glancingly
- adverb
- /ˈɡlæn.sɪŋ.li/
- He only glanced at the document glancingly, missing several important details.
Examples
-
The sunlight hit the surface of the lake glancingly, creating shimmering patterns.
-
Most of them missed, which caused him to sob more dramatically as he expended even more energy to regain his balance after every staggering miss, but some of his blows hit Speight's guard or landed glancingly on the chin or body.
Academic text (2000) -
The ball struck the wall glancingly, deflecting off at an angle.
Synonyms
So slight that you do not notice it
In a sideways or indirect way
Antonyms
How Directly
Surface Forms
Morphology
glancingly = glancing (transparent) = glance + ing + ly
The adverb is transparently formed from 'glancing' (light or angled contact/oblique action) plus '-ly'.
Etymology
Glancingly comes from the verb glance, which also has the sense 'to touch lightly at an angle', like light that 'glances' off a surface. That is why glancingly can describe something that only hits or affects another thing lightly or at a slant.