closely

comparative closelier · comparative more closely · superlative closeliest · superlative most closely

1. In a close manner.

   Finnish and Estonian are closely related languages.

   4 more examples

   The borderline between East and West Berlin was very closely guarded.

   The chairs are too closely spaced; could you move them apart?

   Test large, cylindrical, early portion closely coiled and always completely involute, later and larger portion uncoiled[…]

   1946, Joseph Augustine Cushman, The larger fossil Foraminifera of the Panama Canal Zone

   “King Homer” follows the story of King Kong closely, with Mr. Burns taking the freakishly over-sized King Homer from his native Africa, where he lives proud as a simian god, to the United States, where he is an initially impressive but ultimately rather limited Broadway attraction.

   2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)

2. obsoleteSecretly; privately.

   That nought she did but wayle, and often steepe / Her dainty couch with tears which closely she did weepe.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 28