proprietarily
1
8.1
- adverb
- /prəˈpraɪəˌtɛrɪli/
- Formal
:
de manera propietaria
- We all began shouting and pummeling his solid, lovely back, sliding our hands proprietarily into his feathery coat.
Examples
-
He pats her ass proprietarily. Dwayne.
Fiction book (1994) -
She reaches down and proprietarily brushes the scarf from his shoulders.
Fiction book (1992) -
Victor patted her shoulder proprietarily.
Fiction book (1998) -
He looked out the window at me, and I patted the car proprietarily while a man in a suit.
Fiction book (1995) -
Now, since y'all say you ain't got no money, we have "proprietarily" obtained for you one of them court-appointed lawyers.
-
At Queen of Martyrs School, you know, um, over—" she motioned behind her, somewhat grandly, proprietarily, as if she were an explorer who had sailed up the Mississippi.
Fiction book (1998) -
She watched proprietarily as her daughter performed on stage.
-
He placed his arm around her proprietarily, claiming the moment as their own.
-
The manager spoke proprietarily about the team's achievements, emphasizing their hard work.
Synonyms
1
6.3
Acting as if someone or something belongs to you
In a way that shows you think something is yours
Surface Forms
Morphology
proprietarily = proprietary (transparent) = proprietary + ly
The adverb is a regular -ly derivative of the adjective 'proprietary', so its meaning is directly derived: 'in a proprietary way'.
Etymology
The word proprietarily comes from the same root as property and proprietor, and from Latin proprius meaning 'one's own'. So, to act proprietarily is to treat something as your own or to keep control of it only for yourself.