deadly
- adverb
- /ˈdɛdli/
- Oh, I'm deadly serious.
- deadly serious
- turned deadly
And then, as you say, go deadly quiet, just say and what else?
- And then, as you say, go deadly quiet, just say and what else?
- Yeah, and it went deadly silent, burst out and they all left.
- And Chloe reveals that she is, like, deadly afraid of whales.
- I would say to her, I doubted you and you know, and I, I am kind of deadly serious about that.
Examples
-
Everyone is deadly silent as Frank turns to Jeffrey.
Fiction book (1997) -
They are deadly serious about spreading their own propaganda.
Blog text (24) -
"But if something should happen..." Pancho's face went deadly serious.
Fiction book (2001) -
No, you're awake, Bill, and I'm deadly serious.
-
We're deadly serious.
Fiction book (1997) -
And when Papa Rudy's angry, he's deadly angry.
-
He's deadly serious.
-
I can't get into specifics, but I can tell you he's deadly serious - about what he'll do to Zach.
-
She looked at him with a deadly serious expression, ready to discuss the urgent matter.
-
When it comes to this issue, the committee is deadly serious about implementing the new policies.
Synonyms
Said to make something sound very strong
To a very great degree
To emphasize something, like saying very
Extremely in a very strong, usually negative, way
In a way that shocks people because it is too large or unfair
In a very strong way that makes something seem impressive
In a way that is very frightening or very strong to show how serious something is
To a very great degree
In a very intense and unpleasant way
In a way that is very strong or extreme
Shows that something is very strong or intense
In a very strong way that is hard to resist
Antonyms
Compounds
- Formal
A very serious wrong action in Christian belief that leads to spiritual death unless you ask for forgiveness
How Intense
Surface Forms
Etymology
A helpful way to remember the adverb deadly is to think of phrases like 'dead quiet' or 'dead serious', where dead means 'completely', so deadly before an adjective can mean 'very' or 'extremely'.