I am the person to give the consequence so justly her due.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
His own words are a pledge of this—"My Master," he says, "has forewarned me. Daily He announces more distinctly,—'Surely I come quickly!' and hourly I more eagerly respond,—'Amen; even so come, Lord Jesus!'"
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)