hotly

English

Etymology

From Middle English *hotly, *hatliche, from Old English hātlīċe (“ardently, fervently”); equivalent to hot +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

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Adverb

hotly (comparative more hotly, superlative most hotly)

1. With great amounts of heat.
2. In a heated manner; intensely or vehemently.
   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London, New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     "You are really intolerable!" said I, hotly.

   • 1951 September, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 621:

     It is interesting that this argument should have come up at this moment," Mr. Smith adds, "when the subject is being debated so hotly in the field of the petrol-driven internal combustion engine."

   • 1963 June, “News and Comment: The redundancy problem”, in Modern Railways, pages 362–363:

     The prospective staff redundancy that would ensue from adoption of the plan is, of course, one of the hotly controversial aspects of the proposals and the chief issue on which a three-day N.U.R. strike was threatened for May 14-16, a few days after this issue went to press.