stiffly

«stiffly» in Mova's school dictionary: in a stiff way, without bending easily, as when your body… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adverb (stiffly)

meaning for a pupil

1) Stiffly means in a stiff way, without bending easily, as when your body is sore or cold. tree →

2) Stiffly means in a cold, formal, unfriendly way: «she answered stiffly». tree →

sense in the lessons

In stories «he walked stiffly» shows that someone is hurt, old, tired or nervous, and «she said stiffly» shows the speaker is annoyed or not friendly. In PE and science it describes joints and muscles that do not move freely. Phrases: «walk stiffly», «sit stiffly», «reply stiffly».

examples

• Grandpa got up stiffly from his chair. tree →
• After the race I walked stiffly to the car. tree →
• The soldier stood stiffly to attention. tree →
• «No, thank you,» she said stiffly. tree →
• The robot moved its arms stiffly. tree →
• He bowed stiffly to the guests. tree →
• The frozen washing hung stiffly on the line. tree →

note

Adverb from «stiff» + -ly (double f). Comparative: more stiffly. Do not confuse with «stuffily».

In the corpora

• Ears pinned flat back often mean fear; ears pushed stiffly forward can mean the dog is on alert.

Trees and pragmatics

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