straw-clutchingly

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English

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Etymology

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From straw-clutching +‎ -ly.

Adverb

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straw-clutchingly (comparative more straw-clutchingly, superlative most straw-clutchingly)

  1. In a manner which involves clutching at straws
    • 1999 October 22, Bryn Palmer, “Same again for men in black”, in The Scotsman:
      In other words, any Scottish supporter who had straw-clutchingly hoped for a fitness crisis in the All Blacks game has been disappointed.
    • 2007, Freya North, Pillow Talk, Sourcebooks Landmark, published 2011, →ISBN, page 105:
      However, in those heightened milliseconds of being able to circumnavigate the entire scene of her imminent destruction, Petra knows that her straw-clutchingly pathetic notion is far from the truth.
    • 2013 August 2, Michael Hogan, “The time is right for a female Doctor Who”, in The Telegraph:
      The half-hour show will be hosted by Zoe Ball and fans are already speculating that this could be a hint that we’re about to see the first female Doctor in the show’s 50-year history.
      That might be a straw-clutchingly tenuous theory but the time is certainly right.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:straw-clutchingly.