gruffly

comparative more gruffly · superlative most gruffly

1. In a gruff manner.

   'Hey, what's that?' he exclaimed gruffly, staring searchingly at her as he took her hand.

   1956 [1880], Johanna Spyri, Heidi, translation of original by Eileen Hall, page 48

   2 more examples

   He was bearded, blunt, thickset, and he wore gold-rimmed spectacles. In his bourrue-bienfaisance, in his honesty, and in his brusque insuavity towards such as would compel his sympathy without justification, he was the very type of the dogmatic family doctor—of the gruffly practical allopathist of the old school.

   1898, Bernard Capes, A True Princess

   Bradly squatted on the flat rock to wash his legs, saying gruffly to Podson, "Better wash that dam' mud off; it sticks like hell when it's dry."

   1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 66