nearly
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈnɪəlɪ/
ipa: /ˈnɪːlɪj/
ipa: /ˈnɪɹli/
ipa: /ˈniːɹli/
ipa: /ˈniːɹlɪ/
rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)li
Forms: form: nearlier
form: more nearly
form: nearliest
form: most nearly
form: nerely
form: nerly
form: neerely
form: nearely
Etymology: From near + -ly. Cognate with Scots nerelie, neirlie (“nearly”). Compare also English nearling, nearlings.
Senses: examples: text: He left a nearly full beer on the bar.
text: I nearly didn't go to work yesterday.
text: He was (so/very) nearly over the worst part of his college degree.
text: She was like a Beardsley Salome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry.
ref: 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
text: 'Since Heidi's been here, delightful things have happened nearly every day.'
ref: 1956 [1880], Johanna Spyri, Heidi, translation of original by Eileen Hall, page 97:
text: In the past two years, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has located nearly 3,000 exoplanet candidates ranging from sub-Earth-sized minions to gas giants that dwarf our own Jupiter.
ref: 2013 May-June, Kevin Heng, “Why Does Nature Form Exoplanets Easily?”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, archived from the original on 09 May 2013, page 184:
text: It’s been nearly four years since China put tariffs on American-grown soybeans during a tit-for-tat trade war with then-President Donald Trump – and they remain in place despite the change in administrations.
ref: 2022 May 8, Katie Lobosco, “Trump’s trade war looms over soybean farmers 4 years later”, in CNN:
synonyms: word: environ
glosses: In close approximation; almost, virtually.
examples: text: And whosoever hath traced mee and nearely [translating de pres] looked into my humours, Ile loose a good wager if hee confesse not that there is no rule in their schoole, could, a midde such crooked pathes and divers windings, square and report this naturall motion, and maintaine an apparance of liberty and licence so equall and inflexible […].
ref: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 1, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book III, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
glosses: With great scrutiny; carefully.
examples: text: Let that which he learns next be nearly conjoined with what he knows already.
ref: a. 1705, John Locke, “Of the Conduct of the Understanding”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: […], London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], published 1706, →OCLC:
text: She could have joined most comfortably in all their supposings, and suspicions, and doubts, and prognostications, but the honour of the family was too nearly concerned to allow free reins to her tongue.
ref: 1837, The Dublin University Magazine:
text: [H]e was also accounted a man of wealth, and was nearly related to a high chief.
ref: 1847 March 30, Herman Melville, Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC:
glosses: With close relation; intimately.
examples: text: I doubt some danger do's approach you neerely.
ref: c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:
glosses: Closely, in close proximity.
glosses: Stingily.
Synonyms: almost
nigh
well-nigh
near
close to
next to
practically
virtually
Derived terms: nearliness
nearly-dead
nearly fall off one's chair
nearly man
nearlyness
nearly never bulled a cow
nearly never won the race
nearlywed