awfully

adverb (awfully)

«awfully» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

Everyday

(informal, a little old-fashioned) Very; extremely: «awfully kind», «awfully sorry». tree →
Very badly: «He behaved awfully.» tree →

In the lessons

In old British books like The Wind in the Willows and Alice, characters say «awfully» a lot: «awfully nice», «awfully sorry». In modern speech it is a polite, slightly posh way to say «very». Sense 2 (badly) is less common.

Examples

That's awfully kind of you. tree →
I'm awfully sorry I'm late. tree →
It's awfully cold today. tree →
«This is awfully jolly!» said Tom. tree →
She sang awfully, so everyone laughed. tree →
Thank you awfully for the present. tree →

Note

Awfully usually means «very» (even with good words: «awfully nice»). Awful (adjective) means very bad. Spelling: awful + ly — two l's (awfully).

On Mova

Trees and pragmatics of «awfully» in the school dictionary: every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
«awfully» in the school dictionary on Mova free.

This page in Markdown → https://md.dictionary.elamur.ai/free/en/english/awfully/