literallyin a sentencegrouped by contextual meaning
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She wasn't literally advocating physical violence.
literally = using the most basic meaning of the words
show 10 more with this conextual meaning
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She thinks the creation story in the Bible is a literal description; while he thinks it is poetic.
literal = uses the basic meanings of words (not metaphors, allegories, symbolic use of language, etc.)
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The computer has no common sense. It will interpret everything you tell it literally.
literally = in manner that uses the basic meaning of words (without understanding metaphors, exaggerations, idioms, etc.)
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Bird nest soup is literally made from a bird's nest.
literally = actually (using the basic meaning of the words--not treating them as a figure of speech)
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It's dirty money--literally and figuratively.
literally = using the most basic meaning of the words
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"What do you want me to do?"
In retrospect I'm sure he meant this literally, that he was asking how he could help, but my ears, solitary and suspicious, heard something else: What do you expect me to do? (source)literally = as true using the basic meaning of the words
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It was she who introduced her to the library in the first place and gave her the initial, even literal, window of opportunity.
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literal = actual (not figurative)
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It was so dark now we literally couldn't see ten steps ahead of us as we walked toward the woods.
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literally = actually (not an exaggeration)
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We forgive him not because he had a heart as figuratively good as his literal one sucked, or because...
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literal = actual
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He tosses his fork over his shoulder and literally licks his plate clean with his tongue making loud, satisfied sounds.
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literally = actually (not an exaggeration)
- A couple of drunks and wild teenagers had drowned there, and people at the Owl Club said when their bodies floated back to the surface, they'd been literally boiled. (source)
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show 89 more with this conextual meaning
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Some are retooled as living quarters for the kids who are, both literally and figuratively, under his wing.
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literally = actually (not just figuratively)
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It wouldn't have surprised him if one day Beatrice literally chewed Lonna's head off.
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literally = actually (not figuratively; not an exaggeration)
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The Japanese literally worked men to death at Naoetsu.
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literally = actually (not an exaggeration)
- TOO WEAK TO WALK OUT, HAVE LITERALLY BECOME TRAPPED IN THE WILD. (source)
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And then other things, like this one, happen in a not-literal way, but they still happen.
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literal = true using the most basic meaning of the words
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Then he turned and stood still, with the sun at his back, and studied the water again. It was, he saw after a moment, literally packed with life. Small fish swam everywhere...
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literally = actually (not figuratively; not an exaggeration)
- He is the author of numerous books: The Symbology of Secret Sects, The Art of the Illuminati, The Lost Language of Ideograms, and when I say he wrote the book on Religious Iconology, I mean that quite literally. (source)
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Knee-jerk reaction. Literally. I kneed His Majesty in the thigh.
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literally = true using the basic meaning of the words (not a figure of speech)
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From the time we got into the car to the time we came home, my mom literally did not stop talking.
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literally = what follows is actually true -- not an exaggeration
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They take the Bible literally, you know.
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literally = as true using the basic meaning of the words (not an exaggeration, metaphor, or other type of figurative speech)
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[Jugs of very hard cider] were buried in the snow near a clump of evergreens in the center of the park, and Brinker stationed his roommate, Brownie Perkins, to guard them with his life. He meant this literally, and Brownie knew it.
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literally = actually (not just figuratively)
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I can't bear it, she thought in panic. "Not tonight!" The last two words escaped into a half-whisper. William took them literally.
"Tomorrow then." (source)literally = using the basic meaning of the words
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Well, wasn't there a wall between him and Mildred, when you came down to it? Literally not just one wall but, so far, three!
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literally = actually (not just figuratively)
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Mother thinks that Mrs. van D. is too stupid for words, Margot that she's too unimportant, Pim that she's too ugly (literally and figuratively!)
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literally = true using the basic meaning of the words (not a figure of speech)
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--she was always so proud of David and would literally have carried his books to school for him if he had asked her to--
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literally = actually (not figuratively; not an exaggeration)
- He was first up, literally dragging me away. (source)
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The Bible says that with the Lord, "a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." Some interpret that as a literal exchange, as in, two days equals two thousand years.
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literal = actual (not figurative)
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They [people with autism] have difficulty interpreting nonverbal cues, such as gestures and facial expressions or ... or drawing understanding from anything other than the literal meaning of words.
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literal = most basic (not metaphorical or figurative)
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Still, the woman literally jumped in the air. Completely vertical, feet off the ground, coffee spilling out of the cup backward, splattering the pavement.
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literally = actually (not figuratively; not an exaggeration)
- Here, we could live free. I mean literally free, as in, not in cages. (source)
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I'm allergic to dragons—literally, not just scared silly.
