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handily

handily

18 3.0
In an easy way without trouble
  • adverb
  • /ˈhændɪli/
translation icon : fácilmente
  • He solved the math problem handily, finding the answer in less than a minute.
  • win handily
  • handily won the election
  • handily defeated

Barack Obama has won his second term handily over over a strong a rather strong candidate in Mitt Romney.

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Examples

  • Roosevelt would have won a fifth term handily had he lived long enough to run in 1948.

    Blog text (19)
  • Robert Mugabe's ZANU handily won the election to form the first government in 1980.

    Academic text (1992)
  • We had it won handily.

  • Polls showed him winning the March 2006 election handily, which he did.

    Academic text (2010)
  • Old technologies often handily survive the introduction of new ones and sometimes become useful in entirely new ways.

    Academic text (2014)
  • Finally, he left the bureaucracy and ran for a seat in the Diet, which he won handily.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, won the county handily with 54 percent of the vote.

    Academic text (2016)
  • Menem won reelection in May 1995, handily defeating a badly divided opposition.

    Academic text (1998)
  • Against Georgetown, SU won handily on the boards; against Pitt, we lost handily on the boards.

    Blog text (13)
  • By ripening in mid-August, these grapes handily fill a gap between the early-ripening Flame Seedless and the late-ripening Crimson Seedless.

    Academic text (2006)

Synonyms

easily
vshandily
1.0

Without much effort

adds a sense of convenience or practical ease
readily
vshandily
163 2.3

Without trouble or delay

focuses on convenient manner rather than quick timing
hands down
vshandily
  • Informal
34 3.2

Very easily and much better than others

simply indicates ease without strong comparison or emphasis
effortlessly
vshandily
30 3.1

To do something without needing to try

allows slight exertion or stresses convenience instead
in a breeze
vshandily
  • Informal
1 3.0

People do it very easily with little effort

is broader, meaning easy or convenient without stressing speed

Antonyms

In a way that causes trouble or makes things hard

How Easily

effortlessly
30 3.1
handily
18 3.0
easily
1.0

Surface Forms

handily positive

Morphology

handily = handy (transparent) = handy + ly

Regular adverbial formation from 'handy' using the productive suffix '-ly', yielding the expected meaning 'in a convenient or easy way'.

Etymology

Handily comes from the word handy, which itself comes from hand meaning 'the body part'. A helpful image is doing something 'by hand' or keeping it 'at hand' so it is easy and ready, and that is why handily means 'easily' or 'without difficulty'.