villainously
- adverb
- /ˈvɪlənəsli/
- Informal
:
extremadamente
- She was villainously clever in her schemes.
Examples
-
She found the instructions villainously confusing and had to ask for help.
-
The weather was villainously cold, making it hard to stay outside for long.
-
He was villainously late to the meeting, causing everyone to wait.
-
He was villainously determined to win at any cost.
-
He was villainously determined to win the competition, no matter the cost.
-
She villainously sabotaged her opponent's chances for promotion.
-
The plot of the movie was villainously engaging, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats.
Synonyms
351
1.4
To show strong feeling or degree
76
3.4
In a way that shows you are sure something is true
12
6.1
In a way that is extremely bad or unfair, used for emphasis
12
6.0
To emphasize something, like saying very
5
6.9
An informal way to mean very or extremely
5
9.1
In a very cruel, very clever, or very difficult way
5
6.8
In a very cruel and shocking way
4
6.2
To a very great degree
3
8.4
In a very evil way
2
3.9
To a very high degree
1
8.8
In a way that is very bad or annoying
An informal word meaning very, often used in New England
Antonyms
How Intense
Surface Forms
Morphology
villainously = villainous (semi-transparent) = villain + ous + ly
The morphological formation is regular (-ous + -ly), but the colloquial use as an intensifier meaning 'extremely' represents a non-literal semantic shift that is not predictable from the base.
Etymology
Villainously is also used informally to mean 'extremely' or 'very'. A helpful way to remember this is that villainous came to be used for something 'very bad', so people began using villainously to add strong emphasis, as in 'villainously cold'.