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literally = actually (not just figuratively)
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In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.
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literally = actually (not an exaggeration)
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She literally died of fear.
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literally = actually (not just figuratively)
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The Savage obeyed with a disconcerting literalness.
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literalness = a quality of being actual--not figurative
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I went up to New York with Tom on the train one afternoon, and when we stopped by the ashheaps he jumped to his feet and, taking hold of my elbow, literally forced me from the car.
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literally = actually (not an exaggeration)
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It literally made me bound forward.
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literally = actually (not figuratively; not an exaggeration)
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If the guillotine, as applied to office-holders, were a literal fact, instead of one of the most apt of metaphors, it is my sincere belief that the active members of the victorious party were sufficiently excited to have chopped off all our heads, and have thanked Heaven for the opportunity!
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literal = actual (not figurative)
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If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet's Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot—say Saint Paul's Churchyard for instance—literally to astonish his son's weak mind.
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literally = actually (not just figuratively)
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And when, on the morrow, she presented Elizabeth to me as her promised gift, I, with childish seriousness, interpreted her words literally and looked upon Elizabeth as mine—mine to protect, love, and cherish.
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literally = as true using the basic meaning of the words (not a figure of speech)
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Exerting his renovated powers to their utmost, he was yet filling the arches of the cave with long and full tones, when a yell burst into the air without, that instantly stilled his pious strains, choking his voice suddenly, as though his heart had literally bounded into the passage of his throat.
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literally = actually (not figuratively; not an exaggeration)
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Do you mean literally or figuratively?
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literally = actually (not just figuratively)
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The three or four stone toilets in the village were literally overflowing with excrement.
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literally = actually (not figuratively; not an exaggeration)
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I was so scared someone might hear it that I literally begged Father to take me back upstairs.
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literally = actually (not an exaggeration)
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It was a gray coat with a fur collar that had literally been chewed up by somebody.
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literally = actually (not figuratively; not an exaggeration)
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"There is literally no such thing," she answered.
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literally = actually (not an exaggeration)
- The men were, Louie wrote in his diary, "literally ripped to pieces." (source)
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"We are literally in the heart of Jesus," he said.
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literally = actually (not just figuratively)
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Suddenly there was a loud shout, and someone literally kicked open the side door.
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literally = actually (not figuratively; not an exaggeration)
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I made a quick scan of the screen and my eyes literally started blurring.
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literally = actually (not an exaggeration)
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The problems arise when we begin to believe literally in our own metaphors.
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literally = actually (not figuratively; not an exaggeration)
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Some things happen in a literal way, Lily.
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literal = actual (not figurative)
- Or that Jesus was not born of a literal virgin birth? (source)
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I smiled—it was an inside joke that literally no one else would get.
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literally = actually (not an exaggeration)
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Dimly I recall that first character was still yelling his head off, literally screaming at me.
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literally = actually (not figuratively; not an exaggeration)
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Lord Jesus Christ, we are gathered here in Your heart, literally in Your heart, as cancer survivors.
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literally = actually (not just figuratively)
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But she had left her past so far behind that she literally did not know how to drive.
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literally = actually (not figuratively; not an exaggeration)
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I thought we were in a church basement, but we are literally in the heart of Jesus.
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literally = actually (not just figuratively)
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Its flash and sound is obvious from literally miles away.
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literally = actually (not figuratively; not an exaggeration)
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Once I start thinking about splitting the skin apart, I literally cannot not do it.
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literally = actually (not an exaggeration)
- Thousands of people—literally thousands—had left condolence messages for her. (source)
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Within literally hours, we began our first mission.
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literally = actually (not figuratively; not an exaggeration)
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Her mouth literally moved with each line of dialogue.
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literally = actually (not an exaggeration)
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...she'd literally tossed her hands up as one of our classmates struggled to define 'blue collar,'
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literally = actually (not figuratively; not an exaggeration)
- He literally goes into a spasm, and it's this early warning sign. (source)
- One had rough, scaly skin—literally scaly, like a fish, but just in patches, not all over. (source)
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In anything less than a perfectly literal environment, the autistic person is lost.
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literal = actual (not figurative)
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I couldn't have done it without you. Literally.
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literally = actually (not figuratively; not an exaggeration)
- "You're dead meat," Ari growled. I mean that literally. (source)
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Try translating certain French idioms literally into English and you'll see what I mean.
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literally = in manner that uses just the basic meaning of words
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....but you're actually thinking about how cows literally could not survive if it weren't for the bacteria in their guts, and...
