nicely

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See also: Nicely

English

Etymology

From nice +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈnʌɪsli/

Adverb

nicely (comparative nicelier or more nicely, superlative niceliest or most nicely)

  1. (obsolete) Fastidiously; carefully. [16th-18th c.]
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.xii:
      He lookt askew with his mistrustfull eyes, / And nicely trode, as thornes lay in his way, / Or that the flore to shrinke he did auyse [...].
  2. Precisely; with fine discernment or judgement. [from 17th c.]
    • 1926, Ford Madox Ford, A Man Could Stand Up—, Penguin 2012 (Parade's End), p. 580:
      An army – especially in peace time – is a very complex and nicely adjusted affair […].
    • 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin 2012, p. 59:
      Henry's carefully calibrated public appearances would present him as the wellspring of honour, justice and power, the unknowable, all-seeing sovereign who, as the Milanese ambassador Soncino nicely observed, appeared in public ‘like one at the top of a tower looking on at what is passing in the plain’.
  3. Pleasantly; satisfactorily. [from 18th c.]

Translations

Anagrams

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