tidily
- adverb
- /ˈtaɪdɪli/
- The documents were filed tidily in the cabinet, making them easy to find.
- tidily arranged
Examples
-
Everything else was stored tidily away in cupboards.
Fiction book (1992) -
Grunting to herself, she slid out of bed, sticking her feet into paper hospital slippers lined up tidily under the edge.
Fiction book (1990) -
They hurried to where the carpet lay tidily spread out in the shade.
Fiction book (1999) -
She loads a cracker and inserts it tidily into her mouth.
Fiction book (1999) -
It was just her room, with toys and dolls tidily on the shelves, with Mickey Mouse smiling cheerfully.
Fiction book (1990) -
We're in a western frontier town: saloon, general store, dry goods, blacksmith, livery stable, arranged tidily along a muddy thoroughfare.
Academic text (2007) -
Satisfied with the progress of the meal, she picked up the salve and smoothed a little on the reddened splotch on her hand before tidily replacing the tube in the cupboard.
Fiction book (2001) -
She kept her room tidily organized, with each item in its proper place.
-
The flowers were arranged tidily in a vase on the dining table.
Synonyms
To do something in a tidy and careful way
With great care and close attention to small details
Someone arranges things in a neat and tidy way
Antonyms
How Tidy
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Tidily comes from the adjective tidy plus the ending -ly, with -ly making the word mean 'in this way'. Tidy originally comes from an old word related to time or tide meaning 'proper' or 'fit', so tidily means 'in a neat, well-ordered way'.