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literally = actually (not an exaggeration)
- Connor considers telling them that all Roland did was turn them in, but decides life is literally too short to start things up with Roland again. (source)
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The trance happens when you don't focus on anything, and the whole big picture swallows and moves around you. She said it was usually metaphoric, but for people who should never do acid again, it was literal.
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literal = actual (not figurative)
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"I need to polish you up a bit," ...
I didn't realize that when he said "polish," he meant it literally. I had women scrub my body because... (source)literally = as true using the basic meaning of the words (not a figure of speech)
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One year, a girl dropped her token, a small wooden ball, while she was at her plate, and they literally had to scrape bits of her off the ground.
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literally = actually (not an exaggeration)
- There was an unsettling current in his voice, a genuinely conspiratorial note, as though he believed literally everything that had been said. (source)
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He stood away from the eggs for a moment, literally stood and turned away so that he could not see them.
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literally = actually (not just figuratively)
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John had never asked formal permission to call; he had merely taken literally Rachel's invitation to come again.
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literally = using the basic meaning of the words
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One American airman, shot down and relentlessly debased by his Japanese captors, described the state of mind that his captivity created: "I was literally becoming a lesser human being."
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literally = actually (not an exaggeration)
- I'm not exaggerating when I say this, but my heart literally started beating like I'd just run the longest race in the world. (source)
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He could remember the toughest calculus formulas and had nearly perfect pitch as a musician, but he literally could not remember to put his pants on.
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literally = actually (not figuratively; not an exaggeration)
- As president-general of Opus Dei, Bishop Aringarosa had spent the last decade of his life spreading the message of "God's Work"—literally, Opus Dei. (source)
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Thanks to auxiliary fuel tanks and slender, ultraefficient Davis wings, it could fly literally all day, a decisive asset in the sprawling World War II theaters.
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literally = actually (not an exaggeration)
- We literally had to hold on to each other's shirts and walk in single file so we wouldn't trip over one another. (source)
- She got really nervous and turned pale and literally broke into a sweat within a minute, and then she came up with some lame excuse about really having to go to the bathroom. (source)
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"Pagans" were literally unindoctrinated country-folk who clung to the old, rural religions of Nature worship.
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literally = actually (not figuratively; not an exaggeration)
- She pushed me away from her just as she'd pushed my elder siblings away when we lived in New York, literally shoving them out the front door when they left for college. (source)
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"I would tell Him myself," Augustus said, "but unfortunately I am literally stuck inside of His heart, so He won't be able to hear me."
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literally = actually (not just figuratively)
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He was our Sunday school teacher and also the local barber who cut our hair once a month when we grew big enough to refuse Mommy's own efforts in that direction-she literally put a bowl on your head and cut around it.
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literally = actually (not figuratively; not an exaggeration)
- He was the first to show that the human body is literally made of building blocks whose proportional ratios always equal PHI. (source)
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"You don't have C. cliff:"
I nodded, but she wasn't a gastroenterologist, and anyway, I literally knew more about C. diff than she did. (source)literally = actually (not an exaggeration)
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He literally dragged me into a standing position and then pulled me down the trail leading to the lower reaches of the village.
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literally = actually (not figuratively; not an exaggeration)
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What I remember the most from the day Grans died is Mom literally crumpling to the floor in slow, heaving sobs, holding her stomach like someone had just punched her.
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literally = actually (not an exaggeration)
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But I could see the spotter now, the guy who was literally tracking me down, not trying to shoot me; he didn't even carry a rifle.
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literally = actually (not figuratively; not an exaggeration)
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At the end, I asked if I could travel to Amsterdam, and Dr. Simons actually and literally laughed, but then Dr. Maria said, "Why not?"
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literally = actually (not an exaggeration)
- Just how his tongue has its own particular microbiome and once he sticks his tongue in my mouth his bacteria become part of my microbiome for literally the rest of my life. (source)
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My friends who are devout Christians definitely believe that Christ literally walked on water, literally turned water into wine, and was born of a literal virgin birth.
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literally = actually (not figuratively; not an exaggeration)
- After living in Delaware for only a year, she bought a small rowhouse in Germantown, Philadelphia, in 1975, settled in, and promptly began the process of looking for another place to move that literally became a lifestyle. (source)
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"I think the headstone references a literal stone head," Langdon explained, savoring the familiar excitement of academic breakthrough.
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literal = actual (not figurative)
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But it's not even about dying, really—like, if I knew I was dying, and I kissed you good-bye, literally my last thought wouldn't be about the fact that I was dying; it would be about the eighty million microbes that we'd just exchanged.
