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PLAINLY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adverb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
In a simple manner; without extravagance or embellishment
Example:
they lived very simply
Synonyms:
plainly; simply
Classified under:
Sense 2
Meaning:
Unmistakably ('plain' is often used informally for 'plainly')
Example:
he is plain stubborn
Synonyms:
apparently; evidently; manifestly; obviously; patently; plain; plainly
Classified under:
Domain usage:
colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)
Pertainym:
plain (clearly revealed to the mind or the senses or judgment)
Context examples:
He was small and very plainly dressed and the look of him, even at that distance, went somehow strongly against the watcher’s inclination.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
He was raising his arm and his voice, and plainly meant to lead a charge.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
More thoughtfulness and less anxiety to please, than when they last met, were plainly expressed.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
The mirror was so placed that, seated in the dark, we could very plainly see the door opposite.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
But I, who had more experience, could plainly observe some rudiments of it among the wild Yahoos.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Resentment could not have been more plainly spoken than in a civility to her father, from which she was so pointedly excluded.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
The leaves of that year had withered before my work drew near to a close, and now every day showed me more plainly how well I had succeeded.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
The banker’s dressing-room was a plainly furnished little chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The new-comer was a stout, square-built man, plainly and almost carelessly dressed, with an uncouth manner and a rolling gait.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The lady’s, on the other hand, were most bitter, and when she raised her voice could be plainly heard. ‘You coward!’ she repeated over and over again. ‘What can be done now?
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
