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NARROWLY
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I. (adverb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
In a narrow manner; not allowing for exceptions
Example:
he interprets the law narrowly
Classified under:
Antonym:
broadly (without regard to specific details or exceptions)
Pertainym:
narrow (limited in size or scope)
Context examples:
The English played well, but the Americans played better, and contested every inch of the ground as strongly as if the spirit of '76 inspired them. Jo and Fred had several skirmishes and once narrowly escaped high words. Jo was through the last wicket and had missed the stroke, which failure ruffled her a good deal. Fred was close behind her and his turn came before hers. He gave a stroke, his ball hit the wicket, and stopped an inch on the wrong side. No one was very near, and running up to examine, he gave it a sly nudge with his toe, which put it just an inch on the right side.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
“I suppose,” said my aunt, eyeing me as narrowly as she had eyed the needle in threading it, “you think Mr. Dick a short name, eh?”
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
In a fit of anger, however, caused by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital sentence.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
She would not be frightened from paying him those attentions which, as a friend and almost a relation, were his due, by the observant eyes of Lucy, though she soon perceived them to be narrowly watching her.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
To escape, and, as she believed, so narrowly escape John Thorpe, and to be asked, so immediately on his joining her, asked by Mr. Tilney, as if he had sought her on purpose!—it did not appear to her that life could supply any greater felicity.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
When the engagement was for home, some of the officers always made part of it—of which officers Mr. Wickham was sure to be one; and on these occasions, Mrs. Gardiner, rendered suspicious by Elizabeth's warm commendation, narrowly observed them both.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
After about two hours the court retired, and I was left with a strong guard, to prevent the impertinence, and probably the malice of the rabble, who were very impatient to crowd about me as near as they durst; and some of them had the impudence to shoot their arrows at me, as I sat on the ground by the door of my house, whereof one very narrowly missed my left eye.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
With that she rushed across the street so impetuously that she narrowly escaped annihilation from a passing truck, and precipitated herself into the arms of a stately old gentleman, who said, I beg pardon, ma'am, and looked mortally offended.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
I narrowly escaped being run over, twenty times at least, in half a mile.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
However, an unlucky school-boy aimed a hazel nut directly at my head, which very narrowly missed me; otherwise it came with so much violence, that it would have infallibly knocked out my brains, for it was almost as large as a small pumpkin, but I had the satisfaction to see the young rogue well beaten, and turned out of the room.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