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literally = actually (not an exaggeration)
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I literally feel like a prisoner in my own home.
literally = an intensifier (to intensify what is said)
show 10 more with this conextual meaning
- Literally everyone was there.
- She was literally at death's door.
- I literally laughed my head off.
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He imagined the girl reading in the shelter. He must have watched her literally handing out the words.
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literally = an intensifier (to intensify what follows)
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Anyway, about five minutes after I got there, Henry and Savanna were standing next to me, literally hovering over me.
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literally = so much it was like
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The longer the interview goes on, the more my fury seems to rise to the surface, until I'm literally spitting out answers at him.
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literally = an intensifier (to intensify what is said)
- Many scholars claim that the early Church literally stole Jesus from His original followers, hijacking His human message, shrouding it in an impenetrable cloak of divinity, and using it to expand their own power. (source)
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Our caste was just three away from the bottom. We were artists. And artists and classical musicians were only three steps up from dirt. Literally.
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literally = an intensifier (to intensify what was just said)
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Ms. Queen Marie Antionette Lincoln literally filled a room when she entered it.
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literally = an intensifier (to intensify what is said)
- Still, of the literally dozens of portraits of Jesus we'd seen since 2003, Colton had still never seen one he thought was right. (source)
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- With two children and all the accoutrements that went with them, we were packed, quite literally, to the rafters. (source)
- Normal people, when they were looking at the faces, used a part of their brain called the fusiform gyrus, which is an incredibly sophisticated piece of brain software that allows us to distinguish among the literally thousands of faces that we know. (source)
- Nate, who was a friend to me before I even knew what a friend was. Who picked me up, literally, over and over again, and never asked for anything in return except for my word and my understanding. (source)
- But I had a hard time when people at school would say their favorite was something like Dumb and Dumber when they had literally thousands of better options. (source)
- He literally glowed; without a word or a gesture of exultation a new well-being radiated from him and filled the little room. (source)
- She who is usual so alert, have done literally nothing all the day. (source)
- I seemed literally to be running a race with some confusion to which he was about to reduce me, but I felt that he had got in first when, before we had even entered the churchyard, he threw out— "I want my own sort!" (source)
- Heyward perceived, in truth, that the younger Indian had thrown his form on the side of the hillock while they were talking, like one who sought to make the most of the time allotted to rest, and that his example had been followed by David, whose voice literally "clove to his jaws," with the fever of his wound, heightened, as it was, by their toilsome march. (source)
- This time, Colton literally skipped all the way to the CT scan lab. (source)
- It looked, literally, like the scene of a shotgun homicide. (source)
- One day, when she had literally let me do nothing but dust for hours, I finally asked her. (source)
- Oh, and you no longer have a body that's literally deteriorating. (source)
- I have literally just dragged myself into the tangle of bushes at the base of the trees when there's Cato, barreling onto the plain, soon followed by his companions. (source)
- These were the gardens in which Claude Monet had experimented with form and color, and literally inspired the birth of the Impressionist movement. (source)
- As I glance around, I notice a lot of the other tributes are shooting us dirty looks, which confirms what I've suspected, we've literally outshone them all. (source)
- The elevator doors had begun sliding shut when Dr. O'Holleran appeared in the hallway and literally yelled for us to stop. (source)
- The Grail is literally the ancient symbol for womanhood, and the Holy Grail represents the sacred feminine and the goddess, which of course has now been lost, virtually eliminated by the Church. (source)
- After more than two grueling weeks at Colton's bedside, we had nearly hit the road back to normal—with the elevator doors literally closing, our family inside with balloons—when the whole thing crashed around us again. (source)
- The interceptors had such a good handle on the transmitting characteristics of the German radio operators that they could literally follow them around Europe—wherever they were. (source)
- Either they were really happy and grateful, or chose to literally blame the messenger, taking out their ire at the entire airline industry on us. (source)
- I had supposed I had brushed away the ugly signs: but I could literally—for the time, at all events—rejoice, under this fathomless charity, that they had not entirely disappeared. (source)
- It was literally a charming exhibition of tact, of magnanimity, and quite tantamount to his saying outright: "The true knights we love to read about never push an advantage too far." (source)
- I scarce know how to put my story into words that shall be a credible picture of my state of mind; but I was in these days literally able to find a joy in the extraordinary flight of heroism the occasion demanded of me. (source)
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"So she disturbed you, and, to see what she was looking at, you also looked--you saw."
"While you," I concurred, "caught your death in the night air!"
He literally bloomed so from this exploit that he could afford radiantly to assent. (source)
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When translating English to another language, if you translate an expression like "What's up?" literally, it will completely confuse people learning the language.
literally = word for word
show 10 more with this conextual meaning
- The literal translation of the French vin aigre is "sour wine".
