smartly

smartly

English

Etymology

From Middle English smertly; equivalent to smart +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈsmɑː(ɹ)tli/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)

Adverb

smartly (comparative more smartly, superlative most smartly)

  1. With a fine or fashionable appearance.
    smartly dressed
  2. Quickly.
    • 1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider []”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, [], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter II (Burglary), page 378, column 1:
      She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, drowsily realizing that since she had fallen asleep it had come on to rain smartly out of a shrouded sky.
    • 1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London:
      He set smartly off towards the shops []
  3. Intelligently.