imperatively

comparative more imperatively · superlative most imperatively

1. In an imperative manner.

   Improvement is imperatively needed.

   1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Written in the Schoolroom”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume III, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 279

   5 more examples

   1625, John Donne, Sermon preached 26 April, 1625, in Fifty Sermons, Volume 2, London: M.F., J. Marriot and R. Royston, 1649, Sermon 33, p. 299, […] being a mother, and having the dignity of a Parent upon her, she does not proceed supplicatorily, she does not pray them, nor intreat them, she does not say, I would you would go forth, and I would you would looke out, but it is Egredimini, & videte, imperatively, authoritatively, Do it, you must do it: […]

   If a man has been possessed by devils for long enough they will rend him as they leave him, however imperatively they may have been cast out. Ernest did not stay long where he was, for he feared each moment that his father and mother would come out.

   1873–1884 (date written), Samuel Butler, chapter LXIX, in R[ichard] A[lexander] Streatfeild, editor, The Way of All Flesh, London: Grant Richards, published 1903, →OCLC, pages 312–313

   The military band happened to be braying operatic selections on the plaza just then, and twice he raised his hand imperatively for silence in order to listen to a favourite passage.

   1904 January 29 – October 7, Joseph Conrad, chapter VII, in Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard, London; New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], published 1904, →OCLC, part first (The Silver of the Mine), page 76

   — Come here, Tommy, his sister called imperatively, at once! And you, Jacky, for shame to throw poor Tommy in the dirty sand. Wait till I catch you for that.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 13: Nausicaa]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 332

   […] wedging his tense arm imperatively under mine, Tom Buchanan compelled me from the room as though he were moving a checker to another square.

   1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 1, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN, pages 11–12