blandly

comparative more blandly · superlative most blandly

1. In a bland manner.

   Uncheered by friends, unhissed by foes, the honorable member blandly continued his speech […]

   1872, Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, The Unkind Word, and Other Stories, page 145

   4 more examples

   The face, horribly seared by the frequent application of the red-hot poker, and further ornamented by the insertion, in the tip of the nose, of a tenpenny nail, yet smiled blandly in its less lacerated parts.

   1841, Charles Dickens, chapter 67, in The Old Curiosity Shop

   Once a neighbor complained that a Gilbreth had called the neighbor's boy a son of an unprintable word.“What are the facts of the matter?” Dad asked blandly. And then walked away while the neighbor registered a double take.

   1949, Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr.; Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, Cheaper by the Dozen

   The Acholis had barely given up hunting over a generation and now were growing the main cashcrops which were [...]. When further asked what would be the bride price for an Acholi, he blandly stated it as 100 shillings; ...

   2012, Ramkrishna Mukherjee, The Measure of Time in the Appraisal of Social Reality, Primus Books, →ISBN, page 10

   Adam was a perfectly satisfactory dinner companion, if not a bit damp and blandly lecherous (he revealed he had looked at my Instagram before we met and “really liked the photos of me in a bathing suit.”) And now, standing on the street corner, it was unclear how I was going to walk away from this without an awkward shutdown.

   2016 March 21, Allison P. Davies, “What I Learned Tindering My Way Across Europe”, in Travel + Leisure, archived from the original on 06 Jan 2018