merrily
/ˈmɛrɪli
/adverb
1In a cheerful way: he threw back his head and laughed merrily...
- she laughs merrily, seemingly delighted by this little piece of knowledge.
- As only she could, Violet had noticed how Althia's reading of them irked him and gleefully added more salt to the wound by laughing merrily whenever she spoke.
- As Nicholas and Colette gaily threw horseshoes, laughing merrily and cheering the other on, Caroline stood at the back.
1.1In a brisk and lively way: a fire burned merrily in the hearth...
- In six week's time, all the decorations will be burning merrily on a fire taken down, and the shops will be full of sales, Valentine's Day cards, and Easter Eggs.
- By the time it got dark we'd set ourselves up in siege mode, sitting round the living-room gas fire, candles burning merrily, and listening to the radio.
- Incredibly, however, many on the council still refused to admit that the whole problem was the hundred acre coal fire merrily burning beneath the town.
2Without consideration for the consequences: marketers have been merrily debasing our language with non-words like ‘infotainment’...
- No-man's time, we landed in, missing both event and consequence, simply trailing merrily down the steps at eight o'clock on a balmy summer morning.
- We're supposed to hear these questions and nod sagely and smugly, concurring that of course the answer to each of these dumb questions is no - and then trot out merrily and buy a car.
- Meaning that staff in two thirds of the local eating establishments are merrily skipping back from their toilet breaks without washing their hands, then picking up handfuls of ice and dropping it into my Bacardi and cokes.
- raise (or lower) one's sights
- raiser
- raiser-up
- raise the devil
- raise the roof
- raisin
- raisin bran
- raising agent
- raising bee
- raising cloth
- raising gig
- raising hammer
- raising-piece
- raising plate
- raisin juice
- raisin tree
- raisin vine
- raisiny
- raison d'état
- raison d'être
- raisonneur
- raita
- raitch
- raith
- raiverie