- The Great Wall (literally translated from Chinese as the "long wall") is indeed long.
- That app did a literal translation, so idioms like "drop by" didn't make any sense when translated.
- But you just use him to learn the literal meaning of the words; don't follow his explanations and interpretation. (source)
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Sang Real literally meant Royal Blood.
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literally = in a manner that is word for word
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The Sherpa term for prayer flag is lung ta, which translates literally as "wind horse",
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literally = word for word
- The literal translation of lokhay warkawal is "giving of a pot." ... Lokhay means not only providing care and shelter, it means an unbreakable commitment to defend that wounded man to the death. (source)
- That place was Boca Raton, which, translated from the Spanish, means literally "Mouth of the Rat?" (source)
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Cesar blew the air hard out of his mouth and said, "Gallo, caballo y mujer, por la raza has de escoger."
"That better mean 'I promise to be respectful to women,' " she stated.
"Absolutely," he said, though the literal translation had something to do with comparing a woman to a horse and a rooster. (source)
- Thus a literal translation of the name of this beautiful sheet of water, used by the tribe that dwelt on its banks, would be "The Tail of the Lake." (source)
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As any Aramaic scholar will tell you, the word companion, in those days, literally meant spouse.
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literally = in a manner that is word for word
- The root of your name, Sophie, is literally a 'word of wisdom.' (source)
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Holy Grail is the literal meaning of Sangreal.
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literal = word for word
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Sophia literally means wisdom in Greek.
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literally = in a manner that is word for word
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No, that's the literal translation.
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literal = word for word
- A literal translation is reminiscent of Yellowstone Park: "Warning—the varmints in these woods are not tame." (source)
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show 10 more examples with any meaning
- Barkley Cove was quite literally a backwater town, bits scattered here and there among the estuaries and reeds like an egret's nest flung by the wind.† (source)
- I walked Isaac to a seat in the Circle of Trust then slowly worked my way around the Literal Heart.† (source)
- This was the literal truth.† (source)
- That Baboo was charmingly literal had always been clear, but in the woods he was a pragmatist.† (source)
- I mean, that's literally crazy to me."† (source)
- Translator's Note: The Chinese term for "sunspot" (Chinese symbol) literally means "solar black spots."† (source)
- "Maybe not literally the same thing, but it's an idea."† (source)
- Quite literally.† (source)
- I took one sip and literally spit it out.† (source)
- She is no match for the two men, who, on stopping at a closed door, open it and literally throw her inside.† (source)
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show 190 more examples with any meaning
- The past two years, it had been an overwhelming success in both shops, their well-heeled customers literally snatching the precious creations from one another's hands.† (source)
- Though literally on our back doorstep, the school loomed like some strange, ominous fortress throughout the first weeks of the investigation.† (source)
- But now it was here, literally around the corner.† (source)
- There were literally thousands of worlds in the OASIS, and Halliday could have hidden his re-creation of the Tomb of Horrors on any one of them.† (source)
- We were, literally and figuratively, in the same boat.† (source)
- The quest for the Holy Grail is literally the quest to kneel before the bones of Mary Magdalene.† (source)
- Unfortunately, I mean that in the literal, dead-mouse-eating sense.† (source)
- Tell your friend that I did some digging—not literally, more like rummaging, well, a fair amount of actual looking around—and I think I might have unearthed some very real information.† (source)
- We're taking that literally.† (source)
- You're not going to marry Violet figuratively—you're going to marry her literally!† (source)
- VO (PETROCELLI ) You mean he literally drowned in his own blood?† (source)
- Mammy did too, literally.† (source)
- It's our first proper holiday together, and there is literally not one single trip in these that doesn't involve either throwing yourself off something or"—she pretends to shudder—"wearing fleece."† (source)
- I mean I literally threw up.† (source)
- She was taking "Hot Seat" literally.† (source)
- Literally, it was weeks.† (source)
- "For me," she said, "Johnny was literally the boy next door.† (source)
- I didn't literally kill Indians.† (source)
- I mean, literally Greek.† (source)
- There's a desk in the detention room with my name on it—literally.† (source)
- My hair is literally sticking straight up in the air.† (source)
- Almost literally.† (source)
- It is literally the result of your discipline.† (source)
