brokenly

comparative more brokenly · superlative most brokenly

1. In a broken manner.

   It split and melted and splayed its contents brokenly.

   1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 125

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   —Something I said, But faint and brokenly of former days, When in the paths of science and of hope, We walk'd, twin-hearted.—Then there came a peal Of vacant laughter from those bloated lips, And the swoll'n hand with trembling haste was stretch'd For friendship's grasp.

   1827, Lydia Sigourney, Poems, Intemperence, page 155

2. Of speechwith gaps between words so that normal flow or fluency is affected, as due to emotion; disjointedly.

   It was a long time before he could steady his nerves to answer my questions, and then he answered perplexingly and brokenly.

   1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 83

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   Upon which, you slink out, bathed in shame and confusion, and Upjohn thanks me brokenly and says if there is anything he can do for me, I have only to name it.

   1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XVI, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC