Meanings
comparative more smartly · superlative most smartly
- With a fine or fashionable appearance.
smartly dressed
- Quickly.
He set smartly off towards the shops […]
1934, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], The Bravo of London1 more example
She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, drowsily realizing that since she had fallen asleep it had come on to rain smartly out of a shrouded sky.
1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter II (Burglary), page 378, column 1
Synonyms & antonyms
adverbin a clever manner
adverbwith vigor; in a vigorous manner
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Middle Englishsmertly
- Englishsmartly
From Middle English smertly; equivalent to smart + -ly.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
smartly. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/smartly
“smartly.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/smartly. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “smartly,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/smartly.
Source: smartly on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.