Definition of SLOWLY

Slow vs. Slowly: Usage Guide

Some commentators claim that careful writers avoid the adverb slow, in spite of the fact that it has had over four centuries of usage. have a continent forbearance till the speed of his rage goes slower — William Shakespeare In actual practice, slow and slowly are not used in quite the same way. Slow is almost always used with verbs that denote movement or action, and it regularly follows the verb it modifies. beans … are best cooked long and slow — Louise Prothro Slowly is used before the verb a sense of outrage, which slowly changed to shame — Paul Horgan and with participial adjectives. a slowly dawning awareness … of the problem — Amer. Labor Slowly is used after verbs where slow might also be used burn slow or slowly and after verbs where slow would be unidiomatic. the leadership turned slowly toward bombing as a means of striking back — David Halberstam

Examples of slowly in a Sentence

Things are slowly getting better. walked slowly toward the ringing phone

Recent Examples on the Web

But Obra Dinn is a masterpiece that reveals itself very slowly. — Andrew Webster, The Verge, "The grisly mystery of Return of the Obra Dinn will make you obsessed," 18 Oct. 2018 Janet Yellen succeeded him and began raising rates off zero very slowly with a similarly slow bond taper. — The Editorial Board, WSJ, "Ben Bernanke’s End Game," 10 Oct. 2018 Much Moroccan food is cooked slowly, methodically – even thoughtfully. — Daniel Neman, sacbee, "Artistry, flavor blends are marks of Moroccan," 10 July 2018 After the horrific May 27 flood in downtown Ellicott City, the list of businesses and organizations reopening is slowly growing. — Lisa Peklo, Howard County Times, "Trinity School remembers Sister Catherine Phelps," 6 July 2018 In a press conference on Friday, Anne Arundel County police chief Timothy Altomare said that the fingerprint-identification process was simply proceeding very slowly, and for that reason authorities made use of facial-recognition instead. — Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, "What the Capital Gazette Shooting Reveals About Face Recognition," 29 June 2018 The pair of studies adds to the slowly growing genetic database of ancient giant pandas, says Robert Fleischer, head of the Center for Conservation Genomics at Smithsonian's Conservation Biology Institute, who was not involved in the work. — National Geographic, "Long-Lost Panda Relative Revealed by 22,000-Year-Old Fossil," 18 June 2018 In the case of limited sleep, the toxins kill you more slowly, over time. — Jeff Stibel, USA TODAY, "How to use your brain to live a long life," 12 June 2018 Omnicom will slowly roll it out to clients over the next several quarters. — Alexandra Bruell, WSJ, "Omnicom Boosts Data Effort With New Marketing Platform," 12 July 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'slowly.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.