lightly

«lightly» in Mova's school dictionary: with little force or weight: «tap lightly» — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 4 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adverb

meaning for a pupil

1) Lightly means with little force or weight: «tap lightly». tree →

2) A little: «lightly salted», «lightly cooked». tree →

3) Without being serious or worried: «take something lightly». tree →

4) Not much: «sleep lightly». tree →

sense in the lessons

Used in recipes («lightly beat the eggs»), safety warnings («don't take this lightly»), everyday life and stories. Phrases: «take lightly», «get off lightly» (have a small punishment), «tread lightly».

examples

• Lightly tap the glass with a spoon. tree →
• Lightly grease the tin before baking. tree →
• Snow fell lightly all night. tree →
• Don't take fire safety lightly. tree →
• He got off lightly with a warning. tree →
• Dad sleeps lightly and hears every noise. tree →
• How lightly, quickly, nimbly, wonderfully, she moved! tree →

note

Adverb of «light». Opposite: heavily. «Get off lightly» = escape with a small punishment.

In the corpora

• Small shakes are normal; artists draw lightly with many strokes from the shoulder and elbow, then darken the line they like.
• I had forgotten all about them,» says Toad lightly about Mole and Badger.
• "Cheeky" means rude or disrespectful, often said lightly (UK).
• They have healed also the hurt of My people lightly, saying: 'Peace, peace', when there is no peace.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «lightly» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.