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nicely

adverb

No English definition recorded for this entry.

L18047 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈnʌɪsli/

adv

Etymology: From Middle English nycely; equivalent to nice + -ly.

  1. Fastidiously; carefully.

    He lookt askew with his mistrustfull eyes, / And nicely trode, as thornes lay in his way, / Or that the flore to shrinke he did auyse [...].

  2. Precisely; with fine discernment or judgement.

    All told, we had scarce two miles to run; but the navigation was delicate, the entrance to this northern anchorage was not only narrow and shoal, but lay east and west, so that the schooner must be nicely handled to be got in.

    An army – especially in peace time – is a very complex and nicely adjusted affair […].

  3. Pleasantly; satisfactorily.

    1986-1987, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure He was a sweet boy, but became the kind of man I can do nicely without.

name

  1. A surname.