drily

English

Adverb

drily (comparative more drily, superlative most drily)

  1. Alternative spelling of dryly.
    • 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “Samuel Weller Makes a Pilgrimage to Dorking, and Beholds His Mother-in-Law”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, [], published 1837, →OCLC, page 279:
      “Anybody been here, Sammy?” asked Mr. Weller senior, drily, after a long silence.
    • 1900, Ernest William Radford, “ATKINSON, John Augustus”, in Dictionary of National Biography, volume 2, page 224:
      Füssli […] gives an account of the painter which is largely occupied with a consideration of his masterpiece, the ‘Battle of Waterloo.’ He comments upon the prominence given to Wellington in the picture, and rather drily remarks […] that the rearward position assigned Blücher is not an ungraceful tribute to Germany ! the intention undoubtedly being ‘der deutschen Bescheidenheit ein Compliment zu machen.’
    • 1911, “Goodwin, Nathaniel Carl”, in Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edition, volume 12, New York, N.Y.: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., page 239:
      It was not until 1889, however, that Nat Goodwin's talent as a comedian of the “legitimate” type began to be recognized. From that time he appeared in a number of plays designed to display his drily humorous method, such as Brander Matthews' and George H. Jessop's A Gold Mine, Henry Guy Carleton's A Gilded Fool and Ambition, Clyde Fitch’s Nathan Hale, H. V. Esmond's When We Were Twenty-one, &c.
    • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, [], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page 19:
      Haines, who had been laughing guardedly, walked on beside Stephen and said:
      — We oughtn’t to laugh, I suppose. He’s rather blasphemous. I’m not a believer myself, that is to say. Still his gaiety takes the harm out of it somehow, doesn’t it? What did he call it? Joseph the Joiner?
      — The ballad of Joking Jesus, Stephen answered.
      — O, Haines said, you have heard it before?
      — Three times a day, after meals, Stephen said drily.

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