- He wept as he told us that he literally had to reach down into the graves, lift out and carry the decomposing bodies to the burning pyres.† (source)
- "Oh, Ginny, you're so literal-minded."† (source)
- It looked as if someone had literally used a blade to cut the flesh under my feet from the heel to the toes.† (source)
- She literally did not notice us.† (source)
- In Hasnapur the metaphorical and the literal converge.† (source)
- You literally cry tears of blood.† (source)
- Literally.† (source)
- It came, literally, out of the blue.† (source)
- Not knowing the word, she translated "sister" literally.† (source)
- Literally.† (source)
- I felt such pain, literally a physical pain, as if someone had torn off both my arms without anesthesia, without sewing me back up.† (source)
- I don't miss the lightning-quick moment as Tirana literally turns the tide on Maven.† (source)
- Mr. Reed tells students they have to interview someone—a mother or father or grandparent—about their own portages, the moments in their lives when they've had to take a journey, literal or metaphorical.† (source)
- It would have been so easy, so magical, their answer literally falling out of the sky from a tree.† (source)
- That any of them could be true—literally true—seemed unthinkable.† (source)
- In Bengali the word for pet name is daknam, meaning, literally, the name by which one is called, by friends, family, and other intimates, at home and in other private, unguarded moments.† (source)
- Tita was literally "like water for chocolate"-she was on the verge of boiling over.† (source)
- The Chinese is literally 'out of five parts, take three.'† (source)
- A woman's desire literally lights a building on fire, and then a soldier throws her naked body onto a horse, and they totally do it while galloping away.† (source)
- I'll literally kill you.† (source)
- I am literally a few yards from the door of the cement house when I pull up short.† (source)
- He was literally awakened to the facts one morning during the two-week warm spell.† (source)
- Quite literally it seems.† (source)
- That, I believed literally.† (source)
- Tundra swan and Canada geese literally surrounded them.† (source)
- "Well, I hope the next time I run into you, it won't be quite so literal," I joked.† (source)
- If you believe the Bible is the literal truth, the immortality of Henrietta's cells makes perfect sense.† (source)
- "No, no, too literal, too factual," said Frankie, "wouldn't sustain the punters' interest."† (source)
- Literally.† (source)
- In the paste literally dozens of epic novels have been written that have changed the course of history: Moby Dick.† (source)
- Everything stopped that day, literally.† (source)
- It's literal."† (source)
- Hana's mouth literally falls open.† (source)
- It was literally hopeless; there was no hope in it.† (source)
- Literally.† (source)
- Suddenly he takes off at a sprint and runs literally six feet up the front wall.† (source)
- For a moment his rage was so great that be literally could not speak.† (source)
- Which meant almost literally "death of the shadows."† (source)
- I mean that literally.† (source)
- I could literally break him in half if I wanted to.† (source)
- The final object makes me literally gape in surprise.† (source)
- I wouldn't want him to take that too literally.† (source)
- But the roadbuilders were literally up in arms.† (source)
- The assistant coach literally sat there rubbing my back and patting me.† (source)
- Not literally all over her—just staring and accidentally bumping into her in the halls.† (source)
- It seemed like there was literally nothing he didn't know.† (source)
- The theory held that Emeline had stepped in the acid, then placed her feet against the door, thus literally etching the print into the enamel.† (source)
- Not literally.† (source)
- I'm literally taking food out of your mouth.† (source)
- He literally spun out of the library, books clutched in his arms, taking a moment to watch through the window as Amy Hertz proceeded to the circulation desk to return her books.† (source)
- The straw was literally alive with them.† (source)
- In a space of a few short weeks, he had shrunk, literally collapsing around his lungs as they became the entire focus of his being.† (source)
- Literally white.† (source)
- Hank literally lost part of his ranch every year.† (source)
- Spray was dangerous; it literally ate your brain.† (source)
- I was literally embarked.† (source)
- Back then, when she still had to climb on a box to read the plaque, she had thought the chewing and digesting were meant literally and wondered, horrified, why Mo had hung on his workshop door the words of someone who vandalized books.† (source)
- It was a literal translation of Ruchi lokathinde Rajavu, which sounded a little less ludicrous than Emperors of the Realm of Taste.† (source)
- Here words can kill literally.† (source)
- You know, when most girls say they want a big rock, they don't mean, you know, literally a big rock.† (source)
- Of course, the man had been speaking figuratively, but it is rather interesting to see his words borne out so immediately at the literal level.† (source)
- The first is literal.† (source)
- Their mouths literally fell open when they saw us.† (source)
- Perhaps literally, as I had no idea how Devi might have encouraged me to pay my debt.† (source)
- You literally have changed his chemistry by being his friend.† (source)
- I literally can't do it."† (source)
- TAQWA: literally: "The price of freedom."† (source)
