Heavily Meaning
/ˈhɛvɪli/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
advWith a great weight.
advTo a considerable degree, to a great extent.
Sentence Examples
I had hardly left home when it began to rain heavily.
It rained heavily, and consequently the baseball game was called off.
Americans were always welcome because they tended to tip heavily.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The rain fell ____ on the roof, making a loud noise all night.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
It began to rain ____ just as we were leaving the house, so we had to go back for umbrellas.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English hevely, hevyliche, from Old English hefiġlīċe (“heavily; grievously”), equivalent to heavy + -ly.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The departure was not unduly prolonged.[…]Within the door Mrs. Spoker hastily imparted to Mrs. Love a few final sentiments on the subject of Divine Intention in the disposition of buckets;[…]; a deep, guttural instigation to the horse; and the wheels of the waggonette crunched heavily away into obscurity."
— 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
"An indulgent playmate, Grannie would lay aside the long scratchy-looking letter she was writing (heavily crossed ‘to save notepaper’) and enter into the delightful pastime of ‘a chicken from Mr Whiteley's’."
— 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part I, London: Collins, →ISBN:
"In Virginia, gone are the weekly outings to Walmart to stock up on provisions; to El Ranchito, the Mexican convenience store, to buy shell-shaped concha pastries; and to the laundromat to machine wash heavily soiled garments."
— 2020 October 19, Miriam Jordan, “Migrant Workers Restricted to Farms Under One Grower’s Virus Lockdown”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 19 Oct 2020:
"Nanny Broome was looking up at the outer wall. Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime."
— 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 14, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
Explore More A2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The rain fell ____ on the roof, making a loud noise all night.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
It began to rain ____ just as we were leaving the house, so we had to go back for umbrellas.