- Were he aware of the literal truth of that, he'd be a lot less at ease.† (source)
- The Islander, in fact, divided the fog, the bow literally peeling it open.† (source)
- Yes, quite literally.† (source)
- In exploring the social and domestic aggression that could cause a child to literally fall apart, I mounted a series of rejections, some routine, some exceptional, some monstrous, all the while trying hard to avoid complicity in the demonization process Pecola was subjected to.† (source)
- …person was her cousin, a man of considerable determination and intellect, who even when he was young had never cared much for play, who seemed to laugh only rarely, who had won medals in school and decided to become a doctor, who had successfully emigrated abroad, who returned once a year to visit his parents, and who, along with eighty-five others, was blown by a truck bomb to bits, literally to bits, the largest of which, in Nadia's cousin's case, were a head and twothirds of an arm.† (source)
- Quinn was willing to take that literally.† (source)
- And then literally, he draws me to him, so close I can feel the hardness at his groin pressing against my dress.† (source)
- He was literally bug-eyed.† (source)
- The aphorism contained a certain literal truth.† (source)
- —is literally the same as mine.† (source)
- The verse can be read literally.† (source)
- The people around us were hardworking, boisterous, a little proud of their nickname, yo-go-re, which meant literally uncouth one, or roughneck, or dead-end kid.† (source)
- The Prince was literally stunned.† (source)
- I literally thought ….† (source)
- It was destined to be misunderstood, or taken too literally because your ideas are opposed to conventionalism.† (source)
- Literally.† (source)
- The taxi, stuffed full of Iranians, weaved through traffic, alternately plunging ahead at full throttle and screeching to a halt as the driver leaned on the horn and called his islamic brothers "saag" a particularly vehement epithet that literally means "dog."† (source)
- More precisely and literally, it was Yves who had come to live with him, but each was, for the other, the dwelling place that each had despaired of finding.† (source)
- This was literally true, as he was the only student at Fort Hare taller than I was.† (source)
- As If That Weren't Enough I sprinted off in search of my friends and (literally) bumped into Chase Wagner, Reno High's storied bad boy.† (source)
- Mom was literally speechless.† (source)
- It happens literally all the time.† (source)
- They attacked Heri on the court and literally beat him to death.† (source)
- This had given him his name, Thlayli, which means, literally, "Furhead" or, as we might say, "Bigwig."† (source)
- Literally.† (source)
- Literally.† (source)
- "No," returned Johnnie gently, literally.† (source)
- Apparently, his wife had been a schoolteacher for forty years and had influenced so many of her students that literally hundreds of them had come in from all parts of the country for her funeral.† (source)
- They might literally steal blood at knifepoint.† (source)
- Jose Arcadio Buendia took his wife's words literally.† (source)
- The number of temporary wooden buildings erected for the accommodation of business in the South Division had increased from the hundred or so we saw there two weeks after the fire, to several thousands, and the Lake front and some of the streets are literally lined with these structures, and in some localities trade is active….† (source)
- I'm literally yards away from you."† (source)
- After penetrating hundreds of miles into hostile territory, the raiding force appeared entirely by surprise and caught many of the camp guards literally with their pants down.† (source)
- Ordinarily he would not have stood around on a muddy prairie naked, and yet in some ways it was easier than having to pick up the pieces of his life again, which meant, first off, having to literally pick up pieces of his clothes.† (source)
- It has been much harder for pious Muslims to ignore unpleasant and antiquated passages in the Koran, because it is believed to be not just divinely inspired but literally the word of God.† (source)
- He was literally worth his weight in gold, having earned a world record $437,730, nearly sixty times his price.† (source)
- I was literally dying.† (source)
- They had no idea this was going to happen; the first time they realized that they were to be left behind was when they found their bags packed out by the curb that day and their home literally missing.† (source)
- Janice answered the phone and kept the books: in those nascent months, literally a book.† (source)
- She was literally rubbing salt into an open wound.† (source)
- For years, Mortenson had known, intellectually, that the word "Muslim" means, literally, "to submit."† (source)
- But Belle was the true literal believer who lived the word of her Bible.† (source)
- Hey, hey—don't look away —the man is a prince—figuratively, and, what's even better, literally.† (source)
- I think he literally took a step back when he saw me.† (source)
- I was quite literally speechless.† (source)
- "A better translation would be less literal: 'Imaginary Geography.'† (source)
- " 'Think of any answer you like,' he said calmly and sensitively, as if he didn't wish to bruise me with any accusation or disdain, but wanted me merely to consider this literally.† (source)
- That she was suggesting that somehow we could still be friends literally took my breath away.† (source)
- Don't be so literal.† (source)
- The monsters are literally everywhere.† (source)
- Literally.† (source)
- Henry offered a relieved shrug, looking very much like he'd literally been saved by the bell.† (source)
- Literally.† (source)
- This is literally the only thing I can think of to say.† (source)
- She'd long ago stopped thinking literally about such matters.† (source)
- Mia cradles her head in her hands, as though she's literally trying to disappear into her own body.† (source)
- A human body infected by this virus will literally eat itself up from the inside out.† (source)
- This boy, Reuven, was brilliant, literally a genius.† (source)
- Her desk was right beside the door, literally guarding it.† (source)
- It is what Taoists call Wu Wei, literally to go with the flow.† (source)
- Which she could actually, literally do, in fact.† (source)
- Suddenly I saw a boy lifted into the air, glistening with sweat like a circus seal, and dropped, his wet back landing flush upon the charged rug, heard him yell and saw him literally dance upon his back, elbows beating a frenzied tattoo upon the floor, his muscles twitching like the flesh of a horse stung my many flies.† (source)
- The cargo was flying out of the ship, literally; the cranes strained in their efforts to get the bales out as quickly as possible.† (source)
- We had literally run out in the midst [of them] and they calling to me to surrender.† (source)
- It had pulled me out of poverty, literally.† (source)
- The candidates who complete the training are literally at home wherever they're initially sent.† (source)
- It exposed the blackened area where the cancer had literally eaten his skin.† (source)
- She remembered listening wide-eyed to the story as a child, captivated on a simple literal level by the story of little Christian's heroic journey to the Celestial City.† (source)
- Other passengers and crew…in most cases the flesh is literally stripped off their bones in an instant, stripped away as clean as if boiled off.† (source)
- It took no lives, in the literal sense, but since it took another six to eight feet of fast land off the southern end of the island, four families whose houses were in jeopardy moved to the mainland.† (source)
- Brienne had no ready answer for him They had come to the crossroads, quite literally; the place where the kingsroad, the river road, and the high road all came together.† (source)
- I am literally waiting for my flight.† (source)
- "I mean I literally bumped into her," he laughed.† (source)
- Not literally breaking them, but breaking apart couples.† (source)
- Toby was literally trembling with indignation, twisting about in the sorcerer's hands to lambast him in a thunderous baritone.† (source)
- My usual seat, back row, center aisle, was already taken by Brandon Something, a tennis player who constantly misused the word literally.† (source)
- The president looks calm and unflappable, but his stomach is churning, literally.† (source)
- The post-fight adrenaline has me literally trembling.† (source)
- Literally.† (source)
- There is also a Chicano Spanish, Spanish with heaivy and literal borrowings from English.† (source)
- I literally had to help the boy escape from close confinement and load him onto the next boat.† (source)
- The device is the Desk-Fax, a machine which sends and receives telegrams by literally taking a picture of them.† (source)
- But he told me that he printed the material that was handed to him, and indeed, upon investigation, he spoke the literal truth.† (source)
- It was now a fish out of water, literally.† (source)
- Literally nothing to her name.† (source)
- I am literally numb with grief.† (source)
- NOT LITERALLY† (source)
- And then, they themselves, literally, were lost.† (source)
- They were either barefoot or their shoes were literally worn out from walking, the soles flapping, the uppers held on by string.† (source)
- But only in the most literal sense.† (source)
- Literally.† (source)
- Not literally," I say to my dad before he can jump for the phone.† (source)
- Literally.† (source)
- I know I'll spend time in Tennessee and mend some fences, literally and figuratively.† (source)
- This is different than the literal meaning of the prohibition.† (source)
- The monster dropped on its back, the air literally blasted from its lungs.† (source)
- Literally my happy, happy, forever future!† (source)
- I mean literally.† (source)
- It was what we called graveyard talk both literally and figuratively, words never to be spoken to another living soul.† (source)
- A crawfish will literally eat anything—as long as it's dead and smells really bad.† (source)
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show 6 examples with meaning too rare to warrant focus
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"Don't swear in the Literal Heart of Jesus," Gus said.
(source)
literal = actual (not figurative)
- Do you suppose you could find your way to the Literal Heart of Jesus around eight P.M.? (source)
- "Well," I said, nodding vaguely toward the steps that led us out of the Literal Heart of Jesus. (source)
- The cast had rotated a bit down there in the Literal Heart of Jesus. (source)
- I'd almost made it all the way to the elevator when I saw his mom standing in a corner of the Literal Heart. (source)
- When we first got there, I sat in the back of the visitation room, a little room of exposed stone walls off to the side of the sanctuary in the Literal Heart of Jesus church. (source)
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